Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Nimrod Sets Sail For 2013

Hi all Sue here

Well after a wonderful winter in Marina di Ragusa we have finally cast off our lines and sailed to Greece. We had such an amazing winter and met so many new friends it was quite sad to leave but the good thing is there are 22 boats from here all cruising around the Ionian for the summer months then heading to Finike in Turkey for the winter so I don’t think there will be a shortage of parties along the way!!

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Last BBQ At Marina di Ragusa

Farewell Party Onboard Nimrod

My early morning walks with the ladies and keep fit sessions have come to an end and it’s time to start swimming around the boat again. Just wish the water was a bit warmer!!

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Summertime Following Nimrod out of Marina di Ragusa

Landfall in Greece 58hrs Later – Mongonisi, Paxos

(Chris) Around mid April everyone was running around trying to get all the last minute jobs done before heading off to new cruising grounds for the summer, the weather was calm and sunny and everyone was planning to leave about a week before the end of April for a nice pleasant start to the summer. As usual though the weather had different ideas for us all and proceeded to blow from the NE / E direction at up to 25knts, since most of us were planning to go East this sort of weather was not what was needed. The locals assured us that Easterly winds never last more than a day or two so everyone was watching the weather forecasts to see when the wind would change back to the normal NW direction. The winds did not listen to the locals and continued to blow from the E for 2 weeks so it was May 6th before the wind changed and we could finally set sail.

The forecast looked good with around 15 to 20knts NW winds forecast for our generally Easterly course so everyone was up early and about 15 boats all left the Marina at various times in the morning. We had a great sail down to the SE corner of Sicily with two headsails poled out wing and wing to make the most of the wind almost directly behind us, the sea state was a bit mixed after the long spell of E winds but progress was good. We had already pretty much decided we were going to sail directly to Greece while others were heading up the E coast of Sicily for a stop in Syracuse.  We had a quick radio chat with Summertime and decided the forecast was as good as we were likely to get so we pointed the bows towards Greece and prepared for our longest non-stop passage so far, a total of 325nm and two nights at sea. In the end we sailed 21hrs, motorsailed 28hrs and motored 9hrs – could have been better but it could also have been a lot worse!!!

(Sue) We had a bit of a mixed sail across to Greece. It took 57 hours and the first 24 hours were not very pleasant but I’m sure the captain will fill in all the technical details, all I know is I didn’t feel very well!! But we are here now and it is very beautiful. I think it is going to be a very good summer. We sailed across in the company of two other boats from Ragusa, Summertime and Zimwee, so anchor drinks were called for when we arrived in Mongonisi, Paxos. The following day we also met up with our friends off Scarlett and had a BBQ on board with the Tuna we caught on our way across.

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Tied to Town Quay, Gaios, Paxos

Gaios Harbour

Tying up to town quays is the way of life here and it can prove to be very entertaining but so far we have managed okay. Gaios is a very pretty town and it’s so easy being tied to the town quay, no more wet dinghy bums!! We also spent a night in Lakka and had a memorable evening out along with 8 Aussies. Our next trip was to the island of Mourtos where we anchored along with Summertime, we didn’t go ashore here as we plan to spend more time here when my sister and her husband arrive in June. So our next sail was across to Corfu.

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Ready for Another BBQ

Scarlett and Wild Goose, Friends from Ragusa

When we reached Corfu we met up with some more Ragusa sailors off Wild Goose who were anchored in Garitsas Bay. So along with Scarlett another BBQ was called for. The men went shopping for steaks and as you can see they could only get small ones!! Chris was also meant to bring some wine back but bought 3 litres of Retsina instead, won’t send him shopping for wine again. We had a lovely evening and Bonaparte knew who to sit by for his steak. The next day Scarlett left for Gouvia but nearly left their dinghy behind so of course Chris had to get a picture of them reversing back for it!!

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Bonaparte Checking The BBQ

Scarlett Forget the Dinghy

Our next stop was Stefanos Harbour which was pretty crowded by late afternoon. It was meant to be a very tranquil little place but at 11pm the Greek music started and didn’t finish until 4am. I wouldn’t have minded if we had been ashore joining in but it was the one night we had decided a no alcohol and early night was in order!! Well we have to detox sometimes!!

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Venetian Castle off Corfu Town

Ay Stefanos Harbour, NE Corfu

We are now in a very peaceful little bay called Kerasia and we spent last night (Monday) here on our own. Think we will head up as far as Kassiopi tomorrow then just potter around along this coast until my sister and husband arrive on 1st June.

(Chris) As Sue says Greece has been very nice so far, the Greeks are invariably friendly and generally speak very good English and so far as we have seen the economic troubles seem to be having little impact in the Islands we are cruising. The scenery is lovely and there are so many little bays to anchor in that we are spoilt for choice. The town quays so far have all been free and because it is still quite early nowhere has been too busy for us to get where we want to go – no doubt that will all start to change in a few weeks as the Charter holiday season gets under way – we will have to make the best of it before then.

So far Nimrod has behaved wonderfully so all the hard work and jobs that we got done over the winter are paying off. The only downside so far is the amount of motoring we need to do, the wind is generally very light or too strong, however we are finding that the afternoon sea breeze usually gives 10 to 15knts of wind and distances are usually short between stops so we will have to get used to setting off around 2 or 3 in the afternoon to give us the best chance of sailing.

The other good thing we have noticed is that almost everywhere has good wifi signals that we can use from the boat and a lot are open access so we do not even need to go and find a password from the taverna.

We have a few days of Southerly winds forecast from tomorrow so we are going to head for Kassiopi on the N coast of Corfu to explore the town and anchorages until the wind turns back to the more usual NW direction.