Hanging out with the Boys

The next couple of days we went up the coast to the top end of Mljet into the National Park. A very nice anchorage near the town of Polace, we stayed at anchor overnight and half way through the next day. One of the challenges of going 30 miles north is that you need to come 30 miles south again. We could have ventured a bit further but the prospect of coming back again – and so far our ability to pick a destination that we can sail to is … well zero. We’re either beating up wind or powering. Nothing much in between.

We did some marketing on Mljet, there is a small Suderac (mini mart chain) in town and we got some bacon, eggs, vegetables and some beer – though it pains me to say it, we might have actually figured out our capacity for beer. OMG say it isn’t true.

We sailed about half the way to Lopud – and then powered into the harbour Sunj on the south side. I was checking the weather and there was a big system – but I read the weather chart wrong – and the wind and waves are coming from the south – and the bay we’re in Sunj, is completely open to the south. At 22:30 this revelation hit and we picked up anchor and bugged out back about 5 miles to the island of Sipan. In the morning we decided to walk the 5Kms across the island to see what the wind was like on the other side. Thank goodness we moved because we had 20 knots of wind and 2 meter seas coming into the harbour. Made me happy that we did the ‘midnight move’ that’s for sure.  Later that night we went out to dinner to our favourite place and watched another World-cup match – they go at 22:00 in Croatia so it gets a bit late if the match goes to Penalties … but it is worth it to see Germany completely annihilate Brazil.

It’s getting to the end of when the boys are here so we head back to Cavtat. The waves are very high and there isn’t much wind, so we have to motor again argh! 2 meter waves and no wind makes for some potentially sea-sick passengers. Ross of course is completely unaffected. Matt and Mike were troopers but you could tell they needed a nap. Compared to a week before however they now have cast-iron stomachs – and if they spent the whole summer with us they’d have cast-iron beer-bellies.

When the waves get rough, the tough guys sleep on the floor

We made it into Cavtat and thought about parking in the main harbour but the surge was pretty high so we anchored on the other side.  Mike and Matt had a flight the next morning at 07:15 so they figured they needed to catch a cab around 05:00. I offered to take them to shore at that time but Mike reckoned he’d be up all night worrying so they took a room ashore. We bid them goodbye, had a pizza and a couple of beers and watched another football game – this one between Netherlands and Argentina. Another 0-0 tie which makes the games interminably long.

We met a couple of guys from a US boat that advised us to dig our anchor in good as the previous night many boats had dragged. We pulled hard on the anchor to set it and let out 40 meters in 6 meters of water. Sure enough during the night we had wind, rain, lightning and two of our neighbours needed to move during the night. What a drag – if you’ll pardon the pun. In the morning another of our neighbours went by us at about a knot. I hailed them and they came up – the French owner said “oh I don’t think we’re dragging … it’s just the way the boats are swinging.” I suggested that he watch a while – about 15 minutes later he picked up his anchor and moved a few hundred meters in and set his anchor again.

Unfortunately I needed to use my rain jacket regularly
during our time in Croatia

About 10 am the weather cleared a little bit and we set off for Dubrovnik. This time there wasn’t much wind and three meter waves. Geez, can we have some relief from this? About 2 hours of powering into the slop with our sails up, sails down, as well as half way we made it into Graz harbour in Dubrovnik. We’d powered for nearly 60 hours since our last fuel stop so we got some diesel at Graz and then decided to go to the ACI Marina Dubrovnik – which is a couple of miles up the river. We waited for Marina and Jessie after filling up with water and fuel, as well as a hasty cleanup of a decidedly male-occupied boat.

