We didn’t mean to stay away (with apologies to Arthur Ransome)

Our last post on the blog was on 15 October, over a month ago now so I suppose I’d better start with an apology for tardiness. However, the blog will explain just why it is that we haven’t managed to put up a post! As before in some of our posts, if you’re reading this for the nautical input, stop now unless you’re interested in the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel; what follows is much more of a travelogue about our visit to the UK.

We had enjoyed the short time in Crete between arriving there and flying back to UK on 22 October for what was supposed to be a two week visit, the highlight of which was to be our attendance at Rob and Katie’s wedding (Rob being J’s nephew) in Deganwy, North Wales. We had a pretty tight itinerary, spending a couple of nights at my sister Susie’s house in North Yorkshire, followed by the wedding, then a couple of night with my other sister Jinny in Cheshire, before we headed south to see our son and his wife and catch our flight back to Crete on 3 November.

Susie and J on the bridge at Clapham, North Yorkshire on our way to Inglebrough Cave.

Things started to go awry almost immediately after our arrival at Susie’s house on the evening of 23 October. She told us that she needed to go into hospital for an operation which would entail 6 weeks of convalescence, during which time she would not be able to drive and would be very limited in her movements. As she is single and lives in a small village, this would be very difficult for her to manage so we volunteered to look after her when she came out of hospital. At that stage, she didn’t have a date for the operation but we decided that if it was before the end of November we would remain in UK whilst if it was any later, we’d go back to Crete as planned and then return to the UK to look after her.

After a great couple of days, overeating and walking in the hills round the village of Low Bentham where Susie lives, (and coincidentally where our children went to school,) we headed south to North Wales for the wedding. We had arranged to stay with our friend Richard Horovitz in Deganwy, about 5 minutes from the hotel where the wedding was being held. After a great welcome from Richard, we changed into our gladrags and were given a lift down to the hotel along with the promise of a lift back when required!

The Skipper climbing over a style above the caves at Inglebourgh.

It was a small wedding of only about 30 guests, so we were very pleased to have been invited to such a select gathering. The wedding ceremony was lovely, held in a large airy room overlooking the Conwy estuary and all the yacht moored there. Eric, the 3 year old son of the bride and groom, had a great time during the ceremony, handing the rings to the registrar and later taking the marriage certificate to his mother in the most amusingly offhand way. This was followed by a great meal and lots to drink; all to soon we needed to call in our lift back to Richard’s house.

Eric, having tossed the marriage certificate to his mother, was keen to get back to the festivities…..

The following morning, J went over to Rob and Katie’s house with a carload of papers, photos and sundry stuff from her parents’ house that we had been looking after since it was sold in the early naughties. The intention was to go through the boxes with her brother and sister in order to decide what to keep and what to dispose of thereby reducing the quantity and enabling us to move our remaining storage into a smaller unit, thus cutting down costs. In the event, they made a start but did not finish the job; however, Lizzie and Ian both took half the boxes away with them so we would no longer have to store them.

Rob, Katie and Eric – much better than a picture of boxes of family papers……

Sunday morning saw us moving on to Jinny’s house where we met up with both our daughters, Polly and Naomi plus our grandchildren, along with Susie. They had taken my mother to church and brought her back to the house for a great family lunch, which J and I cooked whilst the others were still at church. Mike and Jane plus family friend, Dee, also came to lunch so we were quite crowded round the kitchen table.

We had a further 2 days with the children at Jinny’s, enjoying the inevitable chaos of anywhere that involves Lily. We hired a day boat on the canal and pottered down the cut to Waverton where we had lunch from the local chip shop before returning to the marina. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day and we picked sloes and found some caches on the canalbank into the bargain.

The canal looking back towards Tattenhall Marina where Mike’s narrowboat is moored.

On Wednesday, J and I saw the children off back to their various homes before we went to our storage unit in Wrexham and moved all our stuff into a much smaller unit. In the interim, Susie had got in touch with us to let us know she had an appointment for her operation towards the end of November, so we now knew we would not be returning to Crete until she was better, probably early in the New Year. We sent emails to friends in the marina to let them know what was happening: as we had not intended to be away for long we had left things like onions and potatoes on board which would have spoiled if left several weeks!

On Thursday we took our rental car back to Birmingham airport, picked up a replacement and carried on to London by way of Banbury, where we stopped for lunch. We spent that night with our friends Gill and Simon Camamile; we had a terrific time with them catching up on ten years’ worth of gossip and news over a great meal out followed by a visit to Annabel’s.

We spent the weekend with Jonno and Lucy in Putney. They had told us recently that they had great news; Lucy is expecting their first child in April 2014. As a result, they have decided to move out of London and their one bedroomed flat and find a house. They’d told us this just before we left Crete but we arrived to find that not only had they sold their current place but they’d found one in Farnham to move to, all within a week of putting their flat on the market. We had a great weekend with them, visiting the farmers’ market in Barnes and going for a great walk near Frensham Ponds on Sunday, before having lunch with Lucy’s parents in Farnham.

The joys of urban caching. Lucy, Julia and the Skipper completing the log for a cache in Putney.

On Monday we had a leisurely get-up before we motored down to near Salisbury to stay with Mags in Redlynch. We stayed 3 days with her, taking long walks in the New Forest and generally taking things easy before we drove on to Falmouth to stay with Polly and Tommy.

Again, we took things gently here, sorting out some admin as Polly and Tommy now act as our postal address for all things official and financial. I visited an osteopath for treatment to my back and knees, which seems to have worked, but otherwise we just didn’t do very much at all other than go for walks and eat well!

J and Polly at Helford – no sloes although there are lots of sloe bushes….

All too soon it was time to move on again and we headed to Bristol to stay with friends, Pete and Tig. Once again, we had a great evening putting the world to rights over an excellent meal and possibly just a touch too much wine. It emerged that Pete was about to depart for a 3 day cruise on his yacht Sheigra, aiming to go to Swansea and Cardiff. Seeing as we were heading to Cardiff next anyway, and I had not done any UK sailing for ages, I foolishly scrounged a place on board whilst J agreed to go on single-handed to stay with her brother, Ian, and I would join her on Saturday or Sunday depending on the weather. (She had arranged to stay with Ian where they would be joined by Lizzie to finish trawling through the family stuff.)

I had a great, if chilly (no, not chilly, freezing), time sailing with Pete and Mike. Sheigra lives in Portishead Marina, a locked dock just south of the mouth of the Avon. We left at 0530 on Friday morning and found wind and tide to take us about 30 miles down to Watchet, a lovely little harbour. We had to anchor off the harbour for about 2 hours to wait for the tide to come in enough to enter the harbour. That evening we ate at the local Indian before turning in fairly early, as we needed to catch the tide at 0700 the following morning.

Swansea had been abandoned as a destination as there wasn’t enough wind, so we headed for Cardiff under the motor. It was fascinating for a Med sailor to be back in UK waters again, coping with tidal flows and so on. No longer can you simply aim the boat at your destination and wait until you arrive; instead you have to take account of the tide pushing you to one side or the other and wondering if there will be enough depth of water at your destination when you arrive. In the event, we got to the locks on the Cardiff Barrage about an hour before there was enough water to let us get into them! We spent quite some time sitting firmly aground waiting for the tide to lift us off so we could get to the locks.

Once into the Bay, we made our way into Penarth Marina where I called J and she came down in the car to pick me up. Thanks to Pete and Mike for letting remember why we spend our time in the Med – it really was cold out on the water, and thanks to J for letting me go.

