SV Ostinato: May 2016

We turned the clocks forward an hour before crawling into bed last night. Not only did we gain an hour of much needed daylight but the morning was transformed from rainy and cold to sunny and.....well, cool. You could feel the marina come to life. Decks were being scrubbed and sails were dragged out from their winter storage to flutter in the wind as they were hoisted up the main halyard. Everyone wanted to be outside today. Talk magically turned from what are your plans for the winter to where are you heading this summer.

Sue pretending she knows how to sew

Spring fever has settled in on Ostinato too. King is in high gear, prioritizing jobs on his never ending jobs list. The sewing machine seems to be permanently ensconced on the back deck to keep up with the jobs King keeps inventing for me. Sewing does not come to me naturally. I knew this early in life when my 1st sewing project in Jr High Home Ec, a mandatory gathered skirt, fell apart immediately upon its completion (no one wore those anyway!). Sewing is so far down my list of things to do that it has taken me 3 years to start a shade cloth for the plexiglass port over the helm. If not for our neighbor, Helen on Dakini, it would still be just a thought. Even so, in the time it took me to complete that job Helen created two mainsail bags and was working on dinghy chaps. Somehow she manages not to laugh at me (out loud) and cheerleads me on.

Our winter sailing break always goes by way too quickly and this year our time in Marina di Ragusa, was no different. When we arrived at MdR our first task was to apply for our Italian residency permits. We were a bit frantic as we only had 8 days to file our paperwork after arriving in the

Getting fingerprinted for our residency permit

country and we had consumed 6 of them battling headwinds and rain sailing down Italy's east coast to reach our new winter home in southern Sicily. Lucky for us, there were a few sailors at the marina that had gone through the process before us who kindly laid out the multiple steps necessary to reach success. Almost a month after submitting our paperwork, we made our first trip to Questura (i.e police headquarters) which was a bit intimidating. We arrived 15 minutes before our appointment with Silvia, from the Marina, as our translator. Waiting outside the locked fence we chatted with people from all over the Mediterranean who were also hoping to become new Italian residents. Our appointment time came and went. Twenty minutes later a uniformed man unlocked the gate and the crowd surged forward. He called each name that would be permitted to enter. We had already decided if one got called we would drag the other along but there was no problem; each of our names was call one after the other. Once inside, you waited again. While there was a large lighted number system, it didn't work so we sat. Our Italian was limited to boungiorno and arrivrderci....counting was still on the horizon so bringing Silvia along to know when our number was called immediately becaome a very good move. Finally, we moved up to the window and watched the man on the other side thumb through our documents. He asked a few questions which Silvia handled with ease, took our thumb prints and pronounced we were "OK". Our next stop, fingerprints and pictures, was completed that afternoon. A month later we received a text message to return to the Questura to pick up our residency permit.

The crews of Lazy Tern and Ostinato do
selfies on the "train/ferry" to Naples

Train rides the ferry from
Sicily to Italian coast

Thankfully, we arrived early enough in the fall to be able to do some great "land cruising" in amazing places like Naples and Pompeii with David and Liz on Lazy Tern. Getting there was half the fun, bus to train, train rolled onto ferry and then rolled off and became a train again and finally a wild taxi ride to our hotel. A fabulous experience but we ended the trip on a down note after we boarded a crowded train and pickpockets did everything but turn poor King upside down and shake him. New phone, earbuds and billfold disappeared without him feeling so much as a tug. Of course, this is the same man that can be standing on top of my feet and not notice so they really didn't need to be that talented. With great reluctance, King has finally gone back to wearing a money belt when we travel.

Bodies capture the horror of the eruption of Vesuvius

Oh my! that's what a calzone
is suppose to taste like!

A few weeks later it was on to Rome, Florence and Venice thanks to €15 Ryanair flights that made it impossible to resist. Each city had its own very special charm. In Florence, we were able to sit with obstructed views in front of Michelangelo's statue of David and explored the Uffizi to find Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. No crowds, no lines and at the end of each day we returned to our room to find a tray sitting on our bed with a note and a special wine inviting us to rest from our hard day of sightseeing before dinner. Our B&B in Venice gave us the key to their sister hotel's roof top which had a refrigerator full of prosecco and a view of Venice at sunset that made you want to stay forever. The roof top became a nightly ritual. In Rome, we rented an apartment just on the edge of the tourist area that allowed us to become part of an Italian neighborhood, eating with the locals each night. While it was a most magical of "vacations from our vacation", we awoke on our second day to the news of the tragic massacres in France. Suddenly, there was a significant increase in police presence at every tourist area and we became much more watchful of our environment.

