Farewells and new horizons > Posted on 09/06/09

How quickly it crept upon us this year, especially after such a long, wet and windy winter, but once again the summer cruising season is underway and most of our friends and fellow cruisers have slipped their lines for pastures new. It's nothing new for us to be left behind in Malta - 2 years ago we were the very last to leave, well into June in-fact, but this year we've took the decision not to leave at all.

After 5 years living aboard full-time and 4 years travelling, all 3 of us are tiring, so we felt a change and a rest from life at sea wouldn't go a miss. Several factors brought us to this decision but one very important and exciting reason is Wayne wanting to spend a period of time here painting and producing a body of work devoted to the Maltese Islands. As a professional Artist living amidst such enchanting, historical surroundings, with excellent light and the ease of the English language, meant that Malta is a great place to insipire his art. He's currently working on two commissions for The Valletta Boat Show, and afterwards will be building a collection of works for exhibitions in September and December. Wayne's Artwork Gallery, inc his latest paintings can be found here.

Being nigh on impossible to secure a berth here for the whole of the summer, we recently rented a fully furnished, 1 bedroom apartment, and lifted Hitrapia on June 2nd. Thus providing the opportunity for us to work on the boat whilst not living aboard, as well as enjoy some of the comforts of life ashore through the hottest months.
 

Back on-line for 2009 - Happy New Year!

> Posted on 25/01/09

Hello again, it's great to be back in-touch! We've had a frustrating few months 'locked out' of our website and therefore unable to post any updates. The problem is now resolved so we apologise for leaving you all in the dark and will do our best to bring you up-to-date with the end of our 2008 season and current whereabouts.

Our last post was from the island of Milos, the most westerly of the Cyclades, both dramatic and picturesque with its crazy volcanic rock formations and colourful fisherman's cottages. The anchorage off the low-key port of Adamas turned out to be one of the best anchorages we found in the Aegean, very protected, spacious and uncrowded with good holding. The only downside for us was the long row ashore as our outboard engine sprang a fuel leak.

From here it was a toss-up between continuing directly west to Poros off the Peloponnese or to visit another Cyclades island further north, thus reducing our mileage slightly for the crossing to the Peloponnese. As we were feeling some relief at having broke the back of the Aegean and having just made a two day passage to Milos, missing out wonderful islands like Santorini and Ios for fear of getting caught by the Meltemi in its strongest central area, we chose to slow our pace, and travelled just 25nM north to Serifos.

An elongated bay in the SE of the island looked to be a good Meltemi hidey hole. Anchored off the beach and unassuming port of Livadi, with the most spectacular white hora topped mountain just 2km away, we thought our decision to visit here had been a good one. Unfortunately, we experienced several very stressful days coping with violent Meltemi winds, which blew constantly between 30-50 knots. The holding here was very poor but as the Meltemi continued, more and more charter and cruising yachts entered the bay for shelter, crowding the anchorage. During the worst two days we sat shifts on anchor watch for 36hrs straight. Yachts were dragging, colliding and unable to re-anchor in the severe conditions, it was most upsetting watching people struggle and praying that we'd hold fast. Anchored in about 10m, our Delta did hold fast with 50m of chain out, up to about 45 knots of wind, but with one particular 50+ knot gust which caught us side on, we let go too. Thankfully, we managed to re-anchor safely, this time with 70m out! Once the Meltemi had blown itself out we would very much have liked to explore this island but on checking the weather we saw another fierce Meltemi on its way and did not fancy experiencing another one here. Therefore, we made passage to the protected waters of Poros, curled up against the Peloponnese.

As it was a 60nM trip we weighed anchor at around 4am to give us maximum daylight hours for the journey and so as not to arrive late in the day at such a popular port. We made good time and were humbled, as always, by the company of playful dolphins, which we had seen rarely this summer. The lush landscape of the Peloponnese was a magnificent backdrop as we squeezed our way up the extremely narrow and shallow approach channel, jostling with Fast Cat ferries and Flying Dolphins! There are a number of pretty anchorages in the Pogonos Port bay but we had been recommended a fairly new wooden pontoon off the town quay, boasting water, electricity and wi-fi, which sounded ideal to a pair of cruisers with a broken outboard engine and another Meltemi to dodge. The pontoon turned out to be a huge disappointment offering no services whatsoever, but it made life easy to step ashore and we had the good fortune to meet and share some time with a fun young Italian couple, experiencing their first few months of cruising life aboard their stunning Catana 50'.

After an overnight stay in Korfos and another dawn start it was once again time to transit the Corinth Canal, 13 months after our first passage eastbound. Unfortunately, we arrived having just missed a west bound gate and consequently had to wait 2 hours for the next one with the thought of our evening destination still 35nM away. Due to the distance to safe ports either side of the Corinth Canal, transiting makes for a long day, one can really do without having to wait on a dock for 2 hours but it's the luck of the draw as there is no schedule. However, we very much enjoyed our second transit and just about made it to the beautiful harbour of Galaxidi by dusk.

Heading east in 2007, we heard many cruisers speak highly of the town of Galaxidi but unfortunately the harbour was closed due to collapse, so we were very keen to visit it on our way back west and were not disappointed. A charming low-key resort town with shady woodland on its seaward side and a newly built, spacious harbour wall along its waterfront, it is quite a gem. As there were only a handful of yachts on the harbour wall we wondered if word had not yet spread of its re-opening but we have found many harbours in the Gulfs of Corinth and Patras far less crowded than those of the Ionian Islands, Saronic Gulf and Aegean, so maybe it will remain so.

