Syracuse the charm of Sicily

Syracuse, Sicily Tuesday 15th June

“Dumped” literally! I was shoved off the dinghy luggage and all in a matter of moments. Walking along with a backpack, a carryon, my laptop, 2 shopping bags and a daypack I must have looked like a hobo! I wandered to the closest street where street vendors were touting business for a cruise around the Ancient Caves of Syracuse. I wasn’t in the mood for a cruise at that stage I said but could they point me in the direction of a car rental or hotel. I had no idea what I was going to do? I didn’t speak any Italian and luckily Alleese, spoke quite good English. (Required for her touting I am sure!) Sweet though they directed me to just across the street to a car rental. It of course was closed, in fact it was never open on the three occasions I went there although the clocks on the door indicated they should be! I desperately needed a cigarette! I was out from the night before and not a Tabacchi in sight. A coffee shop across the street, also two sweet girls allowed me to leave my hoard of luggage there while I went on the hunt for cigarettes. Voila! At last I found some, bought two packs, I needed them and returned for my first Sicilian coffee experience. Something I have gotten to know very well I might add. Refreshed and definitely calmed I started to peruse my Lonely Planet for ideas on where the hell I was. It seemed the coffee shop was also a hotel. I asked at reception and found out the nightly charge was 65euros, tempting but I thought I would venture away from the ritzy Marina area. I returned to the “touters” stand and yet another cigarette, ha the freedom was exhilarating! I asked them, now more than 5 of them “touting” to every susceptive tourismo that came their way. It was a slow day, week, month, season they went on to say. Davido said he knew of a apartment I could rent, at that stage I was thinking for at least a week. 30 euros a night, but hey thats 210 a week, 990 a month almost. Anyway it would do for the night as the guy was happy to pick me up in 10mins. Bravo Davido! And off touring again he went!


Alessandro picked me up and drove me though the tangle of oneway streets that make up the city of Syracuse. We pulled up in front of what seemed like an old shop, and it was converted into an apartment. Greeted by Lucia his wife and 2 children with little or no English. Fine by me! It was cosy but dark and on a main street literally. I was tired so I showered and had a kip before exploring the area.

Priority number #1 find an internet cafe and let my family know I am off the yacht albeit disappointed that it hadn’t worked out but I will make the most of my time, hey I have 5 months to find something to do! A kind man in a small computer shop had the internet and was fine abo9ut me being upset when I was talking to my mum about the horror story I had just encountered. I wanted to buy a internet stick and he pointed me in the direction of the 3 shop not too far way. Laptop in hand and after a lengthy (2hours) of getting it set up I was wired for the net.....demani.....tomorrow. My first Italian word of the day, used often as nothing seems to happen until domani!

I ambled along the dirty streets, one thing I really noticed it wasn’t the pristine Italian city like Rome or Venice or any other tourist location. I came across another hotel on my journey home, that also charged 40euros a night but had a kitchen, a cuccina. That will save me money, even just breakfasts.

I said I would return in the morning and I did after an exhausting and stressful few days I fell straight to sleep with just a yoghurt for dinner.

I spent the next day on my new internet connection, researching possibilities of what I could do. Lulu gave me the name of a site to crew on another yacht. Hmmmm not sure if I am ready to do that right now, I moved onto housecarers.com for a house sitting position, then onto helpx.net. There were a few in Sicily as it turned out and I contacted at least 3 of them. Some by phone the others by return email. Before lunch I had secured 2 positions and had one rejected because they didn’t have any need at the moment.

One was just north about 3 hours away in a place called Roccalemere, on the coast north of Taormina. The other in Palermo, still to be confirmed at that stage by return email. That sorted it was now time to start exploring this wonderful historic city.

Syracuse, quoting from my Lonely Planet Italy book.....

“A dense tapestry of overlapping cultures and civilisations, Syracuse is one of Sicily’s most visited cities. Settled by Corinth in 734BC, Syracuse was thought to be the most beautiful cities of the ancient world. As the sun set on Ancient Greece, Syracuse became a Roman Colony and was looted for its treasures.”

