37 03.728N 015 17.389E Siracusa, Sicily

Pipedream
Sun 31 Jul 2011 09:53
Hi all. After several hours of undisturbed sleep and at least two square meals... pasta, shrimp ravioli, wine, and don't forget the cannoli, almost as good as Publics.. hah! The world is looking like a much better place. The generator shut itself down while I was running is at the anchorage and after further inspection the rubber raw water impeller has expired. I know I have one here someplace but can not find it. We move the boat into the high class marina where there is power and water internet and also a 75 Euro price tag per day. We spotted Michael back pack and all walking along the water front and whistled at him and connected.

Most of my communications have expired in one fell swoop. The Vodafone I was counting on for internet and phone has been sold to TIM here in at least Siracusa and I can't get my Italian chips re-charged here. I tried calling Michael on the sat phone and find I only have 5 minutes of credit left on it. Looks like I go to the ham radio next so if you get an e-mail from KD9NR it would be me. We'll try again at the next port.

So today we will do some boat maintenance and sight seeing. Mary will try to figure out how she flies out to Madrid on the 7th for her flight back to the states and Michael and I will plan the next leg of our adventure. I have been to the local marine store of course it was Saturday afternoon and everything was closing... Sundays here are dead space I was told I may be able to get the impeller Monday morning at another store... hopeful but fat chance.

Siracusa is a really neat town. Apparently this was the most powerful city state in these parts rivaling Rome for control of the region. There are lots of Greek ruins around. Last night we went to the town square, really neat building 1500s vintage. There must not be many earth quakes here. Lots of big boats in here most are monster Italian power boats 'Manhattan in big chrome letters on the back. Super shopping for neat artsy stuff. One shop was full of ceramic fish. They had a fish market set up with all kinds of stuff really neat. Enough for now lets see how the marina internet works??