Category Archives: Our travels

Our adventures on the high seas and ashore

Our travels

Heading West to Marina di Ragusa, Siciliy

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We were delighted to be contacted by fellow MdR cruisers who suggested that we sail together back around the Peleponese.  The weather window to get round the southern tips was not huge so we had to make a bit of a dash for it.  No time to stop in Monemvasia which was disappointing.  However, we had a good sail round to FInikas, a return to the port of our nightmare four weeks ago!  This time we had an uneventful night and a fabulous sail south to Milos where we met up with Nigel and Lawrence on Cormoran and were pleased to see Wayne and Barbie on Hope again and have a quick catch up with them before they head for Kos.

Next day, we set of early for a long sail to Ormos Sapienza an amazing anchorage just south of Methoni.  In fact, there was NO wind so the engine had a good work out of 14 hours continuous motoring.  Next morning, we settled in the bay in Methoni and prepared for the next 48 hours of very strong north westerly winds which were due to pipe up in the afternoon.  We enjoyed a walk around the impressive Venetian Fort on the headland.  It was certainly a different experience (and a comforting one) to watch the waves crashing onto the shoal waters around the headland from the perspective of land rather than from a boat!

The sailing yacht ‘Unique’ glides through the gap in the stacks off Pilos bay

After a bit of provisioning in the lovely resort town of Methoni we set off up to Pilos.  We enjoyed a walk around the villas and squares of the town which has a French feel about it.  The cemetery and the old castle walls are very impressive.  There are some stacks to the west of the mouth of the bay which we once impressive caves – sailing through the gaps between them was an amazing way to leave the shelter of the beautiful bay.

 

 

 

Next stop, Kiparissia where I bought some fabulous vegetable baskets from this lovely lady.

The new VHS aerial cable emerges from the base of the mast!

Then to Zakinthos where we picked up  are Michael and David who are going to assist with the crossing to Sicily and or Malta.  Whilst parked up here Ian was delighted to be able to tick off ‘replace the radio aerial and cable’ from his long list of ‘to do’ jobs!

David and Michael arrived bang on time to nip into town for a quick farewell pitta gyros gastronomic delight – the last for a while –  and then we were good to go.  We set off at 1030 on Friday morning expecting to arrive in Malta by Monday evening.  After rounding the south coast of Zante the wind was strong on the bow and beam the whole night.   We surfed through the swell and arrived in Porto Pallo, Sicily after 50 hours at an average speed of 7 knots.  Not much sleep was achieved because the swell made it very uncomfortable but it was a fabulous crossing, in record time, without incident and the last few hours were even calm enough for much needed bacon butties!

We do have a slight issue with the autopilot though which has worked so hard during the crossing. Ian will look at that tomorrow.

Still debating a boat name change….any suggestions gratefully received!  But can I just mention that, ‘Boaty McBoatface’ has already been registered!!!

Our travels

Hauled out

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We sailed early from Rhinia and arrived in Siros to be hauled out.  Since we have a winged keel

Great shot of our winged keel on the trailer – 20cm to spare!

which measures 140cm across we need a trailer wide enough to motor onto with a bit of wriggle room.

Stavros from Atlas boat yard has just the right piece of kit and we were hauled out smoothly and professionally.

We trundled across the Lidl carpark and into his boat yard.  It is safe to say that Stavros would be world champion caravan manoeuvrer should he be inclined to enter such a competition. 

Stamatis and Georgios Gyparis, Volvo Penta engineers in Ermoupolis (father and sons team) quickly appeared and parts were ordered to arrive on Thursday

 

 

 

 

That gave us five unadulterated days for partial winterising of Linea, removing scruffy lettering and for cleaning her dirty bottom!

We booked into an Air B n B house high on the slopes of the Chora and experienced vertigo from being so far above sea level.

Having a Greek lesson from my new friend.

We spent a few very busy days scraping, polishing, sanding, cleaning and dusting.  I even fabric-conditioned our lines to make them soft and pliable again  – and they smell lovely.

