Decisions Decisions

Where should we go in 2013? While we love Italian food, the coastline is challenging with very few places to anchor – and Ross hates being in marinas. Albania was a pleasant surprise so I could see spending more time there and visiting Sarande again and making our way up the coast to Montenegro and Croatia. The only thing that keeps us from Croatia again is the constant hand out for cash – a 500 Euro cruising permit, when you anchor you pay, when you go to a marina you pay, and the food is average. On the plus side, the cruising there is very easy with beautiful water, many bays to choose from and shelter from most winds regardless of direction or windspeed. Apparently when Croatia joins the EU in 2013 some of their ‘interesting’ business practices must change … so perhaps it will normalize more to what it is like in the rest of Europe.

The value of Greece is pretty high – the cost of marinas is reasonable – about 50-70 Euros, when you anchor it’s free, when you go to the town quay it is usually free. The food and produce is reasonably priced and readily available. 

The Ionian is very easy cruising though we wonder whether we could last more than two or three weeks before we would need to go further afield. The Aegean is great but it is often very windy there and the Meltemi winds can trap you for a week at a time. The distances in the Aegean are quite long so there is much more sailing involved than if we went to Croatia or the Ionian.

If we go through the Aegean we will likely end up somewhere in Turkey such as Marmaris. How we get back to Vancouver is a bit of a challenge and trying to figure out how to include some overland trips such as visiting Achim and Eva in Provence or to with Marina’s Aunt Kay in Remmscheid Germany will be considerations. Ross and I would also like to investigate taking a driving course at the Nurburgring race track – a world famous 9 mile race track that you can race your car for 15 euros a lap.

Marina is thinking that we should go through Greece to Turkey. Some of our fondest memories on Tara are from Simi Greece, meeting our friends Tina, Dave, Bimi and Bimi’s friend Claudia – and then the scenery and hospitality of Turkey. The Turkish coast reminds us a lot of BC’s but with warm water. The downside is potential for brutal winds – the Meltemi blows Beaufort Force 6 and 7 for weeks on end. Force 6 is 25-30, Force 7 is 30-36 knots – and when you have a few days of Force 7, you end up with monsterous waves. 

You can probably count on one hand the number of times that a Force 7 wind has blown in Vancouver in the last 25 years so it is tough to describe until you’ve gone 40 miles to windward into Force 7 winds and 3-4 meter waves …  not very easy on the crew or the boat.

So … where to go … we need to integrate our plans with work, the kids and our busy lives … but the rewards of cruising is definitely are high and you never know when your number will be up … life is short … live it.

Getting to the End

Coming out of Lefkas again – third-time-lucky – we hugged the shoreline and never got below 3.5 meters deep. Again we anchored out front and the kids and Marina went ashore while I tried to figure out why our batteries aren’t charging to full. Everything went swimmingly well until a jelly was sighted … and then all swimming stopped, and it was time to get to Cleopatra.

Jess was happy to be going home to her friends.

Ross had mixed feelings...

Matt would have drowned his sorrows
if there was not so much work to do.
Here...a beer for the skipper on our
last day of sailing.

The coast off Preveza, where Cleopatra Marina is, is very shallow to about 1.5 miles off the coast so there is a channel to get in marked by red and green buoys...and the rules are opposite to those at home...where it is "red right returning", meaning keep red buoys to your right (starboard) when coming IN to port and the opposite on the way out. So, in we went.



Good bye Lefkas!

Red buoy to port (opposite of our coast)

And green to starboard...

Cleopatra reminds me a lot of both Kemer Turkey and Port Napoleon. All three marinas are well run, are efficient yet have a homey feeling. Apparently it is a family run business and their care and attention to detail shows. The first night at the restaurant we had a great meal and really enjoyed ourselves. By the third night at the restaurant it was like we were old friends … when I arrived before I would order the 500ml Heineken would arrive at our table.

Hosing off, cleaning lockers...

Lots of work to "pickle" the engine.

Laundry...

Lots of laundry....

Ross and Jess in a nice moment...

Jess and Marina went to town to look for boat parts...

There is a ton of stuff that needs to be done to prepare the boat for storage. We try to get to most of them before we hit the marina, and then it’s a race against time to get as much done as possible. If we had another week we would have been able to find another week’s worth of work to do … so like a final exam you do what you can in the time allotted and then you’re done.