Our view each night at Sunset in Venice as we enjoyed a bottle...or 2 of prosecco. A cruise ship is passing by at the top

While there are only a small handful of boats from the US in the Porto Turistico in Marina di Ragusa, Thanksgiving was a marina wide effort. A local restaurant cooked the turkeys and each boat bought a dish. I made stuffing which not only made King happy but also the young American boy visiting his grandparents for the holiday. We were told he had bemoaned there would be no stuffing. Another American boater had scraped up enough cans of cranberry dressing for everyone at each table to have a bite or two. Perfect! The room was packed and the food was great. How special to us to have people from so many other countries celebrate an American holiday.

Shell Point neighbors, Marcia and Carl arrived soon after Thanksgiving and we were off again to explore southern Sicily from The Valley of the Tombs in Agrigento in the west to the ancient city of Siracusa to the east. As is no surprise to anyone that knows Marcia and Carl, we had a hard time keeping up with them.

Finding the UNESCO logo in Agrigento was a great surprise

December was a mix of day trips exploring Sicily and celebrating the holidays. Sailors from each country took their turn to share Christmas traditions.

We joined our Scandinavian neighbors for
the annual candlelit celebration of Santa Lucia in Dec

Christmas was spent with catamaran neighbors on I Dock. Since we didn't have left over turkey from our Thanksgiving dinner, King desperately wanted to cook a turkey so we offered to bring the bird.. At the grocery, King used his handy dandy phone translator for the order..... 8-10 lb. The butcher said "Si, Si, no problema". Christmas eve we arrived to pick up the bird and the butcher proudly presented a beautiful fat 15 lb turkey. No way that sucker was ever going to fit in our tiny boat oven without some major amputations....don't need those legs.... Whack! off they came, wings...whack, whack!...... There is always something special about Christmas on a boat and this get together was no different. Great food and friendship. We ate till we could no longer move and then we were introduced to a new card game...."F--- the Neighbor". I think Marcel made that up. In any case, plans were made before the night ended to meet again for New Years Eve.

Leo checking for presents under the tree.

Marina di Ragusa square at Christmas

Ostinato was decked out for the holidays

Last year while we were in Turkey we enjoyed the marina's monthly trip to the symphony so when an opportunity for a musical evening was announced on the morning net, we jumped at the chance. It

The teatro dei Donnafugata

ended up being a small group of 10 made up of Dutch, Germans, Canadians and Americans. Jack, an 80+ year old sailor from California and the only one that could manage a few words of Italian made all the ticket arrangements. The venue was in the tiny 18th century teatro dei Donnafugata in Ibla Ragusa. We squeezed into the hard seats in the back as all of the padded seats overflowed with annual subscribers. The evening was kicked off by introductions of what was to be played that evening and, we assume since everything was in Italian, a big welcome to The Americanos.....yes, we all became "Americanos".......a round of applause. King and I attended three more concerts in Ibla and each evening "The Americanos" got a round of applause. They we all so kind. One night King and I were sitting in plastic chairs that had been situated across the front so a few more could be squeezed in and a man sitting in "front row center" (we will call him the "Godfather") invited us to sit in empty seats beside him. He spoke no English and we spoke nothing recognizable in Italian so we smiled at each other a lot. When the ticket holders of the seats arrived, he banished them to the plastic seats! Which they took without as much as a whimper.

A night at the symphony in Ragusa Ibla

Suddenly, it was mid January and the day had finally arrived to empty the fridge and freezer and dig out the suitcases. It was time for our annual trip home. We hitched a ride heading for the Comiso airport to board Ryanair to London. There we would spend a few days visiting old haunts before continuing back to the States. Liz and David our St Kats neighbors and now MdR neighbors (Lazy Tern) picked us up and took us to their new lux flat outside of Cambridge

8 a.m. we were 5th in line for Miss Siagon
= 4 front row tickets!

