The mighty Tayana
Tuesday.
It is just one month before we fly out of Madrid back home for a couple weeks. Before this happens, we need to have Kujira on the hard somewhere in Spain but right now we are anchored in Southern Sicily with dead house batteries, two broken alternators, a leaky dinghy and no working outboard. The situation could probably be worse, but it could also be much better.
Siracusa has a small marina in the bay and another one hardly bigger on the other side of the old town but neither nor have a berth for us, regardless how much we are willing to pay for it. When we called the first one the day before, we were told to try early in the morning next day, so of course when I try this morning I am told that we need to try in the evening, not the morning .. I guess it is an Italian way to tell me to get lost. Fortunately, Siracusa has a town quay, with 5 very spacious berths, free of charge, with no catch.
“Siracusa port authorities, Siracusa port authorities, Siracusa port authorities, this is Kujira, Kujira, Kujira, do you copy?”
“Yes Masterr, change to channel one one”
“Hi, we called you yesterday regarding an electrical issue on our boat, we have cleared immigration and would like to have access to the town quay”
“Ok Masterr, do you need assistance with the boat?”
“No, but we need to have access to the quay as our dinghy isn’t working anymore”
“Ok Masterr, you can use berrth numberrr 4. You will need to check with porrrt authorrrrities”
“Thank you”
Having re-wired the solar panels straight onto the starter batteries the day before we have no problem waking up Mr Perkins and we can make our way to the town quay, for a Med mooring, unassisted. Our last couple of Med moorings went pretty well except that we always had crew on board and assistance on the quay. This morning however, I will have to manoeuvre the whale while dropping the anchor and Kim will have to manage getting on the quay with both aft ropes so she can attach us. We are the only boat and luckily there is no wind but some fairly large yachts are parked perpendicular to where we need to go preventing me to have a nice straight reverse onto the quay. As a result I start dropping the anchor a little late but everything else goes as smoothly as we could have hoped for. Kim finds herself on the quay without falling in the water or breaking her leg, Kujira doesn’t teabag the quay and once I start pulling up the anchor, Rockna bites into the mud. A couple more spring lines and we are set and pleased with our performance. A few minutes later a French catamaran arrives and we offer to give them a hand with their shore lines, a great way to start a conversation with your neighbours. It turns out that the captain knows this town quay and his boat still wears the scars from the previous year when the nasty afternoon swell sent his cat crashing into the stone quay. He tells us that 40 meters of chain is needed to be safe.
We hardly have 30 meters.
While it feels sufficient at the moment and we are definitely not keen on pushing our luck with redoing our Med mooring, we also remember the mayhem from the day before and how such crazy sea could unhook the anchor and send us crashing into the quay. Concluding that we already have enough problems as it is, we should not tempt the devil and we should re-anchor. Fortunately, we now have the entire crew of the cat available to give us a hand.
Could this be our lucky day?
We head to the new part of town to look for batteries and a car mechanics who could fix our alternators. The first shop on my list is closed.
So is the second one.
And the third one.
And all of them as a matter of fact.
By walking up and down the streets we accidentally find a small family run DIY shop that is open only in the morning this week. While they are not able to help us directly, they start brain storming and calling their contacts in order to find us a solution. Pure Italian friendliness and hospitality at its best. As a matter of fact, during our entire stay in Sicily, we have been absolutely stoked by the friendliness of the real Italians we dealt with. The real Italians in opposition to the one who are dealing with tourists days on end and have lost their soul in the process. While our new friends are doing the heavy lifting for us, all we have left to do is pet the store’s cat. Eventually they conclude that nothing will be possible today but that tomorrow a car mechanic they know well will exceptionally re-open a few days earlier. They should be able to help us. Feeling like we made some progress today and realising that not much more will be achievable today, we decide to visit the port authorities before heading back to the old town for a bit more sightseeing. Just like the previous day, the wind picks up in the afternoon transforming the bay into a wave pool. Kujira is jumping up and down like a stallion about to be released in a rodeo but he is firmly held in place and doesn’t succeed in tea-bagging the quay.
Wednesday.
