After the bustle of Valetta, it was lovely to be at anchor in a small bay on the island of Comino. We had our first swim and snorkel of the year in crystal clear waters.

The passage from Malta to Sicily was peaceful and uneventful but although we set off with a favourable wind, it soon faded and we ended up motoring into a wind on the nose as we approached land. We decided to anchor in Porto Palo in the south east corner of Sicily instead of motoring on to Siracusa. But, oh how we wish we hadn’t ventured ashore there!

We had been told to watch out for the Mafia in southern Sicily and to take care of our dinghy so we carefully locked it to the quayside whilst we checked out the opening times of the fish restaurant opposite. As it wasn’t due to open for another half hour we went in search of a phone-box to report in to the family. We left the boat for no longer than 5 minutes but when we returned, the outboard had been smashed off, leaving the wire and padlock in tact.

Dave was devastated to lose his trusty engine which had always started first time even after a winter lay-up!

The owner of the fish restaurant was very helpful and took me for a hair-raising ride on the back of his scooter to the local police station a few miles away. Unfortunately the very nice policeman on duty was unable to help, telling me to come back the next day. We decided to cut our losses and left early the next morning bound for the safety of Siracusa Grand Harbour.

Siracusa and particularly the old town of Ortigia is beautiful and interesting. The fresh produce available is ‘to die for’ and consequently Fiona is full to the gunwales with food and wine!

We managed to source a new outboard at the knock-down price of €800 – rip-off!! That has now blown our budget entirely for this year! We tried to report our theft again at Siracusa police station but they also didn’t want to know.

We have been here at anchor for a week now and for 3 days we have had strong winds from the west. When they peaked at between 30 and 40 knots at one point, nearly all the boats around us dragged their anchors. Luckily we managed to stay put. Now the forecast promises lighter winds and possibly favourable weather for our crossing to Greece in a few days.

dawn watch on a pink sea

Finally we've set off from El Kantaoui in Tunisia, which has been our winter home for the last 8 months. We delayed our departure until Wednesday 3rd June because we have been back to the uk for the fantastic wedding of our son, Rob, and beautiful Nadine who is our new favourite daughter-in-law!

We are sitting on Fiona in Msida marina, overlooking Valletta City and it's quite a spectacular sight. We arrived ok after about 46 hours but the trip was really too long for the first sail of the season. The first day and night was choppy and rolly which wasn't good when you haven’t got your sea legs! However we saw several turtles making the crossing which cheered us up. The next day and night were better and we're gradually getting over it after a week in harbour.

As expected there were problems on the shake-down sail. A leaky cockpit floor, coupled with sea water being sucked up the cockpit drains due to the beam rolling, resulted in seawater pouring onto the electrical fuse box in the engine room. Not such a good idea!

Needless to say, Dave has now re-sealed the cockpit floor and had a good clean up in the engine room.

Malta has a facinating history and rich heritage. We have walked round and round the city of Valletta and Dave keeps tripping over as he is always looking up at the wonderful buildings and views.  

We've been like kids in a sweet shop with all the food available in restaurants and items available in chandlers! We've stocked up at a supermarket with all the things we haven’t been able to get in Tunisia.

Hopefully we’re off to Gozo tomorrow to anchor and do a bit of diving or snorkelling.

view from our Msida Marina berth

Hello everyone,

We’re still here in sunny Tunisia. Our two winter friends and neighbours on our pontoon, Quilcene and Spirit of Life, have set off now for Greece and Turkey via Malta and Scilly. Most of the other boaties still here are French but quite a lot of British people come out here on holiday packages so there is always someone to talk to in the café bars.

Dave and I have managed to get a lot of work done on the boat in the fine weather. We've had some time on the hard-standing to do the antifouling and now Fiona is looking good!

Daughter Jenny, husband Steve and our grandson Louis, who’s 2 and a half now, came out in March so that was a diversion. We're also coming back to the uk briefly in May for my son, Robin’s wedding. We’ll be in Whitby from 13^th – 19^th May.

We're hoping to sail to Pantaleria in early June, to stock up on Italian wine, cheese and pesto! Then we hope to visit Malta, and Scilly before cruising the southern Greek islands. We've already booked and paid for half our next winter mooring in Finikie in southern Turkey. That's not a bad achievement in today's economic crisis, is it ?– and all because it’s been so cheap here in Tunisia!

This is just a little message to let you know where and how we are this Christmas.

We are currently wintering in Port El Kantaoui in the Bay of Hammamet, northeast Tunisia. We are enjoying ourselves, have made friends, and most importantly, this is a safe and cheap place for Fiona. Next year we hope to cruise to Malta, Sicily, and Greece and hopefully reach Turkey for next winter, but as ever, our plans are very dependent on wind and waves.

We would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from sunny Tunisia.

We hope that 2009 will bring you all that you wish for.

Please keep in touch as we love to hear all your news.

Lots of love from Dave and Sue xx

Spectacular Carthage

Sunrise over the Salt Desert

Camel riding in the desert!

Huge Dorada caught for tea

Beautiful desrted Sardinian beach

Port El Kantaoui

Sorry about the delay in updating this blog but we have had computer troubles since our summer in the Balearics and have just managed to get the lap-top sorted out during our visit to uk.

After leaving Menorca we sailed to western  and then southern Sardinia before crossing to Tunisia. We are currently moored for winter in Port El Kantaoui in the Bay of Hammermet. 