It is a fascinating mix of the numerous cultures that have inhabited it since its establishment. Mostly Baroque in architecture there is still a number of Greek architectural relics around the city.

I spent the next day on a boat tour around the caves and fortified castle on Syracuse harbour. These caves were used as refuges during WWII and some have caverns that go well under the city.

I walked around the city streets and alleyways in awe of the historical ruins, the cathedral, Piazza del Duomo and of course the market place and cafes.

The Greek Theatre in Parco Archeological Della Neapolis was amazing. Its from the 5th century and still has most of the pearly white stones of the amphitheatre that saw the last of the “tragedies of Aeschylus” (including the Persians) which were performed there in his presence.

I went to one of the “tragedies” performances when I was there about Ajax and Odysseus. Incredible with the set on a stage in the middle of the outside amphitheatre, including a shallow lake and shipwreck. I was very impressed. It was of course performed totally in Italian, but reading the synopsis on the internet I could follow most of the story.

It was time to move on the next day by trains to my first helpx just north of Taormina on the east coast of Sicily. I would like to return to Syracuse someday, there is so much to see.

And So She Sails............

Day1 June 8th

At last we head off from Elounda in Crete. We sailed from the little harbour around 11.30am and motored all day till around 6.30pm. There wasn’t any wind going in our direction so it was hard going for the engines to run all day. Tony was still a little tender as well so motoring was the best idea.

We got to do 1 hour on watch and one hour off. Sitting in the helm chair, only occasionally needing to look up to see if there were anyone on a collision course with us.

The yacht is equipped with a GPS navigation system and you plot the course, the wayline, at the start of the day and whammo it just stays on auto pilot in pretty much a straight line. Only occasionally you have to compensate for the current and variance in the wind a few degrees here and there. I had to adjust it a couple of times, once when we were heading towards another yacht, pretty much on the same line as we were travelling. 10 degrees till we got well past then back on track of 277degreees. My idea of travelling, no one else on the road to worry about, a great view even for the driver.

The landscape of Crete is not that attractive, particularly as you sail past the barron rocky outcrops of the many mountainous islands around Greece.

We stayed overnight on a little island called Dias, just off Heraklion. We anchored in a small bay in about 8m of clear blue water. You could clearly see the bottom through the aquamarine water, small fish and a sandy bottom. I wanted to fish, but unfortunately not equipped with the right fishing tackle. I will pick up my own when we get to Rethymo then I can fish until my little hearts content! Even if I don’t catch any to eat – its all about the relaxation of it all.

Day 2 June 10th 2010

Today we are again motoring along at around 6knts in around 62metres of ink blue water. The island of Crete to the portside has been a long thin rocky coastline. Every 10-15kms there are small tourist villages dotted with white or cream painted villas, mostly apartment complexes built for the British trade a couple of years ago. It seems they have stopped coming to Crete, as with most tourist places things have slowed to almost a stop due to the crisis in Europe in the past couple of years.



Back in the little village of Elounda a lot of the talk was about the crisis and how much they miss their Drachma, that its so quiet and if they can get through this season they will hopefully be ok. A lot of the little shops were empty with signs for sale or business closed down altogether. Many villas along the main roads were only half finished with overgrown vines covering the remains of the dream of living in Crete I guess. I hope it improves for the people there in Elounda, they are happy friendly people. I will return there one day, I liked it and felt comfortable there.

As we sail along every now and then the mumbled messages come through on the radio, mostly in Greek so I am not sure what they are saying. I sit here with my iPod in my ears and laptop perched on my knees, watching the coastline and now in the distance I see a town fairly well populated with many pastel coloured villas dotted along the shoreline, vegetation at last. Occasionally I must look out and up for any boats heading our way. We have been sailing for 5 hours and land wise we have probably only gone 30kms, seawise we have around 10kms to go which we are due ETA is around 1hour 7 mins time. Slowly, slowly, its nice to travel this way!