Today has to be our lucky day, we need it. I put one alternator in my backpack and we head to the car mechanic. We are being greeted by a short, chubby man in his late 50’s. With his thick moustache and his blue jeans he looks just like Super Mario and I am expecting to see a mushroom walk out of the workshop at any moment. He doesn’t speak English but with my 3 words of Italian, a dash of Spanish and a sprinkle of google translation we manage to achieve something. He tells us to come back in a couple hours. Wondering what to do in the meantime, we somehow find ourselves in the only Sri Lankan restaurant in town talking to the owner, a woman who migrated here 30 years ago. After a couple hours I leave Kim to check on Mario. The alternator controller and the diodes are busted but he can fix them, hopefully by tomorrow. With nothing left for today on the agenda, we decide to visit the local ruins which will require my camera. I head back to the boat quickly while Kim keeps chatting to the store owner. By the time I come back, I learn that Sirima and her husband have been invited to visit us tonight having never been on a sailing boat before. To thank us, she will surprise us with take aways from her restaurant when visiting us in the evening.
Thursday.
It has been a few days since we arrived in Siracusa and we are still on the mission to find new batteries and to see if the alternators can be fixed by the car mechanic. We gather our things together and set off in the hot sun again to see Super Mario, hoping that he will have some good news. I disconnect the second alternator and pop it in my bag, just in case the first one has been fixed.
As we are about to leave, an old boat arrives on the town quay. We watch them put their anchor down and struggle to reverse onto the quay next to us, battling the wind. They seem to know what they are doing, parking the boat confidently. So, off we go again in the scorching sun to see how they got on at the mechanics.
We are greeted with some good news. They will replace the diode on the alternator and it looks like it can be fixed. That is when I decide to pull out the second alternator from my bag. The guy working on the first alternator, currently replacing the diodes is not at all amused but Mario cracks up and takes it from my hands, understanding without words what we want. This might be our lucky break but it looks like it might take a couple more days at least. We leave there with our spirits lifted and head to Sirima’s Sri Lankan restaurant for lunch.
We still haven’t made any breakthroughs with the batteries and right now our only option if we don’t want to undertake the remaining 1000Nm to Almerimar with dead batteries, which could destroy again our alternators, is to buy one big and expensive battery to make the trip and then replace it once in Spain with a proper set. I don’t really like this option so hopefully the chandlery which is finally re-opening tomorrow will have a solution for us in stock.
With nothing else that can be done today and the temperature now reaching 40C, it is time to go back to Kujira. Like every past days, the breeze is strengthening as the temperature increases. Time to relax.
—The following events are being told from Kim’s perspective as she was the first one on site to respond and really wanted to tell the story —
Ding. I hear the sound of metal. Ding. There it is again.
“Ben can you hear something?”
He goes and checks the back of the boat. “Nothing strange here, just relax Kimberly, you’re always anxious about strange noises on boats”
Ding.
Ding.
Crunch!
I look out again and realise it’s the neighbour’s boat. The back of it is rubbing up against the stony quay and being bounced around.
“Ben we have to do something! The neighbours boat is being crunched against the quay.”
And so we began the nautical adaptation of the great children’s book, “The Enormous Turnip”. We rush to the “Enormous Tayana” and start pushing with all our might to move it away from the quay. It weighs 15 tonnes, or if you like 15 Asian elephants. We look at the anchor chain. It’s drooping and that’s bad as it means that the anchor has dragged. We need to find a way to stop the naughty Tayana turning it’s nose and crashing into our whale who has been sleeping for a couple days now.
Ben jumps on board, attaching a couple of fenders on the back of the boat to protect it. Excellent! He dashes to Kujira to get an extra rope and attaches that from the front of the Tayana to the quay. While that stops the nose turning, it also brings the back of the boat even closer to the quay, threatening to damage the metal wind vane at the back.
“Hello, do you need some help? I was just finishing my meal over there and watching what was happening and I thought maybe I can help” A tall Dutch man has come to the rescue!
