Santa Maria di Leuca to Brindisi (Italy)

Posted at 9:09 AM, May. 25, 2007

We are now at Brindisi on the SE coast of Italy, on the Adriatic sea, and a major ferry terminus for passengers to Greece and the signs say Albania also. There is also a small international airport here  with Ryanair flights to the UK for one pound plus about 19 pound in taxes.

We arrived here on Tuesday night 22^nd May after an 11 hour beat with up to 30 knots right on the nose. A hard day at the office! Good news was thought that Shelly found her sea legs and no ill health signs despite heavy seas and a but of a pounding. We left Santa Maria di Leuca in calm weather to depart the southern Ionian Sea and to head up into the Adriatic having identified a small fishing village that we could anchor off for lunch, an explore and a swim and then a few more miles up the coast to the medieval town of Otranto for the night. Overall about a 25 mile passage. We did not leave until around mid day after yet another gelato and instead of the benign conditions that prevailed at Santa Maria di Leuca we found a good 20 knot NE, which moved left all afternoon to end up as a 20 knot NW, as we got into the Adriatic. So spent all afternoon sailing along and close to the coast to pull into Otranto around 1900hrs but with the NW quite a swell rolling into the harbour.  A few other yachts there also. Had a rolly, noisy night and departed early morning for the 45 mile sail to Brindisi. Two other yachts headed out before us and both turned back!

It was a good sail though in trying conditions and a fine sunny day with lots of white water around. The no 2 reefing line frayed through en route and it has got me into completing the redesign of the reefing system. The one line reefing system in my view while good conceptually puts a lot of pressure on the mainsail cars and we have had several of the car bolts buckled as the reefing line “works” at the outer end of boom. I am going to run the outboard end lines back to the cockpit as in the traditional slab reefing system and then run a further line with a steel S that attaches to the mainsail reefing point at the mast, back to the cockpit through a spare jammer. That means two winching jobs rather than one but a far more secure system in that the amount of movement in the reefing lines will be significantly reduced. Will no doubt get well tested in the next few weeks. Also had a bang on the way and pretty sure we have some line around the prop as we are not getting full revs. Will go and anchor off tomorrow and dive under for a look – the marina does not look an inviting place to have a look and vis will be low.

At Brindisi it is possible to tie up at the town quay for no charge – but also no facilities which is ok for a night but does start to stretch the holding tanks after a couple of days. The advantage of the quayside is that you are in the centre of the action and only a matter of metres away from bars, cafes and gelaterias (in fact they are all combined into one). We found a great local trattoria called Skippers (great pizzas and pasta) for dinner just up a side street off the quay. Excellent and humorous service and a few extras thrown in at the end by who we presumed was the owner.

The town is quite an attractive place with the streets all paved and palm trees each side – somewhat of a surprise given the very unattractive visual impact when approaching by sea. We have now moved to the yacht club marina just beyond the town quay and on the other side of the harbour. The cheapest marina yet in the Med and with all services. A short walk and a foot ferry back to town runs continuously as and when required. The main marina to the north just inside the harbour entrance is apparently very expensive, is a lengthy bus ride from to town and has no cafes or other services there at all. And the only chandlery is in town also. The yacht club marina is small, plenty of depth and I think we were lucky to score a berth.

Shelly and Dean got a flight up to Rome yesterday afternoon and we then moved across to the marina where we are now. Got a text from them a while back and it seems they did the “shop till you drop” thing in Rome – and from personal experience that is not hard to do! We have had a quiet day looking around Brindisi, completing a few chores on the boat and catching up on 200 + emails that accumulated while we were offline over the last week. Had a few beers on board last night with an English couple who we have seen in the last 3 ports.

Tomorrow Ian, Barbara and Hilary join us along with Brad and Karen so it will be a full ship for the 3/4 days they are with us. Still haven’t made up our minds whether to overnight to Croatia or cruise quietly up the coast to Vieste with them. Will see what their preferences are!

I should mention that Brindisi is the town at which the Appian Way ended and part of the ruins at the end of the road remain as seen below. I had to check the internet to recall what the Appian Way was/is – but it transpires that from many years BC it was a major “road: from Rome to Brindisi that started off as a dirt road but ultimately was paved all the way and served as the principal supply route for the Roman armies over many decades.

Cheers

Keith

Malta to Santa Maria di Leuca

Posted at 3:44 PM, May. 23, 2007

Writing this in southern Italy on Friday 18^th at the yacht club marina in the town of Crotone a well out of the way place but seemingly undergoing something of a revival as a holiday destination for Italians. It is on the western edge of the Gulf of Taranto and a major fishing port. When we arrived late yesterday (Thursday May 17^th) the fish auctions  on the quayside were well underway and plenty of shops all along the road selling all types of fish until quite late. Having just completed a 23 hour sail we opted for the recommended pizzeria close by – very good but we sure got charged the tourist prices which is disappointing.

The sail across from the island of Comino off Malta turned into a total diesel consuming exercise with not a ripple of wind on the water. This translated into a 12 hour motoring day for the 85 mile passage across to Siracusa on the eastern coast of Sicily. We were here last November and were very impressed with the old town dating back to 5000 BC on the island of Ortiga. So it was great to show Alice around after we tied up stern to on a warm and busy late Sunday afternoon on the quay (free mooring) while the Italian crowds did the promenade thing – lovely well dressed women in impossibly high heels successfully dodging the gaps in the paving stones!

Problem number three ( number one the boiler, and number two the failure of the gel 12v engine starter battery about 4 years too soon) arose on our way across to Sicily when the chart plotter and radar system failed completely. I am not so sure about this Simrad gear! The masthead unit on the wind gear failed last November and was replaced under warranty – but this is in a sense a major and we are just out of the warranty period. Anyway I did establish that we had power to the main screen at the navigatiorium, that there were no fuses blown in the power unit  - then tracked down the one and only electronics guy in Siracusa who spoke no English other than “kaput” after various testing that he did. So an email to the Simrad guys in NZ and a quick response saw contract established with the Simrad agents (unfortunately at Via Reggio in Tuscany) and they offered to provide through a sub-agent at Messina a replacement unit. Packed up the main unit and couried to them and stoodby to await the new unit. Anyway after a couple of days we managed to establish that the new unit they offered us (under warranty so they were very good) was incompatible with our system – would not support the slave screen in the cockpit and the plugs were different so it was not a simple question of plug in and play. So we have headed off and they will hopefully repair the original unit and get it back to us in a few days.

Dean and Shelly arrived on board during this drama after numerous SMS’s and a change in flights so they flew into Catania on Sicily rather than Reggio de Calabria on the mainland which substantially reduced their travel time to Siracusa. I think they clocked up about a 38 hour transit time so were tired when they finally arrived at the bus station at the bottom of Ortiga and then a short walk to the boat. Overall 3 nights in Siracusa but that gave them a chance to recover before tackling the 160 mile passage to Crotone and also do plenty of sightseeing around Siracusa. We had one night at the marina when the wind got up and blew right onto the quayside making it pretty uncomfortable. Found ourselves next to a German motoryacht with the skipper bring a kiwi from Auckland  - so with the owners not on board we did enjoy watching some of the AC races – albeit with a German commentary. Good to see TNZ heading towards a 5 zip over the Spanish syndicate. Also had a lot of guidance provided by a NZ woman who walked past on the first day – only the second kiwi boat she had seen in Siracusa and has lived there for 5 years with her Dutch husband. She was absolutely delightful and provided some good advice on all sorts of matters – e.g. the best coffee, the best gelato etc.

                             Our local cafe in Crotone - the morning caffeine hit!

So finally we were ready to head off for the first of several passages being the 160 mile sail to Crotone. Finally got away at around 1800 hrs on Wednesday 16^th May with novice sailors in Dean and Shelly on board. First couple of hours motoring, developing pressure out of the SE – not bad, sailing, swung left to the NE, not good – beating, moved further to the left and then NNW with increasing pressure  (up to 30 knots) – good sailing at about 60 degrees apparent, reefed headsail and 2 reefs in the main not wanting to push it to hard overnight. Building seas saw Shelly with seasickness developing – saw her about 12 hours later! Declining wind during the early hours saw us motor sailing with lumpy left over seas and then during late morning a building NW to 30 knots again but now at around 110 apparent so with one reef in the main and the full self tacker out we blasted along on a sunny day at between 9.5 and 10.8 knots – got around the gas and oil platforms off Crotone and pulled into the marina at 1700 hours. Shelly lost some weight and is not planning to do the Atlantic crossing with us. Dean handled it well and got onto the handle bars for the fast reaching conditions we had for the last 5/6 hours. During the night introduced Alice to the wheel also and she had a few hours on station in not easy conditions and showed a natural flair for feeling the boat across and through the seaway in nice style

Navigation was back to traditional methods (although didn’t need to break out the sextant – actually have one on board, shame about not having the sight reduction tables!). Paper charts – large scale at that, hand bearing compass and a handheld GPS that gave us our position but not much more. One does get used to the ease of the chart plotter and the ability to plot an efficient (read the shortest) course but we did miss the radar given that all night we probably had at any one time at least 2 ships in sight plus fishing boats with non-conforming lights to add to any confusion.

We were planning to leave Crotone today but an unforecast “gregale” wind blew (this is the name given to the NE wind) and with a passage heading of 55 degrees a 30 knot gregale was not for gentlemen ( bearing in mind the English expression that gentlemen do not sail to windward). A quite decent squall with very heavy rain (our first) passed over a while ago but the barometer is on the rise again so hopefully we will depart here tomorrow (Saturday 19^th).

Now for an update – we finally left on Sunday 20^th after celebrating Dean’s 30+ birthday the previous night with a flash on-board dinner. The marina at Crotone was graced with our presence for 3 nights while the “gregale” continued to blow. Consequently we had plenty of opportunity to get to know the town and meet a few of the locals at the café/bar that became the morning caffeine hit spot and in the afternoon the beer spot. Crotone seems to be famous as it is where Pythagoras lived in the 5^th century BC. ( for those who can remember some old maths stuff). On our final night there (Saturday 19th May) the Madonna 13 kilometre pilgrimage began at 0100 from the cathedral accompanied by 1 hour of rockets that were exploded about 80 metres from the boat – initially we thought it was the offshore oil wells blowing up. The noise was extreme! The Madonna was to arrive back by boat at 2100 hrs Sunday into the marina and then a huge fireworks display was planned. Fortunately we had left by then. This is an annual event and the “Madonna” is a painting that was found in the sea of Mary and baby Jesus and is believed to have mystical powers.

