In the cottage and it's SNOWING!

Well our arrival in St John's was a bit wilder than anticipated! The Flight from Halifax was delayed 2 hours due to very high winds in St John's. We had boarded the little 50 seater plane and had just got comfy when the pilot suggested we de-plane and see if the winds abated. We really hoped we wouldn't have to spend the night at the airport as we had been up for about 20 hours at this point, but when we got back on the plane the pilot announced we were good to go.

250 mile an hour tail winds knocked half an hour off our journey and as we approached the airport our little plane was swinging from side to side in a rather alarming manner, the whole plane was holding its collective breath! But we landed very smoothly to a huge round of applause:)

We took a taxi to our accommodation for a week and when we arrived the taxi driver got out, gave me a hug and a kiss and said 'welcome to Newfoundland':) we had a very clean , cosy self contained flat which was part of a house. We abandoned trying to buy a car as getting insurance was too difficult so we spent the week exploring and shopping. New winter snow boots, gloves, hats and scarves were on the shopping list!

We met Dustin, the owner of the cottage we would be renting, when he invited us to join him and his wife for dinner at a lovely old pub in down-town St John's. They were a lovely couple and we had a fun evening as they welcomed us to Newfoundland. (they're a very friendly bunch here:)

Dunfield, our cottage extreme left, middle

Finally last Thursday, the big day arrived and we loaded the car and headed north to Dunfield which would be our new home until the beginning of March. The drive was about 300 kilometres most of it along the Trans Canada Highway, through stunningly beautiful scenery. All pine forests and frozen lakes, and hardly another car on the road!.

When we arrived at the cottage (key under the mat) it far surpassed our expectations, it was much better in real life than the web photos suggested and we thought it looked pretty good on line! The cottage is right on the water front, any closer and we'd have wet feet, so it's almost as good as being on a boat:) The cottage has been extended from it's original one bed 1930's summer home to a stunning 2 bed luxury accommodation. There are huge windows from both the ground and upper floors making the most of the views across the water. On a clear day we can almost see Ireland! We go to sleep each night to the sound of the waves lapping on the shore......

The village is tiny and only about 40 families live here, most of the young people have moved away to find work. Our biggest town is Clarenville an hours drive away and even the local small supermarket is a good 15 minutes drive away.

Dustin's Dad delivered a giant Christmas tree (it's artificial, but still the first tree we have had in many years) and it almost touches the ceiling. We had bought lights and decorations at the local dollar store and it looks lovely. We had a quiet day on Alan’s birthday with a celebratory drive into Clarenvillle and a huge lunch of fish and chips, OK we also did a bit of shopping, ice cream included, which kept well frozen in the boot on the drive home.

- 6C and I have to shovel snow!

We were invited to a carol service at the local church by Dustin's Dad and his wife where we met some of our neighbours and to top it all of it snowed properly today. We now have a good 6 inches plus, of pristine white powder everywhere. It's gorgeous! We walked back from the church making footprints in the snow and I even managed to lob a few snowballs in Alan's direction. I had the advantage as he had forgotten his gloves. Doh!

OOHH That was fun....!!!!

Our flights from London, England ( I have to say that now as there is a London in Canada) went well...until the last....
Pam got out of bed at 5:30am to get us to Heathrow  with time spare (thanks Pam) and 8 hrs later we were in Toronto. By the way Marmite is considered a liquid and Dee lost her entire supply at the security check. I lost my Swiss army knife that I accidentally left in my carry-on.

Another 2 hour flight and we are in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The planes kept on getting smaller and we finally ended up sitting in a 50 seat commuter aircraft for the final leg to St Johns, Newfoundland.  After a short delay the pilot tells us that the good news is that the extreme winds that had buffeted Nova Scotia had cleared but the bad news was that these winds had arrived in Newfoundland! Wind gusts were exceeding 100 km/hr (up to 160!!) and that he didn't consider it safe to attempt a landing in St John's. He announced a delay of 2 hrs to see what would happen. Nobody complained.

We all got off and went to Tim Hortons for a doughnut,and then remembered we didn't have any local money!  (I am sure you will read a little more about THs from Dee)

Bombardier CRJ 100/200 (our little plane)

Two hours later we are back on this little plane and the pilot announces that the wind in St John's was still as strong but the direction had changed to along the runway, so he would attempt a landing!!! I overheard one of the passengers comment that "he's an old guy and he's from St John's so if anyone can do it, he can". Hmmmm, hold tight.....  In the air he announced that the normal 1.5 hour flight wouldl only be about 1 hr as we had a 250km/hr tail wind.   As we approached, everyone took the instruction to put their seat belts on very seriously. Even the steward was seen hanging on firmly!  As we got close to the ground the plane was bouncing all over the place and pitching from side to side, but happily we touched down very gently to a cheer from all passengers. As we were leaving, the pilot was standing at the door with a smile on his face. We thanked him.

London

Ratty is now a distant memory (and hopefully long gone!) Sunflower is tucked up in her winter berth and we are about to commence phase 2 of our really big winter adventure...

Horse Guards parade in Oxford St.

Our trip to London went very smoothly; we flew Pegasus, the Turkish equivalent to Ryanair. We have been staying with a dear friend of ours who has moved into a gorgeous new flat in outer London, almost in the countryside. We rented a car for a week so we could do the rounds of our friends, and we also went into central London by public transport a few times. Our 3 weeks has gone very quickly, the highlight of which was celebrating the big 60^th birthday of the friend we are staying with.

Chef Pierre explaining the menu

This was done by a very elegant dinner party in the new flat, fully catered by a flamboyant Frenchman called Pierre. It was a lovely idea, as there was no work beforehand, no washing up and we didn't have to drive home:)

We have been eating out a lot, which although very nice, has played havoc with both our bank account and waistlines (such as they are!)