I wrote the above on a borrowed laptop at Ian and Barbara’s whilst Ian, Liz and Julia sorted through reams of old photos and letters. J and I moved on next day, returning to Richard’s for a couple of nights and from there to spend a few nights with my brother, Mike and wife Jane aboard their narrowboat. While there we made the necessary alterations to a special narrowboat awning known as a cratch cover which J orininally made last spring while we were still at the marina in St Carles in Spain. Sadly the measurements I’d made we’re not quite accurate so work was needed to get the thing to fit. It took a while but the end result was pretty satisfactory.

The new cratch cover fitted to the now of NB Gotaroundtoit.

Susie came to collect us last Sunday from Mike and Jane’s. At this point J decided to entertain us all by doing a free fall tumbling display down the aft companionway of Mike’s boat, attempting to kill a free-standing radiator in the process. No, she wasn’t drunk on this occasion! We’d been using the forward doors throughout our visit so she’d forgotten that the steps at the back do not go across the full width of the doorway but are offset to one side and unable to see in the pitch dark, she stepped down into a void. She now has a magnificent sent of evenly spaced bruises down her rib cage courtesy of the radiator and has been trying to avoid coughing or laughing ever since.

Nearly a week has since passed, Susie has now had her op and her little dog Sandy is coming to terms with us as his walking companions. We expect the boss home from hospital early next week and in the meantime, our sister Jinny is visiting later today.

We’ll be at Susie’s for the next few weeks. We’ll post an update once things become clearer, in terms of our return to Crete, as there is a possibility that we’ve been booked for house moving duties with Jonno and Lucy once Susie is back on her feet.

Susie, sitting up and taking note of things in hospital after her operation.

Corfu to Crete

The last blog was from J telling the tale of being a surrogate parent; this blog tells of getting back together again and sailing away from Nidri towards our winter home in Crete.

Overview of the Ionian and Crete. Note: red dotted line is 3 mile limit, NOT our course!

J’s return went as planned and I picked her up in Igonoumitsa after Claudio and Corinne met her at the airport and had lunch with her before putting her on the ferry. We had a couple of days catching our breath in Nidri before setting off on our journey south. We went first all of about 3 miles to Little Vathi on Meganisi; we would have liked to stayed a couple of days there but Alex was apologetic but firm: they had a big wedding to cater for and us scruffy yachties were not welcome (not expressed like that, but we got the message).

Our next port of call was Frikes on Ithaca. We’d not been there this year and had a couple of days alongside. We had a boat raft up with us which turned out to be a young Danish couple with a charter boat heading to Athens along with their 7 year old daughter and 4 month old baby – oh, and Grandpa as crew!

We’d hoped to get refuelled in Frikes, as there is a tanker that comes round but this late in the season I think that he’s given up. We were down to less than a ¼ of a tank, so when we left there a couple of days later, we headed straight to Big Vathi, where there is a fuel berth and topped up there. We took 120 litres which into a 150 litre tank shows how far I’d allowed things to slip. I should have put some fuel in by jerry can whilst I was at anchor in Nidri but didn’t do so. Mea culpa.

Once we’d fuelled up, we set off again and made our way round to Poros on the southern end of Kephalonia, where we sat and waited out a couple of days’ southerly winds. We met Ken and Jean off “Jade” and had a couple of evenings drinking a little too much and playing cards games and dominos together. As we departed, Jean presented us with an oregano plant with the instruction that we should keep it for one month before passing it on to someone else.

Anyway, once the winds died away, we set off south again to Katakolon, the cruise liner port for Olympia. Leon, the berthing master there gave us a great welcome (he claimed to remember us from 2 years ago – hmm,) and treated us to Drambuie when we went to pay our berthing fees. We were stuck there by winds for another 4 days. We had a long walk round the headland one day and serviced the engine but spent a fair bit of time just reading books for want of anything else to do!

Approaching Pylos

Our next hop was to Pylos. We had a rolly passage with an uncomfortable following swell left over from the high winds of the previous couple of days.
It was clear before we arrived here that we’d be stuck for a few days, as the winds in the sea between southern mainland Greece and Crete were from the east and in excess of 30 knots. The winds blew like this for several days so we resigned ourselves to another stop and decided to rent a car for a day and do a little exploring. We also needed to buy a top up card for our internet access and were unable to find anywhere in Pylos to do this so last Saturday we set off by road to Kalamata where we found a Vodafone shop without too much trouble. The rest of the day was spent looking for geocaches, which took us down the westernmost peninsula to Koroni where we had a belated lunch on the waterfront. The anchorage where we stayed two summers ago was deserted in early October, despite the sunshine and apparently calm seas. Further south, if the weather charts were to be believed, there were some quite exciting winds! We then continued clockwise round the peninsula to Methoni. We’d hoped to visit the castle there which we did not explore last time we were in the region, but we arrived too late in the afternoon and the gates were shut. Instead we stopped for a coffee in a taverna on the square before heading back to Pylos.

Tall ship in Pylos harbour

While in Pylos we met another British couple waiting for a weather window before going south and east. Having helped them to tie up alongside, we invited David and Angie aboard “Rampage” for a few drinks. They too were planning to rent a car and in the event took over the car we had had, thus saving us from returning it to the hotel on the other side of town and them from walking round the next morning to pick it up. The rental chap was happy with this arrangement too so it was a win, win situation! They went off further afield than us for a couple of days but on Tuesday they invited us to join them to visit Methoni.

One of the Turkish bath buildings in Methoni castle

Methoni castle turned out to be every bit as interesting as it had looked from the sea. Indeed to be more accurate it was more of a fortified town, built by the Venetians like many others on this coast, to protect trading routes. Interestingly there were a couple of buildings which appeared to be Turkish baths and another which we were unable to identify at all but may have been some sort of sanctuary. It was a square, two storey building with a beautifully constructed roof but only one small window facing inland. It seemed too dark and small to be an important residence yet too carefully constructed for a prison, too vulnerable to attack from the sea to be a good munitions store but not a lookout post either. Curious! The citadel of the main castle is out on a little island off the southern shore, and this had variously been used as a lookout, lighthouse, prison, store and place of refuge in time of siege. We had a great morning there and introduced Angie and David to geocaching while we were at it!

The lighthouse/store/prison/last redoubt at Methoni set on a tiny island offshore

After a coffee on the square, we all headed back to Koroni where once again we stopped for a latish lunch before heading back, this time across country over the hills. That evening we all got together a final time on board their boat, “Hurrah” in order to be introduced to a game called “Mexican Train,” which involves a set of twelve spot dominoes and a wonderful device which makes steam train noises. My father would have loved it!

Duncan with Angie and David from “Hurrah”

We agreed that the next day looked favourable for escape so by 08:30 we were waving farewell as we set off south on the final leg of our trip to Crete. Angie and David are heading for Marmaris but may come via Crete so we may possibly meet up again in the next few days.

We managed to sail for a couple of hours but it rapidly became obvious that in order to get around the point south of Methoni we would need to switch on the engine. From that point on the wind all but disappeared and we motored for the rest of the 2 day trip. We had poured over the charts and weather forecasts at length in order to arrange our arrival in Agios Nikolaos in daylight. We hadn’t however, bargained for a strong, favourable current which swept us along the north coast of Crete at more than 7 knots. On Thursday evening we debated finding an anchorage for the night so that we could arrive next morning in daylight. However, we’d left it too late and would not arrive at the nearest anchorage until well after dark. Not prepared to venture into an unknown anchorage in the dark, we pressed on through the night but throttled right back to 1000 rpm so that we were able to come into the marina at just after 08:00.