A 150 line to-do list had us all working all day … Tara was lifted from the water at 14:00 hours on Monday. We are definitely getting smarter. Instead of staying on the boat we took an apartment (with air-conditioning) – when we saw that it had just one bed, we got a second apartment for the kids. We are storing the dinghy indoors, having a number of things serviced while we’re gone and will be using some of the Marina’s services to help get us prepared for next year’s cruising.

Bonnie Blue off to her winter home.

Tara getting ready to come out.

And she's up! The bottom is pressure washed.

A pic with the Marina staff (they take one with their camera too).

Marina and I awoke at 07:30 and went back to the boat for the final preparations. The wind was blowing very hard the day before so I couldn’t change the outboard’s motor oil (the wind blows the oil everywhere) and unfortunately the wind was blowing very hard on Tuesday morning too, so Plan B – change the Outboard’s oil when we return. In our usual rush we worked hard to get as much done as possible before our self-imposed 12:00 deadline.

Jess cleaning out the fridge!

We grabbed showers, did our final packing, and caught the cab at 12:30 to the Aktion airport a few Kilometers away.  We sadly waved goodbye to Tara and Marina and Jessie on the right-side windows of the airplane waved goodbye to her as we took off from Greece to Germany.

See you next summer Greece!

Winding Down The Last Week

I think it was Abe Simpson (Homer’s dad) who said “Vacations are like toilet paper rolls … the closer you get to the end the faster they go” and that’s what it felt like for us the last couple of weeks of August.

The next morning in Sivota, we got up early and went to town to do some more marketing and to check things out. We walked the quay and decided that we wanted to come back but this time we wanted to come in for dinner and experience the town a little bit. We also needed to decide where we wanted to go for the day. Marina our trusty navigator chose the small city of Kioni.

Kioni was too crowded to find a spot.



Kioni is a small hamlet on Ithaki – where we met the Canadians and their friend Kosta from Greece. Sailing out of Sivota we went upwind (again?) to Kioni on Ithaki. There is space for 10 or so yachts at Kioni and it was full. We thought about anchoring on a beach nearby, but the water was 25 meters deep 1 boatlength from shore … yilkes. Plan B was Vathi on Ithaki … Plan B it is.

Ellen at Ormos Skhinos

As we were powering by a bay outside Vathi called Ormos Skhinos we saw a beautiful anchorage and decided to give it a try. Most yachts were anchored with a line to shore but we just threw our anchor out and drifted around it.

The rope swing...

About a half hour after we anchored a 40 meter sailboat called Ellen 5 arrived with a number of Americans on board – and put two anchors out front and two big ropes to shore. While they sipped mint juleps in air-conditioned comfort, we setup our rope-swing and swam around the boat.

As usual we were the last boat out of the bay the next day – and there was no wind, so we sailed about 5 miles to Atokos and anchored in one-house bay, a place we had visited on our last trip through.

The cliffs surrounding Atakos

There is a very small church on the island and we swam in with some clothing in dry bags, put on a bit of cover in respect, and lit four candles – on for Grandpa Don, one for Grandpa Tex, one for all the friends and family we have lost, and one for our pets (Jessie’s idea).

The wee church just off the beach.

Jess and Matt lighting a candle...

...and another...

Although small stones...a beautiful beach.

We hung out on the beach for a while and then put our clothes back in the dry bag, and headed back to Tara. We enjoyed swimming around the boat for a while, and then went on board, picked up anchor, and carried on to the town of Port Kastos.

Tucked in at Port Kastos

Port Kastos is on the island of Kastos and we went into the harbour and it was FULL. Undeterred, we threw our anchor out and then backed in between two boats – a 42 foot Beneteau, and a 50 foot catamaran. Ross then rowed the dinghy to shore (very slowly it seemed at the time) and then we tied ourselves to the shore.

Our neighbour to the left...a few feet away.

We had about 50 meters of chain out that we shortened to 40 when we cranked the chain tight, but we weren’t going anywhere. This is a good thing because Tara had what looked like 10 cm of water under her keel.

We had a nice chat with the British couple beside us and decided to go to a restaurant for dinner.


Part of the town as we searched for a dinner spot!



The food wasn't so great... but local wine always is.

We went to town, walked about a mile up a hill then decided that restaurant didn’t look all that nice. We then walked down to the coast and found a restaurant that looked great …. But, unfortunately, looks can be deceiving, and we had a thoroughly average meal … one of the few we’ve had in Europe this summer.

