Day 285 to 288: 26th March to 30th March - Bye Bye Titania

Monday 26th March

Sadly no photos but the highlight of Monday for me was what was to be probably the last ladies night in Marina di Ragusa. At the usual 7:20 we gathered under the Pagoda and walked down to Quattro Quarti to a final night of cocktails and girlie chat. It was wonderful to have a few new faces and a last chance to let our hair down as a group before people spot a suitable weather window and leave our winter mooring. Winter has been a time for us to form strong friendships and also enjoy occasional times without kids around, something that will be lacking during the summer when we return to our travelling life where we spend far more time just with our own families. Hopefully we will meet some of our friends over the cruising months, however this will be one or two boats at a time, and perhaps we will never be together again as a whole group (although there have been some musings about planning a reunion several years down the line!)

Tuesday 27th March

Up to the market with Helen, Ben and Annabel, picking up Cam, Max and Zoe on the way. Bought far too many vegetables for the limited storage space on Laurin and then were joined by Bianca, Kai, Zoe and Beau at the park. It was a beautiful day so we bought the makings of a picnic at Eurospar and made the most of the weather.

We then headed back as Patrick had asked our friend Justin to help us with our new fridge temperature controller. One of the guys on our pontoon had recommended this £10 unit but as he has since been admitted to hospital we were left without guidance. Having looked at the instructions on several occasions we finally admitted that we needed some help. Justin checked that it was functioning by powering it up using a funky home made cigarette lighter charger with positive and negative wires coming off it, and then helped us to plan how to connect it in its correct place. By now it was nearly time for dinner so we packed up planning to finish the next day.





Wednesday 28th March

Once school was finished I set to finishing off installing the fridge controller. After much argument and discussion I agreed to do it the way Patrick said as he had been talking with Justin the most. 1/2 hour later we had power to the unit but the compressor didn't switch on, however with a little more tinkering with the settings we now have a much improved fridge. Before, the fridge was a little over enthusiastic and we were actually freezing things close to the plate. This was ok in some ways as it meant that we could put ice pops and frozen cocktails there and have the luxury of ice cold treats on board, but it could be a little irritating if we mistakenly froze our only bottle of milk! The other downside was that the fridge was using more power than we needed it to, which will be a big

consideration when we are at anchor.




Esmé, although an excellent reader, has been rebelling against reading a little recently so I was really pleased to see her pick up a book again, although she really does pick some strange positions to read in!





As the day wore on, our friends on Titania finalised their decision to leave the following day, and suggested a goodbye pizza night at the Stella Marina Bar before their departure. This was somewhat thwarted by the fact that the Stella Marina Bar was shut, however the Manzanos came to the rescue and offered their boat, Mrs Chippy, as a venue. Mrs Chippy is huge and so easily fit the 11 kids and 9 adults on board for a lovely evening. Some of the girls had made cupcakes earlier as a goodbye present so we all enjoyed those too, as well as Helen's amazing cheesecake!

Thursday 29th March

A crack of dawn start for me as earlier in the week Patrick had found threadbare patches on our bench cushions in the main saloon. This was somewhat frustrating as we had considered replacing them before coming away but had decided against it as we knew they would get a lot of wear and tear and had instead decided to replace on our return. In the meantime I had seen some ultraleather seats on another boat which I was really impressed with but it is not only really expensive, but also hard to get hold of so there was absolutely no chance of getting these made before we need to depart. In reality getting any new covers made would probably delay us, and my sewing really isn't up to this task (remember how much I hate sewing!). I dug around in my spare fabric bag and pulled out some red ikea fabric that I had bought too much of for the curtains and laid it across the bench. It would kind of work... perhaps we could just wedge it in place, or perhaps I could attach some elastic or something. However I really needed more of it. After chuntering my frustration to anybody and everybody who would listen somebody said that Bianca had some funky spiral pins that might hold fabric in place without having to sew. I also checked out the Catania Ikea webpage for the same fabric and it was still available.

Max was going to Catania to pick up Bianca's friend from the airport so I was to keep him company in return for a lift to Ikea which is really close to the airport, so here we were at 7:30am, heading off on a road trip. The crew of Titania were also up and about, getting ready for their 8am departure, and others were stirring, ready to wave them off. My kids were also looking forward to a day off schoolwork!

We were a little concerned for Titania as we were driving as very soon we were driving through fog. Although Titania doesn't have AIS I decided to look at their progress on the Boatbeacon app as often they use the app to give a simulated AIS position using position data from their phones. Eventually after a few screen refreshes I was met with this! It seems Titania had grown wheels and taken the inland route. Helen and I had a good giggle over Facebook and very soon Titania disappeared from Boatbeacon.

Max and I arrived at Catania Airport in good time and had a drink and pastry at Wood Café, the lovely place Patrick and I discovered with the kids before our flight home for Christmas. Once we had collected Monan we (eventually, on the second attempt,) escaped the airport carpark and headed for Ikea where Max and Monan grabbed a coffee whilst I went in search of fabric. In the end they didn't have the same stuff but I managed to find something a little more hardwearing, for a little more money, in a much better colour, so I was pretty happy.

Back in the car to begin our journey back, it was a beautiful clear day and we were loving the scenery. However as we were approaching Marina di Ragusa I got a message from Helen asking me to get Julia to check the weather as Matthew wanted to keep going to Greece rather than take the planned diversion to Syracuse to avoid bad weather. By the time I got back, Patrick had seen the message and headed over to Vesna where the two had managed to contact Titania and come up with an alternative plan of Crotone on the heel of Italy, however with a little more thought we realised they wouldn't get there in time to avoid the weather, so we gave them a new plan of Roccella. It was a real pity as up until this point they had been having a fabulous sail with the wind on the beam. Aiming for Roccella meant a slow wallowing run, however it was by far the more sensible choice.

Friday 30th March

Good Friday was a no school day so the kids amused themselves while Patrick and I got on with fitting the new fabric to our cushions. By lunchtime all three cushions were done and didn't look too bad in the end. I suspect we will have to re-pin them occasionally but as a cheap and easy fix I'm pretty happy with the result.

For more detail on how we did it click here.













In the afternoon we went to the beach along with many of the other boat kids and had a relaxing afternoon in the sun before showering and then heading off to Vesna for the kids Friday night fun.