This time we decided to sail round the coast of the Golfo Squillace.  There were no anchorages or harbours shown, but we now knew that all of the strong wind blew off the coast and this appeared to be one long sandy beach so were pretty confident that we'd be able to find somewhere to anchor.  It might just be a bit rolly.  In fact it was fine and yet again we found sleepy seaside towns where local people went for their holidays, which had not yet been discovered by Northern Europeans.

And then we left the gulf and headed back towards Sicilia.  It felt strange to be "going back", we hadn't done that before.  Our destination was Siracusa.  It was a tough old trip, beating into a headwind overnight that was gusting up into the high thirty knots.  We took the decision to come off the wind a bit to make the going easier.  We eased out onto a close reach and all of a sudden what had been horrible was now fantastic sailing.  I went below to see where this course would ultimately take us if the wind didn't change - Libya in a couple of days - Oh well.  Of course the wind eased and became more helpful in the morning so we ended up safe and sound in Siracusa and I missed the opportunity to revisit Tripoli - on reflection something probably best done with a visa!

All of this would have been reason enough to stay, but we had two more.  Our watermaker had failed again!  It was August and everything was closing down.  We were able to get the faulty unit back to Schenker and returned, but it was touch and go.  Worse - our brand new antifouling had failed catastrophically.  We had 2cm of coral over the entire hull.  We immediately contacted Richard Foster the proprietor of Permanent Coatings who manufactured the product and they agreed to replace it and bear the costs of replacement.  That doesn't sound too bad does it, but this is not a story with a happy ending!