Ross bringing in the stern lines.

Picking up anchor was a bit of a process since we had two 50 meter stern lines attached to the shore == so Ross rowed out, untied them and then we pulled them in … with him attached so he got a free-ride back to the boat. The toughest thing about taking a line to shore is coiling the 50 meter lines. They end up weighing about 20 kilos and are too big to hold onto so it takes two of us to get them put away.

On our way again!

Our next stop was Paleros, a small town on the mainland of Greece that has a nice little quay, but the water outside the entrance looked very brown, so we decided to anchor out instead.
With less than a week to go on the trip we don’t need to put Tara on the sand … and after our close-call at Lefkas earlier in the week Captain Cautious put his foot down.

Getting away from shallow water toward Paleros.

The kids were happy to stay on the boat and read / watch movies / surf the Internet. Marina and I went to shore and found a delightful little place. We bought some groceries – rum for under 20 Euros, Ice, Coke … I was in heaven. Oh, and we bought some food too. We went out to the boat to find the kids hadn’t moved much.

Our sea rescue!

We watched a small sailing boat try to get around and noticed the sailor didn't seem to be making much progress. Marina was getting concerned and said she thought a rescue would be in order. In motioning to the sailor as he made his way by Tara, he gently waved us off. A half our later, Marina insisted we head out in Bonnie Blue and assist in getting him to shore, which in the end, we're pretty sure he appreciated it, but pride may have been a factor in his expression of it.

Sunset at anchor outside Paleros Harbour.

Early morning...

We did some swimming and had a BBQ dinner, then early to bed. The next morning we all went to shore and hung out in the Yacht Club Bar where we played in the sand, swam around, had a beer and a pizza and soaked up the sun.

 



Beach fun!

We had made plans to meet up with our friends Marcel and Yelena and chose the city of Vathi on the island of Messalongia (yes there is another Vathi on Ithaki only 10 miles away too). There is a restaurant in Vathi that has a dock with laid moorings tailed to the dock – and the cost is … free if you eat in the restaurant. Sounds like a good idea all around.

Being a bit further out than the town quay the water was very clear and we were swimming right off the boat and into the beach and back again. For 5 Euros we got electricity too, and did I mention free WiFi … and they served Mojitos. Can things get any better?

TK pulled in around 18:00 just as a 50 meter powerboat anchored itself out in the bay – wow. We had cocktails, went for dinner, closed the place down. When we were leaving Marcel noticed that there was still a half-liter of wine left on the table. He grabbed two glasses and filled them up saying “If I left wine on the table they’d take away my Dutch passport” getting quite a chuckle from the crowd.

Dinner with Marcel and Yelena.

In the morning we got up, used lots of free WiFi, and then had to tough decision as to where to go next. We decided Sivota .

At anchor in Sivota, with a yacht who
came in later and anchored too close for
our liking...and sure enough, with no breeze later
we passed with less than a meter between us.

Somewhere between the rum, wine and beer the night before, we had hatched an idea that we would have a race where the boys would race on TK and the girls would be on Tara. Unfortunately there wasn’t a breath of wind so we powered up to Sivota and dropped a hook. This time we ate on shore and enjoyed an excellent meal.

Atta girl Jess! Keeping the sail full!

The next morning we switched boats and the race was to get underway. The girls and Ross on Tara left first and proceeded to sail around as if there wasn’t another boat they should race. After a few phone calls they kind of setup right and we crossed in front and the race was on.

W

Oh...is that Matt and Marcel back there?

e crept downwind at about 3 knots with Tara inching forward. When the wind was up TK could keep pace dead downwind, but when the wind lightened or the course changed to more of a reach, the bigger sail area on Tara kicked in and … well I was conflicted … losing sailboat races is not my favourite thing … but it was nice to see that my boat sure looked fast.

The winning crew....!

Our last night with TK we went into Lefkas and found a side of the town that we had no idea existed. Every year the city of Lefkas invites performers from around the world for an annual Folklore Festival.



The garbage dump smoldering away on
the way upLevkas Channel again.

We watched dancing and singing from a number of different countries and regions in Greece. We stayed up until midnight watching and then walked the very lively boardwalk.

If we had simply anchored in the bay we would have never found how nice a little city as Lefkas. Like Sivota, we think we should spend more at Lefkas some day in the future.

Levkas at anchor as the sun goes down.