From Greece to Italy

The weather conspired to keep us in Serifos for a few more days after we said goodbye to friends Kenny, Liz and Lucy on Princess Lucy so we had to fit in a couple more hikes around the Island.

Ambeli Beach, Serifos	Cute Kids !!

First we walked to Ambeli Beach to the South of the Island, a fairly easy 10km hike on decent paths and tracks with some great views of the interior of the Island as well as some local wildlife. This time of year is great for hiking with pleasant temperatures and the stunning sights and smells of the Spring flowers and herbs everywhere you go.

Livadhi Bay, Serifos	In Need of Repair

A couple of days later we had another easy walk around Livadhi Bay to Tsilipaka Beach, a sedate 6km stroll on easy tracks with only about 150m height difference. Not as pretty as some of our other hikes but interesting nontheless.

Downwind to Milos	Kleftiko Rocks, Milos

So after nearly two weeks in Serifos we finally got a favourable weather forecast to head round the bottom of the Peloponese. First was a 34 mile trip to the SW corner of Milos, we managed to sail almost all the way, mainly with our two headsails set wing and wing. This is nice easy sailing for us if we are going dead down wind or very close to it, at around 8knts we are travelling at about the same speed as the waves so it is very comfortable. We anchored under the cliffs at Kleftiko for the night before heading off again next day.

Monastery, Cape Maleas	Elafanisos Beach

Next day was a long 70nm passage to the Island of Elafanisos on the South East of the Peloponese, just past Cape Maleas that is the south eastern tip of mainland Greece.

It Turned out to be an Eventful Day!!! 0620 Departure to spend the first 3 hrs trying to sail but mainly motorsailing as the wind simply would not behave, forecast was for about 12-15knts NE but we had 2-8 from SE and E with occasional gusts to 20 just to keep you interested. Eventually the wind settled down to 15-20 from E to SE and we managed to sail for the next 4 1/2 hrs at good speeds. Approaching Cape Maleas the wind dropped and we motorsailed for an hour with just the main while keeping an eye on all the traffic passing around us. Then the sky went black, lightning flashed and thunder roared, wind up to 25-30 so main was quickly dropped and we motored into building seas and 20+ knts of wind. Earlier the turning block for the jib furling line had failed so I needed to jury rig a replacement so we could use the jib to motorsail into the wind and seas. Next there is a clattering noise at the back of the cockpit - a check round showed the screw shackle between the main halyard and the head of the sail had come undone and bounced down the boat, luckily it landed in the dinghy but now the main halyard was swirling around in 25 knts of wind - no chance of doing anything in those conditions so it eventually got wrapped around the topping lift and lazy jacks where it was easy to recover it from when we stopped.  2 hrs later we are approaching the anchorage at Elafanisos as the winds calmed and the sun came out, next the oil pressure alarm goes off on the port engine!!! Quickly stop the engine and change to the stbd engine, a quick look in the engine bay revealed lots of oil on the outside of the engine instead of the inside - not good. Anchored in a lovely sandy bay  in bright sunshine and 6knts of breeze, 70nm and 11 hrs after we left. The engine oil leak was found to be a faulty sealing ring on the oil filter so a new filter and 6ltrs of oil solved the problem apart from 6ltrs of oil in the engine bay to be pumped out and cleaned up.

Porto Kayio Anchorage	Cemetry Above Porto Kayio

The anchorage in Elafanisos was a bit rolly so we were away early for a short 25nm trip to Porto Kayio. This time the wind was a bit more favourable than the forecast and we sailed about 2/3 of the way. We hooked our first fish of the season but it managed to get away about 30m from the boat – shame!!

Stunning Spring Flowers	Found on the Trail

A couple of days break in Porto Kayio gave us time for another hike down to the S of the peninsula. We found a trail from a website but both the tracks out of Porto Kayio were completely overgrown so we had to use the road and a bit of improvisation. Once again the spring flowers were everywhere and the countryside around the area was lovely.

Vathy Beach, Near Porto Kayio	Porto Kayio Waterfront

We walked down a well cleared path to get to Vathy Beach but the track out on the other end of the beach had not had any tender loving care at all and it was barely visible in the undergrowth with an occasional blue paint mark to give us a clue. We did eventually find our way back to the road to continue on our merry way (although Sue was not too merry after scrambling through the undergrowth)

Sue here, just got to add that my version of a path is totally different from Chris!! Every hike we go on we seem to end up at some stage fighting our way through the undergrowth and all I can here is Chris up in front shouting keep going I’m sure we are still on the right track!!! Its like where’s Wally, he is a little figure in the distance!!