We have been in uk for 5 weeks visiting family and friends and return to sunny Tunisia on 1st December.

Above are some of the highlights of our recent travels.

Cheers everyone!!

Blog update 10^th July.

We can definitely recommend the Balearics for a cruising destination. Yes, the islands are very crowded but we have always managed to get space to anchor, even if other boats do come and anchor dangerously close to us sometimes. The other night we were up watching a boat drift onto us when the wind dropped, as it does most nights, and when we shouted to the crew to warn them they just left the anchor where it was and used their bow thruster to move sideways away from us!! Luckily they left the anchorage early the next morning. Today we’ve watched a large motorboat drag right through the bay of Soller on the north coast of Mallorca, just missing several boats. The maritime police watched its progress to the beach but luckily the owner, who was ashore at the time, was contacted and he got back just in time!!

We reached Mallorca at the beginning of July and spent time in the southwest, in Puerto de Santa Ponsa and Andraitx area, sailing around and exploring that coast with son Brian who was out on holiday, having flown into Palma airport. We had a great time swimming, snorkelling, fishing (without any luck) and sampling the local cuisine and vino in very upmarket Puerto Portals. Bri’s holiday went all too quickly and we were sorry to see him off to the airport after a very rolly night at Las Illetas in Palma Bay.

The north coast of Mallorca has very dramatic scenery and we have been doing some sightseeing inland. The town of Soller is very picturesque with narrow, shady streets and magnificent old buildings. Transport is very cheap so we may take the bus across the mountains before sailing off again to the eastern side of Mallorca.

Cave Snorkle

The beautiful Isle of Formentera.

26^th June 2008.

We thought we’d give you an update of our trip to the Balearics. We left Rota on 22^nd April and visited Gibraltar, Morocco, Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca. We have had a great time so far and the gloomy predictions of some yachting friends don’t seem that accurate!

 I’m sure it is very expensive if you stay in marinas overnight but so far we haven’t spent a night in a marina since leaving Almerimar on 30^th May. We’ve had one night at sea, 6 nights on a free mooring buoy on the Isle of Espalmador and the rest (20 nights) we have safely spent hanging off anchor. Our anchor has dragged a bit twice so we’ve had to re-anchor and we have had 3 rolly uncomfortable nights but apart from that it’s been fine.

As predicted, it is busy with boats of all descriptions, especially in the south and at week ends, but later-on every evening the anchorages thin out as the Spanish go back to their marinas. We’ve had no trouble getting supplies in the dingy – though in our dingy we often get wet. One day we went into a marina (Botafoch in Puerto Ibiza –very, very posh) for the morning to take on fuel, water and supplies and have a coffee in a café and we were only charged €10 for the water -180 gallons of it!!

Of Ibiza, we’ve so far only really covered the west (around Puerto de San Antonio), south (round the Isles of Espalmador and Formentera) and the southeast (around Puerto de Ibiza). The scenery is spectacular and the water so clear – great for diving and snorkelling. In the south it’s a nudist’s paradise. We even joined the crazy tourists and took a mud bath in a smelly, sulphurous, drying-up lagoon and lay naked in the sea to wash it off!! Pictures will follow!! We’ve seen many sailing nudists too but I do worry about all those winches etc., anchoring is difficult enough…!!

Our plan now is to stock up with food again (food is much more expensive than in mainland Spain) and set off - if the winds allow - to the north coast and sail to Mallorca, spending about 4 weeks there before going to Minorca for August.

We hope you are all ok. Keep in touch – we love to get e-mails when we get into shore. We have telephone reception most of the time so texts are good too. Best wishes and lots of love, Dave and Sue xx

Wednesday 14th May.

Yesterday we crossed from Smir to Marbella. We had good wind from the west and sailed over 7 knots most of the way! It was fun dodging the tankers in the Straits again! We were pretty tired by we reached our intended marina but they turned us away saying they were full- not that we could see! We had to go back to Marbella marina and it cost us €35.50 for the night in a 15 metre berth! We set off again this morning along the southern coast of Spain. We sailed only half a mile offshore so we could see the holiday resorts of Fuengirola, Torremolinos and Malaga. It’s a bit chilly on board and we haven’t seen any dolphins since Gibraltar.

Ah! Now we’ve seen a big shark and it’s warmer too. We can see snow on the High Sierras from here - amazing1

Thursday 15th May.

We anchored last night in Ensanada del los Berengueles – just northeast of Marina del Este. As we approached very close to the beach, I was on the helm and noticed quite a few people taking the late afternoon sun! Dave was too busy to notice it was a nudist beach! We had an interesting but quite rolly night at anchor and set off this morning for Almerimar.  Unfortunately there isn’t any wind so we’re having to motor. I had heard about the polytunnels in this area but to see acres and acres of plastic covering every available piece of flat ground is something!

Friday 16th May.

Almerimar marina is everything we expected. Everything for the yachty is here. Restaurants, supermarkets, chandlers, laundrettes etc are close at hand – we even have internet on our boat! It’s still very cheap as the ‘off’ season doesn’t end until the end of May but it’s just lacking in character and it’s not very Spanish – most of the voices we can hear are British! Still it’s a good time to stock up again, get cleaned up, and use the internet to catch up with everyone: so if you have skype, expect a call!