Rabat Morocco

Sandy and David and Marian in Guadalest

We left Ibiza for Campello on the east coast of Spain to visit our friends David and Sandy. We arrived in the early evening and managed to get tied up even though there was no room. We find that if we just arrive at places they always seem to find a place for you even if they say there isn't one. In Campello they have, once a year, a festival of the Christians and the Moors. The locals have this party that last for a week. When we arrived the parade was on, and knowing our friends have taken part in this for the last ten years, we scrambled up town to watch and see if we could find them. The costumes are just amazing with a two hour parade of a lot of people all decked out in authentic Moorish and Christian costumes of a period hundreds of years old. We did not find our friends that night but when we got back to the boat we found that they had already been there. This year they were not involved so we were able to spend some time with them. We stayed for five days and drove up to mountains and Benidorm, a large tourist city on the Med. Our friends took such good care of us that we did not want to leave but it was time to get going as the weather was favourable for our move south.

We traveled down to an inland sea called Mar Menor and met with Mike and Bev on White Bird whom we had met in Northern Spain a year and a half ago. We spent a day and a half with them then pushed off for Almeimar. We stopped in a cove and anchored for the night so we would be getting into the marina in daylight. The marina was very big but as it is October there is no one there other than the few yachties either moving through or over wintering. We did a big shopping for supplies for the Atlantic crossing here as the super market was close by. We even went to a pub with the yachties for quiz and bingo night. Marian won the bingo and got an electric hot plate as her prize. Met some good people and had a fun evening. Then it was off to Gibraltar with a short anchoring over night on the way. We arrived on Saturday evening and saw off Point Europa a freighter crashed on the rocks and apparently another one sunk a couple hundred yards offshore. Gibraltar had a near hurricane hit which was the same storm we waited out in Ibiza a couple of weeks ago. It did a lot of damage closing one of the two marinas in the territory. We anchored at La Linea which is just on the Spanish side of Gib beside Rapture I with Howard and Kellie. It was exciting to see them again and we had a wonderful dinner on their boat. The next morning they were off to the Canaries as the weather was looking good. We stayed as we wanted to spend some time as we enjoyed it so much when we were here a couple of years ago. We were lucky that we had friends, Win and Pam, on an Amel, named "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch" from Wyoming who managed to talk the marina into allowing us to tie up to them for a day until a berth opened up. It is a small world out here and we keep running into lots of new old friends. Anyway we enjoyed Gibraltar with no language hassles and British shopping especially the super markets with lots of products Marian is familiar with. We walked up to the top of the rock and just had a good time wandering around and visiting other boaters.

Gibraltar

Leaving Gib on the following Saturday we felt we had a good forecast to run to Rabat 130 miles away. However just out of the straits the wind and rains picked up so we ducked into Tangier where it was just pouring. Luckily for us "Following Tides" had just arrived and Robert and Darlene helped us to tie up to them. Then it was off to immigration through 2 to 3 inches of water running everywhere. The next morning we all decided to stay and hired a guide to show us around the old city. It was a good day seeing the Medina and the hotel that was used for the movie Casablanca. So on Monday we were off again to Rabat and Following Tides for the Canaries. For the first ten hours all was going well then the winds defied the forecast and turned into our face with more rain and thunder. It kept getting worse with the winds picking up in the low 40 knot range right on our nose. This really slowed us down and we were constantly taking green water right over the boat so were very happy to arrive in Rabat and find our way into the confines of the marina. Following Tides arrived at the same time as us and the pilot boat brought us both in through the shallows of the river. Twenty six hours of banging about requires a couple of whiskys and about twelve or more hours of sleep!!

Moroccan fishing boats.

Rabat is the capitol of Morocco and has a nice feel to it. It is clean and the people are so friendly always saying were are you from and welcome to Morocco. We walked for 6 plus hours the first day and enjoyed the whole of the city that we saw. That evening Sea Mist arrived. We have not seen John and Cheryl and son Ian since Marmaris in Turkey and today did another big walk about around the city. Tomorrow we are all going to Fez for a couple of days so it will be strange to sleep on land again. Our plan now is to be off sometime next week for the Canaries to await a window for crossing the Atlantic. Hope I get better results than the last two tries!!