Entrance to Navarino Bay and Pilos	Fairy Castle, near Agrilos

Now the weather decided we would not have any wind for about a week and since the normal wind direction for this area is from the N and that is where we were going, we decided we had better do some motoring to make some miles in the right direction. From Porto Kayio we headed West and North to Pilos where we tied up in the unfinished marina for the night, we did manage some sailing on this passage but it was to be the last for a while. Next day was further North to Kipparissia, followed by a trip up to the ferry port of Kyllini. No time for any hiking or shore side visits as we still had little or no wind forecast so we carried on to One House Bay on the small Island of Atokos and then onward to Vlikho Bay on Levkas. So from Pylos to Vlikho Bay we motored about 130nm, but at least the sea was flat and calm.

A few days stopover gave us a chance to meet up with some old friends, Ian & Bobby on Carlina and Frank & Agetha on La Bassine. This meant a visit to Vlikho Bay Yacht club for Sunday Dinner and a few little drinkies!!

Sue here, normality at last!! So nice to stop for a few days and socialise. It was really lovely to catch up with these friends again and share some happy memories.

Trail to Nydri Waterfalls	Some Nice Views to be Found!!

Now this is my kind of hike, proper paths and a impressive waterfall at the end, for once I thought we had done an easy hike but oh no there was more to come!!

We Made It!!!	Place to Ourselves

Lets go back a different route he says as it would be boring to go back the same way. We set off in search of some elusive springs but sadly we did not find them. We did see a lot of the countryside though and picked a lot of lemons, which my freezer is now full of. Ready for all the summer sundowners!!

Interior of Levkada	Oranges and Lemons Going to Waste

In Lakka we met up with friends Vic & Chrissy and spent a couple of evenings with them eating and drinking Aperol Spritzers and of course the obligatory hike around the island.

Lakka Bay Anchorage	Lakka Lighthouse

This is a really beautiful island with a lot of really plush properties. We also came across an abandoned Monastery which must have been very grand in its day. So of course we picked a few more lemons

Rugged South Coast of Paxos	Old and New

After 2 days here it was time to move on to Corfu Town but only for one night as we had to keep going. We then sailed to the island of Othoni where we stayed for one night. Onwards

Beautiful Hiking Trail	Wild Flowers in Greece!!

Italy was our next stop. So we headed off bright and early for Bridissi. On the way Chris decided maybe we should take advantage of the southerly winds and keep going overnight to Vieste. It had been a bit of a roly sail so far but I wasnt feeling too bad so I agreed. Then it all changed!! I will say no more as I’m sure Chris will explain it better but I didn’t like it!!! In my defence I will point out that I hadn’t been well for a couple of days with a urine infection so wasnt feeling 100%!!!.

As Sue says we had an “interesting” trip from Orthoni!! The wind was forecast to be from the SE, great as we were heading NW, wind speed was predicted as 10-12knts early morning building to 20-25knts through the day. For once the forecast was pretty good and the wind was good with occasional gusts into the low 30knts, all very nice and comfortable with boat speed around 8knts so making good progress, sea state was not too bad as the wind had not really had time to build up any waves. So as we got nearer to Brindisi late afternoon further studies of the weather forecast showed that our 20-25knts wind should continue overnight and from mainly the same direction. Since we need to make some miles N when we can we decided to keep going overnight another 120nm to Vieste. Seemed like a good plan until we were about 2hrs past Brindisi when the wind chaged direction more to the SW (still OK) progress with just the headsail was now a bit slow so we had to raise the mainsail with two reefs, everything now OK with a bit more speed for another hour or so, as it was going dark the wind decided it had not listened to the same forecast and so it increased to 30-35knts with gusts up to 45knts. It was now impossible to turn back to Brindisi because the winds and seas would have been on the nose and it would have taken about 4hrs in horrible conditions to get there. No option but to keep going, so the mainsail was reefed down to the third reef and the headsail rolled away to a fraction of normal size and we kept going, we have never sailed Nimrod in conditions that need 3 reefs in the sails but she handled it all very easily and we carried on in the right direction at 7.5 knts. After 2 or 3 hrs (it felt longer) the wind eased, the sea flattened out a bit and more sail was needed to keep the speed up so once again it seemed like the right decision to keep going!!. Overnight and next morning was all fairly pleasant with much lighter winds and slower speeds, we arrived in Vieste around midday after 195nm and 30hrs at sea for an average speed of just under 6.5knts.