Entering Dubrovnik by the large yachts and cruise ships

The girls were supposed to be on a flight into Dubrovnik at 17:00 local time. I checked a number of websites and there was definitely something fishy with the flight. It wasn’t until about 21:00 that I got a text – someone lent Marina their cellphone – that they were in Zagreb. Apparently there was a blown tire on the runway at 5pm, so they diverted to Split, landed and got some fuel, flew back to Dubrovnik where there were thunderstorms, then back to Zadar because the crew needed a change, then finally to Dubrovnik at around 23:30. They arrived at the boat right around midnight … we had a happy reunion and brought them to Tara where we had some food and wine for them. By then everyone was really tired and ready for bed but our holidays are now officially underway.

We got up the next morning and bought a bunch of food, topped up the water tanks and headed off for the islands, stopping at Sunj on Lopud for the afternoon and then onto Luka Sipan which provided a secure anchorage for us. Since everyone was so tired we opted for safety and were happy that we did. We went in for dinner and Marina and I searched for a place to buy internet credits – somebody left automatic updates on their PC and downloaded a Gigabyte of OS upgrades … you forget about those pesky things when you are at home but a Windows update can wreak havoc on your Wireless Internet stick!

Arrival in Greece

05:30 wake up, 06:15 grab breakfast, 06:45 walk to airport, 07:00 check in, 07:10 walk through security, and then wait for 2 hours because you’re early. I guess it beats being panicked about whether you’re going to make the flight or not. Again our flight was on-time, we transferred to another plane in Vienna and then on to Preveza. 

Tara on the travel-lift -- ready to be splashed

A quick cab ride (the guy was driving 140Km/h on 50km/h roads to get back to the airport for another fare) to the marina and we were there. A couple of days of travelling and we were ready to start working on Tara.

Happiest day of the year for Tara -- back in the water again

We did a pretty good job of putting her to bed, not much was wrong, just the pumps that I had brought from Vancouver and the new AIS transponder that will upgrade our navigation safety systems. We put most of our kit on the boat which was being polished, and then decided to crash for a couple of hours in air-conditioned comfort.

Ross and I hanging out on the bow on our new cushions steering the
boat with our remote control for the Autopilot

We got up the next morning really early and started unpacking the boat. We got the jib on and got the pumps installed. We replaced the main furling line (again) and also put the main up the mast. My idea of putting all the halyards at the top of the mast and protecting the rope in an Ikea tote worked like a hot-damn. Going to patent this idea and sell it to all the sailors that put their boats away.

Anyway, after a bunch of hot work we put the boat in the water and she started up right away, all systems worked and we pulled into our slip with no-muss, no-fuss. We tied up and started to work on making sure all the sailing systems and stuff that we couldn’t test while we were out of the water worked. 

Fortunately for us there weren’t any nasty surprises – other than my head (bathroom to normal humans) stank to high heaven. In the end I believe it was a combination of an odor filter that needed replacement plus the shower drain having fermented. A load of bleach did a world of good for my nose.

Ross hanging out on the pulpit looking for dolphins

I had ordered some cushions for the bow and cockpit and they were going to take until Saturday. We had a lot of waiting around to do so one of the things we figured out was how much rope we have onboard Tara – and our best estimate is about 1.3 Kilometers – not quite a mile of rope but maybe 8-10ths.

Saturday morning couldn’t come fast enough for Ross and me – sitting in Cleopatra marina for a few days is enough to make you starkers. We got our cushions – not 100% satisfied but took them anyway, and pulled out of the marina. We anchored off of Preveza and I ran in and bought a 100 Euros of food to get us started and we bugged out to Lakka on Paxos.

It is amazing how much more restful it is to be anchored than in a marina … the wind is always at your nose so the ventilation of the boat works much better plus we just have more freedom to do what we want to.

We tried sailing but the wind has been constantly on the nose. In this case it was completely on the nose the whole way – e.g., Lakka was where the wind was coming from, that Ross and I gave up, sat on the new boat cushions and steered the boat with my trusty autopilot remote control. We had a good giggle about sitting on the bow for Opening day with nobody on the helm and saluting the Commodore while steering with the remote control.

