July 12 – 17, 2015 —
We arrived in Siracusa after a short sail from Reposto where we dropped off our guests. Since we were coming in late in the day the usual concerns of being the last in, or anchoring in a crowded anchorage were on our minds. Not sure where to go for the best anchorage area, we consulted our trusty predecessors website–the New Zealand couple who followed a similar route that we are taking 5 years ago (yachtbalvanie.blogspot.com). They had two suggestions; we went for the northern one since the wind was now pretty strong out of the north and the land would provide some protection.
As we got closer to our intended anchor spot area, our vision of an overcrowding anchorage field proved null. The anchorage area was huge, with an ideal depth of 10 to 30 feet and, as we later determined, an excellent bottom for holding (heavy mud).
Siracusa, for which Syracuse, NY is the namesake, was founded by Corinthian settlers beginning in 400 BC. It became the dominant Greek city and seat of power for the entire western Med for over 200 years. Unfortunately for them, they ticked off the Romans which led to an adjustment in who had the power.
We anchored right off of the old town. The city was alive with people, restaurants and shops. The piazzas were full of kids playing ball games and ridding scooters, wagons and anything else with one or more wheels. The streets are lined with beautiful tall oleander trees, all in bloom. We never even knew oleander would grow as a tree!
The cityscape of stone and cement parged buildings in every hue of tan was dramatic in the setting sun. The old buildings are not old as in “BC” old, but rather from the late 1600s after much of the city was destroyed by a massive earthquake. Additional damage occurred from bombings during World War II. Still, at over 300 years old and made of limestone, repairing and updating the buildings has been a challenge. Electrical wires for buildings run on the outside of the buildings and the plumbing is part of an old system. The sewer system is totally out of date and empties into the harbor—a fact we learned later.
When we left off Robert and Alyssa, we had one project on the list along with one day of sightseeing before leaving for Greece. The project was to move the heavy anchor from the garage to the bow and service the starboard primary winch. Well, that all got down prioritized—the next morning in Siracusa as we were preparing to go ashore the Mercury outboard wouldn’t start. It looked like a carburetor rebuild (1/2 day project). The anchor/winch project just went to the back burner. The next day, as we were getting ready to work on the Mercury outboard, the generator overheated. Well… another re-do of the priorities. The generator just went to the top of the list. 
Upon further investigation, the alternator on the generator froze up and shredded the belt. Where to find a new alternator and belt in Sicily? What’s even the word for alternator in Italian? Next step–rental car; then the two trips to Ragusa (full day each). The internet showed that there was a dealer in Marina de Ragusa. Great! That should be easy. We went to the marina, no dealer; the dealer was in the “city” of Marina de Ragusa. If this sounds confusing it was! Back to the city, new address in hand–dealer could not be found. Another distributor and address. Found that one—store shuttered. Next stop, yet another distributor 50 km away in plain old Ragusa, time was running out and the GPS was running out of power. We arrived just before closing—no alternator but we picked up a belt for a temporary solution (direct belt the water pump and bypass the alternator). Good idea, wrong size belt. By day two and another trip to Ragusa we had a workable solution albeit temporary and we got the generator running. This was a big relief so that we did not need to run the main engine for charging, plus we had the benefit of air conditioning, which in this heat was huge. By the third day the best we could find for replacing the alternator was a set of new bearings. This would be a long shot. Would I be able to replace the bearings, are the old ones frozen to the shaft? On the fourth day it became clear special tools were needed. Could we find special tools? No. Figured out how to improvise. Day five, got the alternator rebuilt–hooray. Sixth day left for Greece—did not even do the sightseeing.
All in all, we have repeatedly found people in Italy go out of their way to be helpful. It is a pleasure and a great lesson learned. Even with the language barrier that is often a challenge, the Italians always figure how to communicate and provide help. That will always be one of our great memories of Italy.
On our last day we went to the open market which was loaded with fresh fish, vegetables, fruit, and olives. The zucchinis were so long you could use them as a baseball bat. We never get tired of the fresh produce and have been consuming major amounts of tomatoes. Italy also has fresh basil in every market. We are now growing it on the boat.
We stayed longer than expected in Syracusa and ran low on water because we did not dare make water in the polluted harbor. Time to go. We were ready first thing in the morning but had to wait another six hours for the winds to change. It seemed like forever, but we finally left and celebrated with a mid ocean swim to clean off the waterline. Clean water at last!