Wednesday 30^th July

Spoke to the boatyard about getting a Raymarine electrician to look at our GPS problem and they immediately called the man and he promised to call in tomorrow. I have to admit that after Spain, I had my doubts about when tomorrow might turn out to be, but have subsequently been staggered by the helpfulness and reliability of the Sicilians.

Despite the fact that we were both tired after the long trip and the poor sleep patterns, we went for a stroll into the town in the evening. This was mainly because on a exploratory trip in the afternoon, Sarah had been delighted by what she found by way of architecture and the ambience of the place. We walked miles, but I had to agree that it is an extraordinary place. The bulk of the town is built on a strict grid pattern, with almost all of the old buildings still standing from a grander earlier life. Almost impossible to photograph this as they clearly kept building more and more grand buildings so that you cannot get a view of the ones behind or even alongside!

We finally selected a small bar to sit outside and have a celebratory birthday drink and then walked back to the boat barely in time to tumble into bed and fall into a very deep sleep.

Thursday 31^st July

Shipyard alongside us started work around 7.30am which eventually persuaded us to get up and get on with things. Sarah pressed both our and the boatyard’s washing machines into service before setting off on the bike to do some shopping. I found the local Yanmar agent which was also a small chandlery, to see if I could arrange a major service on our engine. The chap in the shop could not have been more helpful “would you like this today?” was not the question I had expected. He then made a call and 5 minutes later an engineer was standing next to me discussing what time he would be there. I also needed a new spare fuse for the Raymarine system and he again made a call and a fellow from another chandlery arrived with a selection, sadly none were any good, but the service was extraordinary.

The Raymarine man arrived in due course and viewed the problem and gave me a number to call to try to make a warranty claim and at the same time order a new cable which he could fit as soon as it arrived. This involved phone calls and a fax from us to show the warranty card etc. but in due course all was well and we now will have to wait here a day or so, whilst the cable  is in transit.

Engineer turned up on time to do the service and he did a great job although I think that I now know how to swear in Italian. Sarah had a fairly abortive trip in town, but did find a fishing tackle shop for me to visit later. You might find this strange, but in truth, the trip across from Menorca became rather dull after we had caught the big fish as we did not want another one and we have no smaller lures or tackle. So now we have some smaller gear and hope to catch some more sensible sized fish on future trips.

But the real excitement is the traffic. They have developed the perfect traffic calming system which is to have no road markings at all. Absolutely none. Every single road junction, major or minor is a free for all with the survival of the fittest/bravest/luckiest. The only white markings on any road anywhere are the occasional zebra crossings painted in the road. Be very aware that these are merely assembly points for potential collective suicide attempts. You only step out on these if there is nothing in sight, as you are otherwise considered fair game by the motorists. Cycling on our bike is obviously quite a dangerous undertaking but in time you begin to get into the swing of things, as long as you remember to avoid all eye contact with the car or motorbike that is trying to pull out in front, beside or across you. Also, as the parking (a general term applied to cars that are not actually moving) is often done diagonally to the pavement, these cars back out cheerfully and blindly into the main road and whilst the oncoming cars will swerve round them and or take some kind of avoiding action, (anything rather than stop and let them out) you are at considerable risk of them just backing into you. Sarah has adopted a very sensible approach to big road junctions, which is to dismount and take to the pavements, assuming there is one., which again is not always the case! I crossed a major 3 way ‘Y’ junction this evening by picking a car to ride alongside and together we negotiated the mass of cars all trying to cross each other’s paths to head in different directions. This worked well this time, but I do wonder what the accident rate is here (Sarah a fairly impressive smash earlier).