Hello everyone.
Well, last time I wrote I mentioned I had been seriously remiss in thrilling you with our exploits, and now I find I'm even more behind, not having corresponded since August. Lots has happened, but, as always, I will try to be brief. Of course, this is all terribly interesting.
Things, except for selling the boat, have been going well, and the marina and Italia are exceeding our expectations. First the boat. The Ukrainian is now out of the picture. Gone, gonzo, kaput. Last we heard he was going back to the Black Sea to get a visa and was planning to fly in to see the boat. Seemed he wanted our specific type of boat and, rumor has it, was wanting to pay with a suitcase of cash!! Russian mafia, anyone? Anyway, for whatever reason--I suspect the broker screwed it up somehow--he's no longer interested. Unfortunately, it seems no one else is either!! That's not so bad, except for being a huge loose end, as the price of the slip at the marina is far cheaper than we could rent a place for.
Speaking of the marina, when we told them we wanted to come in a month early, they said sure, but, of course it would be an extra grand as it was the cusp of the high season. That was okay because even that was a 20% discount from the published rate. Imagine our surprise and delight when we got here and the rate was €400!! We'll get that same rate for May and a further discount for the other three months of the year, if, God forbid, we are still here on the boat. That figures out to about €250/month for nine months plus water and electric. All good, especially since their meters are a bit messed up and recharging for free when we get low on credit. The people here could not be nicer and work prices are somewhat negotiable. In addition, they are giving us a FREE storage locker--a vacant storefront--until at least the Spring. Of course this was more important when we were trying to get the boat sorted out for the Ukrainian's viewing.
Repairs have been fairly minimal. Needed new steering in the dinghy and we lost about 1/3 of the boards form the back deck crossing the Ionian. Teak was prohibitively expensive, but we got a guy to put Oroko in which is sort of teak. Blew a hot water heater as well, but all this is now behind us, we hope!!! Really hoping anything else will be the next guy's problem.
We've also acquired a small, and old, Toyota Yaris which has been great for getting around and has an amazing amount of space, rides well at speed and also get 60 MPG on the road!! Feeling European already, but really do need something like this as fuel is about $10/gallon. All you Yanks have no idea how spoiled you are. Other breaking news is the sale of Freebird by our friends, Dave and Judy. They just did a free internet thing, but some word of mouth passed to a buyer and the deal was done in less than a month--really unheard of timing. WE ARE JEALOUS.
As for daily life here, we have some really nice neighbors as well as a few people we would choose to associate with from Marmaris. There are also some real jerks from there, and elsewhere, plaguing our lives with too much organization and complete bullshit, but some of us have formed an underground insurgency and are making some progress in regaining control of our lives. We're having fun with the revolution and the secret society. The marina staff is just excellent--totally helpful with all manner of problems in and out of the marina--and very nice and friendly with good English skills. In fact, one of the summer temps who is now unemployed is a certified language teacher and is giving us Italiano lessons at a very reasonable cost. Bravissimo!!
We haven't done too much touring about yet as our schedule has been faily full. First, I had to go to the Questura (provincial police station) quite a few times to get the last bit of stuff done for my residency application--fingerprints and passport photos. Now it's just a waiting game, I think. Second, we had Rose's friend Kathy visit for almost a week, and then, on October 18, off we went to the UK for 3 weeks for Rose's son's wedding--about time since he been with his partner for 14 years--as well as the usual rounds of visits to Rose's daughter in the Channel islands and various friends and relatives all over the place. The wedding was nice, especially the part where we all started on adult beverages before the ceremony!! That's a keeper tradition. Extremely amusing watching Rose try to decide on one of the 4 or 5 outfits she had with one daughter, then the other trying to convince her which was best. Lovely venue and all around nice affair. My "free" air tickets cost something like $800 and then we learned the most expensive part could have been had for £49 on a much more direct flight. Damn airlines.