We got to Lakka and then discovered to our delight that we didn’t need to be in Gouvia on Corfu until 2 days later instead of the next day – so we had a bonus day in about the nicest place anywhere, finished up outfitting the boat and getting her ready for sailing.

Tara at Anchor in Lakka on the island of Paxos

Another Year of Sailing

Ross at Whitehorse Airport

June 22^nd came quickly this year … I guess no more quickly than in other years. The pace of life just seems to hit overdrive around mid-May as the countdown to cruising season begins. This year we had all of Ross’ graduation events to deal with plus I was, as usual for this time of year, deep in negotiations for a new client. We managed to get much of it done in time and Ross and I took off for the airport with Marina driving us – each of us with a measured bag of slightly less than the 23 Kilo limit and with carry-on bags less than the 8 Kilo limit. Thankfully they didn’t check my computer bag that must have weighed 20 kilos on its own!

Ross enjoying a beer with Pasta in Frankfurt

Our routing this year was a bit goofy … Vancouver to Whitehorse for a 6 hour layover, then onto Frankfurt for a quick overnight, then to Preveza and the boat. Marina’s brother-in-law Mike lives in Whitehorse so we planned to visit him. Unfortunately he was working so he left a car for us at the airport and we drove it downtown to the firehall. As luck would have it he was on a call so we grabbed brunch at a local eatery and waited for him to return. We saw the rescue truck backing into the garage so we went and had a visit with Mike. The firehall is nicely decked out. Mike had a quick workout and we sat and watched some World-cup football for about an hour until another call came in and he had to go – life of a firefighter I guess.

At last at Preveza

We then went and visited his daughter Kestrel at their house for about a half hour – woke her up at 3pm so she is obviously a teenager. Before long we needed to get back the airport and park the car where we found it – interesting story in itself. We then checked our bags in for the long-haul to Frankfurt that left early because all the passengers and baggage were ready, and we took off.

Tara about to be lifted into the water

Eight hours later, not sure if it ever got dark because we had a polar routing, we arrived at Frankfurt – our bags came out promptly and we dragged them off to the Hilton airport hotel – expensive but quite nice and a short walk to the concourse.

To Corinthos and Beyond

Getting diesel from the "Diesel Guy" on Poros

Our favourite coffee / breaky place on Poros

46 Flavours of Gelato on Poros!

We got up fairly late after our dinner out with Chelsea and then headed to shore for water and diesel fuel. We lit out for Korfos and, without much help from the wind, we made it to Korfos back anchored in close to the same spot we were in the week before. We sent the kids off to shore and then cleaned up the boat a bit, did some swimming and SUP’ing.

Anchorage at Korfos

We decided to eat dinner onboard. After nearly a month on the same gas bottle we needed to switch – and the second bottle was empty – yikes. A half cooked dinner, a couple of hungry kids and no gas. Ross and I  grabbed the gas cylinders and headed to town and, luck have it, we found 2 gas bottles and got back to the boat and finished dinner.

Goodbye Aegean Sea

The next morning Marina and I woke up at 6:30 and picked up anchor to head to the Corinth Canal. We arrived at the Canal at 09:30 and after a 5 minute stop where Marina dropped me off to pay my 267€, picked me up again and we were off through the canal.

 

 



Hello Gulf of Corinth

Our transit through the canal was solo with lots of pictures taken. We managed to be on the other side at around 10:15 so we put the hammer down and started powering north-east. We had two destinations in mind, either near Itea (50 miles) or the island of Trizonia (70 miles). We were making good way and also encountered several large pods of dolphins that stayed with us for a little while.

So excited to see dolphins!

Going under the Aktion Bridge

At around 4pm we decided to press on the other 20 miles so we continued on to Trizonia. There wasn’t a breath of wind until about 5 miles out of Trizonia, when we got 20 knots right on the nose. We just continued to power and we anchored beside a 45 foot catamaran instead of trying to go into the docks. We had powered for 10 hours straight … got to love that Yanmar.

