The Experience of a Lifetime

The “Greatest Sports” award goes out to my dad and our dear family friend, Jeffrey. We had the best laid plans to share some nice parts of Sicily and then Malta with them. However, as they quickly learned, the weather dictates everything about boat life. 

It was extremely unfortunate that during their nine nights with us, the Med saw crazy high winds and lots of rain all over. The month of May is still part of the “shoulder season” that commonly sees unsettled weather before things settle down more for the summer. Our particular challenge was also being located in Sicily. There are a very limited number of protected anchorages and marinas here, so that inhibits much travel during poor weather. (In contrast, Croatia has numerous safe harbors within short distances of each other.) We ended up hunkering down in Catania for many days as we needed to end up near the airport again. 

To Skippy’s credit, he did a great job planning our days and re-planning and re-planning yet again. Whilst it was probably not what Dad and Jeffrey expected, nor what we had hoped, the lads still got to experience a lot about boat life that they never would have otherwise. They called it the adventure of a lifetime. 🙂

We collected Dad and Jeffrey from the Catania airport and took them back to Sabática, which was docked in Siracusa.

Over the next nine days, they had the opportunity to experience:

• Staying overnight docked at marinas
• Staying overnight at anchor
• Riding in our dinghy, UberDing, to shore from our anchorage in Siracusa

• Four days of sailing: in high wind, in no wind, in rain, with swell, with bits of beautiful sunny calm, and true peaceful sailing without engines
• Dolphins jumping and following Sabática one day (This was our best wild life sighting yet!)

• How stressful docking can be
• How there are dozens of things to do and consider to work the boat (They were impressed with our teamwork.) 😉
• How easily things can go wrong (Conor had to dive under and cut off ropes that had fouled one of the props, which had rendered that engine useless.)
• Helping out with docking lines, fenders, and the anchor

• Exploring Sicily: the ancient city of Siracusa, the quaint fishing village of Marzamemi, the industrial city of Catania, and the beautiful town of Taormina 
• Walking a lot on land (They tracked steps and miles.) 😉

Siracusa – One day we saw the sites of the “old town” which is the island of Ortigia. Another day, we visited the archeological park. Siracusa is probably our favorite city in Sicily. It’s beautiful, clean, and has a lot to offer.

Catania – We had been to Catania a few times before. This time, though, we finally got to do a walking tour to see areas we hadn’t seen before and learn more history.

Taormina – Often called “the pearl of the Ionian Sea,” Taormina is a beautiful hilltop town and holiday destination. It has an ancient Greek-Roman theatre, well preserved Medieval streets, and dramatic views of Mount Etna and the sea.

Experiences continued…

• Sicilian aperitivo (happy hour) (Which was done a few times because restaurants weren’t open for dinner yet!)
• Great Sicilian food at restaurants and gelaterie, and home cooked dinners on the boat
• Great long chats and even a round of guitar playing

• Helping Conor install the final solar panel or helping Lisa with dinner
• Getting great sleep on the boat or not (once in a while) if the wind caused dock lines to squeak
• Using a manual pump flush toilet (This was their favorite feature. Not!) 😉
• How comfortable Sabática is to live on
• Shopping at a relatively standard, small Italian supermarket
• Lugging said groceries thirty minutes back to the boat
• Renting a car from an unusual, local rental place (It was a bit comical.)
• Riding in said rental car and seeing how stop signs / lights are truly optional in Sicily and how many intersections have neither anyway

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Dad and Jeff were truly great sports throughout their whole visit, going along with whatever Skippy deemed the best decisions. They took to boat life and completely adopted the “go with the flow” attitude. They stepped outside their comfort zones, and we loved having them onboard. They would probably share additional experiences, but hopefully I covered a lot with my list and photos above. Personally, it was really special to get to share this piece of my life with Dad after trying to describe it in detail for the past year. It’s really hard to describe. You just have to experience it! Safe travels back to Texas, y’all! ❤️