Manoeuvring into our berth on C pontoon was quite tight, although others are trickier, we are told and with no wind to trouble us, Duncan brought her in without a problem. Our friends Nicky and Paul aboard “Carmel” are next-door-but-one and we were immediately invited to join them for coffee before collapsing into bed for the rest of the morning to catch up on our sleep.

Sunday barbecue at Agios Nikolaos marina

First impressions of our new winter home are very good. The town seems to be pleasant with good facilities, the marina likewise with lots of folk around just now. Numbers will drop as many cruisers go home for the winter months but today we attended the weekly Sunday barbecue and there must have been 30 people there. It is a very much more civilised affair than the Sunday barbecues in Messolonghi with tables and chairs, a pleasant building to retreat to, should it rain and no unsightly piles of rubble and mess around. We have been told there are walking groups, possible Greek lessons, music groups, Bridge playing and various other delights so there should be plenty to keep us amused through the winter months. (There are also quite a few caches on Crete…!)

J flys to Dublin whilst Andy stays in Greece

Well, our last blog closed with Lizzie leaving Greece for gloomy Kent whilst we expected Andy to arrive the following day. To his credit, he appeared on time and in the right place on 23 August, walking straight into some fun and games.

You remember from previous blogs that we’ve been having some problems with electricity supply this year. Lizzie brought out a box of tricks to try and resolve the problem and it did do half the trick – increasing the amount of power delivered to the batteries. However, the batteries themselves were no longer retaining the charge like they’re meant to, no matter how much energy is pumped into them. In short, they were not dead yet but dying on their feet. So we decided to replace them no rather than waiting for the winter to arrive. Before Andy got to Corfu, I priced up replacements and found some quality ones at a price that only made me wince a little.

Andy’s first job therefore was to help me in the business of collecting the new batteries from the shop, transferring them to the dinghy and then on board, fitting them and finally disposing of the old ones. These batteries are heavy brutes so it was no easy matter but we managed to do it that first afternoon, including using a very efficient crimping tool, loaned to me by the shop, for making a professional job of the cable terminals (we now have three batteries in place of the previous two, hence lots of extra heavy grade cable). The picture below shows Andy and I crimping a terminal on to the new cable.

Once that job was finished it was time to rest and have supper. We then agreed that we should head for Petriti the following day before carrying on to Gaios and thence to Platerias before returning to Corfu the following Saturday evening so J could fly out to Dublin.

If you follow the blog, then you’ll know all about the places we were going to visit but just for a change, the picture below is taken with the new camera Andy brought out for us,which very cleverly takes panoramic views with minimal skill or human intervention. It shows Petriti from the boat fairly early in the morning.

Gaios remained as crowded as ever and as full of only slightly competent crews, especially when it comes to anchoring skills. We stayed 4 nights there before heading off to Platerias; resetting the anchor once and rescuing other folks from their anchor nightmares 3 times! Whilst having a beer in town early one evening (always a good time to sit by the water and watch the chaos of arriving boats), we saw what we presume to be a bride walk past to her boat, escorted by sundry musicians.

Platerias, where we went next, was packed out, mainly with Italians waiting for a break in the northerly winds. This meant we went on to the town wall rather than the sinking quay; no problem except there’s no electricity there. The winds were gusty and blowing along the wall, making life quite difficult when mooring. There is no substitute in these conditions for getting lined up early and dropping the anchor well off, using it to help steady the boat as you approach the quay. We saw all sorts of variations on the theme during the afternoon and helped out in a number of cases. One bunch of scousers more or less gave up and allowed a group of us to manhandle their boat into a berth whilst I wound up mooring a German crewed charter boat. As the skipper said, he can moor in the Baltic no problem but had never encountered this method of mooring before.

Having spent two nights at Platerias, interspersed by windy days, we headed for Corfu town on Friday 30 August. We got a little bit of sailing in before the wind, which had blown strongly the previous 2 days packed in and went away. Corfu town was as busy as ever and we had an early night but Andy found sleep difficult with karaoke on one side and Zorba the Greek on the other. Then it rained, so we had to shut the hatches. That killed sleep for J but I didn’t have a problem, although Andy picked up some cracking mossie bites that night. Optimists and Lasers from the local sailing club as kids learn the art of dinghy sailing.

The following day I decided it was time to clean the prop of all the growth it had picked up since our relaunch in March. J and I used the scuba gear and spent a happy hour or so cleaning the bottom of the hull and the prop; there wasn’t much growth on the hull but the prop had a fair bit of fouling. That evening, we went ashore for a meal before J departure for Dublin the following day.

We waved J off at the airport and then set off for Mongonisi on Paxos, about a 6 hour transit. However, when we arrived, we decided it was too full and went back up to anchor off the entrance to Gaios harbour. After a meal, we both had an early night before setting off the following morning at the early hour of 0740. A clear run down to the Lefkas bridge saw us having to wait about 15 minutes before the bridge opened on the hour at 1400. And so Rampage returned once more to anchor in Tranqul Bay, Nidri.

It was a bit of old home week for both Andy and I, as we met up with old friends from Gouvia and Messilonghi. Les and Tina on Locomocean were on the Nicholson pontoon whilst Claudio and Corrine on Levithia anchored in the bay as we shared a beer ashore.

The following day was spent taking it easy before we hired a car on Wednesday. Andy wanted to visit Simon of Sivota Yacht Services who has been keeping an eye on Curly Sue so we went there first. Simon turned out to be on holiday but we had an excellent fat boys breakfast in one of the local cafes before heading into Lefkas to do some shopping.

The following day we drove to Preveza to see Curly Sue, Andy’s boat. She’s been on the hard there since May 2012 and he was not looking forward to seeing her. In fact, she was in remarkably good condition and I think Andy was much heartened by seeing her. We then carried on to Igonoumitsa for Andy to catch the Corfu ferry; he was due to fly back to UK the following day and we’d decided that it was better for him to spend a night in a hotel rather than getting up at a really nasty hour in the morning.

I then had a lonely drive back to Nidri, where I will remain home alone for another 2 weeks until J returns from Dublin. For her accounts of the joys of being a grandmother in charge of 3 lively kids, you’ll have to wait until she returns to Greece and has had a chance to recover.

Alarms and Excitements!

Most of the time, cruising the summer months is pretty close to idyllic, particularly here in the Ionian. The past 2 days, however, have been less than brilliant so I’m hoping by telling you what’s been happening we will bring our short spell of unpleasantness to a halt before my sister, Lizzie, arrives on Wednesday evening.

After a few days of idle existence following Poll’s departure, we thought we’d better return to the anchorage near Gouvia marina to tackle the ubiquitous heap of laundry and visit a friend of ours, Glynis, who works through the summer months at the pool bar at one of the Kontokali hotels. After a couple of days there we set off for Plataria on the mainland opposite Corfu island. We had not been there for a couple of years but knew we could fill water tanks and plug into shore power to give the batteries a boost. On arrival last Wednesday evening, the harbour looked pretty crowded so we anchored off outside and moved into the harbour the next day. As we prepared to reverse back onto the quayside we recognised our new friends from the previous week, Carole and Ian from ‘Maximilian’ who came running to take our shore lines. It was terrific to see them again and shortly after our arrival, other friends of theirs came in and naturally we all got together that evening for a few drinks!

The sea wall to which we were tied has been quietly sinking for some time but the problem seems to have become even worse since we were last there. The tide only lifts the water level by a few inches but it’s enough to flood the quayside:

Please note the wonderfully Greek solution to the problem – simply mounting the electricity and water posts on concrete plinths!

Although we now had access to both the above facilities, we discovered that Internet connection there was very poor, so both mornings, armed with D’s iPad, we stumped off to find a cafe with wifi and check our emails etc over coffee and croissants. Having breakfast out isn’t actually terribly extravagant but somehow always feels very decadent!