Oct 09 08 Ibiza


We left Rome on the 15th and headed for Isle di Giannutri arriving at 16.30. There were a number of large thunder storms in the area and we had seen a couple of water spouts. These are similar to tornadoes but on the ocean. So after some heavy rain and being anchored in poor holding we gave up and left at midnight for Elba arriving there 0830. The weather reports we had were not that good so we decided to push on for Monaco. We had a full moon and that sure makes sailing at night a lot less stressful.



Arriving in Monaco was like arriving on a different planet. We were smaller than most of the dinghies here with super yachts all over the place and going fast. We anchored up for a few days in Ville Franche which is just outside of Nice, and a cute little town. The baguettes, cheese, wine, and for me the moules frites are wonderful as are most things we have found in France. We took the bus over to Monte Carlo and Monaco for a day. Beautiful city state with manicured gardens and buildings. Even spent an hour in the Casino in Monte Carlo. Marian lost her five euro. Yea the last of the big time gamblers!!

After a couple of days here we went up the coast to St Tropez. A nice place with again lots of super yachts. From here we went to the Porquerolles islands and spent a night there before proceeding for Hyeres the next morning. This was the main reason we have headed up to France as Amel yachts have there second main base here.





We wanted to have the boat gone over by Amel so that we would be confident that every thing would be in top shape for our Atlantic crossing. Amel (Jean Sebastian) met us on our arrival at 0900 and by 0930 we had three men working on the boat as we had emailed them our list of parts and things needing fixing. All our fixes were of the minor nature and just talking to them about the boat they identified a few other problems we didn't know about. One of the new things we have added to the boat is called "AIS" which identifies commercial shipping on the computer. This now allows us to see ships that are 40 miles away and gives us their name, speed, direction, destination and a whole bunch of other information. It makes sailing, especially at night more relaxing knowing the shipping in our area. Up until now we have been using the radar which is good to about ten miles out and works well but not nearly as good as the AIS. Also we put a new Mizzen sail on as the old one had been repaired and we did not have confidence in it. The rigging was all tightened up so now we are ready to go. We were here for a week and met some other cruisers and enjoyed meals out and drinks on each others boats.





From Hyeres we left for a quiet night in the Porquerolles, then at first light we were off to Menorca in the Balearic Islands. This leg of the journey is about 210 miles long and the weather reports were for winds up to 20 knots. For the first part of the crossing this was what we had and we were sailing just fine at 7.5 to 8.0 knots. Coming off a wave, about 30 meters ahead of us, was a whale, about 50 feet long, sleeping on the surface!!! By the time I had disconnected the auto pilot, turned the boat hard to starboard and yelled to Marian, we were less than ten meters to the whale. At the speed we were going we were still closing on the whale and holding on expecting the collision as it had now gone below the bow. At this point the whale sensing us, woke up, rolled away raising one of its flukes which was well over our bow rail and sounded. I don't know how we missed him or him us but it was just by inches!!!!! As we turned to look behind us to see the whale all we saw was a hundred by hundred foot slick of whale poo. We scarred the ____ out of that whale, and us.!





So we thought that this was going to be our excitement for the trip but then the winds started picking up into the 30's, 40's then around midnight up in the 50's. (force 10) This is not fun. Thankfully by 0300 the winds were dropping and by 0800 we had the motor on and powered the rest of the way into Mahon. The area we crossed is called the Gulf de Leon or in English the Gulf of Lion which is very apt as we have learned this is the nastiest piece of water in all of the Med. The winds here come pouring in and are felt from Spain all the way to Malta.





