Siracuse was a nice stop for us, firstly because we were glad we had got our first bigger passage of the season over and done with and secondly because we were back in Sicily which meant yummy food shopping again (and of course cheap fizzy white wine!) The supermarkets in Sicily are great and there is a fresh produce market on every morning in Siracuse old town. Our first priorities when we got there were water and washing as we hadn't been at a pier where we could get water since Monemvasia back in the Aegean and we hadn't done any clothes washing since Rhodes.....
We had intended to go intot the marina for a night to get electricity (last hoovering was also Rhodes!) and water so when we woke up Ali called up the marina and asked about coming in. When I heard him say "How Much!?" I knew things did not bode well for going into the marina. 130 Euros is what they wanted for one night so Ali asked if we could just come in and pay for water, no it was a full night or nothing (or nothing being our choice). We were a bit annoyed to say the least but just then the port police came by in their dinghy to inspect our papers and said we could go along the Grand Harbour Pier for free. So off we went.
We got tied up next to this guy as we saw he had a water connection and even though they were being metered the nice crew let us fill our tanks. There wasn't any electricity so no hoovering but I could live with that!
After that we packed up all our laundry and headed off to find the laundry and after a bit of a search what a laundry we found!
This American lady and her Sicilian husband run the laundry, provide a great service - at a reasonable price too. We decided to wash everything that we possibly could over the next two days! It is called Wash and Dry - washanddrysiracusa@gmail.com just incase any sailing readers are in the vicinity!
Next there was a little exploring to do, this is the old harbour at the North of tho old town peninsula, it is a little run down as you can see! Amazing that there are derelict harbour spaces when around in the marina hey are charging 130 euros per night for a berth.
An ancient old tree which we had a hard time keeping the girls out of. A lot of people were taking pictures so we thought they maybe shouldn't climb it.
The next stop was the Aquarium. It is very small but we had promised the girls a treat after their wondeful behaviour on the crossing from Greece.
Some fish....
The old town of Siracuse - Ortigia is quite pretty, maybe not the most impressive we have been to but worth a look. There are the usual restaurants lining the walls and all the smells coming out of them were yum!
A couple of shots looking out along the sea wall of Ortigia.
There were a lot of derelict buildings here which is a shame and got Ali into his 'Location location location' mode again.
The end of the fresh produce market, if you want to get the good stuff you have to come early!
The cathedral in Piazza Del Duomo.
Getting around in style!
Whilst we were berthed at the pier we got invited out to this boat for dinner. So we went back out to the anchorage on Sat night. SY Marguerite is a lovely schooner which they have sailed here from the east coast of America, it is definitely one of those boats that got both me and Ali jealous. The sailing bits for Ali and the lovely big galley and saloon had me turning green! Best of all the food that had been cooked by Jim and Barbara in the amazing galley was delicious and the company was great too. It is funny as we thought that they would get on very well with SY Solstice our friends Shirlee and John whom we sailed with last year (as they are all from NW USA and very laid back) and it turned out they actually met here in Siracuse last year!
The next couple of days were a bit of a wash out as the wind got up severely and we couldn't go ashore. All day Sunday so we just did boaty jobs, the batteries were never under 13 Volts no matter what we plugged in as it was so windy and so sunny. (Wind turbine and solar panels working flat out )
The next morning we took advantage of a calm period to nip back to town and get messages for setting off to Malta. We tied up in the same place and went off for an hour or so. When we emerged from the supermarket we could feel that the wind had picked up again and when we got back to the pier the boat was rocking and rolling heavily. Aha so this is why the Grand Harbour Pier in Siracuse is free, in some winds it is completely untenable! I was not amused when Ali left me putting away the groceries onboard and went off to the market to get fish and veg. The rocking kept getting worse and I got so worried I had the engine on and the revs up to keep us from bashing the pier. When he eventually returned after what seemed like ages (and was probably only half an hour) we cast off as quick as possible and headed right back to the spot we had stayed well stuck in the whole of the previous day.
A Big boat anchored out in the windy harbour.
It was a shame it had been so windy as we had wanted to go and visit the archaeolgical sights at the outskirts of town but we couldn't leave the boat.
Even though I was a bit annoyed when Ali left me on the boat to go to the market I was very glad he had done when he cooked up this great extravaganza for tea that night!
Fresh swordfish steaks
And fresh herby roasted veg, what a guy!
Sunrise over the calm bay of Siracuse whn we left the next morning intending to go to Malta...see next blog for further details.
Great photos and fun blog, as always. Since you were really in Greece, I'm sure you didn't miss much in the antiquities department at Siracusa. Miss you!
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