So sitting at anchor outside the harbour at Vieste we study the weather forecast again to see when we can head North up the coast towards Venice that is still around 290nm away. The Italian Adriatic coast is not blessed with many yacht friendly harbours, with long distances between the ones there are and even less decent anchorages – nearly none in fact – and the weather forecast was for mainly NW winds for the next 5 or 6 days, not looking good!! All of a sudden sailing to Croatia and going NW up there with a multitude of safe anchorages and short distances between the Islands seemed a much better idea than the inhospitable Italian coast. Strangely from Vieste to Venice via Croatia is only about 30nm further than going up the Italian coast and we can make progress much more easily. Chances are by going to Croatia will be about 100nm nearer to Venice by the end of the week than if we stay in Vieste.

So tomorrow (Monday) we head to Ubli on the Island of Lastovo to check-in to Croatia. The plan now is to head up the Croatian coast as weather permits then cross to Venice for a week or so before heading back to Croatia for the rest of the summer. We hope to visit Montenegro later in the year before heading back to Greece and then on to Sicily for our winter stop. However you should remember that cruising plans are written in the sand at low tide so our next blog could have a completely different cunning plan!!

Out of the Marina and On Our Way Again

After a very short 3 1/2 month long winter in Agios Nikolaos it was time for us to head out for the summer, so after the usual last minute rush to get all the winter jobs finished we managed to escape from the marina on 30th March for the daunting 12nm passage around to Spinalonga Lagoon. We survived the trip unscathed and spent a few days anchored at Elounda before the weather kindly offered us some southerly winds to let us make our way North.

With an 85nm trip ahead of us we left Spinalonga at dark o’clock, or 0500hrs, with the forecast southerly winds a bit stronger than expected but still in the right direction. The wind continued pretty much as forecast for the whole day meaning the second half of the trip was a bit bumpy as the wind and waves moved around to the SE and then nearly E so we had the waves on the side of the boat and that is not the most comfortable for us.

We did manage to sail the whole way and arrived in the remote anchorage of Panormos on the NW corner of Astypalia after 12 1/2 hrs. Sue was not too impressed with the bumpy ride for her first trip of the year but the anchorage was calm and spectacular.

Panormos Anchorage, Astypalia	Schinousa Beach

Next day was a bit easier with only 42nm to cover to get to the little Island of Schinoussa, hardly any wind so it was mainly motoring with a few hours of motorsailing. Another deserted anchorage at Schinoussa and no wind forecast so we decided to stay for a couple of days.

Ancient Combine Harvester	Immaculate Honda C50

After all the parties and excess of the winter we had to try and get into a bit of a healthier regime for a while so we set off for a hike around the northern part of Schinoussa. With all the spring flowers and a surprising amount of agriculture for such a small Island it was a really beautiful walk and not too much climbing so a nice gentle start to the yeear. We manged to cover about 10km and saw almost all of the Northern half of the Island.

Attractions Around Schinousa	Interior of Schinoussa

Lots of animals, flowers and machinery to enjoy on our way and no one else around at all so it felt like we had the place all to ourselves.

Schinoussa Anchorage	Early Morning in Iraklia Harbour

The second day we had a bit of a change in the wind direction so we headed across the channel to the neighbouring Island of Iraklia to make sure we had a nice calm night.

Sailing Companions	Panagia Church, Paros

From Iraklia we had a 27nm trip to the main port of Paros called Paroika with a nice sheltered anchorage just off the town for a couple of days.

Hiking on Paros	Nature at her Best

On Paros we hiked up into the interior of the Island to a monastery at 400m above sea level and a distance of nearly 14km in total so a good bit more strenuous than Schinoussa. Again the flowers and scenery were stunning making it another wonderful hike.

Soon the weather forecast was looking favourable so we set off for Livahdi on Serifos with 16 - 20knts of wind meaning we sailed the whole 32nm in a little over 4 hrs. We arrived in the harbour to find we were the only boat in the place so we could choose the best spot. We were expecting some friends to join us in a few days so it was really nice to be safely in the harbour, over the next few days we only ever had 4 or 5 boats in the harbour with us so it is still very quiet around the Aegean.

Hiking in Serifos	Kallistos Village, Serifos

Serifos is a good Island for hiking with a good number of marked trails to follow, we decided to head into the N of the Island to the village of Kallistos and then back around the E coast beaches to arrive back in the harbour. Another lovely hike but a bit longer this time with nearly 15km covered and 400m high at the top of the trail.