We stayed in Mahon for a few days until the 5th of Oct as the weather was against us. We had a weather window of three days and then another big blast from the north. We had a nice trip over to Mallorca and anchored in a beautiful little bay with gin clear water and even managed to scam a web site. The next day we sailed down the entire south east coast of the island and again anchored before setting off at daybreak for Ibiza. We spent a short night at anchor then moved into the marina. Just in time as the rain started and the winds last night were up to around 50 knots so were very happy to be safe and sound here. The weather is supposed to stay this way for the next couple of days then calm down. We then plan to go to Campello, on the east coast of Spain, for a couple of days to see Sandy and David.

Rome

We left Hammamet at noon on one of the hottest days we can remember. The temperature in the mid 40's with no wind at the dock. We needed to put fuel onboard, which at 80 cents a liter Canadian is a great deal compared to Europe where it is about $2.35 Can. After this we needed to check out of the country with Port police and Customs which all took time. Once away we picked up a light breeze and sailed for the next 12 hours then motored across the Sicilian Straits at night through all the east west shipping. We must have crossed at least 50 ships so it kept us busy for the night. Just after dawn we arrived at Isola Favignana and dropped anchor in lovely clear and calm waters in Cala Rossa Bay. Went for a swim then a short nap. We stayed here for a day and a half and left in the evening just before sunset for Rome. We sailed north for the next 24 hours then lost our winds and powered into Rome arriving the next afternoon some 350 from Hammamet miles later.

We are at the Porto Turistico di Roma about 17 k into the center of the city. Our feet are worn out from all the walking thru this most interesting city. Some of the sights are St Peter's the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican with all the Michelangelo paintings etc. Then another day seeing the Forum and wandering around the many other famous landmarks of the city.

Tomorrow we plan to sail up to Isle Giannutri then up to Elba the next day. We had some rain and wind here a couple of days ago that has lowered the temperatures as well as washed some of the Saharan dirt off the masts and other hard to wash areas of the boat. We should be in the French Riviera later this week.

Sahara Desert

You sure need a hat out here!!

For the last week we have been in Tunisia and took a short drive 1800k (over a thousand miles) through the desert. It is south of where we are and very hot. The temps were around 45C so did not do much walking about. Glad the car ran ok and the a/c worked well! Ships of the Desert
Red hot chili peppers

Some of the sights, other than the sand dunes, that were memorable were the little roadside BBQ,s where the sheep or goat were tethered waiting the next customer. You can tell what they are cooking by the carcase hanging out front. At least you know that the meat is fresh, really fresh!!!! Other sights were all the red chili peppers strung up along the way. I do like hot stuff so this was a welcome sight to me. We stayed a night in what we would describe as a Flintstone enclave. It is actually an old Bedouin town that has been abandoned and some Berbers are trying to fix parts of it up as a hotel. The night we stayed we were the only people there on top of this mountain with no office or lighting or anything!! Interesting experience!! We did spent a couple of nights in good hotels and enjoyed the pools and a cold beer.

Our hotel!! An old Berber town

Desert encroaching on the oasis
Dates just about ready for harvest

Ramadan started the first of Sept so the Muslims do not eat or drink during the daylight hours. This lasts a month and moves back approximately three weeks every year. So during the day all the local restaurants are closed and nothing much happens. We cannot imagine not drinking any water all day in these temperatures. We asked and were told that most, discretely, do manage something during the day but would not make it obvious.

Tomorrow we leave for Sicily then up to Rome and hope to be there by Tuesday.

Back from Canada

Hi all we are finally getting a blog of sorts out to you all so you will know we are still alive.

Eamon and Callum on Kilkea





Elise Eamon and Callum with the Grandparents



We have had a wonderful time at home in Vancouver since the beginning of July. Thanks to so many friends and of course our family for entertaining us so well. It was great to see the grand children and will miss them a lot even though we see and talk to them often on Skype. It sure make our lives much easier. The biggest news at home was from our daughter Natalie who is just engaged to Derek and planning their wedding next summer. They live in Calgary but right now the plan is to wed somewhere in BC.? It makes our plans for sailing easier as we will stay in the Caribbean this winter and probably leave Kilkea in Trinidad for the summer to avoid the hurricane season.





Train Wreck!!!!!!!!!!!!