We had a pleasant couple of days in Plataria, getting together with Anne and David from ‘Dragonfly’ for a few drinks on board ‘Rampage’, Ian and Carole having pushed off back to Corfu that morning to meet their other son who was flying in the next day.

And so it was that on Saturday, having washed the decks and filled the water tanks, we set off just a few miles down the coast to Mourtos. Now unlike most people who cruise in this area we had never actually stayed in Mourtos before. The one previous occasion when we tried to anchor we found it was impossibly crowded and had found our way round to the little bay just to the south of this collection of islands where we met ‘Maximilian’ for the first time while Susie was with us. Having just spent two nights on a town quay, and having heard that the anchorage was now cleared of flotilla boats and thus less crowded, we decided to give it another go.

We dropped the hook and then hastily erected the wind scoop and shade tents and for an hour or so all was well although even then we’d decided we’d not be returning as the anchorage is a thoroughfare for lots of small speed boats and day boats so we were constantly rolling from their wash which gets very tedious very quickly.

Above is the anchorage shortly before the wind picked up. (I photographed these two girls in their rubber rings swigging from cans of drink as it reminded me of Polly when she was with us, reading her book while lolling in a rubber ring!). Just after this we decided to drop the shade tent to reduce windage and before we knew where we were, there were anchors popping all round us and chaos reigned with boats roaring through the anchorage at full speed to get to the harbour before the full brunt of the storm hit. Although our anchor was fine we decided this was not a good place to stay as the wind was funnelling down through the anchorage between the islands, so we made hasty preparations and left, heading for the other anchorage. As we made our way round the outside of the group of islands by Mourtos it was chilling to hear a frantic Mayday call from one of the other boats there which had wound up on the rocks.

When we arrived at the Sivota bay the wind was blowing straight across it so we found somewhere just to the north of there which was reasonably sheltered and sat out the rest of the storm with a handful of other boats. When the wind dropped however, we decided that we were too close to a large ketch if it should swing towards us in the night. Thus, we did eventually wind up in our preferred bay, with long lines ashore. By then it was about 9:30pm and we were both fairly shattered so rather than the barbecue we’d originally planned, we fell back on the Byrne Emergency Meal of bockwurst and baked beans before collapsing into bed.

Above is the anchorage at Sivota, just south of the Mourtos islands.

Yesterday started well. We both had a lovely swim and then walked over the hill into the town at Mourtos where we had a delicious lunch at a waterfront restaurant. Back at the bay, we were delighted to discover that once again ‘Maximilian’ had come in to anchor. We immediately invited them for drinks aboard ‘Rampage’ that evening. It never happened.

It was now mid-afternoon and the wind was picking up again. Back on board ‘Rampage’ we spotted that the anchor was not holding very well. We have found the Rocna to be excellent but even that does really dig in well where there is a lot of sea grass and weed. Initially we tried putting out the kedge anchor but that did not dig in either so we decided to drop the shorelines with a fender to act as a buoy and a small folding grapnel anchor to hold it in position while we hauled and reset the main anchor. Unfortunately we then dropped it too far out, so had to repeat the exercise and this time, reversing back to the shore lines we managed to get one wrapped round the rudder. Duncan was able to sort this quite quickly but once things start to go wrong they often continue. The next thing we knew was the little anchor had made a bid for freedom and become detached from the buoy. In 6+ metres of water, there was no way D was going to free dive for that at this point so we wrote it off, and may yet try to recover it at some later date.

While all this was going on, ‘Maximilian’ too was having problems and was being blown onto a couple of very smart super-yachts anchored in the bay, only being held off by the crew and dinghies of both motor yachts. By this time we’d decided we’d be better on the far side of the bay but when D set off in the dinghy to recover our shore lines the propellor fell off the outboard to disappear forever in the sea grass below. This was the final straw and realising that we would need to return to Corfu to buy a replacement prop. We decided to head off. ‘Maximilian’ had decided to go down to Parga but Ian kindly came back in their dinghy to help us recover our lines.

Mourtos harbour where all was peace and quiet as we had lunch on the waterfront yesterday.

After all the fun and games we had a great sail but after two and a half hours tacking into the wind we decided to go back to Plataria rather than try to get back to Corfu. This we did, anchoring off once more and this morning we returned to the anchorage under the citadel. The skipper has just retuned having rowed ashore a couple of hours ago to walk across town to buy a new propellor. The outboard shop was closed and now i find that the pork souvlaki that we were going tohave for supper has gone off! Just hope that tomorrow our luck changes and we manage to rid ourselves of this jinx before Lizzie arrives. Below is Corfu anchorage.

Polly has fun in the sun

We left you breathless after Susie’s visit as we sought to sort out Rampage before Polly arrived on 26 August, including doing a mountain of laundry, laying in victuals for a few days and generally having a bit of a dig out on board. We anchored once again under the Old Citadel in Corfu town so as to be close to the airport and had a relaxed evening before suddenly realising that time was slipping by and making a dash ashore: failing to find a taxi immediately on landing resulted in a fine, brisk walk to the main square before we found one. We still made it to the airport in plenty of time and then made our way back on board.

Looking at the Log Book reveals a surprise, as we departed the anchorage the next day at 10.15 – I could have sworn it was much later than that, as the girls had sat up until lord knows when putting the world to rights and catching up on gossip. We went to Syvota again, anchoring in more or less the same spot as we’d been in with Susie, having visited the caves again en route, except that Polly and J swam in rather than taking the dinghy.

We had a BBQ on board that evening – much easier to eat chops at a table – and, once again, the ladies sat up until the small hours. After a trip ashore for essential provisions the day was spent flopping in and out of the water to keep cool, as the temperature was in the low thirties. J and Polly did a lot of snorkelling, which led to what is possibly a unique incident in the annals of the sport. Somehow (no rational explanation has yet been provided), J managed to head butt a sea urchin. She returned to the boat with an impressive collection of spines sticking out of her forehead, which took Polly some time to remove, once we’d both stopped giggling. The mess was improved by my administration of some spray antiseptic, which left a large brown splodge on J’s forehead. Strangely, I can’t find any of the collection of pictures I recall taking….

We left the next day, heading for Gaios. As the picture above shows, we finally got a bit of wind on the trip, using the cruising chute for the first time this year; Polly took the picture from the dinghy on the end of a long line from the stern. In Gaios we once again moored in the northern part of the harbour and sorted a key card out for the water and electricity post, so we had a full charge on the batteries for once.

The next day (Tuesday 30 Jul), we hired scooters to explore the island. The kitten above was found on our first stop at Logos; it is part of a delightful population of cats in the village, all of which seem to be very photogenic and appreciated by both the local residents and visitors. We carried on from there to Lakka on the north of the island where we had lunch before heading to the south of the island for cold drinks and ice creams. Unfortunately, riding a scooter seems to disagree with my lower back, so I retired hurt whilst Polly took J off to the beach for a swim. This nearly resulted in disaster, as Polly had never had pillion passenger before……. They managed not to get themselves trapped under a dropped scooter and not to hit anything in the chaos that is Gaios.

The next day my back was still causing trouble, so Polly and J took the dinghy and went off swimming whilst I took things easy. The rest of the day passed in similar fashion before we went out to supper at the same little place we went to with Susie, a real break from the taverna mould.

This left us with one more night before Polly’s flight back to UK, so we decided to sail up to Petriti on Corfu, about 2 hours sailing away from the town. Again, we struck lucky with the wind and managed to sail for a good deal of the way.