Current planning has us undecided as to whether to sail across  the 70 miles to Santa Maria di Leuca on the other side of the Gulf of Taranto or the 115 mile passage directly to Corfu in Greece. Yes change of plans but maybe Corfu then back across to Brindisi to pick up (hopefully) the repaired Simrad gear, drop off Shelley and Dean and then the 120 mile passage across to Dubrovnik in Croatia where brother Ian, wife Barbara and niece Hilary (from London) will join us for a few days.

In the event we did the 71 mile sail to Santa Maria di Leuca, had a very nice sail in 12 knots and got the genaker up for a few hours. No weight losses reported during 11 hour passage. Have abandoned plans to go to Corfu and will head on up the east coast of Italy to Brindisi where we should be able to pick up our repaired electronic navigation gear/toys.

Don’t know when I will get to post this as we are not able to get internet access for some reason but will try for an internet café in town at Santa Maria di Leuca  -  we are about to go and climb the Mussolini steps which are at the end of the harbour and an impressive structure from what we can see from the boat. (Monday 21^st)  They were built by Mussolini as the “entrance to Italy” being on the extreme SE corner of Italy.

That’s it for now!

Cheers

Keith

PS posting this from Brindisi (Wednesday 23 May) having got some limited internet connectivity restored on board. Will do another update tonight if I get time.

Blue Lagoon, Comino Island, Malta

Posted at 7:58 PM, May. 12, 2007

At last we are under way and currently at anchor in the Blue Lagoon on the island of Comino which is to the north of Malta and lies in the channel between Malta and Gozo. We finally pulled out of Grand Harbour marina mid afternoon yesterday (Friday 11 May 2007) and motored a few miles up the coast to Bajja Mellieha  for the night at anchor. What a relief after the dusty two weeks at Grand Harbour. Malta is very dry and ther southerly winds bring a very fine brown dust from North Africa which infiltrates everywhere. Really need to wash the boat off every day. Water is quite expensive on the marina as all water in Malta is from big desalination plants. The bay Mellieha is a big bay on the NE coast of Malta, large hotel at its head and a few yachts joined us at anchor overnight. Broke out the BBQ and had a nice piece of steak washed down with a good French merlot.

                 Approaching the entrance to Grand Harbour we we depart!

Then this morning had a very quiet sail up to Comino, got the reefing lines set up and all safety gear (Cat 1) in place. Tested out all the gear and on board systems. Everything A-ok!

The hot water cylinder (boiler) was replaced over the last couple of days. Isotherm the manufacturers in Italy were very responsive as were the local agents (Strand Marine) once they had confirmed the diagnosis. So thanks to Louis and his team we have a 50 litre tank now in place of the previous 40 litre tank. Fortunately it just fitted into the space! Louis when we return to Malta we will bring the Akubra hat! After that we needed to get the Yanmar guys in to empty the heat exchanger and fully replace the water and coolant. James organized that and  they turned up at 9.00am Friday  morning,

Had the outboard serviced, stocked up on a few cases of French wine and local Cisk beer, all cupboards full and the boat fully provisioned plus some. Also James cut an inspection porthole in the floor of the anchor locker (Swagman style) and having anchored a few times in the last 24 hours it is a big improvement in giving access to the chain that otherwise piles after about 20 metres.

So this afternoon spent swimming (water temps a little over 20 so a way to go yet) but as has been the case every day barely a cloud in the sky and the winds are sea breeze generated rather than the heavy 30-40 knot NW’s that prevailed for a few days. Temps around mid to high 20’s to pretty pleasant but still a bit cool at night.

                         About to hit the water at the Blue Lagoon

Tomorrow we plan to sail across to Sicily to Siracusa to meet up with Shell and Dean on Monday. We are considering doing a 170 direct passage to the southern Italian marina at Roccella Ionica but have heard some stories that the entrance is silted and with our draft of 2.8 metres we would not get in. The marina has been under construction it seems for several years and there are all sorts of stories as to why it has not been completed.  At least it is reported to be free given that it is incomplete.

All well on board and great to be under way. Malta has been a superb place to winter the boat, mild temps so the teak and other gear doesn’t deteriorate as much as it would in a colder climate. The Grand Harbour marina is a good set up and we had an excellent guy in James who ran the show while we were back in Auckland.

Cheers

Keith

Still in Malta

Posted at 11:49 PM, May. 7, 2007

Well we are still in Malta and trying to resolve a few problems before we leave. Weather wise we are finding clear, sunny and warm days to the mid 20’s but for the last few days we have had firstly 2 days of 25/30 knots SE’ly then followed immediately by 3 days of up to 40 knots. Pretty noisy on the marina!

The last Friday, Saturday and Sunday the Grand Harbour was closed for most of those days for the equivalent of a F1 power boat racing series so we probably were not going to go anywhere in a hurray anyway!

We have hired a rental car for a few days (very cheap but you want to see the car!) and spent Sunday driving around the southern part of Malta including to Marsaskla a village where Pam and I had dinner before we left Malta last November and then on to Marsaxlokk where the Sunday market was in full flight – a bit of shopping for the girls. The photo below is taken from the market looking out across the fishing fleet! A busy bustling village. The roads leave a lot to be desired once you are off the two or three mains roads. Tar sealing seems to be a function that never gets renewed and the countryside is dotted with villages every few miles. From the deep south we headed cross country and up the NW coast to visit the Blue Grotto – but found because of the high winds it was closed as the boats could not access it. We then headed up to an area north of Valletta called St Julian’s Bay that is clearly the up market tourist place on Malta surrounded by hotels such as the Hilton etc. We managed to get a park and found a reasonably priced fish restaurant for dinner and a drink ( Rafaels at St Julian’s Bay).

                     Pam and Alice at Marsaxlokk - Malta

The boat has come together well and we are keen to get away. The time delays here have resulted in us abandoning the planned trip to Tunisia until another year, as we need to get across to at least southern Italy or at worst case Siracusa on Sicily to meet up with Dean and Shell who join us next Monday (14^Th May) for 10 days or so and hopefully a passage up the Italian east coast and across to Croatia.

The major remaining problem (apart from a few smaller isues) to sort on the boat relates to the hot water cylinder which is working fine on shore power but is currently disconnected from the heat exchanger. I found the engine compartment full of coolant coloured water (like about 20 buckets full) that obviously came from the heat exchanger. Further investigation resulted in the cause being a pressure leak from the top of the header tank for the heat exchanger – turn off the water pump no more leaks. That in turn got itself diagnosed as a hole in the piping that circulates inside the cylinder and enables fresh water to be pumped into the heat exchanger. The good news was that I initially thought we may have a blown head gasket although the engine was sounding fine. It seems that the whole cylinder will have to be replaced  (a 40 litre Isotemp  Basic from Italy) and a well regarded brand with a two year warranty which we are inside. That is then compounded by a change in agents in Malta so I fired off an email to Isotemp in Italy and got a reply within about 3 hours (big surpise for Italy) so will hopefully make some more progress tomorrow. The bad news is that it seems that a replacement cylinder is not in Malta and will have to be flown in. How many days that will take is the current 64 million dollar question.  The marine infrastructure is very good in Malta so it makes sense for us to get resolved here before we leave.

The Maltese Falcon is  not in port but that is undoubtedly overshadowed by the arrival of the largest privately owned motoryacht in the world – owned by the Russian guy who owns the Chelsea Football Club in the UK. It is huge and but does look really great though. There is also a 94 foot Wally – dark blue hull, no lines and the deck and comings all in teak. Looks fabulous and we got as far as standing on the after deck discussing with the sailing master the design of the stern door – seems that the odd Wally door has leaked in years gone by.

Malta is buzzing with cruise ships and at least two every day call in for an overnight or 12 hours or so! And these are decent sized ships – so must be the aged Americans doing their tours.

Otherwise all is well on board and looking forward to moving on.

Cheers

Keith

Ready to depart Malta

Posted at 8:35 PM, May. 1, 2007

After 41 long hours of travel we finally made it to Malta....................!

Every morning the church bells ring, from 6am all through the day every fifteen minutes until midnight.  I love the sound of the bells waking me up in the morning, Mum puts her ear plugs straight in, her eye mask on and rolls over for a silent sleep in and Keith, of course, gets up and starts working.  So here we all are on Savarna, “daughter of the ocean,” ready to set sail………………….……….once the motor is fixed, the 829 sq ft mainsail is sparkling clean, the 53 ft hull is polished, the deck has been scrubbed…………and all of the little jobs. 

Today is Malta’s labour day.  For three nights now they have held a fireworks competition.  Spectacular .  Fire sparkles fill the whole sky, exploding with a great echo and then falling like waterfalls through the black sky into the black water.  The harbour is surrounded by huge stone walls and forts and deep pink bougainvillea’s grow out of the cracks.  Such pleasure for the eyes, the contrast of the vibrant new blossoms growing out of structures built hundreds and hundreds of years ago, now wrinkled and worn with memory

Dark hair, strong noses, high cheek bones and deep brown eyes.  The Maltese seem like strong people.  The older ones are my favourites, with such huge expression in their faces as their arms wave about, they talk so quickly and so vibrantly our laughter fits in just fine with the conversation even when we don’t understand it. 

The sun is very hot but the nights are still cool.  From here we’ll head to the island of Gozo, 15 miles NW of Malta stopping on the island of Comino to visit the “Blue lagoon.”  I am really looking forward to that first dive into the sea, the water here in Grand Harbour will not compete with the Blue Lagoon!

That’s all for now.

Love to all

Ali (not Keith this time)

                             The north side of Grand Harbour

Ready To Go!

Posted at 9:02 PM, Apr. 20, 2007

Countdown has started and less than a week to go before we arrive back in Malta. Everything has come together well and Savarna was relauched with new antifouling a few days ago. James is pretty proud of the cover plate he has fashioned out of the blank supplied by Hanse - reckons it is barely visible when retracted and better than the original.  Still a few small jobs to do when we get back onto the boat including some modifications in the anchor locker, the port aft heads need either a base valve or top valve gasket fitting to stop it back filling, installing some large stainless steel pads to provide decent support for the swim ladder fitting in the stern door ( the Hanse system was not up to the job)  and also trying out a self designed modification to the one line reefing system to take the weight off the batt cars when reefed. (have had a couple of buckled bolts)

                                               A fast clean bottom            

And of course a major is always getting the mainsail back on again. The batt car system is good but time consuming when taking the main off or putting it back on - every car is bolted, so standing on a mast step with one foot with a screwdriver in one hand and a spanner in the other , and supporting  the main with a shoulder is great fun.

Provisioning at the start of the season is also time consuming and Pam will probably take as much time doing that as I will stocking up the cellar. Could be the last chance to restock with some half decent French wine before we get to Croatia.