Its overcast and almost lunchtime, time to make a salad and perhaps an omelette. Bon Apetito!

Hmmm well how life can change so quickly. All was going well with the sailing through the afternoon until we anchored off the island Dia a short distance from Heraklion last night.

I was dying for a cigarette and he wasn’t about to launch the dinghy because his back was sore and it took a little bit of effort to get it back up on the boat again. Fair enough, he would give me a kayak to paddle over to the island to have one and explore the island. Now I haven’t been in a paddle boat since I was 14 and was a little worried about it. He showed me how to use the oars and I paddled off a little disappointed that he wasn’t interested in exploring the old fortified town well above the cove. From a distance we could see some buildings that looked like a tavern, often found dotted around Greek islands for fisherman and sailing boats to call into. There were people walking around and another yacht moored in the larger cove. A few fishing boats moored on the jetty.

It was a very rocky landscape with plenty of bushes amongst the small pools of clear water as I walked towards the buildings. Three fishermen were heading for the jetty carrying their catch of the day. As I wandered past the “tavern” it was closed up for the night and no chance of getting a drink there. Damn, I forgot to bring some water in all the cafuffle about the kayak, as well as my camera!

I made my way to the jetty, speaking to one of the fishermen as he loaded his boat with the catch, he said the building wasn’t a taverna but a church and the other outbuildings were for the fishermens overnight stays. Oh well! It was still good to wander around land for a while, heaps of rabbits and wild goats high above on the rocky plateau.

When I returned to the yacht he was again rude and definitely has an anger management problem. He yells at me as though I am an idiot, so I asked him why he speaks like that to me?, and It was here that T turned into an arrogant b, should I say weirder than he had been the past three days. He doesn’t actually talk to me much, never carries on a conversation with me. If I start talking about something he just mumbles “Yeah” and continues with what ever he is doing, mostly reading a book, pottering around, looking grumpy, decidedly most of the time. He constantly yells out at me, for no reason instead of just asking or telling me, he yells if I don’t understand what he says. You see I am a novice at this sailing, never done it before. He knew that when he asked me to come along

I asked him not to yell at me and to be civil and that he seems to have an anger management problem. Why isn’t there anything interesting that I say that he would want to carry on a conversation? Was there anything I am good at? He replied “your good at cooking and making tea!” I couldn’t believe that he could be so rude and aggressive for no reason I could think of.

We had yet another silent night with me sitting on the back of the boat before heading to bed really annoyed with the whole situation.

I could see the lights of Heraklion in the distance as night fell. Way to far to swim away.

Day 3 Jun 11th

The morning started off ok as we set sail towards Rethymo. I thought that we must have sorted a few things out because at least he was being a bit more civilised. Short lived I am afraid, as when we got to the Marina of Rethymo he was back to his old self, not only yelling at me but also the Port Marine woman who came along to help tie up the yacht and get the information for us to check in as is required at any port. Both of us were at the back of the boat with the motor running noisily in our ears, we couldn’t hear what he was saying from up the front of the 42ft yacht and as it turns out this was her first “tie up”. That didn’t go over too well and he went right off at her for not knowing how to tie up either. You see this was the first marina we had docked in as he prefers to anchor off shore. I had no idea of how to tie it up as I jumped onto the pontoon and scrambled to tie a figure 8 around the ??? I still don’t know what its called. He isn’t a good teacher, I had asked him as we were travelling along what should I do and I was nervous to try to do it “right” but he is a information giver on a “need to know” basis. I said I couldn’t hear him neither could the girl so we did the best we could but of course he complained about the anchor line supplied by the Port Authority being too short and insisted on another bay. OMG I was so happy to get off for a cigarette as soon as it was tied up and head for the shops for supplies, just to get away for a while. I was thinking how the hell am I going to put up with this person for any length of time. Negative, arrogant and just bloody rude.

