So we finally slipped out of Marina di Ragusa at 7 in the morning due south and happy to be on the road again. A beautiful morning and a few last good byes and we were on our way to Valetta! With a light easterly to blow us the 50 miles across to Malta we had a beautiful sail down, crossing the shipping lanes with no bother & arrived into Valetta late afternoon and found our mooring in Msida creek Marina next to our new found cruising family friends on the good ship Happy Dancer - Pablo, Dini, Nona & Gael.

Sailing into Valetta is an experience not to be missed, the cities history is undoubtedly based around the sea and the comings and goings of many great cultures over the centuries. The following week was spent letting Audrey & Bertie have time to play with their new found friends, Noah & Gael, seeing the sights of Valetta, and making good use of the excellent chandlery facilities to be found in the city. 

On the weekend we decided to head out of town and head up the north west coast to see what the islands of Comino & Gozo had to offer. A blowey night anchored in Mellieha bay, gave way to an amazing day anchored in a tiny sheltered bay just off it & a chance to enjoy our first beach BBQ, fire and a little live music, thanks to Dinis guitar & my harps, excellent stuff. The next day we sailed round to the west of Comino to the blue lagoon, which is indeed very very blue. Sunday, however, is the not the day to visit. Over run with tourist boats, we moved a little further round to another very picturesque bay and anchored in 3 metres of crystal clear waters, and soaked up the sunny afternoon swimming & enjoying time away from everything, total bliss...

As our friends had to return to work in Valetta, we decided to take a cruise around Gozo for a few days, before deciding our next move. The coast off Gozo is stunning and a sailing delight. The stunning sheer cliffs & second cleanest waters in Europe after Cyprus, making for some sublime sailing & anchoring. I'd never been to a place where you can watch the anchor drop down seven metres, and see it bottom the way you can here, very rare indeed! For our final sail down to Valetta again we were blessed with a beautiful westerly breeze on which to sail all the way back down.

With Marina fees jumping from €25 a night to €50 a night in May, we decided to ancor in St.Juliens bay with is just north of Grand Harbour & Msida creek. We have now re christened it Rolly Bay for obvious reasons. That aside, the parks, beach & general facilities on offer here are excellent. And a short tender ride, and we have bars & restaurants on our door step. Audrey also had a touch of conjunctivitis, which we managed to get seen too by a local doctor & drops from the chemist. She's very much on the mend now.

After a few days of rolling around in Rolly Bay we decided we needed a little break so head back down to a small anchorage just inside Grand Harbour to do a little more adventuring with the tender. Dockyard creek is fabulous, on the left you have Billionares row of mega yachts & on the right an array of stunning Venitian style gondolas made of wood & varnished to the max. We visited here on Maltese Mother's Day and all the families were out in force, sitting at the restaurants which line the dock side. In the late afternoon we made our way across to Valetta to have a fair well drink with the crew of Happy Dancer, alas as we came along side the quay a wave washed us against the wall and large metal spike which sliced a 3 inch gash into our little rubber ducky, disaster! I left Nicky & the Audrey & Bertie to meet our friends, while a speedily turned the boat around and head back to Maya in the tender with only the port side inner tube of the Tinker keeping me & the valuable outboard engine from going under. Luckily I just made it, as the outer tube was now taking in a lot of water.
Nicky was able to call one of the beautiful Venitian style gondolas, which works as a water taxi, to give her & the two munchkins a ride back to Maya. My envy on their arrival must have been noticeable!

So we've had a beautiful stay in magical Malta, perhaps we shall come back next year on our way back out of the Med, but for now we are looking to leave on Wednesday, as a fair wild blows from the west, and takes on to Greece.

So to burst any bubbles the none cruising folk may have about life on the ocean waves, the winters are also a lot about getting the boat prepped for the coming season which includes fixing all those bits which broke the previous season, and potentially adding a few new bits to make life a little easier....

Despite having spent the last three years getting the boat ready in London the winter list was extensive & somewhat time consuming. So for those of you who have no interest in such practical things, I advise you to stop reading now. For everybody else, here's the boat work....