We returned the week before Thanksgiving, managed to get a turkey and invited 8 for dinner, half of whom were English so they got a nice taste of a real American Thanksgiving Holiday. AKA conspicuous consumption. The undesirables had their own affair at some restaurant which was not well attended, expensive, and not nearly as good as ours. Even managed to keep the turkey right side up. Yes, Paul, I will never let you forget. Speaking of my brother, he does a huge family deal at one of his many homes, this one in Sedona, Arizona, and my nieces and nephews managed to post a few pictures of the old goat on Facebook. I was highly amused!!! But, he looks pretty good for an old guy. Speaking of family, The missing Tammy has turned up in Tennessee. That's a whole other story, but, at least for the time being, she is apparently ok, and Rose's fears that she was stalking me have proved unfounded. Right after T'giving, we also took a drive over to Noto to meet up with Robin, Jim and Diane--friends from the BVI. J & D rent a house in Taormina every year. Robin's retired to the UK.
The marina cafe here has been very accomodating to us cruisers. Twice a week they put on a cheap eats for €5 or 6, and happy hour from 6 to 8 every night with €2 beers and wine. I have befriended Ricardi, the bartender, who is now making me a proper Jack Daniels and water for a reasonable price. "I'd like the usual" is "Vorrei il solito" in Italiano. Speaking of eats, one Sunday a few weeks ago, we took a drive with some friends--Ted and Pam off Rahda--to Vittoria, a town not too far from us that has a fabulous Saturday market. We wanted to check it out prior to hitting the market the next week. Got there fine, parked and started to look for a place for lunch. Not having much luck, we resigned ourselves to cafe food and stopped at one for a coffee and to check it out. Not only did they NOT have any food, but they were closing down to get themselves some lunch. Using my best new-found Italiano, I asked about a restaurant and he referred us to a place a few blocks away--Opera was the name. So we found the place, walked in and asked about a meal. They told us it was seafood only but that was okay with us.
So, in we go--it was about 12:30. No menus; asked if we wanted wine--yes--water--yes--and then they just started bringing stuff. We must have have about 10 courses and were there for another bottle of wine, after dinner Amaro and about 3 hours. Food was awesome, some sashimi--mainly shrimp--steamed mussels, cooked fish and then pasta finishing off with a couple of desserts. Lots of locals, and the table next to us was a very nice Italian family with a six year old the mother was teaching to parla Inglese. So, we're thinking this is going to be expensive--10 courses, dessert, wine, coffee and after dinner drinks. While we weren't disappointed, they didn't kill us. I don't know how much more food or wine we could have had, but it was a flat rate €45/person price and that included the bulk of the tip. We left a little extra just because we had such a wonderful surprise getting a great meal instead of reheated pizza at a cafe. Delightful.
The next Sunday we had been invited to help out our Italian teacher's fiance's family at their farm picking olives. Rose almost died having to get up at 6:30 to get underway, but the place was 1 1/2 hours away. About eight of us went. This was also very cool. We arrived at the farm about 10 and had a 1/2 hour walk out to the groves. Paolo's dad looks like a small version of Marlon Brando's Don Corleone, and, to pick the olives, you just strip them off the branches and let them fall onto the tarp beneath the tree. We picked about 240 kilos that way before heading back to the house for a traditional Sicilian Sunday dinner with their own home made wine. I have to admit I was a bit dissapointed in the meal hoping for lasagna and ossa buca or something, but we got pasta with lentils--very good by the way--cheese, home made bread, sausage and their own olive oil. Following that up was coffee, oranges and cactus fruit (like watermelon). Each couple got a bottle (660 cl Heinekin) of their oil, and we all took off for the pressing plant to see how it was made. Home about 8PM.
So life here has been very cool with lots of pleasant surprises. We are very happy in spite of the control freaks trying, and failing, to run our lives.
Doubtful we'll get back to you before the holidays, so Rose and I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If you want, I wouldn't mind a prayer or two in our favor to get the boat sold, so keep that in mind when you're in church these holidays. We need all the help we can get. so for now
Caio. A dopo
Rose & Tim
