I estimate there are at least 100 boats here in the marina which call themselves "liveaboards". That means that they have - mostly - given up living on land and moved on their boats. Most of them are couples in their 50s or 60s, and they've sold the house to buy the big boat, usually an older model. That means they have stayed here in the marina on their boats the entire winter interrupted by some short jaunts to see family back home. Many don't have a heater on the boat. Brrrr!! There are many Americans and many English, some Canadians, Aussies and some French and some Germans. There are also some young families here with kids, some of them appear to be of school age. Not sure how that works....

There are some catamarans, but mostly monohulls. There are 3 older Amel 54s here on M-dock, where the biggest of the liveaboards' vessels are moored. MdR Liveaboards is a private Facebook page, which I was grateful to be admitted to last fall, where all the important news about the harbor, the boat yard and the many service providers is found. There are also daily calls on VHF and every Tuesday and Friday night, one meets at Stella Bar up the hill a few steps, where the bottle of red wine is E8 (only one kind available), the half-liter bottle of Italian beer is E1.50 and the kitchen produces a steady stream of French Fries and mini pizzas for free. The alcohol consumption is high and everyone is having a great time. We (my friend Christoph from Munich and I) have been talking at length to our Canadian neighbors Doug and Yvonne from Vancouver today. They have a 49 foot Privilege catamaran and are taking it slow. They bought the boat a few years ago, well used, in Southern France and so far, have cruised down the West Coasts of Corsica and Sardinia to jump over to Sicily. They are planning Greece this year but are not on a schedule. Nice, fun people.

It's been 2 1/2 weeks for me here on Kincsem. My good old friend Alexander from engineering school days joined me for a good week in the beginning and we had a great time. During the days, we worked on the boat, slowly but steadily and at night we went to Quatro Quarti, one of the few restaurants that is open. We get greeted by the waitress by name. The stainless on deck looks better than new thanks to Alexander's tireless efforts.

Alexander hard at work on the stainless steel

The sails are bent on. We have enough time to get done what needs to get done to get Kincsem sailing again so we don't get stressed when the oil change on the outboard takes ½ day since the oil drainage screw won't come out. It's a lot of fun solving these little problems together.

Changing the Racor diesel filter

We also have time for road trips to see Taormina, Syracusa and the old city of Ragusa. See some of the pictures below.

Now Alexander has left and my friend Christoph - also a highly experienced engineer - has arrived and there only a few more jobs left to do. Today, Christoph disassembled the anchor winches and switched the drums and some innards from the port winch (which isn't used a lot) to the starboard winch (which is used all the time), all while I was servicing the last two Harken winches on deck that needed service. Grease everywhere, a fanastic time was enjoyed by all! Tomorrow (or the next day), I will have go up the masts and check that all is ok and maybe clean some of the African sand off. The weather has improved a little with more sun and less rain but it's still very windy almost every day and too cold for shorts and T-shirts (unless you are from Canada). It will be a challenge to find a calm few hours to put Kincsem's new home port - San Francisco - on the stern.

Taormina with Mount Etna in the background

Syracusa

Domo of Ragusa