The forecasted 1m swell with a period of 8 seconds was accurate and although AJ was a little nervous it was absolutely manageable.
Patrick and I both got a little rest in the afternoon before we all tucked in to a dinner of sausage stew made in our thermal cooker earlier in the day. Then the kids got into PJ's and Patrick got his head down whilst the kids and I watched the sun set and then gazed at the amazing night sky. Esmé had been desperate to use the flask so I had previously filled it with hot chocolate and both kids really enjoyed sipping this in the dark. The kids kept me company for a while before AJ disappeared to bed and his latest Percy Jackson book. Esmé stayed on deck a little later, eventually falling asleep under her "Nana blanket" necessitating me manhandling her to bed before going back on deck to my solo night watch. Even though I knew we would arrive about 6am I was keen to see how long I could keep watch before being to tired to be effective so I prepared myself for a good few hours on deck, texting a few friends and chatting to my good friend Sarah on the phone.... it was lovely to catch up. By 1:30 I was starting to get really cold, despite not really being too tired so I put the kettle on and woke Patrick as it boiled. Once he was on deck I made him a cup of tea and handed over the watch before getting my head down too.
Sunday 6th May
Patrick woke me at 5am to tell me we were approaching Syracuse, Esmé also popped her head up to watch the sunrise.As we needed permission to enter the harbour and the pilot book told us that the port authority was open from 7am until 7pm, we decided to slow down to waste some time and I got a little extra sleep before we heard others getting a response on the radio and so decided to call in and enter.
Our good friends from Dizzie got up to welcome us in and take our lines which was very much appreciated. I tried to get some more sleep but failed so eventually we all went out to the Da Vinci museum which was really good despite the somewhat miserable lady on the door. We also went to the castle however this was rather less of a success with the kids opting to play in the stones in the courtyard rather than engage in the building.
Back to the boat for some chill out time and a wonderful communal lunch. AJ was thrilled that Dizzie had a 9 year old visiting... and one that was reading the same Percy Jackson books was an serious bonus! Having had only about 3 hours sleep I was exhausted so we got pizza for dinner, eating it with Gabby and crew as Dizzie's anchor had dragged and they had had to motor out to anchor away from the town quay. We also watched our friends from Spacegrazer arrive and looked forward to seeing them the next day. However soon after pizza I crashed, only waking once before morning due to some extremely loud fireworks at midnight!
Monday 7th May
School went really well today, with both kids doing a fair amount before Max, Bianca, Beau, Kai and Zoe arrived on their dinghy and we all went out to lunch at the cool sandwich shop in the market.
After lunch the kids played whilst we tidied up a bit. AJ wanted a movie but he needed to do a little more school to "earn" more electronics time so he and Luca made a model of one of Da Vinci's flying machines!
Later in the day SV Sarah arrive with her Norwegian crew. I had been in touch with her owner, Thomas since early last year however we had missed each other a couple of times before finally meeting up today. Their kids fitted in just fine with the crowd of kids already here and after dinner we headed over to their beautiful Hanse 588 for drinks while the kids played. A lovely end to a lovely day.
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