Kenny, Liz and Lucy arrived on Princess Lucy so we had a lovely few days with them before they had to leave to start heading N back towards Athens. We need to head SW around the Peloponnese and the weather is not in our favour so we are sitting in Serifos waiting for the wind to change direction.

Interior of Serifos	Locals Preparing for Easter Dinner

Another hike into the centre of Serifos to Glyftiki took us along one of the best preserved donkey tracks (kalderimi) in the Cylclades Islands, only about 10km but nearly 500m up at the end so another good workout.

Easter is very important to the Greeks and we saw a few places getting their whole lambs prepared on the BBQ and spit ready for the tradditional dinner to celebrate the end of lent.

Lovely Pathway Across Serifos	View Over the Chora and Harbour

The weather looks like it will keep us here until the end of the week so at least it means we have time to catch up with our blog and also get a few of the ongoing boat jobs completed.

Our plan for this year is to go around the Peloponnese into the Ionian, head N up to Venice and then cruise slowly down through Croatia and Montenegro before heading to Sicilly for the winter. We will try and keep the blog a bit more up to date but there are always more important things to do!!!

Winter in Agios Nikolaos

Hi all Sue here

This has been a short winter for us in Agios Nikolaos Marina as we didn’t arrive until middle of December and left 31st March but as usual it has been very busy.

After spending so long on the boatyard poor Nimrod was really dusty and dirty on the inside and it took a long time to get rid of it all!! It has also been a lot colder and wet this winter so we haven’t done as much walking and hiking as last year. We still managed to fit a few parties in and we have had great fun with old friends and new. Christmas was very busy in the Marina, 32 of us sat down for a full Christmas Lunch. My son Joe and his partner Heather came out for Christmas but sadly the weather was not very good. They still had a good time though despite that and the cold showers!! We even had a lot of snow.

Christmas Day and after eight mints!!	Lots of snow

We also experienced Greek healthcare firsthand as Chris developed a Thyroglossal Cyst, something that is more common in young children. I knew he had never grown up!! Anyway after various scans and blood tests it was decided he needed an operation to remove it. We paid some “Black” money to get it done quicker and he was admitted to hospital in Heraklion and had the operation done on a Sunday morning. It was a real eye opener being in there for 4 days but he survived and is back to his “normal” self complete with a manly scar on his neck. No more Peter Pan!! He soon got fed up of me looking after him and said I was treating him like a child, hmmmmm!!!!

Waiting for his op with a visitor of another patient sharing his bed!!!	All done, bless him

After his recovery it was then all go trying to get jobs done ready to leave and fit in all those last minute parties!! Totally manic time. I also had Wozel to look after for 2 weeks which was great, I love that dog. I still managed some early morning walks with the ladies, my favourite time of the day. Walk and talk, talk and walk!! Oh and we did stop for the occasional hot chocolate and sometimes some retail therapy was needed!! Happy days.

Wozel having fun	Early morning walk

In my spare time I took up rope basket making, very patiently taught to me by Cathy over a nice bottle of bubbles. No wonder she made me unpick the first one and start again but I persevered!! We had a brilliant Paddys day party, lots of singing and dancing on the table as usual!!

Baskets galore!!	Ladies partying on Paddys Day

31st March came around all too quickly and it was time to say goodbye to many good friends who are going different ways to us. Many tears shed but we will keep in touch and hopefully meet again one day. That is the hard part of this life and one I will never get used to!!

Hard Labour in the Boatyard

Chris and Tales from the Boatyard

We left Spinalonga Lagoon on Crete in late September and headed off to Finike to get on with our big boatyard job list. The trip is about 260nm all together and fortunately the weather was generally favourable and we took ten days, stopping in seven different anchorages and arriving in Finike on the 29th Sept with lift-out booked for the next day.

We were met by Ziya, the Marina Manager, who was very happy to see us again and promised to make our stay as smooth as possible. Samet, the local agent, was also on the quay to take our papers and deal with the check-in formalities, all in all a very efficient start to our time in Finike – a shame it was not all as easy.

Lifting Out – Looks Quite Clean	Repairs to Delamination

The lift-out went very well with the travel lift staff being very careful and attentive, a good pressure washing left the bottom nice and clean ready for work. We got parked in a good spot in the yard with plenty of space around us and a nice clean concrete yard to work on.

The job list was long and we had hoped to get everything done in around a month, the first of the two main jobs was to respray the blue hulls that were starting to look pretty faded and scarred after 7 years and there was also a large patch of delamination that needed repairing. This is where the balsa core in the hulls is not properly bonded to the glass fibre skin, the defect has been there since the boat was built but has become more obvious over the last couple of seasons so some major surgery was required.