Our next port of call was the tranquil island of Trizonia where we had celebrated Wayne's Birthday the year before in late July. Now the 6th of September, we were very surprised to see a large number of masts in the harbour, but on arrival were pleased to find several suitable berthing spots and friendly fellow cruisers to catch our lines. As the climate was a little cooler than our previous visit we enjoyed walking some of the trails on the island and also took the small ferry to the mainland for a day trip, safe in the knowledge that Hitrapia was securely tied to a dock with no Meltemi to worry about.

We seem to have been all out of luck last season when it came to timing. Having escaped the clutches of the Meltemi we were very much looking forward to a relaxing Autumn, pottering around the Ionian islands without the high season congestion. Surprisingly, the Inland Sea was still extremely busy on our arrival mid September but far more problematic was the sudden change in weather. The weather in the Ionian can become a little unsettled during the autumn but we experienced, pretty much, three straight weeks of thunder squall activity. As there are few very protected harbours in these islands we became somewhat restricted in our movements. For the first week of storms we chose the shelter of Porto Spilia, underneath the plateau village of Spartohori on Meganisi. Our strategy being that we trusted the harbours 'lazy lines' and could therefore leave the boat safely to explore the island on foot. This quaint harbour holds special memories for us since we first came here in 2002 and '03 on charter holidays before setting off on our own cruising adventure. We enjoyed hanging out here and walking on the island until a troublesome swell found its way into the harbour making it uncomfortably bouncy onboard, so we decided to try our luck for an achorage spot in Tranquil Bay, Levkada. It is one of the most protected bays in the Ionian and a number of cruising friends were also gathering there due to the conditions.

We were sceptical at first, having never much cared for Tranquil Bay off the town of Nidri, as it is anything but! But now, in to the 3rd week of September, the level of tourism was palatable and we found a good central anchoring spot that wasn't too far to row ashore. Here we hunkered down for the following two weeks, sitting out all kinds of weather from every direction. At first we were concerned that the anchor would surely pull out with the constant changes of wind direction, but after a few days we became more troubled by the thought of breaking the anchor back out! As you can imagine, we were somewhat disappointed at being held captive in one bay with the whole Ionian to explore, but at least we had the companionship of a few other cruising boats nearby.

After three weeks of continuous unsettled weather, shops and cafes in Nidri began to close - it seems winter had arrived early bringing an abrupt damp end to the season. With no indication that more settled weather would return, on the 7th October, four of us took the opportunity of a half decent weather window to break free from Tranquil Bay and the Ionian. We made the 2.5 day crossing to Sicily in loose company with sailing yachts 'Rhumbline' and 'Cantana III', while friends aboard Pulsar II sailed directly for Malta. After making our way to the south of the island and progressing west offshore we picked up and held a good sailing wind, if a little boisterous, for around 12 hours, after which we made the rest of the passage under motor. During the second night we witnessed a great deal of thunder and lightening activity to the south and north of us, luckily our path was unaffected but we were concerned for our friends headed for Malta.

We are yet to meet a sailor or traveller that has visited the city of Siracusa, on the east coast of Sicily, and did not love it. As we had sailed from the south coast of Sicily to Malta in 2006 and directly to Greece from Malta in 2007 we had not yet had the pleasure. There seemed no better place to make landfall and base ourselves, the harbour anchorage offers good protection and exceptional mud holding not withstanding excellent access to a beautiful Baroque city. We briefly considered treating ourselves to a night or two in the small marina having spent 2.5 months at anchor but as the out of season rate was still 33 euro's a night, for average facilities, we opted to stay at anchor. The anchorage was close to perfect, tons of room for somewhere between 10-15 yachts at any one time. The only issue for us was getting ashore as it was quite a distance to row, but kindly, fellow cruisers often gave us lifts ashore of which we were most grateful. Our 10 days here were easily absorbed strolling the ambient streets of the old city, visiting Cathedrals, museums, ancient ruins and generally enjoying colourful markets, many cappuccino's and delicious pizza's, which were all surprisingly inexpensive. Siracusa gets a big thumbs up from us too - we loved it!

On the 19th October we weighed anchor during the last few hours of daylight to make an overnight passage to Malta. It was a beautiful passage with some interesting shipping traffic to keep us busy and help pass the time. As we closed in on Malta we gained a good sailing breeze and were treated to a romping final sail of the season making landfall into Marsamxett Harbour under full sail.

Visitors berths in Malta can be hard to come by and especially difficult this winter due to the imminent privatisation of Msida Marina and Manoel Island Yacht Yard. Because of this transition many Maltese boat owners have not lifted their boats for winter this year meaning fewer empty berths for visiting yachts. To make matters more difficult, twice as many foreign yachts arrived here to winter this year than our previous experience two years ago, yet the marina management have been exceedingly accommodating. The berth that we were allocated on arrival was not ideal, a little tight, some way from the shower/toilet facilities and not in range of any wi-fi access but we were grateful for any berth at the time. More boats are now lifting and on New Years Eve we moved to a more spacious berth, closer to the facilities and within wi-fi range - perfect! The weather has been more unsettled than the winter of 2006/7 but we are still treated to some gorgeous sunny days between the gales and thunderstorms and it has not dampened our opinion of the place. As well as enjoying all the usual activities Malta has to offer and a great wintering community, we have also been exploring the countryside and coastline above sea level this year on some great hikes - enjoy the view!