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We have been in Sicily for a week. We had a two day sail to Trapani and who should be waiting for us on the dock ready to take our lines, but my good and very old friend Mr David Green, accompanied by his son Ben. It was so nice to have someone willing to get on a minicab-flight –taxi to come see us. Trapani was pretty cool and we were treated to a fantastic meal by my friend, Gabriel loves spaghetti and mussels which i think is competing now with chicken korma as his favourite food. It is so easy with David, having known someone since being a baby saves a lot of time in reconnecting in fact there is no reconnecting we are always connected. Our lives are a bit different but it just doesn’t matter. Ben was happy to be here as long as we could get him to a bar on a regular basis for the world cup matches. After two nights in Trapani we headed to the Egadi islands off the SW coast of Sicily. Now this is where the strangeness of Ben surfaces!!. Most if not all people suffer seasickness in rough seas. We left and it was like a mill pond, immediately Ben looked distinctly sea sick. We couldn’t work it out, however the wind and waves gradually built up to force 4-5, 25mph of winds and his queasiness disappeared. We had a great sail to the islands, failed to berth due to high winds and then headed to Marsala, we had a mission England V Germany at four. It was a perfect sail 25mph winds from behind and we got there for three, an hour to get to a bar. Was it worth it, what a crappy England side, on top of which were some very polite Germans desperately trying not to seem too jubilant. At the end of the game i just said to Ben “here starts your 40 years of pain” it didn’t seem to cheer him up.

The following day was good bye to David and Ben it had been great having them on board, however i know David and i will see each other soon and good luck to the family on the move to LA. We sat sail for sciacii just 20 miles up the coast, however the winds were great (we love you Sicily) and we were zooming along at 6 knots. We decided to keep on going and at two oclock the following morning eighty miles later we arrived in the port of Agrigento called Port Empedocle and anchored in the harbour. We have spent two days at anchor and have now moved into the harbour to get some water and electricity. Its cheap here (only 50 euros a night) and i think we are going to stay a week here and tour Sicily. Hope you are all well. Adam

Sardinia to Sicily

Carlo Forte – 19^th June to 23^rd June – N39 08.576 E08 18.448

Just to expand a little on Adams blog – Carlo Forte and Sardinia was a bit of a revelation really, we had expected it to be expensive and swish like Ibiza, but it was like stepping back in time. As we moored along the town quay, we looked at a desolate wasteland of carpark, rusting ships and empty buildings, but a couple of locals smiled and took our ropes, signalling that it was OK to stay there. We expected some officious jobs worth to move us on but no one bothered us and we stayed for free. On closer inspection the town was quite a pretty and bustling port with twisting narrow streets and flower strewn balconies. Very friendly people, but hardly a word of English anywhere – unlike Spain. We enjoyed a couple of meals out – Italian pizza is so much better than anywhere else – and generally relaxed into the local vibe.

When the weather looked good we set off for Sicily another two to three day crossing, which went smoothly and we arrived in Trapani harbour in the early afternoon. Again we pulled up alongside the town quay (much bigger this time Trapani is a busy commercial port) and expected to be moved on, but again nobody seemed to be overly concerned and it was only after about two days that the harbour master said we ought to move before Monday as a very large ferry was due to arrive. Well Sunday was the England match so we had to make sure that where ever we moved to we arrived in time for four o’clock.