5th June - Safety Briefing

 

Last night the crew arrived, worryingly in a manner that may be a portent of things to come.  Both Greg and Richard decided to come by train (in Greg’s case from Palermo and Richard from Naples) their journeys initially seemed to be well planned but it turned out that neither had allowed for the fact that the marina is 5km from the railway station and they were arriving on a Sunday night when most decent Sicilian taxi drivers are enjoying the tail-end of a good family Sunday lunch.  Greg was fortunate in that after numerous frantic phone calls he finally managed to find someone sufficiently awake and sober to bring him to the boat.  Unfortunately for Richard, his second-hand, steam powered mobile phone had given up the ghost a couple of days earlier and he was forced to walk the 5km carrying his sailing gear and six weeks of luggage.  Luckily, they both arrived in good spirits and after a glass of Messina beer they seemed raring to go.

 

The crew arrives and are still smiling

Today has been a day of final preparations, with a crew safety briefing and trip to the supermarket to stock up on provisions.  Having recently been on the RYA Sea Survival Course everyone was sufficiently scared to pay close attention to the briefing and even pose some intelligent questions. Perhaps because it has been a rather rainy day there have been few other distractions and I only had to speak sternly to Richard on one occasion. 

Greg getting to grips with his personal man-overboard safety beacon

Despite yesterday's yomp and today's rain Richard heads out for another run

Our plan is to leave for Cagliari in Sardinia tomorrow morning, the trip should take a couple of days and we plan to arrive in the morning of 8th June.

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