Fall 2020 – Sicily – The Quarantine Ports

October 11 – 31, 2020

The immigration and customs exit from Tunisia was cumbersome and lengthy. Motored the whole way as was extremely calm. Made for an easy crossing. Filled out more forms.

Early in the morning, we had second thoughts and thought we should try to get back to France. We changed course to go further up the Sicily coast to land in Sciacca, Sicily as we had read it was a port of entry. It looked like we would have to do a 14 day quarantine but maybe not if we had recent Covid tests. We would have to see what the marina directed us to do. Arrived late. The marina was not concerned that we had been to Tunisia so long as we filled out a particular form. Once completed, we were free to do what we wanted. We quarantined anyway. Only saw the town from the docks.

Found out the next day that Sciacca was not a port of entry for “non commercial” boats and that we had to go to Marsala to have our passports stamped. We were going to go that way anyway as it would be a good jumping off spot to Sardegna. However, because of high winds, we were stuck in Sciacca for 3 nights. We were getting concerned that we had been in Italy for 4 days and had not checked in and still did not know if we were Covid acceptable.

The extra time in Sciacca gave us time to fix a problem with one of our critical systems on the boat, the head! On the trip from Tunisia, it stopped pumping water into the toilet bowl for flushing. The pump sounded like it was not primed. Sent a note off to the manufacturer and checked all of the hoses for leaks but found none. The manufacturer replied saying it could not be a priming issue as the pump was self priming and we must have a leak that is allowing air into the system. We are very sensitive to leaks onboard and knew there was no leak. Kathie said we need to suck the water from the seawater intake to the pump to make it easier for the pump to prime itself. She was right. We did this with a siphon pump and we once more had a modern sanitation facility onboard.

The wind decreased overnight and we cast off from Sciacca on the morning of October 14 with our destination being Marsala. Mixture of sailing and motoring and filling out forms. When arrived in Marsala, the marina manager asked where we were coming from and we replied Sciacca but we had been to Tunisia and needed our passports stamped. He did not want to hear that. He said that was bad. We could not get our passports stamped without a Covid test which would take at least a week and there would be 14 day quarantine period. It did not matter that we had recent negative Tunisian Covid test results. It was not the news we wanted to hear. That timing was not going to work for going back to France.

Quarantined in Marsala – Sadly our only picture

The next morning brought better news. The marina manager had convinced Marsala’s medical officer that no Covid test was required and that the port police would be coming to our boat tomorrow to stamp our passports. He then added that we were not to mention Tunisia when the police arrived. Perplexing. Police arrived the next morning, no one mentioned Tunisia, took our passports and returned the stamped passports later that day. A big relief. No longer “illegal migrants” but still quarantined. However, since we were quarantined to our boat, we could move our “quarantined home” so long as we did not get off the boat and, of course, filed multiple forms.

Covid cases in France, Spain and Italy were getting worse and there was more lockdown rhetoric. That plus the difficulties just getting into Italy, bad weather had already held us in port for 4 days since leaving Tunisia and was only going to get worse and our energy and enthusiasm for a long voyage was dwindling, made us flop back to our decision of wintering the boat in Marina di Ragusa and getting back to Calgary sooner than later.

On October 17 we left Marsala for Sciacca once again. Mixture of motoring and good sailing. Had a pleasant lunch anchored under some Greek ruins near Selinunte.

Next day, October 18 sailed and motored to Licata. Saw some more Greek ruins on the coast near Agrigento. Were thinking of anchoring but the wind direction was going to change almost 180 degrees overnight with little protection after it changed. Being prudent we docked at Licata. Was a very large manmade harbour with lots of room for expansion. We were docked against the harbour wall which was so high, we could not get off to hook up water or electricity. Still in quarantine and did not see anything of Licata. At night many families walked along the marina promenade, most with masks.

October 19, had a beautiful sail down the Sicilian coast to Marina di Ragusa. Winds were not too strong but we made good speed with Pink Panther and the mailsail up (7.2 SOG with windspeed 10 kn). Arrived at Chinook’s winter docking spot next to a nice British sailboat. Shortly before landing, we received an email from the Sicilian health ministry saying that we were now quarantine free. We did not know why but were elated. Maybe the Tunisian tests were finally reviewed and sprang us free.

Marina di Ragusa is quite modern and large and is home to many wintering boats, most of which remain occupied for the winter. We spent the next 10 days washing and cleaning the boat, taking the sails and running rigging down, fixing our leaking compass, pleading with the Volvo dealer to come and service our boat for the winter (they finally did), rigging up some heavy duty stern mooring lines with chains and compressors, polishing the inox (Charlie’s favourite pass time), buying a new fender (lost one during the storm on the passage to Tunisia), having the outboard serviced and generally closing down the boat. As a result, we did not see much of the town which was slowly locking down. During the time we were there the closing time for the bars and restos went from 11pm to 9pm to 6pm.

One other task was finding our way home. Our return flight was later in November from Paris. We wanted to go earlier. We were concerned that flights from Rome or Paris to Canada would be more sensitive to cancellation if Italy and France went into lockdown. There were more flights from London and even a Westjet non-stop flight to Calgary. UK was talking about lockdown but that would not be coming as quickly as Italy and France. To our surprise there was a non stop Easyjet flight from an airport close to Ragusa to London. We booked the flights and hoped for the best not knowing what Covid restrictions would be in place.

The first flight from Catania took off; 30% full. No one at Gatwick gave us a glance. We nixed the airport campout and booked into an adjacent hotel. We did not give a sigh of relief until the Westjet plane (30% full) started taxiing down the runway on the way to Calgary. The snow and cold weather of Calgary were a welcome sight.