Return to Marina di Ragusa

6 April 2022 – 10 May 2022

We arrived back into Sicily around 7.00pm on 6 April 2022 and were met by the driver of Airport Transfers who drove us back to Marina di Ragusa. We were so tired from our flights that we went to bed as soon as we were back on Calista. The following morning we were greeted by Calista covered in the Sahara dust from an earlier dust storm. Apart from the dust Calista was in a good state and there was no mould from being shut up for three months.

With the hose the Sahara dust was washed away and Calista was soon clean and sparkling again.

While we were back in New Zealand Paul arranged to purchase two larger solar panels as our current ones weren’t giving us sufficient power.

After we unscrewed the old panels and removed them, we needed to get the stainless steel support rails lengthened by a local welder who was very efficient and welded them up in his factory the same day we dropped them off. Paul then refixed the lengthend rails and attached the new panels. We sold the old solar panels to another yachtie in the marina.

The neighbour’s kitten loved the solar panels which gave her shelter from the sun and wind. She would often visit and sit up on the dingy where she could keep an eye on what was going on below. She is such a friendly and social kitten, and now has a lovely home with the family next door after them rescueing her from the Marina rubbish skip.

We went out to dinner at IL Mare Vossia in the town square with fellow Amel 50 friends from Traveller IV and Bella Vita to celebrate my birthday several days later once the wild weather had abated. We all had the degustation menu with matching wines, both the food and wines were amazing.

During dinner Janice decided that Bella Vita and Calista should draw straws to see who would be the “guinea pig” to go first for the mast jacking. Bella Vita drew the short straw.

The staff bought out a birthday/dessert that Jane had arranged with them, and then everyone sang Happy Birthday – A lovely surprise.

There have been a number of days that Calista has been covered in Sahara dust and to make matters worse, the Marina is having issues with their water supply and no-one is able to use hoses to wash their boats.

Water has been turned off on the piers overnight and most of the day except between 4.00-6.00pm where we can top up our water onboard. During the day we are having to wash Calista using buckets of water from our water tank.

Paul was winched up to the top of the mast so he could wipe the sahara dust off the mast and furlers in readiness for SiSail.

We have had to remain in the marina due to a safety recall from Amel as a result of a fellow Amelian’s yacht being dismasted in the Carribean earlier in the year. After some investigation Amel have discovered the supplier of the masts have supplied the wrong size tip cup for the spreaders and these will need to be replaced on all the Amel 50’s. There are about 67 now on the water somewhere. Amel spoke with the local rigger from SiSail and was confident he was able to carry out the necessary works on behalf of Amel. This freed up Amel’s riggers to travel to other stranded yacht’s.

On Monday 2 May 2022 Paulo and his helper arrived on Bella Vita (who drew the short straw to be 1st in line) and carried out the necessary works required, and the following day it was Calista’s turn to have the mast jacked up and tip cups replaced. The whole proceedure being the second boat took slightly less, 5 hours from start to finish with the cost being met by Amel.

Amel provided the special shaped blocks for the jacks to sit on and a steel bar made to fit through the mast.

We were very impressed with the dedication and workmanship of Paulo from SiSail. Traveller IV is next in line when the weather conditions are suitable.

The following day Sisail arranged for a couple of their staff to deliver our three sails back to Calista. Paulo has been flat out working such long hours and ended up off work with a headache, so we decided to reinstall the sails ourselves as we were wanting to get away. How hard can it be ….

Installing the two forward sails was pretty straight forward and went smoothly without out any issues. We attempted to install the main sail but had to abort as the wind was starting to get up.

A few days later after further winds we had a second attempt to hoist the main sail early in the morning. With the the sail flaked on the side deck one of us hoisted the main sail up while the other fed the leading edge into the track and eased the sail up over the cockpit roof.