Cheers

Keith

Malta

Posted at 2:01 AM, Apr. 14, 2007

Time has passed quickly since we left Malta at the end of November and we have had a lot of work being  done under James' supervision to get Savarna into top notch order for another seasons  sailing. It is hard to believe that in two weeks time we will be back on the boat, and this time with our daughter Alice who will spend most of the season with us, in between exploring other parts of Europe and looking for various work. As a qualified natural therapist and also a highly qualified yoga teacher she may be out changing some sailors lives!

We have had a couple of important warranty issues  to sort out and eventually Hanse flew a guy down from Griefswald to complete some repairs. We have found the bow fitting that the anchor arm holding bolt goes into is a glassed on separate piece onto the gunnel that only goes back as far as the anchor locker so not a substantial piece. The torque on the arm when it is out and the boat is swinging at anchor in a heavy breeze is considerable and that has caused a cracking on both sides of the bow. I actually observed the whole section twisting when we were anchored in a high wind which caused some concern as to whether the whole glassed on fitting would break off and then the anchor arm would be swinging free and potentially take out the forestay. It appears that there was only one layer of cloth glassed on inside the anchor locker and this has now been ground off and reglassed with better material and several layers of cloth and resin - and there was also quite a decent size gelcoat repair to effect. Time will tell as to whether this does the job - I certainly hope so. The other problem was water ingress through the bottom of the stern door joint to hull. Hanse had previously replaced the door seal in Rome last October after so much water got sucked in when we were running in heavy seas that the bilge pump under the floor in the garage burn't out. The seal replacement in Rome was not particularly successful as we still took on water, but to a much lesser degree, coming down to Malta last November. This time around the Hanse technician has done the replacement himself so hopefully that will also be another job finally ticked off.

We had a diver clean the hull off before we left Malta so it was something of a surprise  that when she was lifted out a few weeks back the cover on the retractable bow thruster had gone and there was considerable growth inside. So obviously the cover plate was glued on rather than screwed but at least Hanse sent down a new cover plate - which was in a completely raw state and needed quite a bit of work being done to it so it could be fitted. So while Hanse replaced the cover plate I suspect that the cost of getting it to a state where it could be installed will well exceed the cost of the piece of material supplied.

Also the 105% overlapper (just) has had the luff repair completed, the bimini deck fitting that got buckled on the port side somehow in strong wind has been replaced, an additional stainless support strut for the radar tower is about to get fitted, and a 12 volt power feed to the garage has been completed so we can run the dive gear (power is always an issue when most of the gear is 12 volt but the boat is a 24 volt job). The head unit on the Simrad wind gear had failed by the time we got to Rome and that has been replaced by Simrad under warranty - and the agents in New Zealand  and Malta were very helpful and co-operative. The VHF set at the chart table had also failed, leaving us with the standalone set at the starboard helm station only but as its aerial is on the radar post  (the other is at the  masthead) it was really a short range option. Anyway that turned out to be a wiring problem and that has been repaired also. Bosch also had a general recall on there 24 volt alternators and that was replaced a while back also by them.

                              Coming out in Malta - dirty bottom!

Savarna had a very throrough hull polish before we left Malta and James has been looking after her in our absence, running the motor, firing up the electronics, keeping the watermaker running (the Spectra unit with the Z-brane doesn't need to winterised, so it saves all the chemical treatments), washing the decks and keeping the interior clean and dry.

So we hit Malta on 27 April and hope to head off for a few days around the Maltese islands including Gozo and then planning to cross to Tunisia, then across the bottom of Sicily, bottom of Italy, up the east coast of Italy, then crossing to Montenegro and then up to Croatia.

I have been in contact with Chris, the Hanse dealer in Croatia, and they have booked me a marina at one of there bases (Sukosan - about 20 minutes drive south of Zadar) for a year so that will serve as our cruising base for this summer. Also looking forward to getting up to Venice.

Thats all for now - really looking forward to getting back to Europe for a couple of months sailing and relaxation

Cheers

Keith

Sicily to Malta

Posted at 12:10 PM, Nov. 27, 2006

We have now had several days in Malta and enjoying it immensely. It is a place with a huge history and fascinating culture. The weather has been fantastic with beautiful clear skies, warm days and mild nights. But then with a winter average temperature of 17 C you would expect it to be pretty mild at this time of the year.

The final passage for the season was about 60 miles from the south eastern end of Sicily where we had overnighted at the small fishing port of Marzamemi. We got away to a dawn start as we were hopeful of getting across to Malta before the predicted frontal system came across. Rounded Capo Pasereo after passing very extensive fish farms. Interestingly it is clearly possible to anchor in good sheltered waters either side of the cape and in the event of an overnight wind shift only a short and hazard free passage to the other side. A lot better than it looks on the chart. After rounding the cape the forecast SSW sprung up quietly so got all the sail up and quickly it developed into a lovely tight reach with the wind strength eventually  20 knots so we roared into Malta at 9 knots plus on a beautiful clear day at just on 1500 hrs. So about a 6 hour passage for the 50 miles after rounding the cape.

The entrance to Malta is rigidly controlled as it is narrow with numerous shipping movements so one has to call up Valletta Port Authority about 10 miles out and then again off the breakwater to seek permission to enter the harbour. There are two harbours, Grand Harbour on the southern side of Valletta and Marsamxett Harbour on the northern side. Several cruise ships coming and going. We have wintered Savarna at Grand Harbour marina which is run by Camper & Nicholson. Pretty casual place, virtually full up, several live aboards staying over for the winter and the big power boats on A pontoon where we are. We hold our own in the yachting department apart from the Maltese Falcon whose permanent berth is alongside A pontoon whereas we are stern to on the other side. It will be a great sight to see her close up when we return to Malta – an incredible boat.

                   Looking across to Valletta from the stern of Savarna

 After arrival it was then the job to locate a number of tradesmen to get jobs organised on the boat over the winter. We needed an electrician, engineer, boat builder, electronics (the Simrad wind gear had not worked since Rome so we had to hand steer the boat when sailing), canvas worker and sail loft. Fortunately we met up with a very capable guy on the first day – James Xuereb (mobile +356 9985 3251) who while an electrician seems to be able to turn his hand to most jobs. We have retained him as our agent to manage the boat while we are away – the deal in Malta requires an agent as some of the trade places (such as Simrad) will only deal with agents and not the Capitaine or owner. Malta is a place where it is who you know that counts!

                             Water taxi coming to collect us

We did have time to catch a water ferry across to Valletta and look around. The history is amazing and while the early settlements date back to 5000 BC and referred to as the temple building period it is the Knights of St John 250 year rule from around 1540 AD that Malta derives a lot of history. The Knights were originally based on the island of Rhodes but were forcibly removed by the Turks and relocated to Malta. They were noblemen from Europe from the most important families of Europe and were charged with protecting the Catholic faith and Europe from the invading forces of the Ottoman Turks. They were originally based at Fort Angelo immediately adjacent to the Grand Harbour marina and built Valletta including the incredibly impressive St John’s Co-Cathedral completed in 1577. They originally had a mission associated with helping the sick and wounded and it is from here that the St John’s ambulance service originated and adopted the Maltese red cross. The Knights still today have a grand master based in Malta. The most famous event in this period  was the siege of 1565 which features strongly in Maltese history. The Knights at Valletta resisted an attack from a 40,000 thousand force of Turks and after this they turned Valletta into a fortress city.

The Cathedral is extraordinary and the floor is made up of marble tomb slabs with the name of the Knight, his family crest, noble deeds for which he is remembered, all inlaid in marble and in colour. And there are hundreds of them! The Oratory houses the  largest and only signed painting done by Michelangelo, the very impressive “Beheading of St John the Baptist.” Also in the Oratory is the smaller work by Michelangelo “St Jerome.”

Malta is in the middle of the Mediterranean and strategically of major importance. Napoleon took over Malta from the Knights and ransacked many of the numerous monuments  and churches to pay for his army. The British came along and seized control and held it until Malta  became the first commonwealth state to gain independence. It is today an island some 18 miles long, 5 miles wide and a population of around 400,000. The Maltese language was described to us as 80% Arabic and the rest a reflection of occupying nations over the last 500 years. There are a couple of smaller islands to the north west of which Gozo is the largest and looks like an attractive island to cruise around.

The second major event the seems to have influenced Malta’s more recent history was its strategic importance during the second world war. It was bombed the day after Italy declared war and in one week alone they had 500 bombing missions over the island. We visited the War Museum at Fort Elmo which proudly sits at the headland overlooking both harbour entrances. Again an amazing place and from the photographs Valletta seems to have been well reduced to ruins. It was a major base for both the British navy and later the American navy. It was also a big submarine port and at the northern and of the breakwater protecting the entrance there is a small gap. I enquired if we could take Savarna through the gap and was told probably not  - it turned out to originally have a steel “door” over the gap through which submarines could exit without being seen.

We are now homeward bound having spent a few days “winterising” Savarna  including a full hull and deck polish so she is looking like brand new! Once the various jobs have been completed that James is looking after for us we will be right up to scratch again as we slowly personalise the boat to our own requirements and get ready for the Atlantic crossing.

We plan to return in April and resume the eastwards journey and look forward to having various family and friends join us next summer.

Cheers

Keith

Siracusa - Sicily

Posted at 10:39 AM, Nov. 23, 2006

We are rapidly coming to the end of the Italian section of our cruising for the time being at any rate. Just as we start to get familiar with some of the customs, food and wine, pick up a bit of the language and culture it seems as was the case with Spain it is time to move on. The east coast of Sicily which we really had marked down as a passage leg has proven to be a wonderful cruising ground, plenty of ports and harbours, friendly people, great fruit, vegetable and fish markets every day in every coastal town (seems to be the custom) and not over the top price wise for food and berthage. We will return at some stage and cruise more around Sicily – great place and huge history and culture.

All the way down the coast from Rome we have seen bright red bougainvillea’s everywhere, a similar number of Oleander trees and in the towns very much characterized by older men sitting round all day talking, playing cards and generally wiling away the days.

                                      Savarna departing Riposto

Siracusa proved to be yet another amazing town and every bit as good as the guide books say. The old town is on the island of Ortigia and is an ancient Greek city dating back to 734 BC. Two bridges connect the island with the “new” town – naturally at the southern end of the island is the inevitable castle which we could not visit as it is being restored. But looked wonderful. We also endeavoured to visit the Greek Theatre which is still largely intact and carved out of rock in the 5^th century BC. It seated some 15,000 spectators and the names of some of the “box holders” are engraved on the front of the seats as are the names of many Greek gods. We cycled over but found it closed at 1500 hrs and we were about  30 minutes late unfortunately.

