Sicily Our winter break in Licata
Two months in Licata: arriving, refuelling, boat projects and road trip.
Hello Sicily!
4 days, 3 nights, 430 nautical miles, on the wind between 23kn and 3kn, 1 Mahi Mahi, 2 dolphins, approx. 1754 turtles, 2 robins, 2 bucket showers and 2 happy faces! 😍🙉 That's the summary of our crossing from Kalamata to Licata, we'll let the pictures speak for themselves ☺️
Two months Licata
That's the idea. It's marvellous not to have to plan and check the weather for two months. 🥰 It may sound strange to landlubbers, but life on a sailing boat isn't always relaxed. Especially with as many visitors as we had last summer, a lot of planning is necessary. And it is precisely this planning that makes it difficult, because in the end the weather always sets the pace. That's why we're even happier to stay in the same place for a while. Licata is a sleepy little town in the south of Sicily. The Cala del Sole marina is very popular in the sailing world, as a large community spends the winter here with their boats. This means lots of activities such as sports, knitting (hahaha, that shows the average age of those involved... 😂) but also happy hour with pizza and BBQ every Sunday. To our delight, we also get to know a few people our own age. In total, we are five crews between our mid-20s and mid-30s (oh dear, I think my own captain is the upper age limit of our young gang... 😅) We enjoy the friendly weather and the mild temperatures.
I'ts kitesurf time!
We treat ourselves to a hire car, for no less than 7 euros a day you can do that 😉 Like this we are a bit more flexible, and we want to be, because there are kitespots here! We spend cool days and evenings at the Moodclub Kitehouse and make friends with Andrea and Giulia, a local couple who also kite. Thex even made a barbecue for us in the evening after a session, which was really fun 😀❤
I get a little low blow during a faut-pas in the waves, where I swallow a lot of water and tear up a kite. Damn. And this just before our planned trip to Lo Stagnone (a well-known kite spot in Sicily). Of course, we set off anyway, find a kite doc in Marsala who fixes the kite, and spend a few great days here ❤ We also want to see a bit of culture and mountains during our week's holiday, so we head inland for a bit, sleep in a charming agritourismo and are spoilt with the finest culinary delights! Then our week's time-out is already over, we return our car to Catania and fly to Switzerland for the Christmas holidays.
CERVINO Refit Part 1
Of course, we're not just here to chill out, no no no! 😉 We also have one or two boat projects to complete. We are focussing on two things in particular: firstly, our power supply is getting a massive upgrade. We are converting our battery bank from AGM to lithium iron phosphate (LiFePo). These have numerous advantages and one major disadvantage. They're expensive 😅 But as we have enough time and a thirst for adventure 🥴 we're going to assemble our battery bank ourselves and save 2/3 of the price. That's worth it. But it also means that we'll spend a few hours buried in technical literature and YouTube tutorials. Now that all the individual parts have been ordered, we're hoping they'll arrive soon, because we're looking forward to finally getting to work after all the theoretical stuff!
Engine, gearbox & flywheel
As always, it all started very harmlessly 😂 Engine maintenance is not really rocket science. Matt, an Australian who has lived in Licata for years and looks after the yachts' engines, is recommended to us by the community. That actually sounds quite promising. We have a small problem with our gearbox, it sometimes sounds strange at a certain speed and we don't know exactly where it's coming from. So Matt comes round and listens to the noise. He's not very enthusiastic and highly recommends that we get it sorted soon. So we're struggling with ourselves, because removing the gearbox is throwing our whole schedule out of kilter. In mid-January we have a crane slot booked at the shipyard in Malta, where we want to haul out the boat and sand down the underwater hull before we fly back to Switzerland. Hm, it's all going to be a bit tight. We decide in favour of the typical sailing option: go with the flow. It will be what it will be. In short: We remove the gearbox, take it apart, realise that the broken parts are super expensive, order a second-hand gearbox from Holland, wait. Seize the opportunity and replace the damper plate between the engine and gearbox, break a screw IN THE FLYWHEEL during disassembly. That's bad. Remove the flywheel with great effort, have the screw unscrewed, discover a crack in the gearbox bell housing, have it welded, put everything back together, fit the "new" gearbox, test drive, it runs!!! 🥳 The many hours of head scratching and tinkering were worth it and Cervizzle is purring again!
Spontaneous visit and farewell from Licata
To our delight, we are able to experience a very special reunion: Charlito is in Licata! 😍 And with him our friends Zoe and Alessandro, and their friends Kaia & Samuel. But let's start from the beginning: Charly is not a person but our old campervan, which we used to start our adventure. We met Ale on a campsite south of Naples, shortly after we visited our current home. We've also got to know Zoe, his girlfriend, in the meantime. And now they have visited us here in Licata for a few days with their two friends. So beautiful! ❤
And now it's time for us to say goodbye to Licata, Italy and our new friends (SY Mica, SY Chillma, SY Suviituuli and SY Baba II), whom we hope to see again somewhere in the world. We move on to Malta, though we missed our original crane slot, but the people at the shipyard are confident that we will get anotherone quickly. So we wait for the good weather, it will be a long day from Licata to Valletta. Once again, we cast off without a planned return.
Into new adventures!
