Palermo - 11 October 2021

The weather forecast was not promising so we decided to stay one more day in Palermo. More rain and strong winds overnight made the idea of being at anchor rather less than attractive.

In the morning we had an appointment with one of the boat yards that is a candidate for the winter storage of Equinox. We have narrowed it down to a shortlist of 3, and we are keen to visit the candidates before we commit, if at all possible. Today’s was a yard in Palermo, and part of the same group as one of the nearby marinas, albeit not one we have stayed at. We visited the office and talked through the details, before being taken by rib across the harbour to where their boat storage facility is. They spoke proudly about the family tradition, apparently 5 generations have run the boatyard, dating back to the 19th century. We certainly met various cousins and uncles in the process. Whilst en route in each direction, we talked about the redevelopment plans for the harbour, and we were  slightly surprised to hear that the current marina phase is due to be completed by the end of March next year. Given the number of people working on the site, this seems a little ambitious, although we can see distinct progress even while we have been in town.

Time and use have taken their toll on some of our bits of personal kit, in particular the shoes I wear when working on deck. The soles were coming off, and in reality I don’t think that they are long for this world, but I don’t want to replace them while we are here because I have another pair at home. Therefore I set to with the superglue, and have hopefully made them safe for the next few weeks. It will be a sad day when they have to go, they have been through a lot of sea miles with me.

Later in the day there were conference calls, reminding us that there is a world beyond the boat. A stiff drink was called for when that was all over.

Steve (and Tricia)

Distance today               0 miles

Total distance 2021:   414 miles

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cagliari - 20 September 2021

It was a prompt start this morning. On Saturday we had visited a chandlers, but they did not have what we wanted. They said that they could order it but it might take 2 days to get here, and if we wanted them to do this, we should return early on Monday morning.  We were in the shop by 9:30. There were a couple of things that we needed, the one that required ordering was a spare impellor for the engine. We had used our spare while in Bosa, and we don’t like being without at least one spare. The other thing that we needed was a new controller for the anchor winch. This has been an ongoing issue for some time. We have 2 and had eventually proved that the primary one does not work, and the backup does. However, during the intervening years, the design of the connection has changed and they did not have one of our configuration. After weighing up the possibilities, we concluded that we should replace the fitting on the boat with the new style and get the new controller to this specif...
Read more

Trapani - 30/31 October & 1 November 2021

Image
Saturday would have been the day to go to Erice, if the weather was the deciding factor, the views up to the top were glorious, but this was not in the plan. Chris had to return home and so we spent the morning with him packing while one of the workmen struggled to remove a hatch cover that needs to go away for repair. Then we sat in the sun at a café, having a coffee overlooking the harbour. Trapani has a good bus service to Palermo airport, and is no further away than Palermo itself is from the airport. We saw Chris on his way, which he later said was very picturesque, and then returned to the boat to continue with the packing up. It was dry so the focus was on clearing equipment from the decks while we could.   Everything needs to be cleaned and packed away for the winter. We had a near perfect mackerel sky Sunday and Monday were both more of the same, with the focus shifting to below decks. We won’t go into all the details, but gradually the list has reduced to the extent tha...
Read more

Balestrate 23/24 October 2021

Image
Sundays' weather systems Saturday was a day for chores and preparation for the time with our son, Chris. We ultimately made three round trips into town, climbing the steps up the cliff side each time. We were first to arrive at the excellent laundry, so had our pick of the machines. It did not take too long, and we returned to the boat for coffee, before starting in the food shopping. We had to keep an eye on the weather, as we did not want to get caught in the open during one of the downpours that were forecast. Bread, fruit and vegetables, fish and then on the final trip, supermarket essentials were accumulated. And all without getting wet. Our worries about the replacement of Alitalia with a new airline, ITA, proved to be unfounded, Chris’ flights all ran as expected and landed early. He did receive a text update saying that the time of his flight had been moved forward, but as he was sitting on the plane before the message was delivered, there was no problem. The taxi that w...
Read more