Archimedes lived here and everyone reading this will recall that he was a famous scientist and for those who studied a bit of physics who can forget the “Archimedes Principle,”

We walked around the old town Saturday night until the shops shut and then had an excellent and entertaining dinner at a local restaurant recommended by the marina manager. The place was packed and a good meal only a short distance from the marina. Sitting and observing the locals was great fun. Just on dark a boat pulled into the marina a pier over and we noticed a kiwi on the bow. Caught up with Wattie and Jill the next morning and they had been away 11 years living on the boat (Cariad) a Birdsall 40 that Wattie had built himself. Having just passed 70 he can still handle a good vino rosso as well as the boat. They are wintering in Tunisia this year. Had dinner aboard with them Sunday night and exchanged stories and they had plenty. They also feature in the book written by Tony Farrington that Michael Dunlop gave us before we launched Savarna.

Sunday everything is shut except restaurants, bars and cafes – the usual in Italy. Another beautiful day and Pam and I spent several hours riding around all the narrow streets and alley ways on the island. An amazing place – just as well the shops were closed as the “main shopping” street featured all the brands from Rome. The place was packed as everyone promenaded with family, lovers or friends! The woman were immaculate, attractive and the men equally well dressed. We were  pretty casual by comparison – I think I was only guy I saw in shorts all day!

                           Pam in main square Siracusa      

Today, Monday 20^th November, we checked out the market and provisioned up for a few basic essentials and then headed south towards Capo Passero which is at the bottom SE corner of Sicily and the most southern part.  Had a nice sail with about 14 knot right on the nose but covered the 22 miles in about 3.5 hours and pulled into a very small fishing port about 3 miles north of the Cape. Brand new marina complex, nothing much about and very cheap. We plan to head off for an early start for the 60 mile passage across to Malta Tuesday. The weather map shows a frontal system with strong southerly winds (just our direction), electrical storms and heavy rain coming across Malta late Tuesday so the current plan is to get in to Malta before that hits so we don’t get stuck in Marzameni for a couple of days.

We had been hoping that the Hanse dealer for Malta who was delivering a new Hanse 470 to Malta from the south of France would have caught us by now for the sail across to Malta but he has been delayed and appears to be several days behind us. Go Shawn!

Finishing this off at 5.00 pm Tuesday 21^st after arriving in Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta. Had a fast crossing and a great final sail for the season. Now in fact Thursday morning 23rd having connectivity problems into the Vodafone Malta network and limited internet access currently.

Cheers

Keith

Riposto/Mt Etna

Posted at 8:07 PM, Nov. 18, 2006

The locals say that living in the shadow of Mt Etna is part of the “risk of living.” Our first sighting of the summit was late last Thursday night (16^th November) and the striking feature was the streams of red hot glowing lava running down the mountain in rivulets extending for what looked like hundreds of metres. An amazing sight – the risk of living for sure! The next morning when we could see the whole southern side of the mountain covered with villages made us wonder about the so called risks.

We ended up staying 2 nights at Riposto. Great marina complex, good facilities and within 200 metres of the marina entrance there was the local fish market (also had fruit and vegetables plus a butcher and antipasta such as olives, nuts etc. We went along before breakfast to catch some of the flavour and found a very local noisy market with mostly men doing the negotiating/buying (definitely an adverse trend).

                      Pam negotiating in the fishmarket at Riposto

 Swordfish are caught in the Straits off boats with huge towers although we did not see any. When one of the guys in the market saw me taking pictures he was very keen to get photographed holding up the head and bill of a swordfish – duly obliged of course. Also just out of the marina entrance was a very well stocked chandlers (something of a rarity) and also a good wine store specializing in Sicilian wines. Found the wine store was owned by Mt Etna wines and they have a vineyard on the slopes of the mountain. We tasted, bought a the best part of a case (including a sticky) – but the best part was they has stainless steel vats in the shop and were filling your own bottles with their latest vintage – prices ranged upwards from EUR1.50 for chardonnay!! There is also a good haulout yard and a number of boats were obviously wintering over here. A good spot in my view provided the insurance cover includes eruption  damage.

Riposto would have to be the closest town right under and at the foot of Etna. We hired a rental car for the day and drove as high as we could up the mountain road (low 20’s at sea level but 4 degrees at the top of the road. Drove through small villages, narrow roads and finally emerged above the vegetation belt to find ourselves amongst remnants of lahar flows and the whole place looked like a west coast beach, except the black “sand” was covering the mountain. They were running a gondola service higher up but we were poorly equipped clothing wise so stuck to the car. There are numerous craters running down a southern facing ridge for some miles and where the lava flows can be seen at nighttime is where the side of the mountain has been blown out and a huge crater left. An amazing place with a height of about 2900 metres and we drove to 1900 metres.

After this we drove along the coast a few miles to the towns of Taormina and Castelmola two towns on impossible hillsides. I have raved about a few hilltop towns on the blog over the last year  (such as Bonifacio on Corsica) but this place would have to take first prize. See the photo below and judge for yourself. And then wonder how they drive cars up there – we drove the rental up and no dents afterwards either! At sea level is the town of Naxos full of 5 star hotels to service Taormina.

               Looking up at Taormina from part way down

Taormina it seems was founded by the Greeks (as was Naxos) in around 358BC who were escaping the warring ways of  Dionysius of Siracusa. The Romans seized control in 212 BC and then the Arabs in 902 AD. According to the book the Arabs were skilled engineers and also improved irrigation and cultivation.

When we were leaving this morning (Saturday 18^th November) Etna gave a big belch and a dirty brown cloud went hundreds of metres skywards. The locals say it erupts pretty much every year to a greater or lesser degree.

Today we headed off 45 miles southwards, yet again, for the ancient town and port of Siracusa at the bottom SE corner of Sicily and most probably our stepping off point for Malta. Started off with motoring and then a nice 15 knot SSW sprung up out of nowhere so hoisted full sail and had a nice bit of windward work (up to 7.8 knots boatspeed) for a couple of hours until it slowly died away, then motorsailing then eventually motoring.

Cheers

Keith

Tropea to Riposto

Posted at 10:33 PM, Nov. 16, 2006

Currently (Thursday 16^th November) and motoring down the Straits of Messina with a very light head wind having motor sailed the 35 miles from Tropea across to Messina at the north eastern end of Sicily yesterday. Another beautiful fine and clear day probably up to about 25 again.

Tropea was an enjoyable stop over for 2 nights. Well run marina, good facilities and about a 15 minute walk, including a 200 step climb, up onto the old town of Tropea. Pretty quiet at this time of the year with a number of shops and restaurants closed for the winter. The streets are narrow as usual barely the width of a small car and pedestrians seem to win out when it comes to who has the right of way. It is interesting to see a number of buildings being restored (maintained) and the method seems to be, at least as far as the exterior is concerned, to erect one scaffolding tower only and then one guy mixes plaster by hand in a wheel barrow at the base and then pulls it up to the top of the scaffolding with a block and tackle. While the guy on the scaffolding does some plastering the guy at street level mixes up the next barrow load. The buildings are by and large very attractive many with intricate stone carved features or alternatively painted.

                      View of old town of Tropea from the cockpit of Savarna

There were quite a few people wintering over on their boats at the marina – primarily Germans we understood. We met an English couple on our pier who had left England about 18 months ago, taken the rig out of their ketch and then motored through the canals in France to emerge in the Med near M****ille. They have then made there way along the French and Italian coasts en route to Greece for the 2007  season. We had drinks with Chris and Mo on their boat, Mayero, and then walked up to the town for a very pleasant dinner in a local restaurant.

The beaches around Tropea were the best we have seen south of Rome and as it very close to a local airport that Ryan Air fly into so good connections back to the UK.

After fuelling and watering up at Tropea we headed SE for about 5 miles to leave the Golfo di S.Eufemia at Capo Vaticano and then it was a straight 30 mile run across the Golfo di Gicia to the entrance to Stretto di Messina. It must be mentioned that the Aussie fisherwoman got another strike off Capo Vaticano and tuna #2 is now in the fridge. At the northern end the straits are only 1.5 miles wide separating Messina on Sicily from the mainland. There are designated shipping lanes at the top end so that south bound boats keep to the east side. This part of the Med has a long history primarily because of the effects caused by the different tidal streams as a result of the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas meeting. The Tyrrhenian sea is warmer and less salty than the Ionian and there is also a difference of about 300 mls in the height of high water which occur at different times in each sea. Consequently there are eddies, whirlpools, back eddies, overfalls and differing currents at different times of the tide. Also it changes constantly, so while there is a general south bound current on an outgoing tide, the back eddies and whirlpools create distortions. Consequently without changing engine revs we could be doing a constant 7 knots water speed but anywhere between 8.2 and 6.0 knots ground speed. It is said that Odysseus came through these straits and there is specific reference to this in Book 12 of The Odyssey.

                          Taking home the nets to Mum - off Tropea

We pulled into the marina at Messina (no anchoring permitted in the straits) which consists of floating walkways at the top end of the harbour. The volume of ferry traffic across the straits is huge and it is pretty usual to see 6 or more ferries crossing at any one time, (and these are ferries of Cook Strait size) plus commercial shipping passing through and also for us 2 cruise ships coming into port. So the marina pricing is exorbitant given that there is no chance of a restful night in a calm anchorage – it was rock and roll all night. We had visited Messina several years ago when we cruised the Aeolian islands on Lionheart and our memories were not favourable however on this occasion we found it to be a vibrant attractive city with plenty going on and we enjoyed looking around last night and again this morning.

One thing we have noticed is that by far the majority of people at the signed “Gelaterie, Bar & Café” drink coffee all day but even in the evenings. The other night we stopped off for a beer and a glass of wine and 6 guys probably in the late 20’s came in and ordered a couple of pots or tea! Imagine seeing that in NZ? The other fashion development here is that warm jackets with fur hooded collars are the “in thing” even for guys and even guys out sailing! Wait till you see mine! Pam is still looking – surprise!

Tonight we are at Riposto (lovely hamlet not overtaken by tourism) about 40 miles south of Messina right under Mt Etna on the SE coast of Siciliy. Very good complex here recommended  via Chris and Mo in Tropea. More on Riposto in new episodes of the blog  provided Mt Etna doesn't erupt tonight!

Cheers

Keith

Cetraro to Tropea

Posted at 11:07 PM, Nov. 13, 2006

We spent the night in the pits of Cetraro relieved only by three Italians who drove down to the marina as they recognized us coming into the marina as a Hanse and were holidaying there.  One of them owned a Hanse and we managed to ascertain  that the Hanse 540 (the facelift version of Savarna) had won the award at the Genoa Boat Show a  few weeks ago as the most innovative boat. There English was negligible  and our Italian  even worse so conversation was not easy.