Now it is time to move on, again! On Thursday morning we fly to Newfoundland to begin the big Canadian adventure. Alan managed to buy a great ski jacket for a bargain price and I have dusted off the cobwebs and had my long winter coat cleaned. The weather forecast for our arrival is St John's is fog and 80 kilometre an hour winds! Hope the pilot can handle that!

The next update will be from the wilds of Newfoundland, or maybe the not so wilds of St John's. We are staying there for a week, as we are going to try to buy a car, as the cost of renting for 3 months is exorbitant!

There is a link to the cottage we will be staying at on the front page of the website if you fancy having a look.  www.sunflowercruising.com

Exciting times in the marina....

Well how about that?    We actually got electricity and water on our dock. This is living! I have been able to store away the Honda generator which has provided us with electricity since we have been here and I ran a hose to the boat to fill a water tank.  Luxury....

The other night was also exciting...a storm came through and our wind speed instrument registered a high gust of 58 knots, at 3am. Mostly it was around 35-45 knots. This was at the top of the mast. It did not feel like that speed on deck but it was dam windy.  This is the highest wind speed we have ever had on the boat. Luckily it was in a marina!

Today is our last day in here. We fly to London tomorrow morning.

Rouse onboard!

Nearly 4 weeks have passed since we arrived in Karpaz Gate Marina and the time has flown by. We are busy getting ready to leave Sunflower early on Thursday morning to head to London for 3 weeks before carrying on to Newfoundland.

Despite the promises when we arrived that the power would be reconnected 'in a few days', still no electricity and therefore no water! The electricity isn't so much of a problem as we can run the generator, but we have pickled the watermaker so are relying on what is in the tanks. The boat was extremely salty after our trip here so after a week we went 'on the wall'! The sea wall still has power, it's the pontoons which don't, so we hosed the boat down and got off the several tons of salt crystals and filled both tanks.

Afterwards we went on to what is now our permanent dock. This is a Med moor tie, which means the boat is tied stern to the dock, rather than having a finger pier alongside. Not quiet as easy as stepping off the side, a plank (or if you are fancy a 'passerelle) is required to bridge the gap between the back of the boat and the dock. Only problem is we don't have plank! So we have done a deal with another boat to swap a spare part for an unwanted plank. Only snagette is we have to locate said part! We know it's here somewhere, just can't seem to find it right now. So I may be trapped on board for a while!

Our "new" donated plank

The last couple of Friday nights we have had fish and chips at a local restaurant. Bobby, a nice cockney bloke from Hackney came and picked us up (for free) he and his wife own half the restaurant, even though he's a roofer by trade! The place was heaving, and the aroma of vinegar strong in the air! The food was nice if not spectacular, fish sizes half of what we'd been getting in London, but still plenty big enough and it was very nice. The fish and chips and a couple of diet cokes was about $25, cheaper than the marina restaurant, but no big bargain. There were loads of English people there, not all cruisers, apparently there is a large expat community here. We met 2 very nice English couples who are both on boats here. We had a nice evening and Bobby brought us back a couple of hours later.

We started to run out of food about 10 days ago. I had slightly underestimated our requirements! As we will be leaving the fridge turned off while we are away, I didn't want to leave any perishables behind. So we have been on cheese rations, luckily I discovered a couple of packets of bacon I didn't know I had, at the bottom of the freezer, but things still became a bit dire!! So we had go to the shops!

The red number plate indicates a rental car

We rented a car for 3 days and went for a bit of an explore. We were restricted to the Northern part of the island and not allowed to cross the 'green line' into the Greek part. Apparently it is possible but you have to pay extra insurance. We will probably do it when we return. We visited Famagusta, the Turkish part of Nicosia and returned to Girne where we had checked in as it has the only chandlery on the northern part of the island. We found several very nice supermarkets and stocked up for the remainder of our visit.

The day after our car rental ended I was putting our groceries away and found what I thought was a carton of wine leaking. However upon further inspection it wasn't just one carton and they weren't spontaneously leaking, they had been bitten into! Crikey we had a critter on board!

At this point the Captain was dispatched to make further inquires as the Admiral didn't want anything jumping out at her! The news wasn't good. As well as the wine cartons, teeth had chewed a big hole in the very strong plastic lid of a 2 litre bottle of Sangria, as well as a carton of fruit juice which has been laying across the top of our electric toaster. Juice has run all through it, so we threw it away. Then Alan discovered the tell tale droppings, we had a RAT on board. Alan kept calling it a mouse, but judging from the size of the droppings it was a rat sized mouse! Maybe a 'rouse'!  More casualties in the store room were packets of flour and biscuits. So we then tore the boat apart looking for signs of where else it had been and dreading discovering a nest somewhere. However it seemed Ratty had restricted his partying to the store room, and judging by the very modest droppings, hadn't stayed very long. That night we sealed off the store room with paper, so he would have to tear it to get out, and left some food scraps on top of some scrunched up carrier bags so he would make a noise. We didn't sleep well that night! But next morning no sign of Ratty. Next night we did the same thing and still nothing. By now the entire marina knew about our intruder and a cruiser with a car kindly bought a rat trap for us. As yet we haven't had to use it. The marina have a pest man come around every week and there are traps everywhere. We decided ours must have been so drunk he fell off the mooring lines when he tried to get off the boat (at least that's what I keep telling myself!)

