Day 432 and 433: 29th and 30th August 2018 - Still in Palermo but leaving tomorrow!

Wednesday

After still more deliberation about whether to head for Sardinia come lunchtime, risking the possibility of a F5 on the nose for the last night, or to play safe and stay put, possibly for another week, we finally got an updated forecast that helped us make up our minds. A change in next weeks forecast meant a weather window Tuesday or possibly even Monday evening. We quickly decided to stay put for a couple of days then head 35 miles west to San Vito Lo Capo on Friday to reduce the distance needed to sail to Sardinia early next week. We still have some time in hand but with Autumn approaching we need to take advantage of each weather window to get us closer to our final destination of Barcelona (and of course to Mallorca so I can meet my friends at the end of September for some well needed time with the girls).                                                                                     
Despite the uncertainty we had a brilliant morning of school with Esmé working independently up on the grass with Isabell and AJ working well on the boat,  then jobs for parents whilst the kids all chilled out together doing crazy swinging around mast stuff! Mostly paperwork for us, emailing various shipping companies regarding prices to haul Laurin back to the UK from Barcelona by road as well as job hunting and preparations.
This was gratefully interrupted by a shout from the kids that Wildest Dreams were heading out for Ice Cream and could we go too!

We headed off to the ice cream gelato place that we had visited the other night and this time Patrick and I shared the somewhat strange "Ice Cream Sandwich" which was actually rather nice.... it was in fact an orange flavoured brioche bun rather than plain bread.

Esmé got something very very chocolaty in a cone reminding us of why she usually has a tub.(a recent promotion from always having a cup as she gets ice cream EVERYWHERE). I announced that she was very definitely Daddy's daughter when covered in chocolate ice cream and Patrick resigned himself to a 15 minute mop up job before Esmé ran off to climb the nearby tree (in flipflops!)

Back to the boat for dinner and then over to Wildest Dreams, iPad in hand ready for an evenings viewing of "The Greatest Showman".

Thursday

 After a late breakfast we headed up to the office to pay a very reasonable (for Italy in August) 40 Euros per night for our 8 night stay and the kids were intrigued to find some turtles? in the office to keep them entertained during the wait. Then back to the boat where it quickly became apparent that yesterday's great school efforts were clearly a one off! Both kids were resistant, perhaps because of our impending move and using any tactic possible to slow down and get out of work. I took a walk! They are very aware that they need "60 points" before work stops and free time starts so half way through my extortionately priced cold can of coke from the machine I had a phone call from AJ apologising and asking me to come back and help with his maths. It wasn't all plain sailing after that but efforts from both kids were much improved.... must try that tactic again!

I spent a little time investigating tools I may use for online tutoring and the girls had fun helping me to try them out. Still some way to go but I might try them out to help friends and family with homework in order to gain some experience using them.

In the afternoon Tiffany took all the kids to the botanic gardens while Patrick and I got on with more jobs and enjoyed one last hour of child free time.... not sure when this will happen next!

Finally board games were got out for the rest of the afternoon before we had dinner and are ready for an early night. 35 miles to San Vito tomorrow (our wedding anniversary) and we are deliberating whether to anchor in order to save money, or to go straight into the marina and take the kids out for Pizza.... The jury's still out!