We are now about 280 miles south of Rome with about 200 miles  to go to Malta. Weather is definitely warmer as we get south.

We left at 0630hrs for Tropea about 50 miles south with a nice 15 knot SW giving us a beam reach and sitting on 8 knots plus for a good part of the trip. As we were getting low on diesel we decided to head for Vido Valentia about 10 miles east of Tropea as the book said diesel facilities were still to be installed at Tropea. Got in early afternoon and berthed at the marina. Time for a siesta (it was a Sunday after all) and then went for a wander around the town which was very quiet. Found a local pizzeria and had the original pizza plus a pitcher of house wine to wash it down.

This morning it was Supermercado time and as part of that shopping experience Pam found a marine shop that sold fishing gear. Anyway she bought a rod, reel, lures etc and we set off for Tropea a while later. I thought that we will be towing the lure for 3000 miles before we ultimately lost it. Barely an hour out of Vido Valentia ( which is on the top of the foot that makes up the shoe of Italy) we had a strike. A tuna duly arrived on board and was washed down tonight by a good Italian chardonnay  accompanied by a lemon mayo with capers made by Pam earlier today.

                             Aussie sheila does it again ( well trained by Jack)

The marina at Tropea is well organized and the town was founded in 764 BC so it has been around for a while. We did the initial exploration late afternoon and it is a most attractive place albeit with many of the buildings looking like they were built in 764 BC.

An Italian guy walked down to the boat tonight who is involved in rugby administration in Rome so I got the score of the All Blacks/France game which he had watched and said the French were given a big  thrashing. Spoke good English and said he would bring his wife down tomorrow! Quite a few boats wintering here even though it is off the normal passage routes.

Cheers

Keith

Amalfi to Cetraro

Posted at 11:21 AM, Nov. 12, 2006

Still moving southwards towards Malta via Sicily and currently in Cetraro (typing this on the evening of Saturday 11^th November) which is the only reasonable harbour/anchorage in about an 85 mile stretch of coast.

We could well have stayed on the Amalfi coast for several more days and explored. On our first night there we had a quick walk around the town and stopped off in a bar on the waterfront on the way back to the boat. One of the guys spoke good English (a grandmother from Manchester) and he runs a backpackers outfit. Anyway he fixed us up with a rental car for the next morning and gave us some good local low down.

                      Pam on the waterfront quay in Amalfi

Collected the rental car next morning and headed off for a 1.5 hour drive to Pompeii to explore the ruins. The road out of Amalfi up and over the mountains is quite spectacular and the views stunning. In one sense got a far better perspective than viewing from the boat. It has to be seen to be believed. Roads built out on vertical cliffs, bridges and tunnels and miles of continuous looping with dozens of horseshoe bends. Houses everywhere and little settlements dotted over the mountains. Got to Pompeii without too much difficulty and were blown away. Pompeii was built about the 5^th century BC and was a town of around 25,000 people of whom 10,000 were slaves. It was under the control as a colony of Rome of various Emperors including Augustus and Tiberius. In 79AD Mt Vesuvius erupted and buried the town in ash. Exploration began in 1748 and so far 45 hectares of the 65 hectares the town covered have been excavated. Excavations still continue today funded by the 3 million visitors to what is now a World Heritage Site. We toured the site with a guide and walked down streets, went into various houses, shops with sliding door fronts (and a brothel with various positions depicted in colour on the walls above the doors to the various rooms to indicate the “speciality” of the particular prostitute), saw bathhouses and temples. Also walked about 1.6 k’s to see the Amphitheatre where the gladiators fought and other wild animal sports were held. They have found 3000 skeletons so far indicating a lot of people escaped the eruption. A number of these have been encased in a type of plastic and “recreated” are on show at various places around the site shown in the positions in which they found. So the actual skeletons are encased and on show!

      A main street in Pompeii. Note the stepping stones across the street necessary   as all waster water was discharged into the street. The stones are places at a width to permit the chariots to pass - where the chariot  wheels have worn down the bassalt is clearly shown!

Following several hours at Pompeii we drove along the northern coast of the Sorrento peninsular to the town of Sorrento and stopped for a while to look around. A lovely town, looked pretty upmarket and worth visiting. We then drove back over the mountains by a different road, to the southern side of the peninsular and the Amalfi coast. On the way back and nearing Amalfi and still 300-400 ft above the sea but as usual driving on roads perched on the edge of vertical cliffs we came across a group of guys fishing! Must take a long time to reel in a catch.

As one might imagine all the cars are small and all have plenty of dents in the side. I reckon that 90% of the worlds remaining Fiat 500’s are in this part of the world!

By the time we got back it was dark and Pam’s nerves were shot so a quick drink at the waterfront bar and then back to the boat. Had dinner at what turned out to be  very good well recommended fish restaurant in the harbour.

We stayed on the public wharf at Amalfi and were the only yacht there, and it was free. There was a guy who seemed to be in charge of all coming and goings and he worked from 0800 hrs to 2000 hrs. He had a little flower garden on the walkway behind the seawall, a table and chair and as his spot was very tidy he obviously took great pride in its appearance. He told us he would look( at least he pointed to his eyes) after Savarna all day while we went on an excursion!

Weather fine and getting warmer again thank goodness.

We left Amalfi on Thursday 9^th and sailed about 55 miles to the small town of Scario in Golfo di Policastro. Got there late afternoon, had to drop anchor and astern to the seawall. No other yachts there but a few fishing boats still about on the public and free wharf. Lovely small quiet town, many buildings being restored and a good feel to the place. The following morning we planned to leave at 0400 hrs for an 85 mile sail to Tropea further south. Cast off the shore lines and then couldn’t get the anchor up – it appears there is a chain laid along the length of the basin on the seabed and the bow lines are connected to floats rather than the more normal method of lines tailed from the quay. There were no floats where we were and our local mate (a fisherman) said drop an anchor - hence we anchored and then stern in to the quay. Our local mate turned up several times in his car to make sure we were all right and somehow ended up on the divers boat as well. I think the $10 I gave him when we arrived was well worth it.Anyway after several attempts to retrieve anchor gave up, set up our mooring lines again and went back to bed. The option of dropping all the chain overboard and leaving was quickly discarded – didn’t want to leave $2,500 of gear on the bottom.

At 0800 hrs a lot of noise woke us and on looking around we found the Guardia Costiera boat in the harbour and what transpired to be the dive unit of the Italian military with divers and a big inflatable. We wondered what we had got our anchor attached to - at least all thr street lights were still working. They all headed out to sea for about 800 metres and then a while later all returned. In the meantime we had wondered around to see if we could borrow the navy diver and get them to retrieve out anchor – that didn’t work but they phoned a commercial diver ( Nini phone 34 884 02472) who could not come until the next day at 0800 hrs. So we spent Friday 10^th in Scario. The crew on the Guardia Costiera boat are well kitted out with smart uniforms, polished black leather shoes and hats. When they came back alongside the quay the obvious boss man stepped off  - short, squat, immaculately dressed, bulldog look with the biggest cigar stuck in his mouth you can imagine. It was all we could do not to burst out laughing!

Lovely warm day, coffee in a waterfront café while the locals played cards nearby. Pam and I had a coffee and pastry, went for a walk around the town and came back and hour later and everyone was still there talking and drinking short blacks!  But that is the Italian way - a  lot of talking. Late afternoon a huge electrical storm passed through, heavy rain and then an hour later all clear again.

This morning the diver duly turned up (on time), retrieved our anchor for us and we sailed the 40 miles down the coast to the last harbour before Tropea, namely Cetraro – not an attractive marina but a good spot to break the passage seeing as we could not get away to an early start this morning to knock it off in one day. Also means we arrive in daylight which is the preference.

And finally mention must be made of Pam’s greatest new toy - a washing machine, holds 1kg of clothes and is small, light  and doesn’t draw much power. Gone are the days of hunting out launderettes and then spending hours feeding coins into old machines!! I must say while I was dubious about carrying this all the way from NZ it has worked out very well.

Cheers

Keith

Isola Capri

Posted at 3:27 PM, Nov. 10, 2006

We ended up staying Sunday (5^th November) and Monday the 6^th in the marina at Capri. Had very heavy rain one night but it cleared early morning and no wind accompanying it so pretty quiet. We were only one of two visiting yachts in the marina although the ferries from various ports on the mainland start arriving at about 0700 hrs and finish at around 2000 hrs. Tourism is still strong even at this time of the year. Fortunately the place was coping easily and facilities were not overloaded. I would not want to be here in July or August when the place would be packed.. Weather still cool but fine sunny and clear days with little wind.

 Monday we spent during the tourist thing. Got the local bus up to Anacapri the second town on the island on a plateau about 800 ft straight up with the small bus scrapping against the trees as the driver navigated impossibly narrow winding roads that were sheer to the sea. From Anacapri we caught an old single seater chairlift that took us to the highest point on the island – Monte Solaro at 589 metres. The views were amazing with the southern side of Monte Solaro dropping straight to the ocean. Visited the old church there – St Michaels – which was built about 1716, has been fully restored with the floor consisting of 2500 hand painted mosaic tiles depicted “Adam and Eve” and still now in pristine condition. Also visited the house that Dr.Axel Munthe (Swedish) built in the late 1890’s and wrote the apparently famous book, published on 50 languages titled “ The Building of San Michele.” The house is perched high on the cliff tops overlooking the town of Capri and the harbour. Quite a spectacular setting and beautifully kept extensive gardens. Now owned by the Swedish Government.

                  View of Isola Capri towards mainland from Monte Solaro

Entertained ourselves with the locals at a Trattoria in Anacapri and then caught the bus back to the boat for a siesta! Later got the funicular up to the town of Capri, had a beer in the main square and then went back down to the port to a recommended fish restaurant. Pam had the salt baked fish which when it arrived was covered in a huge mound of salt. Pam rated it as one of the best 5 meals she has had on our travels over the last few years.

Capri is written up as the jewel of the Gulf of Naples and while Ischia is the pretender it comes nowhere close in our opinion. Capri is beautifully presented, very stylish and at this time of the year it was great to visit. All the major brand shops are present plus plenty more, beautiful narrow streets (no car access but use golf buggies to get around to hotels etc), terraced gardens down to the sea, lemon trees everywhere, a vitality and friendliness among the people (being from NZ/Australia helps a lot) and not over the top price wise.