Robert and Ian discussing boats.

We met Robert Brons in the yard.  Robert owns Morning Cloud 4 (a sailing yacht previously owned by Sir Edward Heath who was a world class sailor, as well as being leader of the Tory Party during the 1970s.)  Morning Cloud 4 has been stored on the hard in Siros for twenty years.  Robert showed me round this amazing vessel:  Built for speed and efficiency and able to sleep ten people in various cleverly designed bunks.  It has lots of ingenious original features and various improvements, it would be wonderful to see it restored to its former racing glory.

Ian with the ‘wild dogs’!

Robert was currently living on his yacht Saquila which he had sailed from Italy.  We spent a couple of evenings swapping stories with him and really enjoyed his company.  We were so impressed that he still had the enthusiasm and vigour for sailing at his age – 78 years young.  He cycled around town, sorted out his yacht and shinnied up and down the high ladder to Morning Cloud with the nimbleness of someone a lot younger.  He is often on the look-out for crew to help him sail his new yacht, so if any of our sailor friends might be interested please get in touch for more information.

One of the best things about being somewhere for a few days is that you really get to explore and find out more about the place.  During our stay Siros was hosting the All Greek volleyball championships and an international animated film exhibition and competition held in the beautiful Apollon Theatre that is modeled on La Scala.

We discovered a free shuttle bus that ran all day between the town centre and the sports centre, going right past the boat yards and Lidl – perfect!  And we explored the two hills of Siros; one topped by an enormous Greek Orthodox church and one topped with a huge Catholic church.  We wandered around the Choras and marvelled at the breath-taking scenes around every corner; the colours, the quaint doorways and the twisted bougainvillea blossoms like an umbrella of fluttering, bright butterflies.

We really enjoyed finding new routes to walk to and fro the boat yard and every day we were rewarded by some new and interesting sight.  I particularly loved the completely intact old (but functioning) pharmacy on the main street, which still has all the original mahogany cabinets, shelving, canisters, jars and enamel labels from when it first opened in 1837. (The first pharmacy in Greece.)

We also enjoyed the Industrial Museum which houses an interesting collection of items that reflect Siros’ manufacturing, glass-making, lace-making, printing and shipping past.

Georios, Stamatis and Vangelis Gyparis. The Volvo Penta Team in Ermoupolis, Siros.

After strong winds had passed it was time to be put back into the water.  We said thanks and farewell to Stavros, and the Gyparis family who have done such a great job on our sail drive, stainless steel and helm repairs.

Stamatis joined us for the ride across the bay to check that all was well with the engine and the gears.  It was all good.  We were making 7.5k across the bay because of our gleaming hull, so that made Ian very happy.  We parked on the town quay again and were, once again, warmly greeted by the lovely Thanasis.

Thanasis the most stylish and handsome harbourmaster in Greece!
Our travels

A week with Keira in the Cyclades

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The day after Josh and Erin left us the wind was finally at more acceptable levels so we sailed off back to Rhinia, our favourite of the islands round here.  We had a good sail round to the west side and anchored in a beautiful cove – Ormos Miso.

We had a lovely couple of days here exploring the island and dodging flying shot gun bullets, as the farmers were constantly out hunting birds.

We managed another impressive beach clean-up here: Collecting something like 200lts of plastic debris. The most unusual finds were, curtain hooks, tile spacers, an intact huge electric light bulb.

Most prolific finds;  plastic straws, glow bands, balloons, plastic bottle lids, fisherman’s twine and netting.

Good job done; we sailed across to Syros in yet more fruity winds and parked on the quay with the help of Thannasis, the lovely, stylish, colour-coordinated and helpful harbourmaster.

Further exploration inland revealed a beautiful town, marbled paved square and streets, Venetian style Neo-Classical buildings, bulging wrought iron balconies, tall shuttered windows and a charming elegance we have not seen elsewhere.  The bay is huge.  At its heart is the newly bankrupt shipyard and dry docks.  Once providing employment for 2500 people it has just stopped operating some 5 months ago.