A week on and still no sign of Ratty. We will leave poison in the cockpit while we are away and we have also pulled the boat much further away from the dock. (plank definitely required now!)So we will just keep our fingers crossed that we don't have any unwanted squatters while we are away:)

Karpaz Gate Marina, Northern Cyprus

Turkish & TRNC Flags

We have made it to our free berth at Karpaz Gate Marina towards the northern tip of North Cyprus, or to give it it's full name, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. (TRNC for short) We left Fethiye about a week ago as the weather had started to deteriorate and we decided to just come straight here and get ourselves sorted out. We first had to go to Girne in TRNC to check in, as for all intents and purposes this is a separate country, although one only recognised by Turkey! Southern Cyprus belongs to Greece and is part of the EU. Relations between the two are strained and have been since the 1970's. The UN police the 'green line' which divides the country.

Karpaz Gate Marina (look for the yellow boat)

We left on the back of bad weather as after that the wind died off completely and we didn't want to have to motor the 250 miles to get here. At Turkish diesel prices it would have cost us about $600! As it turned out we needn't have worried, the forecast winds of 25 knots continued to build to gale force once we were out at sea, and we had 30 -45 knots behind us for the first 30 hours. Not a comfy trip! Neither of us got any sleep as the boat was rolling so much as we surfed down huge waves, in fact I even fell out of the sea berth at one point because we were getting thrown around so much! By the time we arrived in Girne we were both battered and exhausted. We anchored outside the breakwater and Alan went off in dingo to check in . He returned to say we had to go into the marina as they wanted to inspect the boat! The marina gave us a special rate of 25 Euro a night. However as we were on the fuel dock with no power or water it wasn't much of a bargain! We spent the first night going to bed very early and catching up on some sleep. 

Girne Old Harbour

The next day we went into Girne to look around. It's a very historic place, also called Kyrenia. Place names in Cyprus have both Greek and Turkish names which can be very confusing, so Girne is the Turkish name and Kyrenia is the Greek name! However the first thing that struck us was that all vehicles were a mixture of left and right hand drive and everyone drove on the left due to previous British colonialisation!

We did a quick tour, Alan got scalped by a Turkish barber who lured him into his shop and despite my protests gave him a short back and sides, circa 1950 and reminiscent of Dad's Army! I am calling him Sean until it grows back!

.

We did the compulsory supermarket shop and were surprised to see lots of British goodies like marmite, Heinz baked beans etc. Another colonial legacy no doubt!

We had planned to leave that afternoon and anchor out again, but we were still both very tired and didn't fancy a rolly night if the wind shifted so we forked out another 25 Euro and left at 7 am the following morning, having had nobody come anywhere near the boat to 'inspect' it! The last leg of the journey was 50 miles which we had to motor as the wind was on the nose and we also had a 2 knot counter current, so despite doing 7 knots through the water we were barely making 5 knots over the ground. The last short leg took 10 hours and we started to wonder if coming such a long way for a free berth was really worth the bother! The shoreline showed hardly any signs of habitation so it is clearly not a built up area of the island.

KGM entrance - work in progress everywhere

The marina sent out a RIB to guide us in and there were lots of hands to help us reverse into our berth. The marina is all sparkly new, as it only opened in June and there are about 50 boats here in a marina designed for about 400! Works still continue though and the planned resort and hotel haven't even begun to be built yet.

No Electricity or Water until the rewiring is finished

Sadly, in August a worker was  electrocuted on one of the docks due to faulty wiring so the whole marina is being re-wired, so for now no power and no water (it uses an electric pump) but at least it isn't costing 25 Euro a night! The Wi- Fi isn't great, as it is designed to be boosted from the power points for each berth (which aren't working) They tell us next week one dock will be ready and we can move then, but we gather from some of the longer term residents that they have been hearing this for some time! The mini mart is not open and the village is 3 miles away uphill with no public transport, the nearest ATM is 40 kilometers away, so we are really very isolated. However we did know this before we arrived and figured as we would be leaving the boat it didn't matter anyway, and by the time we return it should all be sorted! The restaurant is open, but quite pricey, especially by Turkish standards, $9 for a burger and $22 for a steak, lamb chops are $15. I dare say we will try it but we won't be eating there regularly! The marina will take a grocery order and the restaurant will obtain the food for you. They also have a deal on car rental which is $50 for one day or $80 for 3 days, so we will give that a go. We may try and share the car with some other cruisers.

Anyway, we have plenty of jobs to do, so the isolation isn't really a problem, at least it's harder to spend money:) The weather is fine and sunny, the country side beautiful and the water so clear you can see the sand grains on the bottom of the harbour, most unusual for a marina! We will get Sunflower settled into her new home for the next 5 months before heading off in 4 weeks time for adventures of a different sort!

Now it's time to head for Cyprus

Michael enjoying a quit moment

We have just finished hosting our first guest on board Sunflower since 2007, so were a bit out of practice! Needless to say a bit of re-stowing was required to clear some sleeping space in the V berth! Michael, a friend from England came out and he had never been on a boat before! We spent the week exploring the myriad of little bays and perfecting the new anchoring technique required here, of dropping anchor in very deep water and then tying a line from the back of the boat to a bollard ashore. This allows yachts to anchor where it would otherwise be too deep and also to fit in more boats. The scenery is spectacular, with pine clad mountains dropping straight down into the ocean. An occasional herd of goats wander past announcing their presence with the tinkle of brass bells.

Pancakes being made at our boat

The yachts here are well serviced with daily fresh bread deliveries, ice cream boats, rubbish collection boats, mini market boats and even fresh pancakes! We tried them and they were delicious! A little old husband and wife on a traditional boat, he drives ,she sits up front in front of her round gas pancake plate, a big grin on her face gabbing away in Turkish the whole time.

After a week of this idyllic life and Michael suitably relaxed,it was back to Fethiye on Monday to rent a car for the day to go exploring and drop Michael at the airport.

