10th July

Lucinda cleaned the boat, Sue and Roger went shopping and I read the paper. We headed out mid morning, destination Mazara 14 miles to the south east. Later we hit a dense fog bank but we sailed out of it by heading back inshore. Then we were visited by four Dolphins. They were pretty big and languidly made a few passes under our bows before heading off. Clearly not the leapy sort. We eventually arrived in Mazara, the largest trawler port in Italy. At the entrance a man in a boat beckoned us to follow him to the other side of the harbour. He wanted us to moor alongside a grotty motorboat where we would almost be touching the bottom. We said no thanks. On the way out we touched the bottom but managed to plough our way through the mud to deeper water. We then went to the pontoon where we were charged a steep fee. The wind was in the wrong direction to anchor outside the harbour, we didn't want to go back and it was too far to go on so, reluctantly, we stayed.