OCTOBER OCEAN

October 24, 2011

Finally the strangleing heat has passed and Simple Abundance has arrived in Licata, Scicily, our winter home for the next several months.  During the summer our friends Gabi & Gerald from Vivamare researched marinas that would be suitable in regard to price, facilities available, location of town etc.  and we decided on Marina Di Cala Del Sol in Licata, a brand new facility.

Vivamare had sailed in the Med all summer and we were now ready to resume our journey together, but they had a hugh head start and hundreds of nautical miles (nm) away from where we had left Simple Abundance during the months in Canada.  We stayed in touch regularly and negotiated a harbour both boats could arrive in the same day.

On October 12 coming from completely opposite directions, the two boats......and friends reunited in Trapani the north-west side of Scicily.  We celebrated with a bottle of champagne on board and treated ourselves to a good Scicilian meal in a local trattoria.

Simple Abundance left Cartagena, Spain Sept. 20 heading continually heading east to Formentara, Ibiza, Mallorca,  missing Menorca completely and sailing straight for Cagliari on the Isle of Sardinia because now we had a schedule that we wanting to meet.  Of course we made some stops along the way, but the trip from Mallorca to Sardinia was 50 hours non-stop journey.

In Cagliari, Sardinia we were greeted at Antonello's dock by a friendly marinaro and asked to register (as always) at our leisure.    Once a boat has docked in a harbour/city, the crew must register with the marina office with passport, ship's registry and insurance papers.  Upon finishing our docking cocktail, we proceeded to the marina office, one large beer tent with a table in the corner piled high papers; no computer.  All they required was the name of the boat how many days we plan to stay.  OK then, that's a first.

Weather conditions required us to stay longer than we wanted.  This particular marina was on the outskirts of town and not very pedestrian friendly.  I couldn't wait to move on.

And move on we did in the early  hours of October 11 looking for the refuelling dock.  We had a general idea where to find the diesel pump but it wasn't an obvious sign; you almost have to be a local to find.  We waited until 8am knowing by then somebody would there to pump some 200 litters into our fuel tank, but nobody was insight.  In the far distance a man on a bicycle with his dog...yup the attendant.  He had watched us dock and  came to help.   Now we'll have enough fuel to get us to Trapani, Sicily to meet our friends on Vivamare.  Thirty hours later, with a very damp night behind us we pulled into the harbour and celebrated with nice bottle of chilled champagne.