Kayakoy

First of all we visited a deserted village in the mountains called Kayakoy. It is a village of about 450 houses all built of stone, with several churches and schools. Up until 1923 it was occupied by the Greeks. Then when Turkey became a republic most Greek Christians were repatriated to Greece while the Turkish Muslims living in Greece returned to Turkey. Although for some reason the Turks never settled in this village and it gradually fell in to disrepair. The roofs were all thatch and timber frame so nowhere near as sturdy as the stone walls. Then in the 1950's a huge earthquake hit the area and whatever timber was left was scavenged to repair occupied buildings elsewhere. Slowly the village became more and more overgrown, now it is a tourist attraction and referred to as the ghost village. A few years ago there were plans to restore the houses as a holiday development but the government decided to preserve it as an historic monument. It is quite eerie walking around and peering into the houses, imagining people living here. The mountain views are spectacular and the village boasts the fact that the houses are built so that none block each others views (something today's developers could learn from!) There were very few people there which added to the eerie feeling. The roads were all made from big stone cobbles and it was very hilly so the knees got a good work out. There were wild fig and pomegranate trees everywhere all heavy with fruit.

Once we had seen enough we got back in the car and headed a few miles down the road where there was another village of a completely different kind. Instead of the stone bones of an old village on the hillside there was a massive development of new shiny 'villas'. The main street was a pedestrian zone so we got out and walked. There was a Dell Boys bar, an Irish pub, a London bar, restaurants offering a full English breakfast, fish and chips and karaoke. You get the picture! The shops were even showing prices in pounds, not Turkish lire. We were quite bemused to find an 'English' village transplanted into the Turkish mountainside. Who on earth lived here? It was also a bit of a ghost town with hardly anyone around.

We had plenty of choices for lunch and surprisingly prices were much cheaper than on the coast. Apparently it has been a British enclave for about 20 years! It might be a bit cooler being in the mountains although still plenty warm enough to hop in the swimming pool. Anyway we had seen enough and motored off into some lesser known mountain roads. The scenery was spectacular and we slowly made our way to the airport, getting lost quite a few times as Turkish road signs leave a lot to be desired.

Fetiye fruit market

On Tuesday we had the boat back to ourselves, but had to make an emergency dash to a dentist as Alan had broken a tooth earlier in the week. We thought he would need a crown and wondered how much it was going to cost! The tourist office recommended an English speaking dentist and we got an appointment that afternoon. The surgery was lovely, bright and modern and spotlessly clean. We even had to put plastic covers on our shoes before we were allowed in! The dentist (whose surname means 7 stars) spoke good English and confirmed our diagnosis. Luckily Alan had already had a root canal on the tooth and a post had already been inserted, but we still thought the cost of a filling and crown was a bargain at around $100! We go back on Tuesday to have the crown fitted.

New anchor chain in the dinghy

Yesterday we went shopping for new anchor chain. Ours has rusted to the point where it is making a horrible mess all over the deck. We thought if it spent 5 months in the anchor locker over winter it would become an unusable rusty lump, so we thought we had better replace it now. Alan found a good deal, so it was off in Dingo to collect it! The bow looks so much better now, especially as we have cleaned all the rust stains off.

All we have to do now is make the final voyage of 250 miles to Cyprus where our free marina berth is waiting for us!

Fetiye, Turkey

We are now in Turkey, on the Aegean sea.

The trip from Malta was good, a vast improvement over the trip getting to Malta. We had good winds most of the way and it was good sailing, we even flew the spinnaker a few times and recorded some of our fastest times ever, 8-9 knots!.

We arrived in Fethiye at 3 am, after a 7 day, 800 mile journey. Normally we don't like to arrive in a strange place until daylight, but the entry looked clear and it was a full moon, so we headed for an anchorage off a beach. There were about 3 boats already there and through the binoculars I could see what I thought was construction equipment on the beach and just before we ran over it I spotted a buoyed off area, so we putted around looking for a place to drop the hook. It was quite deep everywhere except for a 10 metre hole near the cliffs. We dropped the anchor and turned the engine off. As we were tidying up I noticed that we were quite long way from the cliffs, when I checked our GPS we had drifted over 300 feet and were still going! Luckily there was no wind, but we were now in really deep water so the anchor would not even have been touching the bottom, not one of our better anchoring efforts, but we were a bit tired! We had another go and dumped loads of chain and hoped for the best, we fell into bed around 4 am.

Next morning we awoke to a beautiful morning in a sandy cove surrounded by wooded hills. The 'construction equipment' turned out to be beach huts and a big yellow water slide! We spent the day sleeping, cleaning up, having our traditional 'arrival in a new country' meal of full English breakfast (for lunch) having a dip to cool off and more sleeping. Next day we motored around the mile and a half to Fethiye town and anchored next to the marina.

We spent the next day trying to check in. This is a complicated procedure and involves buying a transit log from an agent, then schlepping around to the Harbour Master, Health dept, Immigration and customs offices. They all had to be visited in that order, luckily they are all clustered around the marina. However we hit a snag at the harbour master office when we discovered their computer system was down. Matters weren't helped by the fact that we had the wrong time

on our watches, despite checking with our Mediterranean Almanac to confirm Turkey was on the same time as the rest of Europe, it turned out they are in fact an hour later so everyone was about to close for lunch! We bought the transit log but nobody else could do anything until the harbour master had entered their information first. It was suggested that we could use an agent to do it for us, but they wanted to charge 75 Euros and as they used the same computer systems the harbour master, they were out of action as well. So we did what anyone does in these situations and went and had an ice cream! (Alan has learned his first word in Turkish, you guessed it:) At about 4.30 we decided to see if the computers were back up again. They were and it was mayhem in the harbour masters office (mainly full of agents!) We got done there at 5pm which gave us half an hour to get around all the other agencies which we managed with 5 minutes to spare. Next morning we had to wait half an hour at a bank to pay 'stamp duty' of about $5 and take the receipt back to the harbour master where formalities were finally completed! Yeah, now we could look around the town at our leisure, except Alan was on a mission to buy a 3G internet dongle, so it was off to the phone shops.

