We arrived in an annual two week Italian holiday so the harbours were wall to wall boats. The Italians have an interesting way of anchoring - squeeze into a space that may (or may not) be just large enough to fit your boat, drop anchor paying out just enough chain to reach the bottom, put out all your fenders, climb in the tender and go ashore. In Australia we call it “she’ll be right mate”. The theory seems to be that, if/when she drags, there are plenty of people around to handle the problem. We ended up on anchor watch for two nights; had to re-anchor during the second night when another yacht dragged and took our anchor with them. On the third night we literally fended off the boat behind us as its bow bounced over our stern each time the wind changed direction. We warned him when he anchored that he didn’t have enough chain out, but got the standard Italian reply “we’ll see”. We weighed anchor in the dark and slowly picked our way out. Rather face the wind than stay in the chaos.
We arrived in Sardinia after a 53 hour motor-sail from the Aeolians. The good news is that we had a lovely trip with a full moon by night. The bad news is that, after ten years of trouble free motoring, our engine died as we reversed into our marina berth (so glad she chose her moment. It could have been a real disaster). Our fuel pump is seized and we're waiting to find out if our injectors are shot also. Fingers crossed x.
We miss Sicily already. They say Sicilians believe they invented food - and we believe it. The markets with their fresh gnocchi, 20 or so varieties of prosciutto, ricotta, buffalo mozzarella, oh and the tomatoes... they taste like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. No wonder they are a fruit and not a vegetable. They are sweet. Oh, anything we eat from now on will surely take second place to Sicilian food.