The second main job was to Coppercoat the underwater sections of the boat, this is an epoxy based copper rich paint that should prevent most of the underwater critters growing on our hull and is supposed to last ten years or more. This should mean we don’t have to get lifted out every couple of years to apply normal anti-fouling paint and it should also mean some decent cost savings over the lie of the Coppercoat – time will tell if it all works as planned and promised.

We agreed a price with the paintshop on the yard to do the delamination repair and to fully respray all the blue hull areas of the boat, there was very few boats in the yard and not much work going on so we managed to get a very good price agreed. They were started on the repairs and sanding very quickly and all looked to be going very well.

Lots of Sanding and Prep Work	Primer to Hulls, Keels and Rudders

Obviously most of the work invloved in the resparay and the Coppercoat is in the preparation and while the yard sanded and filled the hulls we were hard at work scraping and sanding away all the old anti-foul paint and primer to get the underwater hulls all back to clean white gelcoat ready to apply the Coppercoat. It sounds simple when you write it down but it was many days of hard work to get everything ready. The second photo above shows the primer after application.

Coppercoat on Keels and Rudders	Looks Can Be Deceiving

We had decided to apply the Coppercoat in sections to make it a bit easier to keep to the overcoating and application times that are needed. The first job was to do the keels and rudders leaving the main hull sections to be done one hull at a time.

Meanwhile the yard had finished sanding and priming and had applied the Awlgrip Flag Blue paint, the picture above looks like a beautiful shiny paint job, unfortunately it was not that good with lots of runs and lots of dirt and bugs in the paint finish, definitely not good enough so they were told to sand it all down and start again!!! This continued all through the job and they actually had to sand and respray some sections of the boat 8 or 9 times before the finish was acceptable. We thought that using the paintshop on the yard would give us the best and quickest finish but it certainly didn’t work out that way. The paint sprayer looked more like he was conducting and orchestra with his spray gun than any normal smooth spraying action that I have ever seen before, also he did not seem to have a clue about the proper air pressures to use with the spray gun. Because they had to paint so many times they actually used all the Awlgrip Flag Blue Paint that was in Turkey at the time!! Eventually they did manage to get the paint finish to a good quality and it did look very impressive.

Greg Helping With Coppercoat	Looking Good

For Coppercoating the hulls we were helped out by Joan and Greg from Elusive and it was much appreciated meaning we got each hull done in around five hours each. The final job certainly looked very good.

There were lots of other jobs that needed to be done while we were out of the water so these were all done around the sanding and painting work. We had to remove the saildrive sections from the engines to change the main diaphragm seal that keeps the water out of the boat as well as changing the propshaft oil seals, sanding and painting the drives and clamping rings and polishing the prop blades. We also changed all the through hull fittings and seacocks for new DZR items that should be good for another 10 or 15 years. Also changed was all the toilet hoses inside the boat – not a pleasant job. The exhaust outlets were changed for new ones and moved to a better position on the hulls so we also had to blank off the old holes with glass fibre and gelcoat.

Name Logo and White Stripe	Back in the Water, Kastellorizon

In the end our one month plan turned into nine weeks but everything was ticked off the job list and Nimrod was looking great with new name logos and white stripe just above the waterline. Meantime Sue had escaped from the boatyard and gone back to the UK to see friends and family leaving Chris to sail from Finike to Crete on his own!!

Nimrod was put back in the water on the Friday and Samet completed the check-out formalities the same day so I was on my way Saturday morning to get to Kastellorizon where you can see Nimrod looking really good in the anchorage.

Good Catch on the Way to Rhodes	Best Keep Away From That

The weather was very good once again for the trip back to Crete and I managed to get back in 5 days even if most of the trip was motoring or motorsailing. Approaching Rhodes I hooked two tuna, both about 3kg each, and when I had finished getting them on board I looked up to see a horrible black thunder cloud with an even nastier looking waterspout about 2 miles away. Some careful monitoring on the radar meant I was able to keep out of the way and get safely into the anchorage.

Karpathos Anchorage	Remote Anchorage on Kassos

From Rhodes I sailed to Karpathos and Kassos, stopping in some lovely deserted anchorages and catching another couple of 3kg tuna between Kassos and Crete. Finally arrived back in Spinalonga Lagoon to meet up with Steph and Andy on Norna Biron, managed a couple of days rest in Spinalonga before getting into Agios Nikolaos Marina for our winter stop on Dec 10th after a long and busy season.