We arrived back here in Hammamet Tunisia on the 28th of August and are trying to get over our jet lag of 9 hours. Kilkea was in great shape on our return having been looked after and washed regularly. We are going to rent a car and go down south to the Sahara desert and spend a few days being tourists. It will be hot as it still is summer here and we expect the temps to be in the 40,s. Not perfect for camel riding but as we did that in Egypt I think we can give it a miss here.











Next Friday or Saturday we hope to leave and head up to Rome which is about 350 miles away. The plan would be to stop in Sicily on the way. From there we will go up to Monaco, Cains, Hyeres then down to the Balearic's and onto Spain planning to be there in mid October. It is an ambitious plan and dependent on the weather cooperating which it seldom does. That is why we try to write all of our cruising plans in sand on the beach so when the tide comes in we will have a clean slate to rewrite them. From Gibraltar we will sail to the Canaries and then on to the Caribbean hoping to arrive just before Christmas. I'm tired already just writing this!!! We'll see what happens.





Corfu town square





Henning and Linda enjoying breakfast

Cephalonia Greece

Beach in Cephalonia

Bouganvillia in small town in Greece

Tunisia

June 23rd Hammamet Tunisia,
Again the time has flown by and somehow we are in Tunisia on the top of Africa. I'm not sure if I can explain how this life we lead goes but one thing is for sure it is full of strange encounters with lot of twists and turns.
After leaving Fiscardo we went to Ayefinia for three days. A great walk across the island about 8k both ways to one of those picture postcard beaches on the west coast of Cephalonia. Will try to attach a photo. Next we went to Ithaca and spent three nights anchored in a pretty little bay where after the first night by ourselves we had some other Vancouverites (Howard and Kellie) arrive on Rapture who have been away for eight years. The next day two other boats arrived from Marmaris one Aussi and the other American. Had a big dinner party on Sunchaser (Ray and Brenda) until the winds picked up and we all had to go and tend our boats. From here Marian and I just spent a week or so wandering around the little islands going out for dinner in the Tavernas and enjoying the warm weather and swimming. We ended up in Lefkada for Marians birthday and had a dinner with Howard and Kellie. Next we worked our way to Corfu (it took us a couple of weeks) and arrived threre on the 5th of June. We enjoyed Corfu as it is so different to anywhere else we have been in Greece. Wide streets with lots of flowers everywhere as well as the old quarter of the city full of ticky tacky tourist stuff.
So after relaxing for over a month going five or ten miles a day it was time to do some travelling. Our good friends Linda and Henning from Vancouver joined us in Corfu on the 8th and seeing as how they were with us in France when the weather was not so good for a crossing to Spain we thought that this time we could show them some sailing. We went up to the north end of Corfu for a night then to Orthoivt island for another night and a walk and met up with Red Herring from NZ (Graham and Karen). The next day we did a 160 mile cossing to Rocella Ionica on the boot of Italy. It was blowing with a bit of a cross chop when we left a 0800 and both our quests felt the effects but managed very well. By the end of the day all was well with the winds light and we had a stuffed chicken dinner with all the trimmings while cruising over the deep blue sea. Everyone managed to sleep ok and by the afternoon we were at Ionica in time for a swim then a walk into town and then out for pizza which was great and sold by the meter. We stayed for the next day and a half then at 1730 departed for Siracusa in Sicily for another over night passage. As we have said before the Med is not good for sailing as the wind is so variable. When we left we had 20knots for a couple of hours which was good sailing then the winds died only to pick up for twenty minutes then die again. So sails are up and down with the engine on and off. At midnight Marian came on watch and I went to bed. By 1230 Marian was calling for some help as the wind was now up to 45knots. This lasted for a couple of hours and we were very impressed how well Henning and linda managed up in the bow getting bounced about. When in this kind of weather sailing can be very noisy especially for our guests who are not accustomed to sailing. One of the sights this night was the red lava flows from Mt Etna streaming down the side of the mountain. Anyway we arrived in to Siracusa the next morning where Sunchasher was anchored and they arrived over with fresh bread and mellons. It was a very welcome treat.
We ended up staying five days in Siracusa and rented a car for two days one with our guests driving west into the hills and old towns that had us folding in the mirrors on the car to fit down some of the little streets. We dropped the P's off in the evening so they could catch a ferry over to Malta. The next day we drove around mount Etna with Graham and Karen and walked up to some of the lava flows that we had seen the night we sailed over to Sicily. We had a fun day and a good lunch before getting back to the boats which were at anchor as there was some concern regarding theft if we tied up to the kay. We spent the next day just relaxing and left the following day for the south west tip of Sicily to anchor and have a swim before heading off the next morning for Malta.
We arrived in Malta in the afternoon and tied up to another EMYR boat Unicorn from Sweden (Anna and Haken) while we cleared with the authorities. It is very impresive sailing into Malta with its huge fortress walls and so many churches. We had wanted to leave the boat here while we came home this summer but were unable to find a place for that length of time. So after spending the weekend we sailed 190 miles over to Hammamet in Tunisia. Lots of fishing boats to work our way around that night! Here there is a very good marina with excellent security so feel confident in leaving Kilkea here for 6-7 weeks. Lots of white sand beaches all along the east coast with many big hotels catering mainly to the French. It is not unatractive with wide bulevards and lots of palm trees. The days are warm around 35 but the evenings cool off to 22 or so. Marian has gone to Ireland today for a week with her Mum and will go to Vancouver on July 3rd. I will stay here for a few more days and do some boat stuff before heading home.