Within an hour 4 other boats came in and anchored with us. There were a number of kids onboard the nearby boats and we tried to engage them on the SUP to no avail. We ate dinner onboard again. After dark we met some boys swimming back to the Catamaran from town with a watertight flashlight.

Trizonia Anchorage

We had a chat and invited them onboard for a glass of wine. We met three very nice young men, Theo, Elie (pronounced Eli) and Jean Baptise (JB), two brothers and a cousin from France. The oldest Theo has just graduated high-school. It turned out that both of us were heading to Messalogia the next day. We stayed up talking until 01:00 am about the sailing experiences we have had. They too take a month every summer and head out as a family. There just are not very many of us that do this so it is nice to meet up with fellow yacht-owning cruisers with kids roughly the same age as ours.

 

Marina and I got up a bit groggy the next morning after serving about 3 liters of wine to the crew and then we lifted anchor and headed to Messalongia at around 07:15. The good news about doing a 70 mile day from Korfos to Trizonia is that you get a 30 miler the next day. We were anchored at around noon, grabbed a quick lunch and walked to the beach area – about 2 miles down a road that also serves as a dike for the town.



The "Beach Club" in Messalongia

Ross and I did a small amount of jogging – about 5 minutes in the noon-day 38 degree heat, and then continued to walk to the Beach Resort at the entrance of Messalongia. As soon as we got there we saw our friends in their Catamaran “Eagle” arriving. I yelled to Theo – and got a friendly wave back. We were hoping that they would arrive at Messalongia so the kids could hang out again.

 



Dinner with our new friends from the catamaran Eagle

After we walked back from the beach, the kids and Marina went back to the boat and went to hang out with the kids on the Cat. Marina met Frederick and Delphine – and their two younger daughters Josephine and Adelade 13 and 8 respectively. I continued on a hunt for a cheap portable air conditioner and came up dry. I got back to the shore and Marina picked me up – then joined the kids pulling the SUP around behind Bonnie Blue. We decided to make plans for dinner that night and we went out as a crew – all eleven of us looking for a restaurant in Meganisi. You’d think it would be easy but, as it turns out, it was a Greek holiday and most of the people that work in Meganisi are from the mountains and they go home for the holiday – so the town was e-m-p-t-y. Anyway, Frederick managed to find a restaurant – it had a Coq on the top of it – and we had a great meal of appetizers and Greek food. We had a laugh at the menu that said "Rooster in Wine" which we gathered would be Coq au Vin.

 

We made it back as a group to the boat at 01:00am and then Jessie, Chelsea and the three boys Theo, Elie,, and JB went out to a local club … for an hour. At 05:00 Marina and I were considering going on a search party … just as a gaggle of tweens, teens, and a twenty-something showed up all happy and giggly from staying out at the club until it closed. Jess was particularly happy having closed her first nightclub down.

Our friends leaving on Eagle

The next morning Frederick came to see my new alternator setup as the Eagle has basically the same engine as Tara’s except that it isn’t turbocharged. The night before we had been discussing the most important aspect of cruising sailing – keeping the batteries charged. He like Marcel, has had some struggles with maintaining the charge of his batteries. I believe we have solved that problem with the big alternator and the regulator timed to fill the large battery bank we have on Tara and want to help others find the way as well.

After a coffee, we said our goodbyes – they’re heading first to Kefalonia, then Sicily the following day. We are heading into the Ionian – on our way to Corfu to pickup our friends Chris Read and the Price family.

 

The wind was up so we sailed downwind in 20 knots of breeze until we turned the corner and headed North. We had two choices, Vathy on Ithaka or Tranquil Bay on Lefkas.


Lighting candles for passed loved ones on Atakos,
now an annual tradition.

We had made some good time under sail, then we powered for a while, so we decided to make lunch around 4pm at Atokos where we lit a candle at the tiny church for our lost loved ones, then carried onto Tranquil Bay, near Nydri. Marina and I left the kids onboard and went to town returning with some more food and some plans for the next day.