English friends of ours have their boat in the marina here at Fethiye and visit about 3 times a year for a week. They are out at the moment, so we have had them over for dinner and been out together, they obviously know the area very well and have given us lots of good local information. We are also expecting our first visitor to Sunflower since 2007! Another English friend of ours Michael arrives next week for a week. He has never been on a boat before so that will be interesting. We will need to clear a space for him to sleep in the V berth!

Most of the old town of Fethiye was destroyed in an earthquake in the 50's so the buildings are all quite modern, but there are no high rises and still lots of little shady alley ways full of lovely shops selling jewelry, rugs, pottery and all manner of sparkly trinkets. I managed to buy a lovely soft leather handbag in between chores:) The smell of roast meat wafts around from the many kebab shops. The atmosphere is lovely and I feel very at home here. The people are very friendly and I am looking forward to spending at least another year in this fascinating country.

Arriving in Turkey was quite a milestone for us. I can't believe that what set out as idle speculation in November 2009 has actually happened. We were sitting in the San Blas deciding where to go next and I thought Turkey would be nice, but that meant traveling up the western Caribbean to the US, crossing the Atlantic and then traveling 2000 miles from Gibraltar to the eastern Med, it all seemed impossibly far and yet here we are! I have decided next year I want to take it easy and enjoy Turkey and environs. It is a big country with plenty to see and do and day hops would be nice instead of long passages and I want to be able to take the time to enjoy and get to know the country and the people. So if you fancy a visit next year, there's lots of time to plan it:)

Must have gotten lost?

After zig zaging around all these lumps of Greek rock (islands) we finally found ourselves anchoring at about 2am. Luckily it was almost a full moon and all went reasonably well..

The only thing is that we are now in the Turkish port of Fethiye...not Marmaris. Hmmmm well it was not actually a mistake, we decided that as we have English friends with a boat in the marina here, we would come here to meet them, when they arrive next week.

Malta to Fethiye was about 750nm (about 1000kms) and took us 7 days. Good winds most of the way but sometimes it almost stopped and we were drifting along.

The Admiral will have more later.

Passing through Greece, nearly in Turkey

Despite conflicting weather forecasts we decided to leave Malta and just take whatever the weather gods threw at us. This has turned out to be a good decision so far. We left the small island of Gozo (Malta) at around midnight on Monday and today (Friday) we entered Greek waters have passed Kythera, the first of the the Greek Islands when approaching from the west.

We had excellent winds and good sailing for the first 2 days, recording some of our fasted times ever! Even when the wind dropped off a bit we have been able to sail all the way, today we even flew the spinnaker. We passed through a big electrical storm which gave us a bit of a fright, as it has been so long since we have been near any lightening. We went to code red and things got put in the oven, but the worst of the storm passed by us in about an hour then the stars came back out again:)

We are currently north of Crete in the Aegean Sea, having traversed the Ionian Sea, and will carry on through Greece and head for the Turkish mainland and Marmaris, which all going well, we should see in about 3 days time.

Time to Leave Malta (Gone from Gozo)

Today we checked out of Malta and are in a small anchorage doing all those jobs that have to be done before going to sea for  4 to 8 days. We plan to go staight through from Malta to Turkey about 650nm.  Give the fluky winds here this will take us at least 6 days. We could stop in the Greek Islands before this if we need to.

We have spent the last week or two around the smaller island of Gonzo. Very nice but rugged.

The Blue Lagoon, a very popular "beach" on Comino, next to Gozo

They pack the party boats....wonder how many they lose?

The bay next to the boat yard in Valletta.

Gone to Gozo

 Yet another couple of weeks have passed since we arrived in Malta, how time flies.

We went into the Kalkara boat yard the Tuesday after we arrived in preparation for the fridge guy to come on Wednesday. The boatyard was fine but a bit out of the way of most things. Valletta harbour is huge with points of land like fingers extending into it. Valletta is on the biggest 'finger' and we were located on a smaller finger almost next to it, so while we were close as the crow flies, by the time you wander around the shoreline the distances increase significantly. Valletta itself is a World Heritage site, but without the charm of some of the others we have been to (like Cartagena, Colombia) It is full of history and like everything else in Malta built from the local sandstone, it is also very hilly,but there is very little atmosphere. The main activity is a few fingers along where all the main marinas are (which were all full) Still, there was a bus stop outside our boat yard which took you into Valletta (a half hour trip) and from there you can change buses to go anywhere on the island.

British heritage  (phone box)

Despite having visited Malta back in the 70's with my Mum, I would swear I had never been here before, nothing looks familiar. But I expect they can build a lot of roads and houses in 35 years!

Anyway the fridge guy, Sandro, arrived on time on Tuesday and spent most of the day installing a new fridge compressor. I had emptied all the lockers and we had taken the carpet up as it was messy job. The compressor uses carbon brushes which give off black carbon dust and as it hadn't been working properly there was surplus black stuff everywhere. We had a minor panic when we discovered Sandro would only accept cash, and as the job was going to be around 900 Euros we weren't sure how we were going to get the cash so quickly! But the boatyard kindly offered to lend it to us! and handed over an envelope with 1000 Euros in it. They also came to our rescue and put our food in their fridge and freezer, otherwise I would have had loads of melted cheese and butter, it was so hot in the yard! No breeze and 35 degrees!