OK, I know there’s no sails in the photo, but the picture above shows Polly at the helm under sail. Petriti is a small village about half way up the east coast of Corfu. It has a small harbour and a good muddy bottom for anchoring. We got there late afternoon and spent the evening barbecuing an enormous bag of prawns. The following morning, J and Polly took the dinghy ashore to dump rubbish and get water and food. When they reappeared, they brought with the an entire rack of lamb chops for supper.

The trip up to Corfu town was short and uneventful. Polly and J followed their established pattern by getting into the water as soon as we arrived. This time, Polly hit on the ultimate answer to how to stay cool and read your book….

Polly’s flight was late – after eleven pm – so we had supper first, albeit earlier than normal. We each had large quantities of lamb chops with potato salad. We couldn’t quite manage the whole lot of them – one got saved for lunch the following day….. We put Polly into a taxi to the airport at about ten pm, glad to know that Tommy had arranged to meet her at Bristol and spend the night in a local hotel rather than driving all the way to Falmouth that night. We meandered back to Rampage feeling a little flat after her visit.

The next day, I explored the area away from the town centre and finally found some “real” shops where we could get victuals, thus making the anchorage really viable. We think we will stay here as a default setting when in Corfu. That evening, we tried out J’s birthday present, a small handheld GPS that I’d got Polly to bring out from UK. It’s less obvious than the iPad for finding geocaches. We found one cache in the warren of back streets in the old tow of Corfu but failed to find two others: if we’d had the iPad with us, the details give would have helped us out!

The view from the Old Citadel, looking north, quite made up for failing to find the cache! We returned the following evening and found both caches we failed to locate the day before.

Yesterday, we moved round to the Gouvia anchorage to tackle the laundry pile before it overwhelms us. We met up with Glynis, our old friend fro Gouvia days, at Spiti Prifiti and she has said that she’ll do the laundry, so we’re going ashore soon to have lunch in the bar where she works and drop off the heap. And that’s it. All up to date. Our next visitor is J’s sister Lizzie, who arrives on 14 August for a week before Andy arrives on 23!

Lizzie will be bringing a new box of electronic whizz bangery to make the battery charging more efficient, as the batteries have been struggling to keep pace with the demands placed on them by the fridge in the hot weather. Watch this space for the fun and games involved in fitting them!

Susie’s Descent!

One thing I did not mention in the previous post was the problems we had been having with the outboard which kept dying on us. D took it apart, changed all the fuel, spark plugs etc countless times and it would seem to be ok, only to splutter to a halt the next time we used it. The night before Susie’s arrival, we were in the anchorage outside Gouvia in order to victual up, top up with water etc. we also went to see our friends, Alan and Bern who were in the marina at that point. The outboard made the trip of about a mile into the marina but then once again, refused to start when we were ready to head back to the anchorage. Alan very kindly lent us his outboard, just to get us home that night and next morning when we returned, he already had ours in pieces and was busy working on it. He and Duncan then spent the rest of the morning trying to figure out what was wrong and when I returned from the shops they were pretty confident they had cracked the problem.

We motored the five miles or so down the coast to anchor under the citadel of Corfu town and D checked again that the outboard would start which it did. However, when it was time for me to go ashore to meet Susie, once again it turned up it’s toes and D had to row me ashore pretty briskly in order that I would be at the airport in time. He was not a happy chap. Just as we’ll he’s a bloke – I would have cried at that point!

The taxi driver who brought Susie and I back to the quayside was completely stunned that she had come on holiday with nothing but a tiny day sack. This was however, very sensible of her as most of the time we live in swim wear at the moment as it’s just so hot.

Susie was thrilled by the rather romantic setting of the anchorage and next morning, after a swim, she and I pottered about in the dinghy taking photos of Rampage dressed with flags to celebrate Susie’s visit. Earlier, we’d all pooled our cash and the Skipper had gone ashore and stumped round the headland to the dealers round by the port and bought a new outboard! This was a large and unforeseen expense but quite understandably, he had had enough and reckoned our ancient Yamaha two stroke owed us nothing and should be consigned to the scrap heap. (For those of you who are interested, the new outboard is a Suzuki GF2.5).

We then set off across a satin smooth sea to the anchorage of Ormos Valtrou on the mainland near Igoumenitsa. En route we encountered a pod of dolphins who crossed right under us but didn’t stop to play as they were quite clearly on their way somewhere.

Ormos Valtrou is in the Thiamis river delta and is very isolated and rather beautiful. Because of all the nutrients in the water, it is not clear but an almost opaque green, but we swam anyway as it was so hot and we reckoned there was nothing in the area to pollute it, ‘though it was somewhat unnerving not to be able to see one’s feet!

Above is the Skipper lolling in the dinghy playing with his … new outboard!

We stayed a couple of days in Ormos Valtrou, enjoying the peace and fabulous sunsets and amazed by the jumping fish which would leap anything up to a metre up and even further across the surface of the water. This went on throughout the day but particularly in the evening so we presume they are feeding on small insects just above the surface of the water.

On the Saturday (20th July,) having start to run short of fresh food, we upped anchor and set off further down the mainland coast to Mourtos. Shortly before we reached there however, Susie noticed a vast cave in the cliffs and was keen to explore. We put the outboard onto the dinghy and she and I set off. The cave is huge – maybe 12 metres high and deep and 25 metres across at the widest point. It is quite shallow though, so I was cautious about hitting rocks lurking just below the surface. We retuned to Rampage and I went aboard and D went back with Susie, armed with cameras so we are able to give you some impression of the size:

The anchorage we chose at Mourtos is south of the town and the crowds of boats around the islands there. Indeed for a while we were on our own in the bay when we suddenly noticed we’d been joined by another yacht. The owners, Carole and Ian, with their son, Sam, all came swimming over to us, much excited to have found us there since apparently they have been following this blog for more than two years and indeed commented on it on one occasion.

Next morning, Susie swam ashore, clothes and money in a dry bag, to buy bread and biscuits. We had been invited aboard “Maximillian” for coffee and chat before “Maximillian” and crew set off south to Preveza and the Levkas canal. We very much hope we’ll meet up again later in the summer. Below is the Skipper and self with Carole and Ian:

We spent a further day swimming and snorkelling in the crystal clear water. There was plenty to see but the water was distinctly chilly in places and when the water was disturbed so that the cold and warmer water mixed it created a curious hazy, mottled effect.

Our next stop was Gaios on Paxos. This is a favourite place of Duncan’s and mine so we were keen to take Susie. In addition we were starting to run low in water and knew we could get more by going on the quay there. This we duly did – myself managing to get liberally sprayed by the hose from the water truck in the process. It was actually very welcome as the weather was stinking hot without a breathe of a breeze. (We didn’t manage to sail once during Susie’s visit although I don’t think she was unduly worried, having felt very poorly last year when sailing with us to Mallorca.)

The next day after the inevitable early morning walk to locate a geocache, we moved off the quay and round to the anchorage just outside the southern entrance to the channel at Gaios formed by the island in the bay. There we had the best snorkelling of the trip with underwater visibility of 20 to 25 metres and lots of fish and incredible topography. On the Monday evening we found a wonderful restaurant where we had a quite superb meal. Unfortunately the photo is very blurred due to the poor light:

Susie loved the winding streets and pretty little shops, and had great fun choosing presents for her friends while we were there, (we did eventually reimburse her for the cash she lent us towards the purchase of the new outboard!). After a day in and out of the water, including a swim after dark, we went ashore once more, on Susie’s final evening, to find a bar that had been playing wonderful jazzy music the previous night. Even though the music wasn’t quite so good, the ambience was great and it was a fitting end to her visit. Next day we headed back to the anchorage by Corfu town in time for her flight that evening.

