Hector waiting for his next gas customer…

Yves Christian in the bay at Agni

Jack who swam to Agni and back again, I’m so proud of him!

We arrived back in Greece on Monday morning at 4am, in time for Jack (my second son) to arrive at 1pm from Newcastle. We had motor-sailed from Crotone on mainland Italy and anchored outside Gouvia Marina in Corfu.

We went that morning to complete Greek formalities but have had a relaxing time here. It’s so good to be back in Greece as 2017 was the first year ever that Lotty and I have not been here.

We are at anchor just outside the marina now, enjoying swimming and relaxing after our long journey from Sicily. We also need to get on with real life too, like school and boat jobs.

Greece is wonderful…

Sunset calm for Yves Christian

A small island docks at the small island of Ortigia right in front of us

Fantastic, only in Italy would you find a police Lamborghini!

Parked in the middle of Ortigia today, the two officers, neither of whom resembled George Clooney or Brad Pitt, were getting attention as if they did.

Yesterday, the first day after I fixed the washing machine door (it took me a year to get round to it), I put two loads on for a forecast sunny day’s drying, but instead it rained and thundered all day…

Fixed washing machine

Weather for drying

We’ve been here a week today, anchored in the bay next to the city of Siracusa in Sicily and off the historic fortified island of Ortigia. We’re waiting for the right winds to sail across to Corfu in Greece, but so far they’ve all been in the wrong direction. We’re hoping for a helpful wind on Wednesday. Our friends on sailing yacht Dizzie (Lynita, Justin, Kynan and Liora) have been here for over three weeks now waiting for the right winds, so a week doesn’t seem so bad.

Sacha had been doing boat jobs, fixing things on our long list and one that’s now got to the top was fixing the washing machine door. We now have a working onboard washing machine!!! No more trudging to the laundrettes around the Mediterranean.

To avoid the swell we’re experiencing in the bay, we tried to get permission to tie up to the town quay yesterday, but after protracted wrangling we were denied, despite hundreds of metres of free space. I just love Italian bureaucracy in full swing…

Here are some pictures of where we are:

The beautiful island of Ortigia joined to the city of Siracusa (Bottom of the image) by two old bridges

Below Ortigia island showing the bay above where we are anchored in the middle right of the screen

Below the fortified castle at the tip of the island as we sailed in

Sitting at a cafe on the town quay as the sun goes down, Yves can just be seen at the centre left of the image out in the bay

Some scruffy urchins we found on the town quay…

On Sunday we got back to sea and left our winter Mediterranean home for the past seven months, Marina di Ragusa in south eastern Sicily. Despite the odd niggle here and there, it’s been a fantastic safe, calm, warm, friendly, cheap and wonderful place to live. I’d recommend the marina to anyone. We set sail for beautiful Siracusa on the east coast of Sicily, ready to jump across the Ionian Sea to Greece.

Leaving Marina di Ragusa

Hector and Phoebe comforting the cat (Pickle) on her first sea passage

The fort at Ortigia, the island off Siracusa