I returned from my shopping trip about an hour later, had to get some long pants as I was getting extremely sunburnt on the boat as we sailed along. He was busy pottering in the bottom of the boat, bailing out some water that had gotten in somehow, apparently another fault of the Turkish guys that fixed the boat. He seemed a bit aggressive so I kept my distance and resorted to the iPod again. I wasn’t going to be getting down there in that heat, bailing out the rancid water, although later I found out I was supposed to! So what happened to the extra pair of eyes and arms invitation?? No mention to me about being a lacky up till now and not when I am spoken to like that.

He showered and seemed to freshen up again, luckily because we had arranged to visit the little restaurant along the Venetian harbour we had gone for lunch earlier that week when we drove down to drop off the gas bottles. We walked along the promenade and again he was fine company for dinner. I was trying really hard not to smoke at all in his presence off the boat since he detested it so much so I would always go to another table, or sit on a step somewhere away from him, trying to enjoy a cigarette, but not usually with his annoyed presence about it. So this time I went over to the three men sitting at the table a little way from us. It is the 7 brothers restaurant and at least 1 of the seven were sitting there. I asked for a light and they asked me to join them. I did and spent around 15 mins, 2 retsinas, OMG strong!!! I felt a little wobbly and of course T was agitated to get going back to the yacht so we did! It was the first bit of fun I had had since I arrived in Crete!

Off to bed as we had an early start we would be sailing 24/7 with 3 hours on and 3 hours off watches on our crossing to the Peloponnese. We had one more night to anchor off Crete before the next 3 days to a port East of the Greek mainland. Again we motored the next day most of the time as the wind was not with us, so the constant hum of the engines really did spoil most of the tranquilness of the calm seas. We did have a few opportunities to put the jib up luckily.

And then she didn’t!

We anchored again off a little island and here it really hit the fan. I again said I would not be spoken to in the manner and tone he addressed me. He has lived in Thailand for some years and has a Thai woman who obviously doesn’t mind putting up with that sort of thing. I said I wasn’t a Thai woman and it was unacceptable behaviour. That every relationship, working on a boat is no different, and that it takes time for people to get to know how each other works but I am not stupid and most people I know think I am good at things and at the very least good company. It was that night that he said No we aren’t going to the Pelopponese now we are going straight to Sicily and that it would be a 4 day, non stop trip. That we would be having to do 3hours on and 3 hours off 24/7. And that it would probably be better if I got off in Sicily! I was bemused to think that I have only been on here 3 days and because I wouldn’t accept his verbal abuse that I was being kicked off! I was livered and went to my cabin, hey where else could I go? It was a deserted rocky island with absolutely no inhabitants and it was way too far to swim anywhere. It was now that I decided that I needed a cigarette, yes on the back of the boat! He was of course abusive again and I said well I need one and lets face it he hasn’t kept up his side of the deal either! BTW I only had 6 left as I thought we were going to be onshore that night!

Next morning, we set off at the crack of dawn to start the long journey, and it was. Over the next what turned out to be 5 days we had to motor along the 435 km crossing from Crete to Sicily at an average of 6knots an hour. Thats only about 12kms an hour in land miles apparently! We still didn’t talk much but he was quite civil through the journey. I would do my 3hours on starting at either 6-9pm, then change over 9-12am, 12am-3am, then 3am-6am, that was the hardest I found. Having to be awake with nothing to do but stare into the dark sky occasionally, listening to my iPod and I wasn’t allowed to read or even boil the jug for coffee. I had to microwave it before and make a thermos to have to keep me awake. I wont go into all the “can” and “can nots” I endured that week, the list was endless. All the time I was wondering what the hell am I doing on here?

The 4hours before our eventual arrival into Syracuse Sicily, a “talk” was called. Sure I said, thinking how well the past few days had gone and that we had sorted out the problems. Then the Wolf in sheeps clothing announced “What are your plans when you get to Sicily?” I said I hadn’t really thought about it. The deal was when we docked anywhere on the trip I could go off and do my oown thing, get away from the boat for a few days and so would he. Sometimes we would be going together and other times doing our own thing. I was happy with that arrangement and at that moment thought that was what was going to happen.