Jinny’s Visit

I think it’s fair to say that the summer visit of Duncan’s sister, Jinny, is now an established annual event. Despite the fact she doesn’t sail, she is an almost perfect boatie guest – happy to put up with the fairly basic conditions, water usage restrictions and limited privacy. In addition, she has good sea legs, (indeed she has good legs, period – damn her!) plus she is a real water baby, happy to spend long periods with a snorkel and mask pottering along rocky shorelines delighting in the underwater world. Finally she’s prepared to lie and read for hours on end and take herself off when it all gets a bit too much. It is an accepted pattern that if we are passage making but unable to sail, Jin will arm herself with a cushion, a bottle of water and a book and take herself off to lie on the foredeck – and a very fine figurehead she does make!

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(Our apologies for the finger in the top corner of the above photo – still not brilliant at using the iPad as a camera but Jinny liked this picture so have used it anyway!)

We had suggested to Jinny that she should fly to Kephalonia this time as it is fairly convenient for a number of the islands south of the Levkas canal. Having bid farewell to Bern and Alan on Meganisi, we set off south to Port Leone on Kalamos – one of our favourite anchorages in the Ionian. There is nothing there apart from the ruins of a little village, (abandoned in 1953 after an earthquake destroyed the water supply,) a few goats and a little chapel. It is well sheltered from prevailing winds and very beautiful so we decided it should be our first stop with Jinny.

After a couple of nights there, we carried on to Poros on Kephalonia where we confidently expected to pick up a scooter so D could go to collect his sister from the airport at Argostoli. This proved impossible. At one time Poros, with its magnificent stretch of beach and beautiful scenery, was a fairly busy tourist destination but its popularity has waned as modern visitors demand air conditioning and swimming pools etc. As a result it has become a sleepy little place and it was only with the greatest good luck that D managed to find an ex-pat Brit who took pity on him and agreed to let us hire a rather ancient car for the day. We decided to seize the opportunity to do a little geocaching before meeting her in the evening, and thus it was that we found ourselves toiling up to the ancient castle ruins on the headland at Assos in the heat of the day. There is the most magnificent pathway that winds it’s way up from sea level, almost certainly the result of EU funding, and the ruins at the top are fairly unremarkable but the view down onto Assos is spectacular.

Jinny seemed to like Port Leone as much as we do, although she agreed that the water there was cooler than expected – possibly there is a fresh water spring coming into the bay, or maybe it’s just that the water is very deep there. Indeed because of the depth there, rather than free anchoring, we always take long lines ashore.

Apologies for the varying sizes of photo in this post – I am still getting to grips with publishing the blog via the iPad.

After a couple of nights in Port Leone, we took Jin to another favourite spot of ours, Kastos, where we were able to buy a few provisions a the tiny shop, sit admiring the view from one of the little tavernas and indulge in a rare treat: ice-creams!

From Kastos, we headed back to Little Vathi, introduced to us only the previous week by Bern and Alan. We thought we might be able to sail but were fooled by the fluky winds at the northern end of Kalamos and after only 15 minutes, we were obliged to use the engine again. On arrival at Little Vathi, however, we found that the stitching on the sail bag was giving up the unequal struggle against the UV. After some discussion we decided that the only answer was to remove the sail bag from the boom for repair. This coincided with a spell of extremely still, hot weather so D and I were up early the following morning to drop the mainsail and perform a mining expedition in the port cabin to find the extremely well buried sewing machine, which we had not envisaged having to use for several months. Then as Jinny and Duncan took the dinghy round to the village to buy bread for breakfast, I got on with re-stitching the sail bag:

We attempted nothing further that day as it was just too hot to do more than swim and relax in the shade. George’s at Little Vathi is very popular; provided that you eat in the little taverna there, use of the pontoon is free. There is electricity, water, showers and a washing machine plus a dear little beach and bar:

The place is run by a tiny, extremely ferocious little Romanian girl called Alex who had told us we were welcome to stay for two nights but would then have to leave as they were fully booked. Thus it was that we were all up early again the next day before departure, to replace the sail bag and mainsail, with all the attendant delights of sorting out the reefing lines:

For our final stop we decided to go back to Fiskardo where we’d taken Jinny two years ago. In marked contrast to Port Leone or Kastos, it is extremely tourist orientated, but charming for all that, with lots of attractive bars and restaurants, boutique shops and flowers everywhere. We’d originally planned to spend just one night there before going on to Agios Efimia. However when we found we could pick up a rental car there, in order to take Jin back to the airport, we decided to stay put, enjoying some lovely snorkelling, some amazing iced coffees, a barbecue on the beach and a great meal out on Jin’s final evening. D and I took ourselves off one evening to look for a cache in the area and in the process found the ruins of a little castle, the existence of which, we had previously had no suspicion:

After dropping Jin at the airport we decided to look for a few more. Geocaches in this part of the world are well spread out, and mostly need wheels in order to reach them so we still haven’t found all the ones on Kephalonia but those we did that day included one which took us up into the mountains with spectacular views down over Argostoli and beyond:

Hazy but you get the idea! This particular cache again involved a hot climb in the heat of the afternoon so the following one to a magnificent cave filled with stalactites and stalagmites was both fascinating and a blessed relief from the staggering heat:

If you look closely you can just about see me peering down from an upper level.

Ostensibly to celebrate my birthday, but actually just because we really wanted to, the following day we joined a dive boat out of Fiskardo. This was a big deal as the last time I paid to go diving was in Santa Ponsa, Mallorca three years ago. On the first dive we swam down through a narrow gully to an underwater cave which opened out to the seabed 30 metres down. The second was to a barge which sank just five years ago but which has been much broken up by winter storms. On both dives, we saw clouds of fish – not specially colourful or large but so many of them. In addition, we saw a couple of moray eels and starfish of every size and colour from palest yellow, through orange and crimson to a delicate shade of mauve. As you will have gathered, I loved every minute!

Since then, we’ve been heading north via Sivota on Levkas and then to Mongonisi on Paxos. We are now anchored off Corfu, ready to meet D’s younger sister, Susie, who flies in here this evening.

Duncan and Jinny in Little Vathi above and below at a rather smart bar in Fiskardo!

Heat and Greece at last

The photo above is of the eastern anchorage on Vulcano, which we left on Friday 14 June. The boats you can see belong to a mob – I hesitate to grace them with the name regatta – of French medical students, who disturbed the peaceful place with much loud noise and goings on until well after dawn the next day. We would have let them to it but hadn’t stocked up on food for the trip to Greece, so we couldn’t leave until the following afternoon.

The leg from Vulcano to Lefkas in Greece is just over 300 miles, about 2 and a half days’ sailing. As our route took us through the Straits of Messina, one of the few tidal areas of the Med, we had to time our arrival there to make sure we caught the south-going current. In addition to that, we also wanted to arrive in Greece in daylight, so that meant going through the Straits at night. J had the watch as we entered the northern end and reckons it was the most taxing bit of sailing she’s done in quite some time: dodging ferries, being overtaken by merchant ships and sorting out the land from the sea amid the blaze of lights ashore. Other than the Straits, the trip was uneventful and, mostly, windless. We arrived at about 5 am in Nidri and dropped anchor where we are now, Tranquil Bay. The photo below is taken somewhere between Italy and Greece, showing miles and miles of sea…..

