Wednesday 25 November 2015

Reggio to Palermo

23 November
Looking west from the harbour
No visit to Reggio is complete without saying hello to Saverio, who will always bring you a croisant for every member of he boat for breakfast. On the 22nd, we went to provision as we were planning on heading to at least Palermo with the option of pushing on to Sardinia, weather permitting.. On the way back just after sunset, I took someres of the sky..

Waking back from town
In the port
At about 20H00, on the 22nd, I decided to look the boat over, as the following day, we were planning on heading for Palermo(and weather permitting, push on to Gagliari). I noticed water in the bilges... This was not good news as the water was salty. I took a total of 500ml, out of the bilge.. An hour later, another 150ml an hour later 75ml... The water was pooling on the sartboard side, just behind the last keel bolt..The mood on board was not a happy one... We checked all seakcocks and all possible places where water could be getting in, but found nothing... It was decided that should there be water in the bilge on the 23, we would head back to Roccella to re-fix the keel or look for a water leak..


We woke up on the 24  and sadly there was water(not overly salty) in the bilges... So with heavy hearts, we left Reggio, to go back to Roccella... After two hours of motoring with the odd seadog swimming by to say ciao, I had a thought(it does happen from time to time)..  The only tap/pipe we hadn't checked was e cockpit shower that I had used after going for my swim.. Evelyn went down and took a look... A rather happy Evelyn emerged to tell an even happier Jorge, that there was water in the rear section behind the cabin. I went down to take look and water was in fact dripping from the cockpit shower, the "o" ring between the hose the handle was not sealing properly.. I went up, closed the tap, turned the boat around. The plan was to go back to Reggio - if we found no more water in the bilge, by 14h00, then we had no choice other than go back, otherwise we would continue with caution. I emptied the bilge and every hour I would check, and he trend was my friend - by 14h00 no water in the bilge!
Farewell to Reggio (for the second and hopefully last time)
We were off to Palermo, with the option to continue, weather permitting.. The forecast was for light to no winds from every direction, so it was going to be up to the slave to take us to Palermo... We left the straight of Messina and headed west, inching ever closer to Gibraltar.. No sooner had we done this when it started to rain... Needless to say, it was rather miserable, but we were none the less relieved to be underway, heading west.. We had dinner at about 18h00 and Evelyn went to take nap as she was on first watch and shortly thereafter, the clouds made way to a almost full moon, light winds from every direction and the odd seadog to say ciao. The rest of the night was peaceful which was great as I was a bit rusty having spent the last month lounging on the hard..

Almost out of the Straight of Messina
Shortly after 06h00, on the north side of Sicilia  
Ciao Palermo

Gulf of Palermo
As we were approaching Palermo, we looked at the weather and facing the prospect of being humbled by mother nature, we decided that we would be spending a few days there. Fortunately for us, Evelyn and Stefan, had helped Jacomo earlier in the summer and he graciously offered to let us stay for free at their marina in a slip of his friend - Nino.

Jacomo was at hand to help dock and we were warmly greeted by Nino and his Wife. In time honoured sailing fashion, we offered a drink, the very least we could do to thank them for their generosity. We got talking and I showed Nino and his wife the boat, they are currently on the hard as earlier in the summer his boat dragged anchor, while he was ashore and damaged his rudder. I showed Nino the repairs I had recently done and he noticed the missing lock nuts on some of the bolts and I told him I was planning on fitting those as soon as I could get to a chandlery. He offered to drive me on the back of his bike to a couple of chandleries he knew.. So off we went, an hour or so later, I was back on the boat fitting the nuts, followed by a hot meal and a good nights rest..

We will be here for at least 3 days as the front moves through and more importantly, the low dissipates and the sea calms down a bit..


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