Syracuse, Toarmina and crossing to the Italian mainland

Visiting Noto was our last excursion before finally casting off from our mooring in Ragusa and sailing away. Motoring away is more precise as the conditions were calm and the wind was gently blowing from behind us.

Our last day on land coincided with a good-bye celebration for Chad and all the exercise sessions he'd hosted -keeping the kids in the marina fit and motivated.

We left the gathering early and set our course for Syracuse. For some reason our starter battery was flat as we left -fortunately Dragonfly has a switch to put the house batteries in parallel for just such an occurence. A few years back on Bumblebee I had to haul a house battery up to the engine to jump start it and fried a spanner (& nearly myself) in the process by shorting the terminals.

In Warsaw the kids were taught to play chess properly at their kindergarten. It's amazing to see them progress from our earlier games where any move was allowed.  We arrived in Syracuse without drama and anchored in the harbour.

It was late but we still had energy so took the dinghy to Ortigia to find supper and stretch our legs.

We remembered how much we love Syracuse so decided to stay for another day.  We hit the market in the morning

We spent the day exploring the less familiar areas of Ortigia. We came across 'treasure beach' where every other stone was an ancient ceramic fragment -needless to say we had to lug all these treasures back to Dragonfly!

My camera picked up a battle scar along the way. When we returned to our dinghy we were locked in by the next door dinghy. Fortunately I was able to track them on the Noforeignlands app with just their tender name and within five minutes we'd made friends with the owners and were released from their padlock. Back onboard at last, the kids needed to let off some steam before bed with some disco moves (see vid at end of post)..

Nipped into Syracuse the next morning to top up our fuel tanks. Then we were off on our way to the anchorage below Taormina.  Zefi lead the yoga session along the way.

Sailing and scrubbing.

As we pass Mt Etna we were visited by a huge pod of dolphins and a few dozing turtles.

We anchored below Taormina and the next morning took the dinghy ashore to explore.

Not your average anchorage!!

This was our third time visiting Toarmina and to be honest it's also our last. Even in April it was crowded with so many people and shops.  Getting around is either by queuing for busses, rip-off taxis or you can risk your life on roads with no pavement to walk on.  It is beautiful but not the pleasant experience I remember from ten years ago.

Back on Dragonfly we endured a second wobbly night on anchor. The kids managed to sleep but we suffered! Regardless, at first light we weighed anchor and set our charts for Marina de Roccella on the Italian mainland.  After a calm morning the wind and waves picked up giving us an exhilarating ride as we surfed down two metre waves and filled the genoa with twenty five knots of wind.  After about eight or nine hours we were finally at rest in the marina at Rocella but not before bashing my shin while mooring and bleeding on our new teak.