                                     Pam on the "main street"

                        View of marina from Axel Munthe's residence

Tuesday 7^th again dawned fine and clear and we motor sailed over to the Amalfi coast I (after the credit card had come out up in Capri before departure) stopping off for a few hours at Positano – the so called gem of the Amalfi coast but I would have to say we were disappointed. Quite quiet there as one would expect at this time but still totally tourist orientated. With a good forecast we debated about staying there anchored off for the night but a very exposed bay to anything with a hint of southerly in it so we decided to move a few miles further along the coast to the town of Amalfi itself. Got a spot on the public wharf  (free) amongst the local fishing boats yet again. We are the only yacht here! Have had a wander around the town and it leaves Positano for dead in our view. Much less tourist focused and a more interesting town to walk around and explore. The coast is spectacular with villages built onto the sheer rock faces and roads built in impossible places. Overall quite a stunning  vista.

Cheers

Keith

Gaeta to Isola Capri

Posted at 10:06 PM, Nov. 5, 2006

Currently sitting in the yacht harbour on Isola Capri after sharing some red wine with the locals at a bar along from the marina. It is Sunday evening 5 November. Daylight saving started last weekend in Italy so it now is fully dark by 1730 hrs but at least it is light by 0600 hrs and sunrise if there is one is around 0730 hrs.

W e never did make it to the marina at Gaeta and in fact never even made it to look around Gaeta. We duly moved off the pilot boat berth at Formia in the morning of  Thursday 2 November to keep the local police happy and managed to squeeze into another spot on the seawall (free berthage) amongst various commercial boats. Shortly after the frontal system arrived and it blew hard at 40 knots all day, rained hard also and the temperatures plummeted – the Italian indian summer had just ended. Late ion the afternoon the rain eased so we went for a walk around Formia stocked up on foodstuffs and did a few chores around the boat. Friday the 3^rd weather looked a lot better, wind around 10 knots, sunny but very cold (around 2 degrees) and as we motored out of Formia we realized that it was cold because there was more than a dusting of snow on the higher peaks behind the town. The plan was to sail across to Isola Ischia about 35 miles out of Gaeta. Wind on the nose but light so we motorsailed. Virtually exactly at the half way stage engine gave a huge stutter and lost all revs. Eventually found we had a huge heavy duty green plastic bag around the prop which yours truly had to spend a fair while  diving with the snorkel to cut free but eventually task completed after about an hour. At least the water temperature was a whole lot warmer than the air temperature.

Arrived into the marina at Ischia late afternoon to find they had no berths so we ended up anchoring off the beach outside the marina along with a French boat who we had caught up with coming across from Gaeta. Wind shift during the night saw us moving at around 0200 hrs and then again across to the nearby island of Procida where we anchored off the town of Chiaiolella at the entrance to the small fishing port/marina. I can only describe this as a foul anchorage for the reason shown on the photo below!!

                  A foul anchorage off Chiaiolella, Isola Procida

The islands of Ischia and Procida are at the northern end of the Bay of Naples only a few miles offshore while Capri 15 miles to the south of Procida is at the southern end of the Bay of Naples and close to Sorrento and the Amalfi coast with Mt Vesuvius in the background.  This group of islands have a long history and were colonized about 750 BC. They all seem to have had their fair share of Roman aristocracy inhabit them for better or worse and with the exception of Procida are mountainous (peaks up to 2500 ft).

         Casamiciola, Isola Procida from the south - a riot of colour and contrasts.

We spent the evening of Saturday 4 November in the marina at Porto Ischia with only 200 mls under the keel but at least by contract with the previous night it was calm. Procida the town was a riot of colourful buildings, numerous ferries coming and going and the call to prayer as the large and attractive church right on the waterfront rang the bells every 15 minutes. On the same walkway there were two other Hanse owners with their boats and they both came along for a chat in Italian. We walked up onto the ridge to the town of Casamicciola with the narrow streets, cascading terraces of grapevines and lemon trees and back down to the port though narrow walkways amongst houses and shops. No shortage of limoncello in this part of the world – and thanks to Alan and Judi we have a special bottle from Sorrento on board. Another claim to fame for  Casamicciola is that Henrik Ibsen spent a summer here in a villa writing Peer Gynt.

                  Waterfront view and church Porto Procida from cockpit

This morning we motored over to Isola Capri with no wind, beautiful sunny day, clear skies but still cool but warmer than it has been over the last few days. The marina at Capri is said to be impossible to get into and the prices are reputably horrendous. We arrived to find plenty of spare berths and with a 15 metre boat we found the prices quite reasonable all things considered. The price for Savarna in the high season (which is most of the year would be EUR240 a night). Capri looks stunning and we spent a couple of hours walking around the town this afternoon. I am sure Pam will be there again tomorrow with her credit card. Some of the fashions are mind blowing. The town is high above the port and accessed by a funicular running from the port. The town is amazing with numerous narrow alleyways barely two shoulder widths wide, no cars and a mixture of shops, apartments and restaurants. Tiberius lived here for 10 years so the stories of orgies and brutality  persist. Many famous people have lived here  including Gracie Fields, Friedrich Krupp and Axel Munthe. So tomorrow we plan to take a tour around the island, visit the famous Blue Grotto and then leave for the Amalfi Coast in a couple of days.

All well on board, boat systems going well, thinking about buying a heater!

Cheers

Keith

Roma to Gaeta

Posted at 9:22 AM, Nov. 2, 2006

Well time to kick start another edition of the blog now we are back on Savarna again. After 2 months sitting with the Hanse dealer in Rome rafted up on the Tiber River (no less) we were on board after a quick 27 hour flight. The weekend of our arrival produced great weather, warm, sunny, clear and little wind. The Hanse dealer here seems to also run the local yacht club so there was plenty of action on the river on both Saturday and Sunday with boats departing for a series of Olympic courses off the coast. We were about a mile up the Tiber River I would guess and both sides for about 2 miles up were full of mostly yachts rafted up to 3 deep on both sides with a number of boat yards and marinas. At the entrance to the river there are what can only be described as fishing shanties, again on both sides with huge nets on poles that the fisherman could swing out from the front deck into the river. The whole area is low lying and seems prone to flooding so none of the facilities anywhere could be called flash – I came to the conclusion it was all a bit like Popeye’s place.

                              Entrance to Tiber River - Roma

Roberto the moderator of the Italian Hanse owners website forum had his new 400E  just along from us and came and introduced himself. Through the Hanse  forum we also met Alan and Judi Silverman from Kalamazoo in Michigan, USA and they met us on the boat one night (after we had vacated the river) at Porto Turistico di Roma near the river entrance. The following day they joined us for what we hoped would be a fast beam  reach southwards to Nettuno about 26 miles down the coast. Lovely warm day again (an Indian summer here thank goodness) but mostly a motor sail. Alan  and Judi took delivery of a Hanse 370 earlier this year and are Hanse converts. Great day, good company and we pulled into the marina at Nettuno mid afternoon.

                                          Alan & Judi Silverman

Pam and I explored the old town of Nettuno, had a beer and wine in a local bar. Yet another walled town but famous for the lovely cemetery at the top of town where 7400 Americans are buried following the assault on Monte Casino in early 1944.

Today 1 November and All Saints Day (a public holiday) we decided to head southwards for a 35 mile sail to Ponsa in the Ponti Island group about 30 miles off the coast. With a worsening forecast (gales, thunderstorms etc) we wanted to get into a good anchorage where we could  hold for a few days). Pulled out of Nettuno at 0845 hrs and headed SE in 20 knots, odd showers and a fast beam reach in lumpy seas (sorry Alan and Judi). Great sailing, 9 to 10.5 knots and reached Cape Circeo 22 miles down the course  by 1100 hrs. The latest Navtex weather reports were not looking good, and with Ponsa looking more and more like a marginal anchorage we headed into Gaeta instead, a 25 mile run in from Cape Circeo. Thunder and lightning, very heavy rain, low vis wind moving from NW 20 to NE 25 and then dying with left over seas will give yachties the general idea (really just like a SW beat back to Auckland on any Easter Monday). Gaeta looks stunning, the cathedral was built in 1106) also a naval base but the marina was full. So we headed a couple of miles down the coast to Formia where we are hanging off a seawall on the pilot boat berth with the local police turing uo and giving us until 0800 to move off. Formia  is a port of entry so the police turned up and wanted the registration papers and the skippers certificate of competence. So Pam produced the Boatmaster certificate issued by the NZ Coastguard and they seemed happy with that. Hopefully we will get across to Gaeta tomorrow and have a look around. The book says that Formia was a popular seaside resort for the Roman  aristocracy and  Cicero was killed here by Mark  Antony in 43 BC shortly after murder of Julius Caesar.

Cheers

Keith

Sardinia and Bonifacio (Corsica)

Posted at 3:49 PM, Jun. 30, 2006

Time goes by quickly so it must be a catch up day for the blog. So after leaving Cala del Bollo mid morning on Friday 23 June we motored, yet again, with a light northerly breeze on the nose quietly up the northwestern coast of Sardinia for about 20 miles admiring the rugged spectacular limestone cliffs. This part of Sardinia does not appear to be heavily developed or populated. The turning point to the east was planned for the top of Isola Asinara however a closer inspection of the chart revealed a narrow passage to the south of the island  (saving probably 15 miles) – the cruising guide said that the depth was 3 metres (we draw 2.8 metres) and only to proceed through on flat calm days with no swell. We picked up the leading light beacons and motored through slowly only getting to a low point of 0.6 metres. The bottom was sand and consequently the water a beautiful turquoise colour so we anchored and had a swim before proceeding across the Golf di Asinara to our planned overnight stop of Castelsardo a further 22 miles on. Again still motoring and when the breeze did manage to get up around 10 knots it was still bang on the nose. Once through the passage and onto the northern coast we could see plenty of development, lovely beaches with lots of people on them. It  was still pretty hilly back off the coast but more rolling countryside along the coast.

As we pulled into the small marina at the hilltop medieval town of Castelsardo a marina guy came out in his inflatable and initially it looked as though we would not get a berth because of depth in the marina. In the end we dropped an anchor and went stern to at the end of the largest marina walkway. The photo below is taken from the castle and Savarna is clearly holding pride of place in the marina.

                                     Castelsardo looking down from Castle

                                    Chris, Jo and Liz up at Castelsardo

The town was founded by the Genovese family of Doria in the 7^th century and had previously been held by the Aragonians. It is now famous for its woven baskets and carpets , the former made from vegetable fibres. There were plentof woven baskets in evidence for sale. The castle  building commenced in the 7^th century and the old town is within its walls. We walked around the castle, cathedral and old town the next day, picked up a few provisions and headed off early afternoon after filling up with diesel.

