36.46.84N 14.32.74E

The past week has been busy sorting the boat out. Generally tidying and cleaning. It’s so nice being able to clean the boat and not worry about how much water we are using. We’ve been shopping both locally and into Ragusa to go to the large DIY store. So hopefully we now have the bits we need to get on with our massive “winter job” list.

Before we could get totally settled we needed to clean the anchor locker and chain. The chain had that lovely Syracuse growth on it. We were moored bow first so we could get the anchor and chain onto the pontoon. Stephen borrowed a pressure washer to clean the anchor and chain, while Anne cleaned the locker. Leaning into the locker gave Anne some new bruises in rather interesting places!! We then painted the chain so we know how much chain we have put out. Unfortunately the paint we got didn’t look very good, it was too thin and took ages to dry. Our anchor chain is now marked with paint, anchor markers (that go into the links) and cable ties. Hopefully one of these methods will work.

No it’s not an anti-theft device for the bike, it’s a way of drying the paint on the anchor chain

Once the anchor and chain was back on-board we could turn Wanda round and really settle into our winter home. We have our thick winter ropes and springs on and the lines are tightened well.  We’ve started taking the running rigging off, and started polishing the stainless steel (again!!)

While we were at anchor we had a rather big bug (2-3” long) get in through the front windows mosquito net – it simply slid between the fasteners. It made us realise our mosquito nets were not very robust. We found some thin Velcro in the DIY store and made new super-duper mosquito coverings for the front windows with no gaps at all. Hopefully this will stop the big bugs from sneaking in. Of course a simple job of changing the mosquito nets wasn’t quite so simple as it meant giving the window frames a good clean inside and out.

Stephen attempted to fix the generator however the faulty component is on the circuit board that is all sealed hence a new board is needed L

On Wednesday evening we went out for a pizza, a late celebration of Stephen’s birthday. We had a lovely evening at one of the beach restaurants J

Saturday was deemed a rest day. We decided to go for a walk to see if we could find the cycle shop we had been told about. We headed off in a new direction for us out of town, along the sea front. Eventually we arrived at the next village along, Casuzze, and found the bicycle store. Unfortunately the bikes were far too expensive, so after a coffee and croissant we headed back, finding some new shops on the way.  

The view towards Casuzze and the lighthouse