Then he said ”Well I have other crew arranged to meet me in Sicily!” OMG you could have hit mw with a wet fish as I was stunned that he obviously only needed me for the crossing from Crete as he wasn’t able to do that by himself! “What a piece of work” I said how could you be like that the past few days, friendly almost civil, and then lay that on me! I was livered to think I was used up like that. I asked how he could do that and that he obviously had it planned all along but he insisted that he was able to use the internet even when we were at sea. Another shock to me as He had never mentioned that and yet I would have like d to contact my family to say I was ok.

So there I was 4 hours to decide what the hell was I going to be doing for the next 5 months?? I packed up my things in a flash and couldn’t wait to be rid of this angry man. Its Karma you know as many things go wrong on his boat, always blamed on someone else of course. But I let him know that if you treat people like that Karma will get you back and it does.

I was literally “dumped” baggage and all on the Marina at Syracuse shortly after we had anchored.

What better place to be “dumped”. A Venetian city from 450BC and little did I know that the journey would just be beginning, I think it was my destiny to come here. I never knew I was until 5 days ago, knew nothing about it and yet what was about to unfold in my life was amazing.

Kali Mera from Crete

I am writing from Crete after arriving here just yesterday afternoon. I spent most of last week at my cottage off and on making it more comfortable for my guests there and those to come.
I laid carpet in the bedroom upstairs, hung a few pictures and spent a bit of time on the garden making it a lot more presentable. It was so overgrown but I think it looked good when I left. Planted a few herbs and some tomatoes, lettuces and zucchinis, hope the guests get to eat them before the snails do!
It was great to get there and see a few friends, didnt have time to visit my French friends but saw a few of my British friends which was lovely to see them again.
I bought my little car, a Renault Laguna, it was really good value at 300euros but not insured so I did take a bit of a risk driving around for the week. It was hard to get used to the other side of the road again but it all came back to me after an hour or so.

I flew down here yesterday from Nantes, about 2.5hours south of my cottage area and a direct flight to Crete in 3.5hours was an easy trip even if I did have to leave at 6.00am.
Tony has been laid up with suspected broken ribs and is really badly druised after falling in th cockpit of the yacht last week. We spent some time at the hospital today and we need to return again tomorrow for some more blood tests, they fear he may have an infection?? though he seems to think he is ok there, its just the bruising that is very bad.
The little village here is called Eloundra, just North of Agios Nickalous on the north side of Crete. A small fishing village with many hotels and tourist places, its full of Brits and a lot of Northern Europeans. The food is cheap and the peopl are really lovely.

We had a full English breakfast today for 3.80 euros, about $6.00 so we havent eaten anything else today it was so filling. You wander around the town in and out of cafe's, sports bars and lots of touristy shops. Its right on the beach full of umbrellas and beach chairs. The weather is beautifully warm around 25degrees. Everyone speaks excellent English, though I do try out the Greek I am learning along the way.
I am getting my Kali mera's and Kali sehra's mixed up but will probably get it right by the time to leave.
We may sail off on Wednesday, if Tony is able and weather permitting, but at the moment we are in a hotel Tony booked to recover from the fall. Its opposite the beach overlooking the sea and we can view the yacht from the balcony to make sure its ok. I am looking forward to going on the yacht, havent been on board yet.
The other couple Annie and Liam have sailed off already but we plan to drive to where they are tomorrow and catch up with them. They are on a mission to catch up with some other friends well into the Med already. Tony says he wants to take his time sailing and exploring the many places along the way, which of course I am happy to go along with. We will leave here and head for the Peloponnese a group of islands off the west of Greece before doing the 24hour sail across to Sicily. We will spend a few days there because there is so much to see it seems. Our first stop will be Syracuse then head up towards the toe of Italy.