In the south part of the bay is a newish mariner which is not properly managed or maintained since it seems no one can agree who should have the contract.  So, it is left un-cared for and defunct before it has even been completed.  Boat owners use it regardless…for free but it is a shambles.

Sea water in the sail drive makes the oil go a milky colour…not good!

Ian carried out his daily engine check and discovered that seawater was getting into the saildrive: Another potentially costly repair.

We organised for an engineer, Stamatis and his son Georgios, to check it and he confirmed what we suspected.  We would have to be hauled out for the repairs to the saildrive.  We agreed to come back in on Friday morning after having dropped Keira in Mykonos.

We had a lovely few days in Ermoupolis, and had the added bonus of meeting up with a Clipper chum of Ian’s called Mike Stephenson who was out on a charter yacht with his wife Amanda and friends.  We had a pleasant evening with them and waved them off in the morning.

The biggest shell we have ever found.

We headed back to our favourite place on Rhinia, shocked to see a HUGE rock across the entrance to the cove that we had not spotted on our first stay.  We took a bearing on the GPS so that we could add it to our chart.

We enjoyed sunbathing, swimming, back gammoning,  eating and watching a couple of films.  (A fish called Wanda – helping to complete Keira’s film education) and then, all too soon, it was time to head back to Mykonos to say goodbye to Keira as she heads back to the UK after her year abroad.

Our travels, Video

Leaving Naxos after one month (Testing the engine)

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Octopus drying on the quay in Naxos

We finally waved goodbye to harbourmaster father and son team Nikos and Makos in Naxos.  They wryly commented that we should have asked for the monthly mooring fee.  We returned to Paros.  We anchored in the south west part of the bay of Naoussa and enjoyed a fine afternoon swimming and snorkeling.  Erin spotted a beautiful starfish for us all to admire.

After a super calm night, we headed north in great winds to Finikas.  Arriving with a flurry of charter yachts, we were hoodwinked into thinking that the quay would be a good place to be overnight, despite forecasts of strong southerly winds in the night.  Foolish error!

We were awoken from fitful sleep by the grating noise of the spreaders and stays clashing with those of the neighbouring boat.  We managed to pull forward so that the rocking would be safer and went back to bed.  Ten minutes later, Erin shouted out, ‘Boat!’ in a tone of great alarm.  She had popped her head out of the forward hatch and to her amazement saw a charter yacht pinned across our bow at 0400h in the morning, in the dark!

We all dashed on deck to fend off this yacht.  Another departing yacht had tripped its anchor and so they were forced to leave in some haste.  On motoring out, they wrapped a rope round the propeller so they had no power.  Left to the devices of the strengthening wind, they were blown along the bows of the boats on the quay, stopping at us because they fouled their keel on our anchor chain.


After hours of fending, our anchor finally gave up and their keel was free. They continued to bounce along every single bow along the quay finally stopping about 2 metres from some rocks.  Ian helped them to get their anchor down and then they waited for the coastguard to arrive to tow them to safety.

Our massive stern fender was burst and numerous other damages were incurred in the night when the charter yacht hit us.

In the meantime, we were all busy on Linea.  First, we pulled the anchor as tight as it would go.  Then, we kept the engine on in case we need to motor forwards at all.  We tried to limit the damage as much as possible whilst this boat was pressing us back against the quay. Tthe swell was lifting us higher than the quay and it is a miracle that the rudder didn’t get damaged.  Josh was doing sterling fending off with the popped fender.

Ian eventually came back to the boat and we decided that since it was almost dawn and we were not happy with our anchor we would leave.  The boat on our starboard side had to leave first since their anchor chain was lying right over ours.  We motored to the anchorage on the other side of the bay.

