This is a real time storm forecast for tomorrow. It is the gust map, but sustained winds are scary as well. We are in Portocolom, Majorca on a decent mooring and well protected from the north. If it weren't for you, our friends, family and allies and your generosity, we may not have known to seek shelter for this Gale warning event (see note at the end re: IridiumGo). Thank you for your support. Following is our blog about Sicily. Italy. I hope you enjoy! Dois and Lauri, svAshika Our days in the Mediterranean are numbered, literally. Our visas were good for just 90 days and we had already used up 60. To say we are getting anxious is a massive understatement. Our hope is that Italy or Spain would take pity and grant us an extention. We would be disappointed. We were racing both the bureaucracy and the coming winter weather. No longer in the tropics, I dug out our winter clothing that hadnt seen the light of day in over 5 years. The old boat smell was banished, failed elastic and ties replaced, zippers reworked and we were as ready as we reasonably could be for the coming winter. We spent just enough time in Kalamata to get our sail repaired, pick up our new satellite device at the FedEx office, provision up, check out of Greece and fumble drop my beloved GoPro in the bay as we were leaving. That one hurt. This leg to Sardinia was 350 nautical miles, about 3 days. Fat raindrops splashed on our worn dodger windows as I buttoned up the cockpit enclosure on our second day. I hoped (prayed) the weather-beaten cover would make it through another storm. Two days out of Greece on our way to Sicily, the first storm rolled over us stealing the wind and leaving us rolling uncomfortably in the waves. The cover survived... but we looked up to discover our newly repaired mainsail hanging in tatters. It looked like she’d been hit by a canon ball. Dois dropped the sail and tied her to the boom for the rest of the journey. On closer inspection we would find that the repair had been done with thin nylon cloth (an inexpensive flag material) that was glued to the sail. The glued application had made the nylon appear heavy and thick like dacron sail cloth. I am embarrassed to be so deceived. Four ounce nylon cloth could never hold 10 oz Dacron sail-cloth together and was doomed from the start, making matters worse because repair would be a much bigger deal now. Without a main, we were seriously handicapped. Our mighty Perkins engine was also challenging with an over-heating problem and our gauges to monitor the temperature situation were still not operable. With 250 miles to go, it would be a slow ride. Ashika arrived in Siracusa, Italy after a 5 day long slog. Ortygia is an entrance island in Siracusa. It has the Castle Maniaci and a citadel. Castles, forts and citadels are common in the Med, seems every point, island or hill has one. But sailing (or slow motoring) into the impressive harbor past castle walls built in the early 1200's was enchanting. We took an opportunity to walk the narrow cobble stone streets and its not hard to imagine you are walking in ghostly footsteps' of knights and knaves. The farmer's market was over-flowing with mountains of fruit and vegetables, large baskets of fragrant fresh breads and mounds of creatures recently liberated from the sea. It was easy to feel this ancient and vibrant citadel (little city) needing a castle fortress to protect it from the infidels. The majority of our time in Sicily was filled with boat work and a search for either a fix or replacement of our mainsail. We spent a lot of time talking to the locals and perusing the internet for a solution. An online search revealed several candidates in France and one in Spain. Finding a pre-owned sail is a lot harder than it sounds. Modern sailboats are very different than our old girl in some really important ways. I'll not bore you with the details but Ashika was built for the long haul while newer boats are built for speed. Her dress is short and wide, made of 10oz WW2 canvas. Modern boats use 1 mast, taller and narrower sails and light weight fabric. I found one in France that I thought would be close enough to Ashika's dimensions but shipping was prohibitive at twice the cost of the sail and a lot of money for a sail picture online. After a week of calling and disappointments, I found a sail-maker at the southern end of Sicily that had a few pre-owned sails. They had two used sails that might work for Ashika but they werent exactly easy to get to. Both of our drivers licenses have expired so we hired a car with driver and left for OneSail/Sisail the following morning for a 2 hour drive along a lovely coastline and countryside. There are only 3 places a mariner enjoys more than the sea; a marine chandlery, a pub and a sail loft. And a sail loft is at the top of my list. The walls were stacked two stories tall with supples; huge rolls of canvas, sunbrella and industrial sized spools of thread creating a rainbow of color. Tubs neatly stacked with shiny hardware like snaps, caps and twist locks, Chrystal clear Ising glass for a clear view! I was in heaven.And don’t get me started on the industrial sail making sewing machines, you would be sorry. The 1st sail that matched our dimensions almost perfectly was an American sailmaker but disappointing. It was older than the pictures showed and in rough shape. But a sail that was slightly shorter on the boom dim. was in great shape and we could work with its shortcoming and gain from its lighter weight. It was slightly more at $800 but $3200 cheaper than a new one. Raising our new-to-us main the same afternoon was gratifying. The foot is indeed about 3+ feet shorter, but the battens are semi (short) and the dacron is about 7oz. making it an easier sail to raise and it shapes up nicely. We give up a bit of downwind speed, but we are back in business baby. Please help us meet our FIX SHIKA goal of $4000 to cross the Atlantic!
DOLLARS
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