Left Gozo a few days ago (can't exactly remember the day) and sailed at
a cracking pace to Sicily. Heavy conditions to start with but we were
sick of waiting for good weather in Gozo and were keen to get moving.

Then we ran out of wind. Bummer. So we motored for a couple of hours
and arrived in the harbour of Porto Paolo. Very large indeed and room
for a flotilla or a fleet, whichever is bigger. And has more boats.

It was a bit rocky overnight but not bad. In the a.m. we woke to see a
French boat in front of us which had spent the entire winter 6 slips
down from us in Monastir, although we didn't know them as they weren't
on the boat for most of that time.

We wandered up to town for a little look-see and all very pleasant it
was. A few local specialties, a couple of Peroni's and back on board.

We moved a little but that proved to have been unwise as we copped a
swell across the wind which made the night worse.

Off to Syracusa in the early morning and again a great start before
running out of wind again. Thankfully it came back but it was a
noserly. That was OK when we turned for home and we sailed at 5 and a
bit into the Grand Harbour of Syracusa.

We have been in the anchorage for three days now and we are with about
thirty other boats. (one American, mostly French, a Belgian or two and
the rest Italian locals.)

Syracuse is a great city, or at least the old island is. The market
here is superb for fresh food and meats and fish.

We'll probably hang out here for a week relaxing and enjoying the
ambience. Dinghy trip in to the docks is easy. There are some mega
mega type boats here, one of which (Samar) reportedly rents out for
$675,000 a week! Saw it in Ft Lauderdale two years ago when we were
docked on the New River watching the daily passing parade going up and
down to the fixing yards.

Hope all are well and happy and getting ready for a good summer.

Hoges