By Andy Lund

Ed. note - This is the twentieth installment of a multi-part series by Andy Lund on his ocean-crossing journey aboard Resolution, the Nordhavn 46 he took delivery of in February 2004.

September 7, 2006

Siracusa, Sicily

We arrived in Siracusa, Sicily yesterday morning after an overnight run from Malta. We're at the marina, right in the center of the old town, on Ortigia Island, where we were in July. N47 "Strickly for Fun" (Scott and Terri Strickland) arrived from Crotone, on the Italian boot, an hour before us. They're on the town quay. N57 "Goleen" (Chris Samuelson and Sonaia Maryon-Davies) should be in on Friday or Saturday from Montenegro.

We spent ten productive days in Malta. Mike's younger brother Ryan arrived last Satruday night (2 Sept) from Seattle for a six week stay aboard. He'll go through to Barcelona with us.

We had a lot of service work done in Malta. The main engine cooling system was flushed, as it still had some scum from the transmission cooler leak we suffered 15 months ago. We had the liferaft serviced - necessary every two years - and the fire extinguishers re-certified. Mike changed engine oil and filters, and the transmission oil was changed. One air conditioning unit was repaired - failed sea water cooling pump - but in the process the controller board failed, so had to be bypassed. That aricon unit now runs "on" or "off" using its circuit breaker, until we can find a new Cruisair controller board. The port stabilizer cylinder was replaced, again. Good response from ABT Trac, the manufacturer - part from California in three days - but I'm frustrated that the cylinder keeps leaking. We finally resolved the engine frequency related squeal in one of the two VHF radios by switiching antennas. What's wrong with the antenna remains to be determined. Ah, the life of a boat! If something's not broken, then it's not a boat. We took 2700 liters (about 715 gallons) of diesel, at a net cost of about $2.53 a gallon, less than half the mainland Europe cost. The whole difference is in taxes - Malta will sell us duty free fuel.

Our run from Croatia to Bari, Italy down to Malta two weeks ago was very smooth. We lucked out on the weather, with following seas and relatively light winds. Aside from service work, we toured Malta a bit. The co-cathedral of St John's, in Valletta, was the principal church of the Knights of Malta, who ruled for over 400 years, until Napoleon tossed them out in about 1800, only to be replaced within a couple of years by the British. The exterior is plain, but the interior is a riot of baroque decoration. Each "langue" (national grouping) of the Knights had their own magnificent chapel, and the entire floor of the cathedral is paved with intricate inlaid marble desings - the individual tombs of the richer knights.

We also visited the Hypogium, a 5000-year-old underground temple and burial site, about which very little is known. Some amazing carvings came out of the excavations, from a long lost civilization. The nearby temples of Xarxien were eqaully as old, and somewhat evocative of Stonehenge in England. Makes America look like a babe in arms by comparison.

We'll be in Siracusa for a few days, then head north through the Straits of Messina to the Aeolian Islands (off the NE coast of Sicily), then to Salerno (to visit Pompeii, Herculaneum, Naples and Capri), then across to Sardinia, up along Corsica, possibly visit Elba, then to southern France and on to Barcelona by mid-October.

All is Well.