Sandro working on the new compressor install

The boat was in upheaval all day and once the new compressor was installed Alan was concerned that it was using much more power than the old one. He wasn't just concerned about the energy consumption but the wear on the motor. Sandro said it would sort itself out when the compressor was 'run in', but that night Alan hit the internet and discovered that the compressor company makes 3 different models which all look the same but have slightly different power outputs. Instead of having the lowest one we had the middle one which wasn't right, so we emailed Sandro and asked him to fix the problem. He replied that he would replace the compressor with the right one (luckily there was one at the dealer in Malta) but if it didn't fix the motor problem we would have to pay again, another 900 Euros. Alan was a bit pissed off with this reply as it wasn't our fault the wrong thing had been fitted. Also it was unlikely that most other people would have even realised there was a problem. Because Alan had all the gizmos to measure current draw etc and his techie background he knew exactly what was happening. Anyway, long story short, Sandro came back, put the right compressor in and it all worked perfectly, we gave him 30 Euros for an hours work, plus we had to spend and extra night at the yard. Alan slept so well that night, he has been worrying about the fridge since Morocco and nursing it along, so now he can relax. The extra day spent on the fridge meant we couldn't hire a car and explore the island, so once again I have just seen boatyards, chandleries and supermarkets!

It was such a relief to get back on anchor and at least be able to jump in for a dip if it got too hot.

We have been moving from anchorage to anchorage seeing new bits of Malta and Gozo. We prefer Gozo, it's a more manageable size, has more nooks and crannies to anchor in than Malta which has a few but which are all huge and crowded. We found one particularly pleasant bay,it was lovely, sandstone cliffs with a bit of greenery on the hillside (that's a rarity, it's so dry here) we had one of our better snorkels with some rocks and a few fishies. Everything here is so monochromatic, there's no coral, everything including the fish are shades of brown and beige. After the Caribbean it's like watching a black and white movie after being used to seeing everything in glorious technicolour. Anyway, we had just got back from our swim at about 5'ish when this party boat pulled along side us and dropped anchor while blasting out techno music at an outrageous sound level. There must have been a hundred or so youngsters all bikini clad, dancing and drinking. As soon as the anchor was down they jumped in and splashed around while the music boomed on. Oh well we thought, they won't stay long. Wrong! 3 hours later at 8 pm they finally headed off and left us with our bleeding ear drums! So much for our 'peaceful' anchorage!

We have also taken the bus to Victoria, the capitol of Gozo and in the centre of the island. The drive was through very dry and arid looking countryside. Not much growing except for lots of prickly pear cacti. There were 3 small shopping malls all very close together with some very familiar English shops! All the supermarkets stock English products like Marmite, HP sauce and custard powder, however most of the food is imported and quite pricey, especially the fresh produce. A shame after the lovely fruit and veg we had got used to in Sardinia.

The Maltese certainly like their fireworks! Wherever we have been, every night there are fireworks, even during the day when you can only hear them and see the smoke afterwards. We have since discovered that Malta has a long tradition of fireworks dating back to the 16th^h century when the island was occupied by the Knights Templar and they used to celebrate by letting off cannon and musket fire. There are 5 firework factories in Malta and Gozo and they actually have a firework competition every year in April. Definitely a time to have your ear plugs in!

It looks like we may have to wait a week for some wind to get us to Greece. We are going to try and get straight through to Turkey if we can, otherwise we may pull into a Greek island without checking in and wait for weather.

Mistrals are fun.......not...

Well the plan was that we leave Calasetta, Sardinia and use the Mistral (a strong NW wind that originates in the Alps near the Spanish/French boarder)to blow us all the way south east to Malta, 350 nm, about 500 kms. I checked the GRIB weather information every day before hand and the prediction firmed up and looked like 15-25 knots for most of the required 3 days, fading at the end so that we would have to motor for a few hours. Close to perfect.

So what could go wrong with such a planed and well thought out voyage?

A continuous 25-30 kts gusting almost 40 kts makes for a bloody uncomfortable sail, that's what.

One feature of the Med is that there is a very small tide (around half a metre), smaller currents and no big ocean swell. When the wind comes up the wind waves come up and when the wind stops the sea state calms quickly. So 15-20 knots behind us should not really be a problem....right? Well when the wind gods get a little carried away and keep puffin up to 40 knots the waves in the Med do get large. When we had a constant 30kts for a day, it was NOT a good idea to look behind the boat to see what was coming!

The wind was blowing directly in the direction we wanted to go, this might sound great but there is a problem. We can put out 2 sails at the front of the boat (goose winged jibs) and this can work well when the seas are slight, not so well with big seas. We were rolling from side to side furiously....not a happy crew! We eventually found a combination that worked, a very small main sail, a very small jib and sailing at an angle of about 30 degrees off our course. So we zig zagged down wind for two and a half days before the wind finally calmed down and here we are now no wind and motoring for the last 20 nm.

That was what really happened....here is the Admirals side of the story....

Quite scary, huge seas with the wind whipping the tops of them into frothy whitecaps. Most of them Sunflower surfed down (best not to look down from the the top of a multi storey wave at the rest of the ocean below!)Occasionally a rogue wave would hit the side of the boat with a huge thud knocking us all sideways and even dumping a large quantity of sea water over the deck and cockpit. We were both tired and battered from being knocked around the cabin, unable to sleep and trying to keep the boat on course. At times I asked myself what on earth I was doing, and why couldn't I live in a nice dry house that didn't keep lurching all over the place. Then as soon as things calmed down, the seas returned to a nice gentle undulating motion and Sunflower was purring along, I forgot all the bad stuff and was enjoying the joy of being underway again,..... until the next time anyway!