The next few days were taken up with meeting old friends from Gouvia* days (Alan and Bern from “Sanuk”,) sorting our a small mountain of laundry, getting a SIM card for the iPad and doing some geocaching by scooter. After three or four days, we moved to “Little” Vathi on the island of Meganisi with “Sanuk”. We moored there at George’s Taverna, which has its own moorings, offering electricity and water for a nominal charge. The moorings themselves are free on the understanding that you eat at the taverna. We stayed a couple of nights before moving round the corner to Spartachori where Spilios has a taverna offering a similar set-up to George. Whilst we were there, we met up with more friends from Gouvia, Heather and David from “Zinga.”

Unfortunately, our SIM card started to misbehave, so tonight we find ourselves back in Nidri, having been back into Levkas town to interview the Vodafone man and get the card sorted out. Tomorrow, we aim to leave here and go to Port Leone on Kalamos, about three hours’ sailing away. We’ll probably stay there for a couple of days before heading on to Poros on Kephalonia to pick up Jinny, who arrives on 1 July.

Above: Julia near one of the Lefkas caches we found.

Since we got to Greece, the summer has really arrived. The temperature has been in the mid to high thirties with little wind, so taking things easy has been the rule. It doesn’t get much cooler at night and the wind scoop has been a welcome addition to the forward hatch, pulling down what little breeze there is into the boat.

It’s been great meeting up with old friends and it is lovely being back here in the southern Ionian with all the little coves and bays to explore. We even found the Port Police to be helpful, stamping up our Depka on arrival from Italy with no questions! Our visitors start to arrive soon, with Jinny next week, followed by Susie, then Polly and finally Andy towards the end of August. Lizzie is also aiming to come but has yet to book flights, so we don’t know when to expect her yet!

Taverna Spilios on Meganisi. Great pork chops at a very reasonable price and a BIG washing machine.

*Gouvia is the marina on Corfu where we spent the winter of 2010/11.

What’s Going On With The Weather???

This blog is something of an experiment as we are writing and posting it using the iPad. this means it will probably be shorter than usual and won’t include most of the photos we have taken, but does enable us to bring you up to date.

Duncan stayed on board “Rampage” while J was in Ireland visiting the grandchildren. He had decided to bite the bullet and pay for a marina berth as there are no facilities ashore at the anchorages in Porto Conte. As it turned out, this proved no bad thing as the weather was extremely windy and he was able to watch all the antics in the harbour in the comfortable knowledge that “Rampage” was safe and sound. He had a fairly quiet time although he did a few maintenance jobs on board and when J retuned he was able to install the new chart plotter which we had bought on eBay, had delivered to Polly in Cornwall who duly took it to Ireland with her, bless her, and handed over to her mother. A somewhat convoluted delivery trip! Duncan was also able to finish wiring a new, much larger radio antenna as J had picked up the requisite cable while in Ireland.

We can’t put captions on the photos! So from the top: J knitting the Skipper a wooly hat ‘cos it’s cold, Rampage on the town quay, one of the old tune boats and a backstreet in Carloforte.

Her visit went very well; not only were there all the excitements of Charlie’s 1st Communion but Jessica brought forward the date for her birthday party for Granny’s benefit! The weather too, was pretty good over there – warmer indeed than that which greeted her on her return!

We were obliged to wait several more days in Alghero before we were finally able to escape last Monday and head south. Having waited some time for the wind to abate sufficiently to enable us to depart, it then died completely and we had to motor all day in a flat calm. The wind only started to pick just as we were entering the Golfo Di Oristano, about halfway down the western coast of Sardinia, where we stopped for the night. Seeing a few other boats at anchor, we did likewise but had barely turned all the instruments off when we were told that if we intended to stay the night we needed to pick up a mooring buoy so we duly did as instructed. Next morning, after a rather windy,bumpy night, we set off at about 07:30 and as with the previous day, were obliged to motor all the way as the wind had disappeared. Not only does the wind keep failing to co-operate but it has been intermittently grey, rainy and fairly chilly for the past three weeks. We keep being told by various Italians that it is most untypical for the time of year but this is poor comfort, frankly!

We had an uneventful trip down to Carloforte where we had arranged to meet up with friends Lee and Joan from “Wishbone”. Unfortunately when we entered the harbour we didn’t know where they were berthed and, naturally, picked the opposite side of the harbour from where they turned out to be staying. This was particularly irritating as we handed over €39 for a berth at Marina Sifreda when they had negotiated a rate of €20 a night for us in Marinatour where they are staying. In fact, however, we moved onto the town quay the following day and have been here free of charge ever since which has been great.

We had thought we would only have a night or so with Lee and Joan before we pressed on towards Greece and “Wishbone” continued on her way to the Balearics. However, once again the weather has intervened and strong winds have prevented either of us from leaving. The compensation has been that Carloforte has turned out to be a charming little place and particularly lively just this week as they celebrate the annual tuna festival. Whatever your feelings about the continuing practice of corralling the tuna in net “basins” for an exceptionally bloody slaughter, thankfully we did not have to witness it and I have to admit that the fiesta atmosphere around town has been fun. There has been lots of food and wine tastings, some great live music and all the usual food and craft stalls etc along the waterfront.

Joan and Julia went together to a wine tasting last night. Since neither of them speak more than a word or two of Italian, the spiel about what they were sampling was completely lost on them but they had an excellent time none the less. (Duncan did not join them since he is recovering from the cold which J generously passed on to him, courtesy of no.2 granddaughter, Lily, and Lee didn’t bother as he’s not a wine drinker!). Tonight however, we all plan to go out for a meal together before going our separate ways. Unless the weather forecast changes again, we plan to make a single hop to Vulcano in the Aeolian Islands, departing here tomorrow and arriving, all being well, sometime in the early hours of Thursday. News of how we get on will be in our next post.

Photos below are: more street scenes in Carloforte and folks enjoying the tuna festival.

Crossings, Meetings and Geocaching

 

Finally, finally, we managed to find a hole in the weather systems that plagued us after our return from UK and on 1 May 2013 the good ship “Rampage” set sail from Sant Carles de la Rapita just after midday, heading for PollencaBay on Mallorca.  This is a trip of just over 140 miles which we reckoned would take us about 28 hours; in fact it took just on 26.  We did get some wind to start with and got about 5 hours or so under sail before the wind did the usual Med thing and died away with the sun.

 

A nice, clear view of a dolphin off the port bow of “Rampage” en route from Mallorca to Sardinia

We motored on and had a quiet crossing, arriving in Pollenca bay at about 2.30pm.  En route we saw dolphins twice during the crossing, once not long after reaching the open sea when they were obviously busy about something else and just crossed our path.  The second time was at night when J was on watch just after 11pm, when they came to visit properly, playing round the boat for some time.

 

On this trip the Aquair towed generator also proved itself.  Whilst sailing, we towed the water turbine and it generated more electricity than the instruments and autopilot were using, thus enabling us to cruise under sail indefinitely without needing to run the engine to keep the batteries topped up.  A result!

 

We dropped anchor in Pollenca and managed to stay awake until about 10pm before collapsing into bed to catch up on the sleep lost during the crossing.  We posted a safe arrival on Facebook but our internet access ran out after that as we’d used all our data allowance on the iPad.

 

Ian and Linda from “Sunbeat ll” join us for a drink aboard “Rampage”

The following day we awoke to a lovely day with brilliant sunshine and clear skies.  As we bumbled about the boat thinking about breakfast and getting dressed, we spotted an adjacent boat shouting at us and making gesticulations about getting on the radio.  It turned out to be “Sun Beat II”, crewed by Linda and Ian who had been in Sant Carles with us.  We’d hoped to meet up in Soller with Iain and Terri but – well read the last blog but one for the full story on that!  They invited us over for coffee and we had a great time catching up – they’ve decided to sell “Sun Beat II” and replace her with a larger Amel (a no-compromises French boat), so they had a lot to tell us.  We then went ashore to shop and top up the data sim for the iPad.