The wind was still from the NE and yet again right on the nose. We planned to stay in a bay under the lee of Cabo Testa about 20 miles across the Golf di Asinara. It was a beat all the way and we tacked along the coast so we could view the geography and the buildings. The NE developed into a 16/17 knot true wind and we had a great sail with Chris on the handlebars all the way – I think he was impressed with the way the boat sailed. We found the bay, which on the chart looked like a nice deserted spot but turned out to be a beautifully developed bay with two beaches and the 5 star Grand Hotel Colonna spanning the small headland that separated the beaches. This is near the town of Santa Teresa di Fallura. There were several other yachts anchored there for the night also – quite a windy night with the NE continuing.

Sunday 25^th June saw us up anchor and then with one reef in the main head off into a fresh headwind, which got up to a F5 (20-25 knots) for another nice beat across to Bonifacio about 12 miles away at the southern end of Corsica. It was about this stage that disaster struck although we never found out about it for another day or so. But in furling the jib in a strong breeze the number 2 and 3 vertical battens obviously flogged about and ripped through the headsail at the bottom of the batten pockets. So while the concept is good the reality has proven to be absolutely hopeless  - so it will be a talk with the North sail loft in Auckland when I get back. So it was then drop the Italian flag and hoist the French flag again  - temporarily. A cloudy day so the earlier thinking of “lets anchor off an island for lunch and a swim” and then go into Bonifacio overnight disappeared. Bonifacio is mind blowing – the entrance is hard to find and not more than maybe 200 metres wide between 500 – 600 foot cliffs. The harbour is long and narrow, the marina completely inadequate for the job it is expected to do today with much larger boats around and in a 25 knot crosswind with boats everywhere it certainly got the blood pressure up. We finally got a berth having earlier declined to take the one offered which was at the end of a walkway about 60 metres long, the fairway not much wider than the boat before opening out at the streetside end where restaurants/bars were plentiful. We had no sooner got ourselves tied up when they out another boat rafted up against us. The pictures below are looking back across the harbour (Savarna can be seen just next to the dinghy) towards the castle and old town and an example of balcony living taken from outside the entrance.

                                  Looking out at the entrance to Bonifacio

                            Pam dockside  - looking across harbour to castle

                                               Who's afarid of heights?

Bonifacio was a Napolean base many years ago. So it was another afternoon of exploring the old town, getting some laundry done, restocking the cellar and more provisioning – but this time back onto French wines and other goodies. In the middle of all this a huge private motoryacht (like 200 ft plus) arrived coming in astern as there was no way they were going to be able to turn otherwise, and tied up at the head of the basin. Some very impressive manouvering required to get in. The Russells and Mortons again treated Pam and I to a very nice dinner at a waterfront fish restaurant that started with champagne and continued with much excellent wine chosen by “Timothy”. The photo  below shows Bonifacio from the castle looking down into the harbour.

                                Looking down from the castle at Bonifacio

The following morning, Monday 26^th June, John and Liz departed for Brussels and back into business mode for them. We saw a Hanse 461 also at the marina and later during the morning they called over to see us as they had spotted Savarna. A French couple who have a fulltime skipper on board with them. We completed the housekeeping chores and headed off to the island of Lavezzi for lunch and a swim. This group of islands is impressive as it is so different to what we are used to as shown in the photo below.

                                   Approach to Lavezzi island

 It was probably about 4.00pm before we headed off planning to go to Porto Rotundo or a neighbouring marina where we were due to pick up Pat and June Costello. Fortunately as we were yet again motoring down the north eastern side of Sardinia a text came in from Pat confirming that they were not in fact due out until the next day. By this stage we had been passing many islands and anchorages in the area known as the Costa Smeralda so took the opportunity to immediately change our plans. Shortly afterwards we dropped anchor in a largish bay in front of the hotel Liscia di Vacca which the cruising guide described as the most expensive hotel in Italy. We had a few goes at anchoring as the heavy weed so prevalent in the Med does not make for good holding. The trick is to find a gap in the weed and drop the anchor onto a sandy spot and hope to get a hold into sand. A quiet bay boats wise with only one other boat at anchor. It does appear that the cruising ground on the Costa Smeralda is outstanding with no shortage of anchorages and places to explore. From an architectural perspective it is noticeable that the houses are generally not more than one story high and the colours used are natural so it is often very hard to distinguish rocks from houses.

The next morning we motored around to the centre of all activity on the Costa Smeralda, namely Porto Cervo. This is top of the market, the resort  that the Aga Khan developed in the 1960’s and the centre of the major yachting regattas held in this part of the Med. Fortunately there is a modest space designated for anchoring, which is where those who are neither rich or famous anchor. As John said you tie up and leave the next day without the boat as they take it to cover the fees! There are a few rocks scattered around that the Aga Khan never cleaned up and we have slightly altered the ballast ratio as a consequence. We dropped off Chris and Jo, who went on to Croatia, and Pam and I spent the remainder of the day exploring the area until Pat and June arrived at about 2200hrs that night. A late BBQ dinner and French red wine in the cockpit. The following morning the Hanse 461 turned up, sailing into the bay in great style, swung across our stern under full sail and crash - came to a grinding halt. Jumped over the first set of rocks and then stuck hard for 45 minutes while various marina boats came to assist. Not sure whether they sacked their skipper then and there!

                                     SE corner of Porto Cervo

 Later in the day, after the girls had provisioned up but mostly looked at the incredible array of high priced shops we headed off for the port town of Olbia. This is the major ferry terminal for visitors coming from the Italian  mainland, also has an airport and is described in the cruising guide as a “grubby little town.” But often it is good to get away from the tourist areas to see what  a place is really like. We pulled up onto the private yacht club marina that has no facilities at all and then were asked to pay EUR100 for the night. I started the negotiations and got it down 25% if we stayed a second night and hopefully Pat who took over the boat earlier today while we return to NZ will continue the negotiations. Pat and June had friends coming in by ferry which we picked up that night and we had also found that the only sailmaker on Sardinia was at Olbia. He came down to the boat on Wednesday evening 28^th June and said he would have the sail back the next day – which I will be most surprised about.

Anyway that’s us signing off for a while until we return to Savarna for the trip down to Sciliy, the west coast of Italy and Malta later in the year.

Cheers

Keith

Menorca to Sardinia

Posted at 8:49 PM, Jun. 24, 2006

One thing about boating is the need for flexibility – so after trying to enter the harbour at Puerto de Ciudadela the police boat standing at the entrance again denied us entry to the port although all we wanted to do was top up the diesel tank. Language a definite barrier as although the ferries had gone back in as well as a local charter yacht it was not to be for us. We had planned to go clockwise around Menorca to the north eastern port of Fornells however the cruising guide  said there was no fuel facility there so we were left with no choice but to head south to  the capital town on the island Mahon about a 50 mile trip. The good thing was that it was more or less in the direction we wanted to head.  See we have had a posting on the blog from Olive Oyle telling us of a similar experience they had in Croatia last year. To Olive Oyle whoever and wherever you are thanks for the comments – nice to know that others are also reading our blog!

                               The entrance to Puerto de Ciudedela

So the afternoon of Tuesday 20^th saw us pull into the magnificent harbour of Mahon. We quickly found that Mahon is obviously the anglicized version  and it is actually Mao – I suppose hence the origin of the word mayonnaise as this is where it originated from. Probably the police at Puerto de Ciudadela did us a favour as Mao was an wonderful place to visit. The harbour is very imposing with plenty of evidence of earlier occupations.  The port has a huge naval history and changed hands six times between 1708 and 1802. The British  seemed to enjoy occupying  Mao and Lord Nelson was there when he was in command of the Mediterranean fleet in 1799. After topping up with diesel and water we tied up stern to at the yacht club quay which basically is the waterfront road and in our case right opposite a number of bars and restaurants and also a Timberland shop. They did pretty well out of us!! John as a great newspaper reader quickly tracked down the nearest newagent so we had a complete collection of English papers (and the July issue of Yachting World) to read and also catch up on world cup results.

                                  Fishing basin and cafes in Mao

Pam and I were later treated to dinner by the Russell’s and Morton’s and had a fantastic fish dinner just metres away from the boat after a few beers. Gitana 4 the 28 metre 1963 Italian owned and built Sparkman and Stephens ketch was also nearby for the third night in a row (and dressed in flags and lights for the owners birthday). They were having dinner at the same restaurant. Afterwards the brother-in-law of the owner came aboard and helped us demolish a bottle of port before departing at 0200 hrs. He also told us that Gitana 4 was a very famous yacht in Italy and and had won the Fastnet race in 1970. Guilio was a very nice guy and invited us to call in later this year and visit them at their holiday home on the island of Panarea in the Aeolian island group north of Sicily where co-incidentally we had cruised on Lionheart a few years ago. He said the house was the best house in the whole Aeolian islands and from it you can see the volcano on Stromboli erupting every night. Unfortunately I think they will not be there in September which is when we are likely to be passing by.

The morning of Wednesday 21^st saw us variously running, walking or cycling (for Pam and me) around the old town of Mao. It is a delightful place and we would like to have stayed for a few days but we needed to move on. So after another round of provisioning we were ready to leave when the bow thruster fouled the mooring guide line  - so after a quick swim, no knives needed, I freed it and we were away at 1400 hrs for the 195 mile passage to Sardinia. The passage was completely uneventful with fine weather, very little wind, four ships and two yachts, 100 litres of diesel and 28 hours later we pulled into Cala del Bollo on the northwestern end of Sardinia just in from Cabo Caccia. A 10 knot northwesterly finally came in about 25 miles out and we got the genaker up for a fast 8 – 9 knot run into the coast on a gloriously fine day. Hoisted the Italian flag for the first time and packed away the Spanish flag – we have enjoyed Spain very much and will no doubt return to some of the same spots when we head out of the Med in a year or two.

                                Cabo Caccia - our arrival point in Sardinia

Cala del Bollo is a beautiful bay with spectacularly high limestone cliffs and a couple of modest resort hotels at its head. We anchored close in off the beach in dead flat calm water (probably the calmest night for the last month), had a jug of Pam’s Sangria, cooked stuffed squid on the BBQ (prepared by Pam) and listened to some good music in the cockpit.

It was an eventful day as once we got within mobile coverage Liz learn’t that a very good friend who she had caught up with in London last week had died unexpectedly and Pam and I found we had our first grandson – Luke Michael Goodall. At 0300 hrs we caught up with Sarah in hospital and then Richard called up a short while later. Congratulations guys and we look forward to seeing you all in Sydney at the end of next week.

So today we are motoring, yet again, around the NW tip of Sardinia and planning to overnight at the town of Castelardo where we can again top up with diesel and also gas. So instead of Barcelona to the south of France and then Corsica it has been Menorca to Sardinia – got to be flexible!