After a few hours nap we were beginning to see the humorous side of the story.  We still couldn’t quite believe all that had happened during the night.  We were mightily relieved not to have incurred more damage.  The boat next to us had not been nearly so lucky; having its stern constantly smashed into the quay.

Josh and Erin chilling on the deck

We moved on to the practically deserted island west of Mykonos and had a wonderful night in a perfect cove with Delos in the distance.  A beautiful place to calm the nerves.

On Wednesday we set off to Mykonos, as Josh and Erin had bought fantastically cheap flights back to Manchester from there.  (£38 each)  We anchored in the bay south of town and sat out the evening’s strong winds.

There was time for some last minute hair braiding and back gammon championships.

Next day, we caught a bus to explore the lanes, whitewashed churches and bijoux shops in town.  We walked round to meet up with Stephen and Gilly for a swift beer and to catch up on their island-hopping adventures.

It was a pleasant wander round Little Venice, past the windmills and up and down the steps on the hill.  The town was thronged with doddering cruise ship passengers.

During the very wet journey back to the boat to collect bags,  we saw yet another inflatable toy somersaulting across the bay.  We managed to catch it and the girls were very happy with their swan (Susan).  All too soon, it was time to bid a fond farewell to Erin and Josh.  They headed to the airport and we went back for another windy night in Ormos Ornos.

During the last few days, we have switched the engine on and off a total of eight times and all seems to be well.  We are gradually gaining more confidence that the fuel is clean and the pipes are clear.  Phew!

Our travels

Continuing the engine saga!

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The good news is that we welcomed Keira, Erin and Josh on board when they arrived on Naxos on the 1st September.  Keira and Erin completing their mammoth overland journey from China to Europe with the ferry ride from Athens.  Read all about their amazing adventures on www.twigletandnoodletravels.wordpress.com .

After the high pressure pump was analysed,  reconditioned and refitted, the engine appeared to be working well.  We had tried it in neutral in the marina but had not yet worked the engine under load for the ultimate test.  Reluctant to go out and risk engine failure in strong meltemi winds, we persuaded ourselves that we may as well stay in Naxos until the girls arrived.  We had a good couple of sociable evenings with Chris and Izzy on Mutch, admiring their new Nauticat that they had just bought in Kos.

The girls arrived on one of the large Hellenic Seaways ferries; one of 28 daily ferries.  The wash created by the Fast Sea Cat Champion Jet ferries when they come in and spin round at high speed, sends a series of surge waves which curl and ricochet around the outer wall of the harbour and hit the boats on the pontoon in a domino effect, causing alarming rocking and rolling.  We were parked right by a very solid lamp post and our gang plank came up against it and was damaged.

On Saturday, we met up with Stephen and Gillian Hodgson who joined us from Mykonos.  Unfortunately, they arrived without their luggage which was somewhere in Manchester airport.

We had a very pleasant evening out with them on the roof top at Oniro restaurant up in the Hora. 

Next day, we set off to the south of Naxos to put the engine to the test.  Typically, the wind was blowing from the south so we had to motor all the way.  The bad news was, that Ian noticed that there was some diesel leaking out of the engine but couldn’t identify where it was coming from.   We motored the whole way (4 hours)  to Ormos Kalados at the bottom of Naxos and anchored off.  Stephen and Gilly hired a buggy and set of on an adventure down the island to meet us there.  They booked a room at Kalados studios.  It is a rural and remote spot with sheep regularly strutting up and down the beach and donkeys and horses grazing in the fields.  We had been told about a fabulous rustic restaurant above the harbour where you could get barbecued lamb chops and fabulous veggies.  We had a fantastic meal there, and, although the wine was rough and cloudy, it didn’t stop us drinking rather too much of it!

We ferried Stephen and Gilly back to their end of the long and deserted beach and crashed out. Unfortunately, even the copious quantities of wine we had consumed couldn’t help us sleep in the swell that crept in during the night on the southerly wind!  We were bobbing about badly all night.