Khania Crete

May 13th Cephalonia,
We are in Fiskardho Greece at present and hope to be able to give a short account of our travels for the last month or so!!! Always too busy and not enough power to run the computer, not online, etc.

When ever the winds blow up from the south anywhere in this part of the world the sky is full of red dust blown up from the desserts to the south and east. When arriving into Crete we had only a couple of miles visibility and it wasn't until the next morning we woke up and saw the wonderful mountains behind us covered with snow. Made us feel as home. We arrived in the city of Khania on the north west part of the island. The harbour is small but the town rather big. The old part of town is where the port is and so is full of restaurants and tourist shops. We spent five days there and enjoyed driving the coastal roads which are narrow and very winding with no guard rails and drop offs over hundreds of feet deep. We stopped to see the old ruins of Knosses (more bones and stones) and had some good Cretean meals and wine. Marian even ended up in the kitchen of one making dolmades while I sat with the owner and drank some more wine!! Marian making dolmades

We had a good weather forecast so headed north west for the Peloponnese which is a particularly bad stretch of water as far as the wind goes. We made it as far as the small island of Kithera where we spent the night under the watchful eye of a huge Venetian castle above the bay. We left early as there was forecast of a gale moving in in the afternoon. We just made into a bay behind a big headland when the winds came in. They were in the force 9 to 10 range (that is 40-50 knots) but we had a good anchor and had no problems holding.
The next morning while I was checking the engine compartment I noticed the gear oil reservoir had turned a brownish colour which meant that somehow there was water getting into the oil. This is not good!! So we made a change in plans and went to Kalamaka (where the olives are from) to see if we could pull the boat out of the water and check the seals. They did not have equipment big enough to do this and the nearest place was in Lefkas 160 miles away. We talked to Amel and they assured us that it would be ok to run everything that far without doing any damage to the gearing. So there being no big rush we decided to just take our time. Kalamaka turned out to be a very nice place with a good marina with a nice restaurant overlooking the bay. We even found an Italian restaurant for dinner and it was a nice change from the Greek foods that we have become accustomed to.
From Kalamaka we sailed around the bottom the the Peloponnese to the village of Pylos. Very cute village. In Greece we find there are lots of new marinas build but not finished. These were all build by the EU when Greece became part of the union. Apparently the reason they are not run by anyone is that if a company does this they have to pay back the costs of building it. So these marinas are just there with no water or electricity but usable with no costs to us. Its is a fine deal for us as we a self contained in all regards. We stayed there for a couple of days and met some other yachties doing the same thing.
Next is was off to Katakoion or Katakolo as there are at least three spellings for every port or town we go to! This place did not appeal to us so we just spent the night and went the next morning over to the island of Zakinthos. This was on Saturday the the 26 of April and the Greek Orthodox Church celebrated Easter the next day. This is a big event here with lots of eating, fire works and church going. On Sunday Marian and I just walked around the town which was all shut down except for the churches. They are very ornate with lots of frescoes and icons of gold and silver. On the walk back to the boat we met a family who had lived in the states for a number of years and were now back working in Greece (Petros, Catherine, and son Nickolas). We had a nice talk and showed them Kilkea. A couple of hours later they showed up and asked if we would like to go for a drive up to Yiri which is a old town now with only a handful of people living there where Catherine's parents had a house and are now buried there. The reason for this is that the priest was blessing the houses which involved the Priest in full regalia with an entourage carrying an Icon going from house to house for the blessings with all the town folk and visitors following along. After they had an auction which in reality was just a way for the people to contribute to the church so the prices were out of this world. An example would be a loaf of bread going for 200 euros, over there hundred dollars. This is not is the cruising budget.!