When we bought our Aerogen wind generator second hand off eBay the pivot bearings were shot, so we lived with the banging till Sicily, but these now had to be changed to allow us to sleep at night whilst charging our batteries. We also managed to totally melt down the rectifier which changes the AC current to DC, so this also needed replacing, when we were blasted by a 70knt catabatic wind in our anchorage in Malfatamo. On the way down from the UK we also suffered from not knowing how much chain we were letting out at anchor, which can be a little disconcerting, so all the chain had to come off the boat and marked by painting 10 meter markings for ease of reading as it shoots out the front of the boat. While we were at it, we also bought & fitted a new & bigger 33kg Rocna anchor, to aid with our sleeping at anchor over the coming years. Another major issue we'd had on the way down from the UK, was not knowing how much fuel or water we'd consumed as the old pressurised system had stopped functioning some years ago. This had led to a few hairy moments of not know if we had enough of either en route. Probably one of the most time consuming jobs of the winter, as we had to order all the new senders, drill all the holes in the tanks & once through my thumb, in order to fit them, and the wire them all in, which involves taking half the boat apart to lay the cable, and then to finally mount the displays. We also added one to our holding tank, as Turkey is very strict on water pollution from cruising boats close to shore. Next came cleaning the diesel tanks, and making sure we had no diesel bug which could block up the fuel lines. This was the third time I'd had to do this since we've owned Maya, which involves pumping all the diesel out of the tanks into Jerry cans and getting down with your arm in the tank to clean out any sludge, filtering all the diesel back into the tanks and treating with biocide. Happily this time there was very little sludge to speak of, so we can rest easy that our fuel tanks are clean of this scourge! Whilst in this part of the world the engine service also has to be done. This involves doing a full oil change, oil filter change, fuel filter change & a pre fuel filter clean & change, changing the impeller on the water cooling, and complete water coolant change. Checking & perhaps changing the fan belts, cleaning the turbo, and changing the gear box oil, and lastly topping up the greaser for the stern gland..... Oh mother! To add one final one, I also had to change all the rubber nipples in the cockpit for the engine buttons because Audrey & Bertie found them to irrisitable to pick off. Next up new LEDs throughout. One thing you soon realise is that a major part of living off the grid and living the life of Riley, means living within your means when it comes to the consumption of power. What you consume you must produce & visa versa. With the solar panels & the wind generator we have we broadly speaking can produce enough power to supply our needs, such as fridge, freezer, water maker lighting etc, however, we noticed on our way down to Sicily that lighting was chewing up a lot of our spare power, so we changed all our navigation & internal house lights to LEDs. The result has been amazing. We've been able to reduce this lighting electricity consumption by over two thirds, which will now allow us to now run a water maker even more freely. So on to the Watermaker. As Jesus was able to make wine out of water, so in these technological times we can make sweet drinking water out of salt water. We were fortunate enough to acquire a second hand Katadyn water maker from one of our new cruising friends Duncan & Caroline for a great price over the winter. The way this piece of kit basically works is by taking in a large amount of salt water, passing it through a very fine membrane which only allows fresh water to pass through it, and rejecting the larger salt molecules as a larger amount of brine as the reject fluid, simples! Well first I had to strip down the water maker replace all the seals & membrane, plumb it all in..... needles to say many a fun hour sucking up salt water priming it & adjusting the intake valves later, and a few more measuring flow rates, but we now produce a handsome 5 ltrs of sweet sweet fresh water an hour, which is a massive money saver when you don't have to be running into marinas for water..... So another integral part of cruising is not only enjoying the sea, but enjoying the hard bits you try to avoid running into, and to do this you need a decent tender. When we bought Maya she came with a little rubber boat called a Tinker Tramp. My initial scepticism regarding our little rubber ducky has definitely changed over time. You see most rubber duckys are just that, you blow them up and stick an engine on the back and away you go. The difference with the little Tinker is that they were designed as little rubber sailing boats, so they come with a centre board and sails, all the other bits. Now our little Tinker was made by Sarah Cox in 1988, so she's as old as Maya. When we left London she was all working fine, but in the course of our trip two of her wooden floor boards snapped, which I provisionally managed to stop water gushing in in Lisbon. But this winter I had to find a better solution to stop everything in the boat getting wet. My friend was epoxy resin, fibreglass matting & ply. I was able to epoxy in the large cracks then glass matted over those cracks, and finally fashion a whole new floor section for each floor board out of ply. Expoxy the lot together & cover with a layer of epoxy paint, and hey presto, we now have a Tinker that's not only dry & stable to stand in, but also plains from time to time. Throw in an outboard engine service, and we're now ship to shore mobile. (As i post this, i have to say, today we hit a large metal spike in Grand Harbour, and have managed to put a 3 inch slice into our port outer tube! The inner tube saved our little Tinker & outboard, so some major surgery required!!!)

So those were the biggies for this winter, together with the following list which stimulated the mind & body & soul over our 7 mth stay in Marina di Ragusa, so to bore you any further here the rest of the bits:
Fix the wooden shower trim, Reseal the shower, Re fix aft toilet seat, Fix Bertie's Lee cloth, Change the Water filter, Re mesh all the porthole mosquito nets. Re glue the book shelf holder bar, Clean the shower run off & sump, Fix the cabin sole by the chart table, Service both heads, Attach new mounts for new solar panels, Change the pennant ropes, Check if we have a Diesel leak, Investigate breathers on stern of boat, Change deck light cable, Re-adjust current bilge pump system adding in new Rule 2000 pump, also add Bilge pump automatic switch, Add clips for the dodger, Sand & Spray gas bottles, Fill freezer holes to stop water leakage, Change Pacerelle screws & hinges, Check the guard rails, Fix Audrey's blind, Fix Nickys reading lamp, Rewire Solar & Wind to the Victron display, Fit replacement battery Diode box, Fit aft head 240v plug, Fit fwd head 240v plug, Fix fish gutting chopping board, Fix teak car ends, Fix gel coat bumps & dinks & sand back, Varnish side rails, Varnish companionway, Varnish around hatches, Re-stitch Genoa small section, Check issue with wind speed Raymarine head unit auto helm, Replace Raymarine speed & depth transducer. And relax.......

