We arrived into Marina di Ragusa (MdR) and were met by great old friends on the dock. It’s always a bittersweet event, trying to manoeuvre 18 metres and 40+ tonnes of long keel classic boat without a bow thruster (whilst frazzled) into a tight marina berth and being happy to see everyone at the same time… Anyway, we managed without disgracing ourselves on either point, I think.

And that’s the great thing about MdR, it’s a fantastic community. Whenever we leave to go somewhere we always have to add 15-20 minutes of “pontoon time” to meet and talk to interesting and interested people.

An MdR BBQ, most of the kids are on the beach, so it’s not everyone

On top of that it’s got to be a unique marina in that over the past two years there have been 20+ children ranging from two to 15 with visitors on top of that.

Here are most of this years younger folks

Mornings on the kid boats are reserved for home schooling and the afternoon is free time.

For the older crowd every morning (bar Sunday) starts with a radio net hosted by one of the boats plus there is a specific Facebook page for the marina liveaboards with Messenger being used for more immediate and specific communications. Bi weekly Happy Hour drinks, music nights, dinner evenings, Halloween party, wine tasting, New Years Eve, Thanks Giving etc etc etc means ones liver is at risk of overload. And that’s excluding the invites to and fro between different boats. Oh and I forgot yoga classes and beach volleyball for a way of working off the alcohol.

Craft days, rocket building and cinema days amongst other things helped the kids when it wasn’t sunny and the beaches were a pull when it was. For children it’s a amazing way to grow up.

Takeaway pizza outside at the end of the day

It’s a wonderful community.