At this gathering we met another Greek who had lived and still does part of the year in Montreal. He invited us to his house that evening for a coffee. This we did and met John and his wife Heather and other friends and family. It happened that they have friends who have a daughter that is friends with Natalie and they just happened to call when we were there. It is a very small world!!! This home John has built is impressive as it is around 18000 sq feet and all built of Marble. An amazing home. The next day we just relaxed and people watched around the town and had dinner out.
We had received an email advising us that we had time to be pulled out of the water in Lefkas so we powered up to the island of Meganisi where we met up with and had dinner with Ben and Nannie on Duel Dragons whom we know from Marmaris. We had a good evening with them and then went early the next morning up to Lefkas and were out of the water by noon. We spent the next five days out and Marian and I fixed the propeller seal by removing the old bearing and lip seals and installing the new ones we carry as spares on board. We had the local company do the bottom which consisted of a days sanding and two days of applying the anti-fouling paint. This needed to be done as it has been over a year and a half since we did it last. While out Marian and I washed and waxed the hull and when we went back in the water spent a few hours washing and cleaning the top sides.
So after this we just went a few miles south to Nidri and spent a couple of days at anchor relaxing. It is stressful to have the boat out of the water and have to sleep with no movement. And yes we stay on board when the boat is out of the water. Then we went back to the anchorage on Meganisi as it was quiet and somehow we had an Internet site that we could connect to. We stayed there for three days just wondering around and visiting the small village of Vathi for some visits to the tavernas. Then off to Sivota for a night and then a good sail down to Fiskardho which is a Venetian town that did not get destroyed by the 1953 earth quake that destroyed most all of the town on these Ionian Islands. This our third day here and it is picture postcard perfect. We do not have wi-fi but there is a wonderful cafe bar with a balcony that over looks the bay and serves good wine and cheese and fruit plate along with a wi-fi connection so we have been spending the evenings there watching the sun set.
Well that catches you up to now. Our plans have changed as we have decided not to go to Croatia and will just holiday around this part of Greece for the next few weeks. Then will go to Sicily via the boot of Italy before going to Malta. There we hope to leave Kilkea for six weeks or so and come home to Vancouver for the summer. After that well we are not too sure where we will go. We do know that we will leave the Med and head for the Canaries and onto the Caribbean this November or December.

Crete

April 16th Chania, Crete

We left Marmaris two and a half weeks ago and it is wonderful to be moving again. The weather has been up and down with a couple of days of fine weather in the mid 20s then a couple of days of gales. We have been lucky in that we have been in good harbours and very safe.

Simi

We cleared into Greece on the island of Simi which is quite different as its buildings are of Venetian design all built on top of each other up the steep hill sides. We climbed up the hills and enjoyed the views. The colour of the water changes from dark blue shades to those of sapphire gin. Lovely to look down upon as well as to sail on.