So all 3 of us push and push, but the Tayana is just too heavy. The wind is strengthening and the hot sun is beating down on us all. After a few minutes I have a better idea. Ben can call the Captaineria who should have the number of the Tayana’s captain assuming he has registered the boat as he should have. He goes back to Kujira and calls the Captaineria and the coast guard letting them know we are in a bit of a pickle. Meanwhile the Dutch man and I are fighting off the Tayana with all our might.
A couple minutes later the Dutch man’s wife, who is also tall and athletic looking comes to the rescue and she helps us push the boat. Ben’s been gone for what feels like an eternity… I’m losing my strength and tell the Dutch that I’ll go find out if Ben has reached anyone to help. Just as I reached Ben a tall lanky man came running towards the Tayana.
“That’s my boat!” Oh thank God! A few minutes later the coast guard shows up and the owner gets control of his Tayana and they motor off the quay with a plan to come back and re-anchor when the wind eases. Sometimes you are just at the right place at the right time to prevent a catastrophe.
— End of Kim’s perspective—
Friday.
Something needs to happen today otherwise we will be stuck here until Monday at the earliest. Malta is no longer an option and it will have to be put into the regret box with the Corinth canal. Almerimar still seems out of reach and I start wondering whether I will even be able to leave to NZ or whether I will have to stay behind to try sorting out our “Elextrickery” issues.
We first go to see Mario and he is pleased to let us know that he defeated Bowser fixed our remaining alternator. It did require an open heart surgery but he claims it is as good as new. The second good news is that he charges us a really reasonable price considering how much time they actually spent on both alternators. We can now head to the chandlery which is finally open. It is run by a lovely couple, super friendly and helpful but sadly they do not have much choice in terms of batteries. Either we need to wait until Monday so that he can drive to Catania to get a set of batteries that would fit our battery compartment or we can buy right now the big battery I have seen elsewhere which could only be a temporary solution to get us to Spain. However, while speaking with them we hit on an idea. Marco, our friend and Italian guardian angel is from Catania and knows people over there. We get in touch with him and he confirms that he has good friend who is also his trusted boat sparky. If anyone can help us and be trusted, it is him.
We get in touch with Giacomo.
Or at least we try .. he doesn’t speak a word of English or French and my Italian is too rubbish to successfully explain our situation on the phone. We swap to WhatsApp and suddenly with the help of google I become fluent in Italian.
“Ciao, sono un amico di Marco Stuto e Valantina. Marco mi ha consigliato di mettermi in contatto con te. Abbiamo un problema con la batteria della nostra barca a vela. Abbiamo bisogno di nuove batterie di servizio. 4 x 100 Ah +/-. AGM, scarico lento. Dimensioni circa 307 x 170 x 240. Siamo a Siracusa, ma possiamo trasferirci domani a Catania se potete aiutarci. Sei in grade di?”
We could not have hoped for a better answer:
“Come to Catania. Tomorrow morning I’ll find you a set of batteries”
That is an excellent news, all we have to do now is make it to Catania, which is only 30Nm away. We decide to leave with the sunrise on Saturday to make it by midday with plenty of solar power to keep our dead batteries in a state of controlled coma. Also, in order to avoid risking frying again both of our alternators, which could happen as they will work extra hard trying to charge the dead batteries, I decide to reinstall only one of them.
The last task for today is to extend our stay on the town quay for one more night and a broken boat is always a good excuse to not be kicked out. We are back to Kujira just on time to witness a macaroni trying to park his boat. At first he tries to aim between us and the Tayana. However we are not in Harry Potter and there is no platform 3 1/2. After a bit of shouting and a lot of gesticulation he understands that he needs to park on the other side of the Tayana, on the spot number 2 but it looks like he has never done Med mooring before and doesn’t really understand the concept. A lot more shouting and gesticulation later and he finally drops his anchor, miles away from the quay, and starts reversing. Unsurprisingly, he runs out of chain a few meters away from the quay. Any sensible person would have re-anchored but we are dealing with a fine macaroni specimen so he just puts the boat in full throttle reverse and throws us a couple lines.
The engine screams.
We pull like morons.
3 meters is the closest we manage to get him to the quay, which seems to be satisfactory and he decides to use his dinghy to cross the moat.
