After the two and a half days travel we arrived on time in Licata Marina Di Cala del Sole.(a bit of a mouthful to say on the radio!) Max was bringing us in stern to beautifully until the dock "helpers" decided to push the bow around with their dinghy - but it all ended well. Apart from when the helpers pulled the lazy lines up under the starboard prop! It will need diving on in the next few days. Really, some of these guys have no idea at all.

Pete and I went across to the little café to have a landing wine. They brought out a big plateful of really nice snacks, no charge. While we were there a voice called out, "Entre Nous" - it was Marta from Lone Wulfe who we met with another boat in Bozcada, Turkiye. Funny thing - I had just seen a couple of old emails from them when I was looking something up for the marina and had thought to myself, "Well, we probably won't see them again"… She invited us all to the dock BBQ the next day. There has been a very good sociable live aboard community here last winter. We all barbecued and played boule.

The next day we went back to the café with the food platter for lunch we met an English couple and also ran into Mat, Emma and the girls from Didim! Small world. It turned into a long lunch.

After a week of being in Licata - (we were here really so as not to lose our deposit from when we planned to winter here) we decided to take advantage of a weather window and head to Malta just 10 hours away as we heard there was cheap fuel. 1.15 euro instead of around 2 euro most other places. As we had last got duty free in Albania we did need rather a load so it was worthwhile to do the trip. Plus we get to go to lovely Malta again!

Valletta was every bit a good as we remembered. One day we rode our bikes round to Manoel Island where 5 years ago we had a lot of work done on our previous boat, chat Eau Bleu. That was December 2019 when we heft her on the hard there. We were then locked up in Australia, thank you COVID. CEB was subsequently refloated and shipped back to Australia and sold. We never got to thank the guys at the yard in person so took the opportunity now. They were pleased to see us and glad we had been so happy with all the work.

Whilst in Malta we toured the Ta Betta winery at the recommendation of friends in Licata. The tour was interesting - a couple bought a little weekemder house in some fields then decided it might be nice to have a few vines, Well, you can imagine what happened - a good few millions later they had a very good sophisticated vineyard with some very good boutique wines. We had a private tasting for 2 hours booked but it extended to nearly 4. They didn't hurry us out and were very generous with the tasting - none of that nonsense of a piddly little plastic cup with a thimble of wine in it! Each bottle came with it's own pairing dish and particular glasses then they just left us to it. Very nice.

We've now headed back to Sicily to go through the Messina Strait to the Aeolian Islands.