New Ship wreck off Knidos

We stayed in the Dodecanese islands for the next week visiting Kos, (where Hippocrates was born and is know as the father of medicine), Leros, Lipsos, and Samos. Out of the island of Kos I tried to call one of the boats that led the EMYR last year on the off chance that he might be around. Mashona answered right away and we changed course and met up with Dave and Kath in Samos at the town of Pithagorion. This is where Pythagoras came from. We had dinner with them and their crew of Gwyn and Mandy who did a great job of cooking a beautiful meal. We spent the next day visiting the town of Vathi and just sipping a few cold beverages on a warm spring day. Dinner on board Kilkea that evening and said our goodbyes as they are heading to Istanbul for the start of this years EMYR.

Pythagorio, Samos Island

We departed around 0800 under grey skies and had a good sail down to Lipso where we tied to the pier and let the wind blow itself out as we wandered around the small town. Everything is still pretty much shut down as things don't open up until after Easter which is April 27th this year.

Naxos

Next morning we sailed down to the island of Amorgos in the Cyclades and stayed at Katapola which again is very small and not much is open. There are very few people on this island and it is very mountainous so we decided to push on the next morning. We were planning to stop at Ios and possibly visit with Fionna but the winds dictated that we either stay where we were or move northwards to Naxos. We were there last year with Nevan, Sarah and Elise and had a great time driving all over the island. Nevan did the driving! We arrived there and tied up almost the same place as last year and went out for a good fish dinner. This was a restaurant which the owner was so nice to us last year but we never managed to eat there. So we made up for it this time. We spent two days just wandering the narrow alleys and streets of the old quarter and just enjoyed ourselves.

Folegandros

We had a weather window for a couple of days so headed off to Folegandros for a short over night where we helped, or maybe hindered, a fisherman with his nets. Then it was up at 0500 for an 90 mile crossing to Crete. We arrived here after spending a day of good sailing to start with then calm winds with temperatures in the mid to upper 20s, around 1700. We anchored up in the town of Khania, with the help of Martin and Jannet on a British power boat, and then had a dinner out with them at a local outdoors restaurant. It was like summer is starting.

The next morning the winds picked up to gale force again and are continuing thru today which is our grandson Eamons third birthday. We miss not being home to celebrate but will try to call him on skype this evening. It was a good move to get over here when we did as sailing around in 40k winds is ok but it is a lot of work and not that pleasant. Kahania is a bigger town than we have been to in a long time with lots of shops, tavernas, outside cafes and lots of people out and about. It is Venetian in character. We will stay for a few more days, rent a car and drive to Iraklion, visit Knosses and just enjoy the countryside. Behind us here are snow capped mountains which makes us feel at home.

Khania, Crete

From here we plan to head for Corfu with a bunch of stops along the way before entering into Croatia.

Turkey

Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

Yes, we are still alive and well, just can't get the hang on how to manage this blog. There always seems to something going on that takes up all of our days. I'll try to bring you up to date on our doings for the last month.

Istanbul

From February 20th to 23rd we went up to Istanbul with a group of about one hundred other yachties!! It is a fourteen hour bus ride. This time it was in the daylight and full of people we knew so it was barely tolerable. This was all sponsored by the marina here so that we could go to the boat show which was pretty good being about the size of the one in Vancouver. After a good nights sleep we were headed for the boat show. We were all fed and watered at the show and had a good time. The buses picked us up and the whole group boarded a charter dinner boat where we again were fed and watered some more. It was a beautiful evening as we went up the Bosphorus with Asia on one side and Europe on the other. To top it all off there was a full moon rising so with all the wine etc. it was very romantic. The next day Marian and I met up with Swiss friends whom we haven't seen since Portugal and Spain last winter. We spent the day walking all over the old part of the city called Sultanahmet. The highlight was the underground cisterns built by a Byzantine emperor in 527 AD. We had seen a number of other sites when we were here before Christmas. It was great to see our friends and hear of all their other travels and hope we will meet up with them again in the future. On Saturday it was back on the bus and back to Marmaris. The country side here is very beautiful with fertile plains and rugged mountains all snow capped. More on this later.

