Friday 5^th June – Marzamemi, Sicily – Siracusa (Syracuse), Sicily

37:03.596N 15:16.722E

This morning the wind had dropped to nothing and we enjoyed breakfast in the stillness and quiet of Marzamemi marina – the pilot book describes Marzamemi as a sleepy little place and it is indeed tranquility, especially after Malta where there was always some sort of background noise.

After breakfast I wandered into the marina office to ask a few questions, armed with my Italian phrase book to find that I had taken the wrong dictionary. The director was not interested in talking to me in Italian, nor did he want to use English but asked if we could talk in German as he is trying to learn; so, we both did our best (though I think he was better than me) and we managed pretty well.

As there was no wind at all this morning, we took a walk into the village, about 3km away. Overall, we like Marzamemi and its marina; it seems a friendly, peaceful spot with helpful and friendly staff– though may get much busier soon with the holiday season approaching.

The village is one main street with a few shops and lots of restaurants but it did have a Tabacci shop where we could renew our Italian internet access. We then found a shop that sold fresh bread and, armed with a loaf for lunch, headed back to the marina. Richard then blew up the dinghy while I gave the decks a rinse; its amazing how much sand and dust the boat gets down here. By lunchtime the wind was picking up and so we decided to make the short sail to Siracusa, about 24 miles.

As the wind was about 10-12 knots behind us we put the genoa out and sat in the cockpit enjoying the sun and smooth sea, and had lunch as we crawled along at around 3.5 knots; we weren't in a hurry and knew that the wind was due to pick up further during the afternoon. This it did, increasing to 16-18 knots and upping our speed. However, as we rounded Capo Murro Di Porco it kicked in with a vengeance and by the time we reached Siracusa and entered the bay we had three reefs in the genoa (around the size of a storm jib) and were still going along at 4.5 knots in around 25 knots of wind.

We wanted to anchor and so we headed into the bay and looked for where the other boats were anchored off. We saw they were all anchored in the north-west of the bay just outside the marina. We joined them at anchor with the wind still around 16-20 knots.

This evening we have enjoyed dinner In the cockpit, sheltered in the enclosure watching the sun go down; the wind has eased a little and we hope it quietens down further this evening.