Next morning, we decided that we ought to set off back to Naxos town to get the leak looked at.  We were pleased that the wind was still southerly.  It would be a nice sail back up.  As soon as we rounded the headland to take us into the Paros/Naxos Straits, we saw lots of other yachts ahead. They were heading south under head sails only.  Strange? How could they also be sailing on a southerly wind?  Ah!  Wait a moment the wind has changed….we have 14k on the nose, as per usual.  So, we motored and the engine seemed to be doing well despite the leak.

We were barely a mile from the marina entrance, just passing between an area of rocks jutting from the headland, literally the most dangerous spot in the entire area, when the engine spluttered and died!  OH! GREAT!

We quickly deployed the head sail and sailed away from the danger towards the top of Paros.  There was a shocked silence amongst the crew.   I guess we were all wondering how we would get back into the marina without an engine.

We sailed and contemplated the situation.  After about 30 minutes, when the engine had cooled a little, Ian and Keira went to peer in the engine room.  Ian managed to bleed the airlock out and miraculously the engine started again.  We all breathed a huge collective sigh of relief!  We motored back into the marina.  Stratos, the engineer, returned in the morning to further investigate.  We have discovered that the fourth fuel injector is slightly corroded.  It leaks very slightly and,  when the fuel is compressed within, a very fine mist of diesel is ejected, which makes seeing precisely where the leak is coming from particularly difficult.  (Although the leak doesn’t affect the performance of the engine when it is running, as soon as the engine is stopped the air can get in and engines do not like air bubbles inside them!)

Stratos sorted the injector and advised replacing it over the winter.  Phew!  Job done.  Beach day, well and truly deserved and drinks with Stephen and Gilly before heading home to cook up a huge curry.

Next day, we left the marina at about noon and had a lovely sail down to the south of Paros to Ormos Aliki.  (Which was precisely where Stephen and Gilly had just booked into a hotel for the night, unbeknownst to us!)  We were just motoring up to the delightful looking anchorage when the engine stuttered and slowly died – again!  Bloody hell!

We put the head sail back out and sailed about whilst deciding what was best to do.  Concluding that it would be best to get back to Naxos, we set off at 1515h tacking into the wind.  Luckily, the wind was quite strong so we made good progress.  We arrived in Naxos bay, rounding the Vrak Fournos rock and wreck in six hours.  The plan was to sail directly into the anchorage to the north of the marina.  We had actually managed to start the engine again but couldn’t rely on it giving power so we sailed in on a close haul with the boom out ready to drop the main.  Once we were behind the breakwater, we dropped the main and used the head sail only to power us further in.  Immediately we were in position, we let the headsail flap and put the anchor down as the wind pushed us back.  Just for the added challenge we had to do all this in the dark…luckily there was a full moon to light the way!

We were well set!  Mightily relieved, we put the boat to bed and had a welcome beer.  We soon rustled up some chilli and had an enjoyable dinner down below because it was surprisingly cold on deck.

In the morning, we motored into the marina with Josh motoring beside us in the dinghy as back up in case the engine failed again.  Nikos, the Harbourmaster, was joking with us that we should ask him for the annual rate for mooring.   Stratos returned once again and pumped out the fuel, filtered it, changed all the fuel pipes and cleaned the tank out.  There must have been debris in the tank that stopped the fuel from being delivered to the engine.

He has already found one solidified pellet of liquid gasket (a kind of blue tack used to seal things) and believes there might be more.  He has also found other bits of debris in the fuel tank and coating the sides of the fuel pipes.

This does seem to be progress.  Stratos assures us that the engine is fine; and now that he has cleaned the fuel there should be no further problems.  With each successful outing we gain more confidence that the engine will not let us down. On the plus side; we have learnt such a lot and had our sailing skills further tested.

It has been a bit of a baptism of fire for the girls and Josh and I have been more than a little anxious to have all my eggs in one basket!  At the same time, it has been lovely and comforting to have help on board and we are proud to see how well they have coped with all the excitement.