Monday 4th August

Deck marine (Raymarine Agents in Milan) have been their usual lethargic selves and so far on each of the 5 occasions that they have promised to call back they have failed to do so. The couriers appear to claim that they have delivered the cable this afternoon, but conveniently the local chap who is going to do the work (Vincenzo) has now got his phone switched off! They have pretty much mastered the siesta concept here, as they stop work around 1.00pm for lunch, return at 4.00pm (the answer to ALL questions is 4.00pm) and finish shortly afterwards, but possibly not till 6.00pm. Milan did apologise briefly at one point to say that not much happens in Southern Italy during August, which we knew, but had just hoped....ah well no point in getting stressed because they certainly aren't.

Most of the day then was spent fiddling about getting some of the silly maintenance jobs done while we wait, although there was a bit of excitement around 6.00pm as again I was on board awaiting a call back from Milan, when Sarah telephoned to say that the nice new combination lock that she had bought a week or so ago for the bike had jammed. The catch was that it was stuck in the locked position pinning the bike to probably the only set of traffic lights in the region! I was loathe to leave the boat right then as we could be almost certain that Vincenzo would choose that moment to put in an appearance, so in the end, Sarah walked back to the boat to replace me and I walked back to the bike armed with the cable cutters and a phrase book in case this was the moment I met my first policeman and need to explain why I was stealing this bike! All was well and the whole episode was watched by an amused butcher who was sitting outside his little shop enjoying our exploits.