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Tales of Woe....

Hmmmm.....we do seem to have a couple little problems at the moment......

My media computer developed a networking driver problem so that I could
not connect to the internet. I tried all the usual stuff and finally an
XP repair. This all went well until I tried to log back on and it
required an activation before it would log me on but of course I can't
activate it until I can log on........Microsoft wins again!!!! Still
trying things...may require a rebuild. I still have 2 computers working
so it could be worse.

That means that I have been unable to update the web site until I move
it all to a spare computer.

So I thought I would update the Chronicles on line......so I log on to
the blog website and find that it will only allow me to edit titles but
not the body text!!! This on 2 different computers and 3 different
browsers.

That means the only way to update the Chronicles is via email, as I am
doing here,

I checked the Frig compressor a few days ago and find that it is leaking
more oil than it was so the seal is getting worse. It is 20 years old so
time for a replacement. It is a Frigomar manufactured in Italy. Hey we
are in Italy, should be no problem......I contact the factory and they
will send me one for 1500 euros yep one thousand and five hundred
euros...that must be close to $2000!!! The factory has now closed for
the August holidays. The short story is that I have found one in stock
in Malta (about 350 nm away). They even speak English there and the
price is .......... 650 euros.

Guess what.....we are sailing for Malta in the next few days. The winds
will blow in the right direction and it will be 3 nights at sea, heading
in the correct direction for our winter marina in Turkey. What could
go wrong........?

Spain to Italy - Calasetta Sardinia

We have now been in Sardinia for just over a week after a lovely 49 hour sail from Mallorca under a glorious full moon. Alan had judged the weather perfectly and we were able to sail most of the way, much better than burning diesel.

We headed for the south western tip of the island to a place called Calasetta. Our main reason for coming here was to meet up with our old mate Peter on Golden Eagle. Although we had spent Christmas with him in his bosses house in the south of France, the last time our boats had been together was 2 years ago in Panama. Peter crossed the Atlantic from Panama a few weeks ahead of us but went directly from there to Bermuda and then Gibraltar, as we crossed from the US and then dallied in the Azores for a couple of months he had arrived in Europe well before us, while we wintered in Morocco. We were beginning to despair of ever catching him up, but he arrived in Calasetta last October and decided to stay put! He is in the little marina here but we are anchored around the corner. We have had our mail sent here and are waiting for it to arrive.

The local mayor has his boat in the same marina as Peter and they have become good mates and Peter has the use of the mayors old banger (one of several vehicles he owns) It 's a very old Fiat Panda with room for one person in the back, mainly because the front seats are rusted into fixed positions and can't be moved forward, so Alan has to sprawl across the back seat as there is no room for his knees otherwise. Luckily Sant Antioco where Calasetta is located is a very small island, so a tour only took about half an hour and the main town of Sant Antioco is about a 10 minute drive away. It's main claim to fame is a Lidl supermarket!

We have been surprised at how much windier and cooler it is here than in Mallorca. There is a wind called a Mistral which funnels down from the French Alps and keeps Sardinia quite breezy, we have had 20-25 knots most of the time we have been here, other friends who are on the north coast have been having 35 knots! On the plus side it is pleasant for sleeping and there are no mossies, but getting ashore in the dinghy can be a soggy experience.

Calasetta is a small village with an old look out tower on the cliff and mainly modern buildings. It has a commercial harbour where the Ro-Ro's (roll on roll off) car ferries ply a constant trade day and night from both the other island and the mainland and the local fishing fleet hang out. Ashore there are a couple of small supermarkets, several excellent gelaterias and several overpriced restaurants (where for some reason pizza is only cooked in the evenings) some excellent fruit stalls and a small but interesting market on a Wednesday morning. Siesta time is taken more seriously here than in Spain and everything shuts from 1pm until 5.30! This makes finding a shop open a bit tricky for us, as by the time we get ourselves together and ashore everything is ready to close and by 5.30 we are thinking of a G&T and relaxing for the day:)

Once our mail arrives we will look at moving on but are not sure where to. We would like to get to the north of the island as we have a friend of a friend who lives here we would like to meet and also another Aussie boat we know from Panama is also up north but we need to see if the winds will co-operate. Otherwise we may just head for Sicily and then on to Malta and Greece. We are now in August which is the silly season in the Med as most European countries have the whole month off and anything that floats in on the water. We would like to avoid the most popular places during August if possible. So the plan is that we are heading for Malta in the next few days.

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Mayhem in Mallorca

We arrived in Palma last Sunday, around 7 pm after a 13 hour sail and motor from Ibiza. We knew anchoring wasn't allowed within the harbour so we dropped the hook outside the breakwater. We were just finishing supper when a port authority boat arrived to tell us we couldn't  anchor there! We explained we had just  arrived and were very tired, so they agreed we could stay the night (it was already 8.30 pm!) but would need to move a mile further down in the morning! Next day we moved and tried to launch the dinghy in a huge swell with Sunflower doing the rock and roll she does so well:)

We had a very wet dinghy ride (with me hidden under a tarp, trying to keep dry) as waves slurped over the bow and side, for the several mile trip into the harbour. We really had to be here for 2 reasons; we had ordered some spare parts for our fridge and we needed immigration to enter the EU. (more of both of those sagas later) The harbour was massive, several miles across and a solid forest of masts and lumps of expensive white plastic, there must have been more than 5000 yachts in there amongst the 9 marinas! We puttered around looking for somewhere to land the dinghy and finally found a ladder on the wall at one of the smaller marinas. Alan went ashore to make enquirires.