Cheers

Keith

Mallorca to Menorca

Posted at 9:49 AM, Jun. 20, 2006

It is now Monday 19^th and we are motor sailing in a light easterly head wind from Mallorca to Menorca which is the most northerly island in the Balearics group. We are looking to overnight at Puerto Ciudadela a smallish port on the northwestern coast of Menorca, and originally the capital before the English moved it to Mahon in 1722. Mallorca is the home of aioli and Mahon is where mayonnaise originates.

Anyway back to Barcelona the home of that most famous architect Antoni Gaudi. We had all heard of the Sagrada Familia but had little appreciation of the significant architecture that Gaudi is famous for that is so abundant in Barcelona. Pam and I climbed over 300 stairs to the upper level of the Sagrada Familia that must rank as one of the most extraordinary architectural projects of the last 100 years and will no doubt remain embroiled in controversy as to its architectural merits for ever. It seems that it will be another 100 years before it is finished. Consequently our tour of Barcelona inevitably about architecture and Gaudi. The photo below is of La Pedrera an apartment development that Gaudi  built from 1905 to 1910. We also visited Parc Guell  where Gaudi turned his hand to landscaping also – again another amazing assault on the senses. Barcelona is also home to Spain’s most famous street – La Rambla – it is 1.25 k’s long and is a wide boulevard with one traffic lane each way and a very wide pedestrian walkway up the middle as well as either side. The middle section is home to continuous street theatre of all  imaginable types as well as pickpockets and prostitutes of all persuasions (at least that is what the book says).  But never a dull moment - many people, many cafes and restaurants/tapas bars as well as plenty of shops. Pam is doing pretty well in the shoe department these days!

                                        A Gaudi  house - Barcelona

So on Wednesday 14^th we had Chris and Jo join Savarna in Barcelona and then John and Liz boarded on Friday 16^th early and we headed up the coast  a few miles to Port  Olypiad to fill up with diesel. The weather forecasts for the next few days all had an east in them so rather than head off for a 300 mile passage with the wind on the bow we decided to head back out to Mallorca and Soller in particular – by the time  we had fuelled up and departed Port Olypiad it was about 11.00am so we were looking for a decent breeze so we could get a good average speed across to Mallorca. Unfortunately this was not to be the case and most of the 13 hour passage was spent  motoring. About 2300hrs we dropped anchor in the bay at Soller again -  as previously said a delightful spot and fortunately  not many boats at anchor there so no problem in getting good holding near the marina pontoons. Saturday 17^th spent in Soller, the new arrivals did the train trip up into the town of Soller nearby while Pam and I did some more provisioning and stocking up the red wine cellar. Basically a good quiet day with swimming, lunch ashore, cleaning off the hull at water line level etc.

Sunday 18^th saw us depart Soller for the last time and head northwards up the coast again in very light head winds. Motored into the spectacular Cala La Calobra a deep bay with a small beach at its head and a hotel in one arm – lots of tourists were spotted though. With an on shore breeze it was not the most comfortable place to stop  so we headed further northwards to Cala Castell again a spectacular bay with only one inhabitated house at its head and no other boats in sight. The rock formations were most unusual as seen from the photo below.  

                            Savarna anchored in Cala Castella - Mallorca

Weather cloudy, light winds and sea temperature at a little over 25 degrees – not unpleasant! After a late lunch we continued to the north rounding the most northerly point of Mallorca, Cabo De Formentor, and then continuing down the inside of the peninsular for a few miles to Cala Formentor and picked up a mooring in the bay in front of a five star resort hotel. Three or four other yachts there but otherwise not much sign of life. The holiday season is supposed to start on 15^th June  - obviously a little late this year.

                           The happy team late afternoon Cala Formentor

Monday 19^th , today, sees us en route to Menorca which will be the stepping off point for Corsica about a 220 mile sail. With south westerlies forecast for the next few days (pretty quiet though at 10-20 knots) we are hoping for a fast comfortable sail.  The watermaker is working well and we are making about 85 litres a day which is the minimum we seem to need to cover usage. We had an interesting start to the passage today when firstly Jo informed us  she had water coming out of the engine room door On investigation this was water in the sump that was being flicked up by the flywheel at the engine end of the shaft and then running down the inside of the door onto the floor. After emptying out with the bilge pump I found a continuous drip through the stern gland and then found that the nut and locking nut ion one side of the gland were finger loose so a small tighten up and that was the end of the leak. Chris and I then decided to put up the  number one and do a headsail peel (forgetting about the fact the self tacker was on the furler with the drum at the top of the foil. So after a nice hoist we then went to pull down the self tacker, realised that we could not in fact do a peel but in the meantime the drum had torn the luff from the head down by about a metre. So unfortunately the number one is now back in its bag looking for a sailmaker – but not a major repair needed though. Weather again cloudy today, light headwinds yet again and diesel usage climbing. Forecast for the next few days though sees clear sunny days with highs in the early 30’s.

This is an update at 1930 hrs Monday 19^th – we arrived in at the town of Puerto de Cuidadela on Menorca a couple of hours ago and motored up the long narrow cala to the town – quite different topography to Mallorca. The town harbour is narrow and we planned to tie up on the yacht club pontoon for the night and have a look around what is described as a beautiful and very old town. We nearly made the yacht club when the local police arrive by dinghy to wave us away as the harbour was closed because they were expecting a tsunami. We are currently anchored off the harbour entrance in open but very calm water waiting to see what will happen. There are several other boats anchored off also and the local ferry boats have motored slowly down the coast and are standing off. It seems this is a very local phenomenon called a “resaca” and last Thursday they had a 5 metre wave roll up the narrow harbour that destroyed 40 boats. Our pilot book describes this as a very rare occurrence and it only happens on this part of Menorca. So I am not sure whether we are fortunate or not or why it even happens. We have a local charter boat anchored next to us, owned by an English couple, who brought us up to speed with the history of resaca’s and a large Italian yacht (Gitana 4) anchored behind us. A surreal experience.

Now 0830 hrs Tuesday 20^th had a reasonable nights sleep after readying the boat for a good wave and bounce back and getting safety gear ready. It seems the warning has been withdrawn as a couple of ferries have just gone by and entered the harbour. So shortly we will enter the harbour, tie up at the  yacht club pontoon, get some diesel, explore the town and then head around to the NE side of Menorca which will be the departure point for the 225 mile sail across to Corsica maybe tomorrow.

Cheers

Keith

Mallorca

Posted at 11:06 AM, Jun. 15, 2006

We are now in Barcelona having arrived here at about 1730hrs on Tuesday 13^th June following a 13 hour, 98 mile crossing from Soller a port on the north western coast of Mallorca. The 14^th saw Kim, Tina, Chrism & Trish depart and Chris and Jo arrive. John and Liz are due to arrive on the boat on Friday 16^th and we will depart. Where we depart to remains to be seen but it will either be St Tropez or somewhere in the south of France or back to Soller, then across to Menorca as a stepping off point for a passage to Corsica. Will all depend on the forecast for the next few days and particularly the wind direction.

Palma de Mallorca was a stop over for 2 nights, dwarfed by more super yachts than one could count, at the Pantalan del Mediterraneo marina. This comprised one finger of 76 berths, and is one of 100’s of berths in the harbour. Relatively inexpensive but subject to rolling with ships departing the nearby port.  After the watermaker and other electrical additions we had completed in Denia we found the VHF’s radio’s were subject to significant interference and effectively inoperable. I had an electrician contact here so called him up and he and an electronics engineer were at the boat within the hour and eventually diagnosed that both sets had been cooked  - i.e.stuffed. It seems that the only fault could be that the electrician had connected a 24 volt circuit to the 12 volt circuit at some stage during his work in Denia and blown out the cicuit board. We were fortunate to locate one exact replacement at a marine dealer (needed as it had to fit a cut out section) and Chris Morton brought a second replacement set up from Auckland. So both are now installed and working well. Fortunately I had held back paying the electrician until this problem was resolved.

Palma is a delightful city and we enjoyed wandering through the old town with its many narrow alleyways, numerous bars and restaurants mostly all outdoors, and variety of shops. Pam managed to find some shoes and I did ok also.

                                               A typical Palma cafe

On our second day we rented a car and drove around a large part of the island on our own tour.  Found some great inland towns – stopped at a hillside 14^th century town town called Arta for lunch and then explored the fortress and cathedral afterwards. We drove  across to the east  which is relatively rolling countryside and then headed west down through the mountains and found some beautiful towns such as Deia which is regarded as one of the most famous villages on Mallorca and set among extensive terraced steep hillside olive groves and vines as the town cascades down the mountainside. It was the home of Robert Graves the English poet. We then drove down the coast heading south and still through the mountains and then cut back across to Palms for a quick supermercado shop right on closing time of 2000 hrs.

                                       Malloran countryside cafe break

The following morning, Sunday 11^th June we departed Palma for a quiet sail around the south western corner of Mallorca stopping off at Puerto de Andratx for lunch and a swim. Water temps now sitting close to 25 degrees so pretty nice. By this time the wind had more or less died completely so we motored up the north western coast  below the mountainous coastline indented with small cala’s and towns perched on impossible rocky slopes – none were sufficiently sheltered for an overnight stop until we came to Cala Deia about a mile downhill from the town of the same name we had visited by car the previous day. It was a delightful spot with only one other boat anchored (not room for many more anyway) with a couple of beachbars and a few houses perched on the many rocky outcrops. Another beautiful morning, a swim, breakfast  and then a slow motor further north up the coast to the delightful Puerto de Soller. The port settlement is nestled around virtually a circular bay below spectacular mountains with a small marina but also room for anchoring off outside of the laid moorings. It is the only port of refuge on the 50 mile north western stretch of coast. The town of Soller is a couple of miles up the valley and we caught the open train that runs every half hour and we spent the afternoon of Monday 12th June exploring the nooks and crannies. Nadal, who comes from Mallorca, had won the French Open the day before and the bar we stopped at for a jug of Sangria had been renamed Nadal Bar. Back at the port we found a good tapas bar on the hill overlooking the harbour so tapas and more sangria before heading back to the boat for a late dinner.

                                       Looking across the bay on Soller

Tuesday 13^th June we had a 0600 hrs start for the passage across to Barcelona. Started off well with a two sail reach in 15 – 20 knot easterlies that saw us averaging 9-10 knots, so the first 30 miles were covered in 3 hrs 20. But then got slowly quieter, the wind veered enough for us to get the genaker up for a while and then finished off motoring for the last 10 miles or so. Kim was pretty happy with his first passage (and first time out of sight of land) as I think he had visions of using the black bucket beforehand. He certainly caught up with sleep by which time Tina was calling him Rip Van Winkle.

Currently sitting on the marina at Port Vell, Barcelona looking to reprovision today, do a city tour and also stock up the cellar!!

Cheers

Keith