 

The next couple of days were spent doing a bit of geocaching, shopping and getting together with Ian and Linda for drinks, meals and general chitchat.  We also met up again with Jack and Tania off “Blank Canvas” from our Port Vell days.

 

“Rampage” off Formentor Island where we went to do a spot of caching

All this time, we’d been watching the weather forecasts quite closely, looking for a window in the weather that would allow us to make the 2-day crossing to Sardinia in time for J to fly back to Dublin on 16 May.  Our initial plan had been to go from Pollenca to Fornell on Menorca and then cross to Sardinia but the weather started to look a bit iffy over the weekend of 11/12 May, so rather than wind up getting stuck in the wrong place, we decided to go straight from Pollenca to Sardinia.  This added about 8 hours sailing to the 40 odd hours we would have taken had we launched from Fornell.

 

We intended to remain in the anchorage of Porto Conte in Sardinia before entering Alghero on 14 May to stay in the marina, so we stocked up with food for about a week before setting off.  We also topped off the water and fuel tanks in Pollenca Marina before setting off at about midday on 7 August.  As we left Pollenca, there was a Puma Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopter doing recovery drills in the bay and at the same time 2 of the water bombers were doing circuits, landing on the water, filling their tanks and then dropping the water in a great spray.  Great free entertainment from the Spanish Civil Defence folks!

 

SAR drills in Pollenca Bay as we departed

And the seaplanes joined in the show!

 

Our plan to remain away from civilisation was almost defeated as we were departing from Pollenca when the main chartplotter/radar controller decided to develop a hissy fit.  First the screen went blank, then recovered itself then died again.  Luckily, it was still transmitting data to the repeater at the helm so we could manage without its display.  However, it was clear that it would have to be replaced and before too long.  This meant that we would have to get internet access to find a replacement as a matter of urgency.

 

The crossing was made in flat calm; we got a few more hours of sailing in between Mallorca and Minorca but otherwise all was on the motor.  During the crossing we saw only 2 other vessels: a distant cargo ship and a sailing boat that passed within about 100 metres of us.

 

Our cheeky hitchhiker!

 

Again, we were visited by dolphins who stayed for about 10 minutes before disappearing off on their own business.  At about 4 pm on 8 May, a small bird joined the crew.  It was incredibly bold: hopping round the table, checking out our meal, thinking about settling in for the night on J’s knitting and giving both of us exploratory pecks to see if we were good to eat!  It turned its nose up at bread crumbs but enjoyed some jamon de Serrano before going below to roost by the passage berth.  Seeing as it was so settled, we slept in our cabin that night, rather than disturb it.  The following morning, it had a good lie in before coming up on deck at about 7 am.  It then waited until we were about ½ a mile offshore before flying off to complete its journey.

 

Our feathered friend settles down for the night, just above the passage berth in the saloon.

We anchored in Porto Conte and slept in until about 11am, after which we took things easy until going ashore in the late afternoon to explore a bit.  The following morning we had an enjoyable sail into Alghero where we shopped, got ourselves a SIM card for the iPad and did a heap of laundry.  The following morning we bought yet more food and then headed back to Porto Conte into an increasing wind.

 

Entering the harbour at Alghero, Sardinia

We anchored in a small bay in the inlet, having had a great sail into the wind to get there (covering 14 miles to make just over 6 miles as the crow flies.)  We were so tired that J had an afternoon nap as well as me!  The wind continued to strengthen and we went to bed that evening to the tune of howling rigging and creaking anchor chain.

 

At about 4 am, the anchor alarm suddenly went off and we awoke to find that the anchor had been broken out by the wind and wouldn’t dig in again, so we started the engine, lifted the anchor and decided to head into a jetty by the shore for the night, taking things very gently and watching the echo sounder closely to avoid running aground.  J then spotted a mooring buoy, which we made fast to as an alternative to running into the jetty.  An hour or so after the alarm went off found us tucked up in bed again.  Phew – ain’t technology great?

 

Torre del Bolo with Porto Conte Bay behind

The winds continued through much of Sunday so we stayed aboard and took things easy.  Monday however, dawned calm and sunny so it was time to go ashore and do a little more geocaching.  The Italians, it would appear, are not yet much into this activity so caches are few and far between.  Nonetheless, there are three on the headland of Capo Caccia so off we set.  The first was relatively straightforward and took us to one of the several watchtowers that are dotted around this section of the coast.  Having found this, we tried to be too clever and cut across the headland to the next but having walked uphill some considerable distance we found that the route was not open to us because it crossed military land.  We therefore had to retrace our footsteps almost down to sea level before scrambling up a poorly defined route to the cliff tops looking down onto Neptune’s Cave.  On the seaward side of Capo Caccia is a small island with an opening right through it at sea level.  The cliffs here are fairly uncompromising and even on a calm day the sea foams and churns at their base.  We had seen this spot three years ago from the sea as we made our way north but it was almost more impressive looking down from above.  The climb had been worthwhile for the spectacular views it afforded.  The cache too, was relatively easy to find once we’d made our way up to the top and in both cases we were thankful to find a pen since we had forgotten to bring one.  We then slithered and stumbled our way back down to the beach bar at the foot of the hill for a well-deserved if fairly pricey drink, having walked for 2½ hours.  Thus fortified we walked the final couple of kilometres back to our dinghy in Cala Tramariglio.  There is a third cache on the headland, as I mentioned above but this requires full climbing gear in order to reach it.  Enough said!

 

D up on the cliffs above Neptune’s Cave after finding our second cache of the day.

Yesterday, not content with our achievements on Capo Caccio, J decided we should try to find the cache located on the opposite headland which rejoices in the splendid name of Punta del Giglio!  J’s first idea was that we should take “Rampage” across Porto Conte and anchor on the far side.  However this was swiftly vetoed by the skipper as being a poor place to anchor.   Instead we donned lifejackets, armed ourselves with a couple of flares (just in case!) and set off across the bay in our doughty little dinghy.  The trip of just less than 2 miles took about 25 minutes and we then had a delightful walk up through pine forests enjoying all the wild flowers, butterflies and little green lizards that scuttled across our path.  The entire area is a conservation reserve so utterly unspoilt and very beautiful.  The walk was far less strenuous than the previous day and within half an hour we’d reached the headland.

The barrack block at Punta del Giglio

There was an artillery unit based here during the last war, part of the defence against a possible Allied invasion on this piece of coastline which, in fact, never materialised.  The barrack block is still there and largely intact so we had a brief look round it before continuing on to find the cache and return to the dinghy.  We’d left her pulled up on a small and deserted beach but when we got back we found that a large walking party had chosen this spot to stop for their lunch.  They were all somewhat bemused to see a pair of lunatics climb into this tiny craft and set off across what was now a rather choppy expanse of water but they duly waved us off.  I doubt very much if they could still see us by the time we reached the safety of Cala Tramariglio once more and climbed aboard “Rampage”, both of us soaked to the skin.

 

Looking back along the path to the headland with the anchorage at Cala Tramariglio on the far side of Porto Conte Bay in the background

Today we left the mooring at just after 09:00 and made our way back to the marina in Alghero in order for J to catch her flight to Dublin tomorrow.  Once again there was no wind so we had to motor but there was an uncomfortable rolling swell which made it a less than enjoyable, though thankfully, fairly brief trip.  D will remain here while J goes to spend time with Naomi and the grandchildren and we will then head south.  The decision has yet to be made as to whether we will go back to the Ionian via the Straits of Messina, or south of Sicily and on to Malta.  Watch this space!

“Rampage” berthed in Alghero marina