We had previously made email requests to a couple of the marinas about a berth for a night or two, but quotes of 200 Euros a night (!!) had rather put us off! This marina offered a berth for 49! Even though it was more than double  the rate we have ever paid before we decided it was probably worth it for a few nights. They let us leave the dinghy there while we stretched our legs ashore and found some lunch, then it was back ot Sunflower to restow the dinghy on deck and prepare to come into the marina, always a nerve racking experience and this time was no different! Again, more of that later... but for now we are snug in a marina and no rolling out of bed with the swell.

Let's Party.......

We had a 2hr motor sail over to the party island, Ibiza.

We spent a week in a beautiful anchorage on the south coast, called Cala d'Hort. There were stunning views of Isla Vedra a massive rocky outcrop, which doubled for a south pacific atoll in the film South pacific! We went ashore for the first time since we had left Gib about 2 weeks previously. The beach wasn't as nice close up as it looked from afar, more rocks, less sand. But that didn't seem to deter the hundreds of white,pink and red people lying in the hot sun! Mental! We heard lots of English and German as well as Spanish being spoken all around us. There were 3 restaurants, 2 on the beach and one on a rocky promontory which looked too hard to get to. So we picked one which was very full even at 2.45 pm. Paella featured strongly on the menu, with about 6 different types on offer. We had the 'Spanish' one which was chicken and shell fish and the type I like to make.

Topless sunbathing seems to be the norm here and in some cases bottomless as well, nobody seems very bothered. However we did get a bit of a surprise one day when we were busy reading in the cockpit and I heard lots of yelling nearby. I peeked out from under the sunshade and there was a young couple waving at us from the water, asking if they could rest on the back of our boat, having swum out from the beach. I said sure, expecting them to hang off the swim platform for a breather. Alan went back to chat to them and when I joined them a few minutes later was most surprised to see a gorgeous young couple standing on the swim platform as naked as the day they were born wearing only their jewellery and tattoos! They seemed completely at ease, and chatted on about coming over from Uruguay for a week of meditation and communing with nature. After about 10 minutes they were rested enough to dive back into the sea and head back to the beach leaving Alan with a big smile on his face:)

We are really enjoying being back on anchor, although during the day from about 1 pm onwards we have to share with many expensive power boats and charter yachts, who make poor Sunflower look a bit shabby to say the least as they are usually bright and shiny but probably haven't crossed many oceans! But then by about 7-8 pm they all head back to their marinas and we are left in peace until next day. It doesn't get dark here until after 10 pm so we are eating, going to bed and getting up much later than usual.

After a couple of weeks, fresh supplies were running low so we came around to the west side of the island to San Antonio, 1 of the 3 main towns on the island. It used to be a small fishing harbour but in the 60's underwent massive development to cater to the tourist boom. It is a big bay surrounded by hundreds of high rise and sprawling ugly square box  hotels as well as some of the huge clubs Ibiza is famous for. Little is left of the original village except for a church and a few narrow streets. We found several supermarkets and managed to resupply very well. We had dinner out at one of the many waterfront restaurants and bars. The people watching was amazing. Hordes of guys and girls wandering around in various states of undress sporting tattoos all over the place and with an average age of about 12! Well that was how it felt to us seeing as we were about 100 years older than anyone else there! The beaches there are pretty crappy, so there are loads of tour boats taking people to all the lovely bays like the one we had just left. In the evenings there are sunset cruises often with themes. So it wasn't unusual to see big rugby player types wandering around in tutus or sporting gold body paint and feathers, the girls were also into dressing up big time. The music kept us company on the anchor until the wee small hours. 2 days were enough so we are now at a lovely secluded bay on the north coast waiting for  a weather window to travel the 60 miles across to Mallorca the largest of the 4 islands in the group. We hope to leave on Sunday.

Arrived in Formentera

It was an interesting trip. We had a weather window of about 4 days when the wind was blowing from the west, this would have been right behind us for the whole trip of about 3 1/2 days. Unfortunately we were held up in the marina at Gibraltar for about a day and a half.

We finally left at midnight on Wednesday and had light to moderate winds behind us for a couple of days. Then it stopped! We then had to motor for about 18 hrs until we got a little more wind. We finally anchored on the west coast of Formentera, the smallest and least known of the Balearic Islands, and just south of Ibiza, on Sunday morning. Ibiza is the Spanish party island that all the young English flock to. Can't wait to get into those night clubs, one can take up to 10,000 guests!

Very nice clear water here, where you can see the sandy bottom four metres down. It's the first time we have had this since the Western Caribbean. (That's over a year ago!)Will go and inspect the hull and have a bit of a swim today, although the water is only 22 degrees, a bit chilly for the Admiral, although it doesn't seem to deter anybody else!

Hey I think we can leave....

They are saying that we can leave at 6:30pm.

Next stop,,,,,,hmmm until the wind stops.....
Bye

Arrrrrrh .... let me out of here.....

The marina entrance

It is now 3pm and we are still stuck in the marina.  The oil spill is from the tank explosion a few days ago. The wind was blowing from the east and blew the oil over to the Spanish side of the bay. The wind has turned around to blow from the west (just what we need to go east) and this has blown the oil back from Spain and onto Gibraltar, closing the marina!.  They keep on telling us that it should be open soon, all the port authority has to do is come around and remove the small amount of oil from the boom and we can leave. So far no action. 
We are not the only ones being affected, there are many others waiting to leave and some waiting to come in.

A small amount of oil is enough to hold us in Gibraltar!

The explosion and fire on the 31 st of May.

 The oil spill was caused when a fuel tank exploded in the port of Gibraltar,  near the Independence of the Seas, injuring 12 passengers.