. We had decided ahead of time that we didn't want to be like old fish (3 day smell) so the plan was to spend a couple of days with Liz and David then move on to the Cruising Association headquarters in London to bunk for a few days and then back to Liz and David's till we could find seats on a Delta flight home....or we wore out our welcome, which ever came first. So, after a few wonderful days of fine wining and dining, we took the train into London. The CA was a perfect location, enabling us catch up with friends from Ipswich "the other Ivor" and Denise, stop by our favorite pub for some fish and chips and hit the streets early to continue our tradition of getting up at the crack of dawn to stand in line for "day of tickets". This time for Miss Siagon. David and Liz joined us for the theatre and also a reunion at St Kats Marina with marina staff and the few liveaboards who are still wintering there. It was nice to catch up with Gus and Helen (Wings) for dinner and quick visits with Wendy (Scooter) and St. Katharine dock resident expert Chris West. Our spot in the central basin was empty which I pointed out to the marina manager hoping he would say "Yes, it's waiting for your return!" but that didn't happen......then, before you knew it, after ducking helicopters at the theater and wandering the British Museum for the 100th time, we were back at David and Liz's for more pampering. The Buddy Seat gods continued to smile on us and opened up business class for our return home on our first choice departure date. Hoping that means we get to go back to visit Lazy Tern's land base again.

We really look forward to our annual visits home. We cram our schedules full but we never seem to

Best part of going home is
getting to do your "dad" duty

get to see everyone we want to see. This year we added some long distance travel; King to Oregon to see an eye specialist and family and me to West Virginia to stay with old friends Suzy and Bill and reconnect with Sydnee who I hadn't seen since high school. How is it she looks the same!?! Since I've been gone my high school has been made into a condo, my Jr. High is boarded up and my elementary has simply been vaporized! The saving grace was that the Midway hotdog stand was still there.....and yes, I had a few. All of this made our Tallahassee time even more precious. We did manage to cram in a belated Christmas celebration, family birthdays, attended grandchildren's theater (they were the best of course!), take the kitties to their annual vet visit (MK and Zig now run when they see me coming), enjoy lovely dinners with friends and neighbors at Shell Point and were poked and prodded and declared healthy by doctors across the state for another year. King's only limitation after treatment for back pain was to "act your age". Hmmmm .......good luck with that. All too quickly, it was time to go. How can that be?

Our other actor, George (right)

Julia in a play of sounds only......
gramp's was front row center, of course

The plane loads back to Europe were over flowing. March is spring break and it appears that Europe was this years destination of choice. The further into March, the fewer seats available. We needed to catch a ride back quick. My business class seat was looking extremely unlikely. The plan had been to fly to Rome and then catch Ryanair to Comiso but by the time we reached the airport our names had slid down the standby list to # 12 and 13 for 6 seats and they were over sold in the back! Yikes. At the ticket counter we changed our destination to Frankfurt. Still crowded but at least we had a chance we would get on the plane.....and we did yea! and in business! Thank you to all of those people that changed their tickets at the last minute whoever you are! It was not without drama, of course. There is no way for 2 people to gracefully drag 6 suitcases. It becomes especially daunting when you must catch a bus to change airports. It helped that each bag had already been hand inspected, piece by piece, and labeled as such by the fine folks at the Tallahassee airport. We watched as they carefully looked at unusual items in all 6 bags. At one point, I began offering explanations for why I would be packing a bottle of pickle relish but I just stopped when they pulled out the hooka compressor and still appeared unphased by it all. While I find it hard to believe, apparently, our luggage is just not that strange.....or else they have gotten use to our annual trips home...."oh, it's those people again"...."must be spring".

We arrived back in Marina di Ragusa at 11 p.m., 24 hours after we had departed Tallahassee. As we parked the rental car the conversation began...."Do you have the gate key?" to my reply "No, I thought you had it." My only regret is I didn't get a picture of King climbing the fence.......but I do have one of him not acting his age a few days later.

King.....Acting his age?

It's the end of April now and each day our numbers dwindle in the marina as boats depart on their summer adventures. Last night, after the Tuesday night Happy Hour at the Stella Marina Bar, we joined friends to attend a ukulele concert in a local bar in near the town square. Yes, I said ukulele concert! Now, I'm all prepared for Tiny Tim and Tip To Through the Tulips but what we got was a singer with a voice like Carly Simon singing everything from folk, to rock and roll, to punk. King and I lasted till just after mid night and then decided in was time to wander back to Ostinato cause in a few days we will also be leaving the dock for new adventures. The plan is to head to Malta, Albania (to restart the 18 month Vat clock) and then cruise the west coast of Italy, along with Sardinia and Corsica. After that.....well, who knows. The original plan was to winter in Cartagena but there seems to be efforts at work that will lead us to return to Marina di Ragusa for another year.......only time will tell.