39.12.059N 9.07.504E

Well it’s a bumper blog this week – to catch up for not blogging last weekend. So here goes – two weeks of action packed blog ….

The good news is the weather is definitely improving – Anne even wore her bikini a couple of times (outside!). Although we have had some rainy days they have been much less frequent. We have just found how good “Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure” is. It’s a very thin sealant with a low viscosity (even lower than water) hence it finds its way into any tiny cracks. We tried it out on the saloon window, Koshka was getting upset that he kept getting wet in his favourite spot in the saloon when it rained. So with saloon window leak fixed we tackled some more areas where we had leaks. The problem with leaks on a boat is you’re never too sure where the water is coming in from as it does have a tendency to travel some very strange routes. We are now waiting for it to rain so we can check if we have fixed the leaks (of course it’s been dry for days now!!)

We’ve been busy on a variety of other boat jobs too, making new mosquito nets for the hatches, spring cleaning the lazzarettes, the front V berth, the sail locker, and generally trying to find space to store the generator, heaters & dehumidifier that we purchased over the winter. We successfully commissioned and tested the new generator (for use when we are at anchor).

Life around the marina is never boring, we recently had the local search helicopter flying grid patterns searching for migrants from Africa – they flew very low near us just behind the sea wall.

As Excel lessons have now finished we had Bryn and Bethany over to make chocolate Easter treats for people in the marina. Naturally quality control was taken very seriously and over 50% of the products were tested (eaten!). Bethany and Bryn had very kindly used their own money to buy us an Easter egg to say thank you for the Excel lessons. It was a lovely surprise when they came onboard with an extravagantly wrapped Easter egg.

Bethany, Anne and Bryn with the Italian style Easter egg (we had to hold it sideways or it blocked Anne’s face)

On the social front, Anne has been banned from playing general knowledge games with Pyxis and Cape (she’s too good!!)  Gilles and Linda on Rocking Chair (they looked after Koshka and Yoyo in September) came back from France and bought a 1999 St Emillion Grand Cru back. We now realise the wine we have been drinking is not that good!!  We had a sundowner with Pyxis one evening and had Dolphins and Flamingos to entertain us. The dolphins swam into the marina and the flamingos flew over head (they sounded like geese however when we eventually looked up they were clearly flamingos).

Pink flamingos flying overhead

We found a little time to paint – but not much. Stephen painted a picture of a tug and the Mussolini tower for Antenello the marina owner. Antenello has just bought the tug and it is currently moored up near the Mussolini tower, which he is fond of. We gave Antenello this painting as a thank you for being so good to us over the winter.

Tug and Tower by Stephen

Pyxis finally made a break from the marina and headed over to Tunisia. Rocking Chair also left and returned later the same day due to engine problems. Naturally we greeted them on the dockside with a bottle of wine to cheer them up!