January - June 2007

As our website was not updated for a long time, it is really high time to do so. We have decided to continue our cruising story via our blog here. This has shown to be an easier way of updating instead of doing it via the website program which I forget how to use from time to time.

The winter was a time full of work on the boat. We installed Air condition, Central Heating (waterborne), an extra autopilot was installed and the original was finally installed as it should have been from the beginning. When we left Belgium in the autumn 2005, only the standby electric autopilot was installed, but it was too weak to steer when sailing in stronger winds. For motoring it was perfectly OK. Then main autopilot is now a hydraulic ST 7000 and it has served us well since the spring 2007.

The Central Heating, many are asking us, is that necessary when you only will be sailing in temperate climates? Well, even in temperate climates, you have cold spells as we experienced in Malta last winter 2006-2007 and especially this winter 2007-2008. The unit providing the heat is a Webasto 90S diesel heater, that heats the water circuit and as well our hot water tank (boiler). The latter can also be heated via 230V AC.

We did not sail very much the winter 06-07, mostly day trips around the islands of Malta, Comino and Gozo. The 06-07 winter was the mildest and driest in 30 years on Malta and of course we were enjoying every bit of it. Many say that sailing in the Mediterranean cannot be done in the winter, we learned otherwise. We met many vessels that kept sailing the whole year and it was all sizes of boats, from 26 feet and up. So the following winter 07-08 we decided to keep on sailing to see as much as possible of the "Med" before leaving early in 2008. It was not to be like that.

When we asked for a price to lift the boat and keep it on land for a week to do the antifauling, the yard had me drop my jaw. They wanted a fantasy price for our boat, so we decided to sail to Tunisia and give it a chance there.

Earlier on in Nov 06 we met another couple, who have now become our friends, and they were heading for Monastir in Tunisia for the winter. We kept in contact with them and it was decided to try the job we had to do in Monastir. The yard in Monastir marina was not recommended to us, but one of the four yards in the Fishing Harbour (Port de Peche) 2 NM south of Monastir was highly recommended. They did a job that was top notch and we saw other jobs they had done to other yachts, like new teak deck etc, all very well done.








It was then decided that next winter (2007-2008) Abdel Hizem and Son (the yard) were to do our last interior job, the ceiling.

So in early May (07) we headed back for Malta to say good bye to all our winter friends. We bunkerd up for the summer with things like wine, that we knew was not easy to get in Greece or Turkey. Originally we were to start in the Ionian Sea and the Greek Ionian archipelago. However, due to a problem with our Gel-battery user supply bank, we could only get new batteries in Athens Greece. OK, we will visit the Ionian later during the year, we said and sailed non-stop Malta - Athens. The photos below are from the passage from Malta to Athens and also Micke och Monica (our swedish friends in Malta) for a last dinner before we left Malta










In Athens we got our new warranty batteries and we bought another four, which increased our "consumer battery bank" to 640 Amp/Hours 24 volt DC. This was a good move, as we did not need to charge the batteries more than once a day, even when we used our 230 Volt AC inverter quite heavy every day.

From Athens we sailed south to Aegina where we stayed for a week to meet up with our friends Staffan and Gunilla joining us in their boat. We continued down to Poros where we anchored in a nice little bay 3 NM from the town.This bay was full of life, abundant species of fish, birds and of course the goats on the slopes behind. We always mention the goats, they belonged to a farm on top of the hills and they were so funny to watch as the gathered every evning for their extra fodder in the form of pellets. Every goat, of the total of about 60, was a strong individual. It was a study of the social life of the Poros goats. Below are photos from Aegina just south of Athens, our friends who have a sailing school in the area, Staffan and Gunilla joined us in Aegina. More photos from The bay where we anchored so often and also pics from Poros
















From Poros We continued to Kitnos in the northern Cyclades. Next stop was in Serifos, where we were not being able to move for 3 days, due to winds up to 53 knots in the bay where we anchored. We were lucky that our anchor held, there were quite few boats that were dragging and could have ended up in dangerous situations. From Serifos we sailed to Paros (next to Naxos). The northern bay on this island was a wonderful place to be at anchor, well protected from the Meltemi (the strong winds from the north in the summer months). A note: In all the places we visited during the summer, we were at anchor, except in 3 destinations. Our anchor chain is 10 mm galvanized and we have 80 metres of that plus another 50 metres of braided 1 inch nylon line in our anchor box. Our mai anchor is a CQR 40 Kg, the second anchor in the bow is 25 Kg also CQR and in the stern we have a Bruce 20 Kg.

In Greece and Turkey you need long chains to anchor safe in the fairly deep bays. We try to be at a ratio of 5 times the depth. Many places were around 15 to 20 metres, where one needs 75 to a 100 metres of chain.

Below are photos from, Serifos, Paros (2), Amorgos , Nisoros, Simi and Datça where we "checked in" in Turkey.














Two couples of Kingfishers nested behind us somewhere on the slopes, the were magnificient to watch, such beautiful "metallic" blue and green colours. a few photos from the goats and also a few pics from Poros








The little islet where you seee the local ferry (photo above) is a popular place with it's small chapel to get wed in the summer months. Below you see the guests disembark the ferry for the ceremony.

The couple on this First 26 was Annick and Bernard sailed every winter in the Med since 6 years. In the summer they went back to their house in Bretagne. But for 9 months of the year they lived onboard this 26 foot boat and had a grand time together. We met them in Malta in January 2007.

From Paros we sailed down between the latter and Naxos down to Amorgos. Amorgos is the island where the film "The deep blue" was made. We anchored in a little lovely bay on the south west corner of the island. Here we met our first French boats with "liveaboards". The first night in the bay we were invited to one of the French boats to eat and drink wine. They had fresh squid and fish and of course cheese and wine. The night was warm and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

The next day we continued to Astipalaya, where we stayed one night. We continued to Nisyros, which is a pearl in that archipelago. It is difficult to enter the harbour in the summer months due to the strong northerly winds, but we were early in the season and could enjoy this wonderful for two days. We said, between us, that we had to come back and stay for a week. This island is, in our eyes, the most wonderful typical Greek island in that part of the Mediterranean. We highly recommend a visit on Nisyros, it is unspoiled and origin.

The next leg was Nisyros to Simy. We were unlucky to arrive when it was blowing a strong south-westerly along the harbour. We had no chance to reverse to the quay in that crosswind. In most of the Mediterranean you moor stern to the quay and pick up lines, that are fixed to a chain or concreete weight positioned 20 metres or so out from the quay. These lines you make fast in the bow cleets.

We had to get out of the harbour and continue to Datça in Turkey, one hours sail from Simy. In Datça we stayed two days for the "check in" and to take it easy for a while. We now had a schedule to meet some old friends who we met in Bahrain many years before. The place was Fetiye, one and a half days sailing from Datça. The first day's sail from Datça took us to a little wonderful bay on the soutwest tip of the peninsula (Karaburun) that almost touches Simy. The first photo below is from that bay.

After one night in Karaburun we sailed direct to Fetiye to meet our old friends Björn and Tetta Svanholm.