Cistern in Istanbul

The next couple of weeks we socialized, put the sails back on Kilkea, hiked up the hillsides and even managed to burn five seasons worth of 24 to watch down the road. We are ready to go but wanted to drive to Cappadocia and were waiting for the weather over that way to improve.

Hiking above Marmaris

We left here on the 10th of March driving eastward. It is 1000k to Cappadocia which is a province of the country. We overnighted in a small hotel/pension in Beysehir before driving on to Goreme. If you have some old National Geographic around you will be able to see what it is like or I guess just Google it would be easier. The town is small with hotels/pensions that are mostly build into caves!! It really is like living in Bedrock city of the Flintstones fame. We spent three nights in a suite cave with living room with fire place, a king size bed and huge bathroom with jacuzzi tub and hamam basin on heated floors. Not bad for a cave. The weather was great with clear skies and warm weather. The elevation is well above 5000 feet with snow capped mountains all around us. The area is volcanic and there are all these caves which were the homes of the ancients. Later the Christians built their churches in caves with ornate frescoes painted everywhere. To avoid persecution underground cities were built over eight stories deep and could hold thousands of people for over six months. I don't think they were ever captured. So far there are 55 of these cities discovered over an area of probably a hundred square miles. We went down one of these cities, the tunnels are narrow and low and the ceilings are hard rock!!!! not good for the head! The thing to do here is to hike and that we did. These are some of the most amazing geographic sights. You could be in Arizona canyons or those I have seen in Utah. We had some great meals and a most enjoyable time.The drive back, like the one up, took us through the most gorgeous mountains and plains. It is still very much winter up in the mountains and on Friday when we left we had some wet snow falling. We drove to Isparta and stayed at a lake side pension. This area is just like the Okanagan Valley with all the fruit trees getting ready for spring and the trees just starting to blossom. Saturday we went to Pamukkale which has calcium carbonate laden spring water that flows down the hillside creating Travertine pools that are a wondeful bluish color. On top of this cliff is the old ruined city of Hierapolis. This was a favorite place for the Romans and was used as a retreat with all of the natural hot baths. All very nice but we really are a little weary of old ruins so we pushed on and drove back to the boat.

Cave House, Goreme
Underground city

Cappadocia

Having the car for another we took Ray and Brenda and drove over the peninsula to Datca where we have been a couple of times before on the boat. Another beautiful day 20C plus. We stopped in to visit other yachties staying at Marti Marine before arriving back for dinner.We are ready to leave here now but will wait until the weekend as there is some weather arriving here with some big winds and possible rain. Ugh.

Pamukkale Travestine Pools

Marmaris

Overlooking Marmaris

Well we have been busy doing maintenance work on the boat. Everything is ok but things need to be maintained as we live in a harsh enviorment. The longest project is tearing all the winches down. These things put the sails up and down as well as many other duties. We have eleven winches and it takes us a couple of hours to service each one. On top of this we have a lot of blocks (pulleys) that need cleaning and have their bearings regreased. The next thing we did was have the Yanmar mechanics down and had them clean out the turbo and check the starter, alternators, injectors, heat exchnager and torque the head on the engine. So now we have it all checked out we feel it is ready for the next couple of years until we reach New Zealand. The main things to do now are just cleaning and polishing the stainless.



We have been looking at buying a new dinghy and are down to two. One is the AB and the other is aqua pro. Both have aluminum hulls and are light weight about 36 kilos. We want to get one or the other without paying VAT tax or any other taxes and are trying to find out how to do this. We did manage to pick up a pactor modem in Germany that is used in conjunction with the HF single side band radio which will allow us to email and get weather anywhere in the world. We managed to get our tax back on this. Now I will have to set it up and get a Sail Mail account. If any of you email us on this please just send text as it is very slow. More when we get it up and running.

Other than this we have been going for walks and enjoying the mild weather. We are going into town tommorrow night for a Valentines dinner with friends from some of the other boats.