So we returned back to Sicily from UK at the end of February, having enjoyed seeing friends, family and having seen to a lot of real life stuff which needed sorting… As much as we enjoyed being back in London town, the pace and hecticness seemed even more insane than when we left, so returning back to Marina di Ragusa was like heading back to the village. Unfortunately we were greeted by 50kts gales, and none to inclement weather for the first few weeks, and all the cruisers who had remained whilst we’d been away were suffering from severe boat cabin fever. 

March, however, brought good weather and time to get out and about and do stuff again. The never ending list of boat jobs could continue, and the supplies of stuff brought from the UK were soon assembled and put to use around the place. New learning resources for kids had also arrived while we were away, and were put to good use immediately. With the improvement in the weather, marina activities also commenced with an Optimist regatta, for kids from all over Sicily coming to Marina di Ragusa to compete. Seeing these young kids going out and competing in 30kts winds outside the harbour without the slightest sight of fear, and fantastic skill was quite breathtaking. March also brought the festival of St.Guiseppi where statues were carried around the streets of Marina di Ragusa for all to behold, before being out back in their boxes for another year. And all manner of cakes & cheeses where produced and auctioned off in the main square to raise money for the church.

March also brought us Tilly, Toddy, Sophie, Juju to visit from the UK. Although only a short stay we managed to pack in quite a lot! We had a lovely villa in the old part of Taormina where we all stayed together with open fires, great roof terrace brunches and lots of laughs. We took in the sights of Taormina, managing to visit Isola Bella beach the last evening on a whim only to find a bon fire about to go out, which the boys resurrected and with a few beers we relaxed by the sea. It was such a great way to end the visit, and was Toddy, Audrey & Bertie's first beach bon fire. Catania market was vibrant and lively as ever, with the open fish market and numerous fruit and veg stalls and cheese and meat stands. And the fresh Oysters went down a treat. Syracusa which is one of our favourite Sicilian towns (from those I we’ve visited) didn’t disappoint as we were treated to an amazing lunch at the best deli with delicious Prosecco flowing. Seeing the mosaics at Villa Romana del Casale was something else. It show cases some of best mosaics in situ from the Roman world and was one of the most luxurious villas of its time. Year 310AD…. amazing what they accomplished and how well it is preserved to this day. It was really sad to say goodbye to these guys once more, but cant wait for our next fun get together soon!

Not so long after our trip to Taormina, it was slowly starting to come to the time when some of our new cruising friends would slowly depart. Our Aussie friends Duncan and Caroline on Maggie Drum where one of the first to set sail and was an impetus to get us to get going on the seas again too! However, no one left before we had our ‘provisioning’ wine tasting on Maggie Drum. With a few of us stowing wine from Sicily before heading out, we had a small blind wine tasting. Using socks to cover the labels (ingenious) we tasted, graded and named the wines. From a selection of wines ranging from 2.50-5euros, it was the cheapest which won the most points in the end! Needless to say this family fun boat may have a few bottles stashed in the bilges!

St Patricks Day also didn't pass us by either. It was celebrated in the local bar by a few of the Cruisers with some cans of Guiness, Guiness cake and a general away of Greeness and silly banter. We also attended a proper English Afternoon Tea organised by some of the Brits, with everyone dressed in their lar-di-da best and lots of tea, cakes and Pimms consumed. 

In the final week the Marina staff organised a party on the main pontoon to say farewell to all. A great party with an array of local Italian and Sicilian dishes served and BBqd. Beer and wine on tap, and lots of kids running around the pontoons. It was a real blast and helped to make the last few weeks of our stay in Marina di Ragusa complete, with sunshine, laughter, parties and general happiness. Time for us to also say goodbye before our trip across to Malta to see Valetta and see some new family cruising friends we met the week prior. However, not before the big Country and Line Dancing Festival. We attended this on our last night and it was a real hoot. An Italian country line dancing bonanza with all welcome to join in with the 50 Cowboys and Cowgirls. Bertie and Audrey loved it and it was almost impossible to keep them out of the middle of the rows of dancers! 

We set sail early the next morning, on a calm and bright day. It was great to set sail again! We had a great winter in Marina di Ragusa and are grateful to have met some of the people we did there and hope to see some of them again soon. More details of our crossing and first few days in Malta on our next blog!