One thing for sure, this anchorage will have been very entertaining.
Saturday.
Catania, here we come. Excepted that half way there, we receive a message from Giacomo, he has probably found the perfect batteries for us but absolutely every single depot and shop are closed until Monday. In this case, we conclude that there is no good reason for getting to Catania today, as we had a glimpse at it last year and were not so impressed by it. Therefore we decide to drop anchor in Agnone for the night.
Sunday.
Catania, here we come, part 2. The marina is tucked at the end of the industrial port. It is not great but it is cheap for Italian standards and the facilities are clean with hot water, so we can not complain. It is still scorching hot so Kim is out of action, melting in her underwear inside the boat. I decide to go on a grocery mission as we still have over 10 days navigation ahead of us. The mission is a success even if I lose a few litres of sweat in the process. I also take the opportunity to have a look at the town centre. Its main plaza is pretty stunning and there are a few beautiful old buildings all over the place but unfortunately the city is dirty and crumbling, not making me want to stay another day. As our battery issue should be resolved tomorrow morning, we decide to go for a pizza as our last meal in Italy. I pick a place nearby which has very promising photos. The service however turns out to be absolutely dreadful. The temperature inside the restaurant is a million degrees, at least, and the outdoor tables are allegedly all reserved, yet empty. After sitting inside for 10 minutes, Kim is getting delirious and starts getting up to walk outside before coming back.
That’s when I see the waitress telling a couple, which couldn’t stand the heat either, to go sit outside at one of the two oak barrels meant for drinks. This really annoys me as she had told us a few minutes earlier that we could not sit anywhere but inside. Without further question, we rush for the second barrel just before a woman could claim it. It is not particularly cool outside as Italy is currently going through a heatwave but at least it is bearable. However, once served, it is all temporarily forgotten. The food is amazing, the pizzas have big fluffy crusts on the outside but a thin base. They are flavourful and perfectly cooked in a wood fire pizza oven and they are so filling that we skip the dessert. By the time we leave, some of the outdoor tables are still vacant ..
Monday.
Giacomo arrives early accompanied by an assistant. Being a friend from Marco I had expected a young person but quite the contrary. He looks like an old version of Luigi. He has an idea in mind for us but he needs to double check the size of the battery compartment as they are a tiny bit bigger than the one we currently have. After a few minutes, he leaves again and come back an hour later with 4 heavy and shiny batteries of a brand I have never heard of.
“Is this a good brand?”, I ask with my broken Italian/Spanish.
“Mama mia?!? E il marchio di Bugatti. BUGATTI!”, he replies with a mixture of pride and disappointment by my ignorance. But he is cool and doesn’t hold a grudge against me. Fitting them in our battery compartment is not an easy task and once again, the temperature is somewhere in the high 30’s. After an hour of battle and heavy sweating, Kujira has a new pacemaker, apparently powerful enough for a Bugatti. We thank him many times and help them carry the old batteries back to his car.
We get Kujira ready for departure and as we are just about to cast off, we realise that big black clouds have developed over the city. A quick look on the radar and the online storm radar confirms that we should rather stay put. A few minutes later all hell breaks loose. As a matter of fact, since the beginning of August Italy has been battered by huge unusual thunderstorms. Friends in northern Sardigna have had lightning storms every day for the past 10 days or so. It is high time for us to leave this area but just not today as we do not want to relive the experience from the other day. We decide to stay put another night and leave first thing in the morning. Therefore, it is again our last night in Italy, which should be celebrated with a pizza but Kim puts a veto on it and concludes that we should eat on board.
Tuesday.
It has been eight and a half days since we lost all our electrical systems on board. That is pretty much all the buffer we had for our journey from Croatia to Spain meaning that now, nothing wrong can happen. But with our brand new Buggati batteries and our fixed alternators we feel like our stroke of bad luck might be over. So, it is under a blue sky and under engine due to the lack of wind that we leave Catania, heading once more for the Messina straight. In the distance, over mainland Italy, big black clouds are gathering like an army getting ready for an offensive …
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