Land-locked days

Sunday the 12th of April was very windy.  We were still safely tucked up in Ragusa Marina but Dragonfly spent 12 hours lurching from side to side, straining on her mooring lines. Another boat in the marina recorded a gust of 49 knots. We are a bit more sheltered at the back of the marina and saw 43.7.  I'm afraid this post contains no sailing or boaty pics!

Sunday morning started with a display of Theodores finest dance moves. We then did a supermarket run requiring a taxi back.  Zefi and Theo were starting to go a little crazy with only us for company so I pinged the Marina Facebook group and was invited to join the kids parents Whatsapp group. we were also put in touch with Ines who popped over with her daughter Lucie for an impromptu playdate. 

Then we grabbed some supper in a nearby restaurant and had to carry two sleeping children all the way back to the boat.

We discovered on the Whatsapp group that Chad, one of the dads, organises a kids meet up most mornings with jumping, skipping, catching etc, so we turned up the next morning. Our kids were delighted to find loads of other boat kids of the same age and got stuck right in!

The wind on Sunday had kicked up some large swell so for the next couple of days there was no option to set sail.  To make good use of our time Julia booked us in for a wine tasting at a local vineyard called Tenuta Bastonaca..

With Dragonfly's bilge lockers now resembling a respectable wine cellar we planned a walk along the beach to see the waves.  Just before we set off I visited the boat yard to find help with our water maker. A mechanic returned to the boat with me but was also unable to get it to draw seawater.  The problem is likely a pinched or blocked inlet pipe or the first stage of the pump/seals.  Further investigation is necessary.

The Scirocco wind left lots of dust in the air and moved drifts of beach sand throughout the marina.

Despite a big shop the day before we were still short on fresh food so found it easy to justify an evening feed in the town square.  The temperature dropped a bit and caught us a little underdressed.

On Tuesday the waves on our intended route were still forecast at 1.5m and coming head on.  Julia heard of a castle nearby with a labyrinth so we rented a car and set off in search.  Castello di Donnafugata turned out to be a wonderful crumbling Baronial Palazzo with beautiful gardens.

Jozefina had been begging for some roller skates so we made Decathlon our next destination, en route to Ragusa town to check out a little private garden we found online.

Decathlon is one of my guilty pleasures -I feel like a kid in a candy store surrounded by all the fishing, diving, hunting, sailing gear.  It's reasonably priced and surprisingly good quality.  That skateboard Theodore is towing is a few inches shorter for kids and a couple of plys thinner to make it light -it's actually quite good.  From there we hunted down Radici gardens but were not able to enter without a booking. Something to save for another day. Instead we hiked some of the steps of Ragusa (there are a lot) and found a good spot for an Aperol Spritz.

The next day the kids were very excited as we were going to a 6th birthday party on the beach for Karoline.  Zefi had chosen a present and written a card.  It was a perfect day with a gentle breeze for flying (and losing) kites, and a good turnout of all the families we had recently met.

We kept our hire car for a second day and drove one hour to Noto to spend the afternoon exploring.