Winter is coming.......

Being relatively new to liveaboard sailing, we hadn’t really understood the dynamics of the winter months when we set out in 2017.  Last year we kept travelling throughout the winter, although we holed up three or four times for a few weeks in Gibraltar, Fuengirola and Cartagena when the weather was too bad to move, and then intentionally for a month in Valencia for the Las Fallas festival. However as we have met other sailors living aboard, we have realised that there are three different approaches to wintering in the Med;

1. People who keep their boats in the Med but lift their boats out of the water over the winter months.... Usually from Sept/Oct to March/April when they go home for the winter.  There are frequent conversations about the best and least expensive places for a haul out and general debate about waiting lists and the importance of booking your lift out early.  

2. People who stay on board on the water but stop in one marina for up to 6/7 months - Some marinas offer a very low winter rate to stay for several months and as a result there are many people taking up this offer, thereby creating what are known as liveaboard communities.  Again, throughout the summer, numerous conversations take place comparing notes about the best places to spend the winter based on a) cheapest marina rates; b) safety, shelter and quality of marina; c) range and quality of marina on shore facilities; d) interesting town and access to supermarkets; e) sense of community engendered by many like-minded individuals with time on their hands to organise events.

3. Those like us, who stop for shorter periods and continue to move when the weather permits. This approach means you pay more than the 6/7 month discounted rate (although you do get lower winter rates) and you never really fully belong to any established liveaboard community. However, the advantage is that you are less likely to get bored by being holed up for so long in one place.  So far though, we seem to be in a very small minority - in fact we haven’t actually yet met anyone else doing this!!

This year we decided to check out a few places with a view to considering staying put a bit longer for this winter.  We discounted staying in Greece because by mid-October we had been in Greece for almost 5 months and we couldn’t face a winter of eating more souvlaki. So, over the last few weeks we have checked out Marina di Ragusa and Licata in Sicily and Monastir in Tunisia which is where we are at the moment. 

The weather forecast for our trip is not very favourable!

We enjoyed Sicily much more on this visit than when we stopped there on our way over to Greece in May, finding more interesting places on the east and south coasts.  After a sub-optimal overnight trip from Crotone on the boot of Italy to Sicily, trying to outrun the storms which devastated much of Italy this October, we arrived exhausted in Catania which is nestled under the constantly simmering Mount Etna.

The weather en route to Catania

Approaching Mount Etna

Catania was a big surprise.  A brooding city made largely of volcanic basalt and granite, it is defiantly impressive with some stunning buildings albeit many of them decorated with graffiti.  

The theatre in Catania

The cathedral in Catania

Sadly, the graffiti was everywhere.....

The pilot book says the residents don’t worry about caring for their city as it may be destroyed at any time! Whatever the psyche we enjoyed the bars and restaurants if not the usual aggressive and impatient driving.  

The castle in Catania

A very old church in Catania

We were planning to go up the Mount Etna on the cable-car, but the weather continued to be foul and poor visibility as well as high winds made us decide against it and instead visited the gallery of modern art which was brilliant.

We then arrived in Syracuse in pouring rain which continued for several days, fuelling floods and landslides in Sicily as well as on the Italian mainland. Despite the awful weather, we found Syracuse a delight.  It’s a beautiful city with interesting shops, restaurants and bars as well as a very unusual cathedral and generally stunning architecture. 

The amphitheatre in Syracuse

Just us moored alongside the Town Quay in Syracuse

The very modern cathedral in Syracuse

We enjoyed the Archimedes and Leonardo da Vinci exhibition – what stunningly clever human beings they were! 

 Leonardo was ahead of his time understanding human anatomy

A model of one of Leonardo's inventions

Well worth a visit although we imagine it will be absolutely packed in the summer.  Amazingly we spotted no litter or graffiti here, the streets were beautifully lit and most included exceptional planting in pots and on balconies; this was a town like Taormina – clear about what draws tourists with money to spend. 

The cathedral in Syracuse

Dionysius' ear 

A procession through the streets- no idea what it was about!

Our next stop was Ragusa but we ended up breaking the journey and stopping off in Porto Palo overnight.  That was a bit of a mistake.  We were the only yacht there and we moored alongside the quay having been warmly beckoned in by some fishermen.  

Just us the trippers again ....just arrived alongside in Porto Palo

All was well for about 10 minutes and then the stream of voyeurs began.  It seemed a message had been relayed and the whole town drove out to stare at us.  It was a strange experience, reminiscent of appearing in the Wicker Man. We assumed it would stop once it got dark….but no….. it continued all night with the same cars driving up, slowing down, turning slowly round and driving off only to come back again a few minutes later.  We were definitely under surveillance but not in a good way.  We decided perhaps they were waiting for us to go to bed before boarding us, so as you can imagine, we didn’t feel comfortable going to sleep.

The locals cruising the dock to examine us......

The next morning there was a sharp rap on the hull and we discovered the police had come out to see us.  We were told that we had stayed in a very unsafe place – frequented by thieves and that for our safety we should move onto anchor or go to another port with a marina.  We had guessed that was the case at about 0100 and wondered why the police hadn’t warned us earlier – everyone else in town knew we were there!  Needless to say Porto Palo has been crossed off our list of recommended places to visit. 

Marina de Ragusa was a great relief after Porto Palo.  Clean, efficient, well organised and with loads of facilities.  Excellent bars and restaurants around the marina, good supermarkets and a pretty town which was not entirely closed down like many holiday resorts.  We discovered tons of novels to swap on the bookshelves in the laundry which always excites me and is typical of a big liveaboard community.   Everyone is really friendly and we bumped into Ray and Cath on Cady who we first encountered on anchor in Torreviejo in Spain last year.  

The beach front at Marina di Ragusa

A drink on the terrace with Cath and Ray

We went on the bus to the inland town of Ragusa and the old town Ragusa Ibla which was absolutely stunning.  The sun was shining again and it was very tempting to just stay for the rest of the winter because the cost for us to stay was only €660 per month.

Ragusa Ibla clings to the side of the hill....

The cathedral in Ragusa Isla

There were wonderful gargoyles underneath the balconies

The gardens in Ragusa Isla

We then decided to hire a car, to explore further inland and to look at Licata, another marina with a strong liveaboard community and a reputation as a good place to winter.  The drive there was horrendous, Italian drivers are a very unpleasant combination of impatient and aggressive - which means sharing the roads with them is not very enjoyable. We were very disappointed with the town of Licata and the marina seemed tired and run down.  In its favour it did have Lidl and another big supermarket but that wasn’t nearly enough to persuade us to spend much time there. We crossed it off the list.

We had been talking about checking out Tunisia but hadn’t found anyone else who was planning to go there - after the recent suicide bomb in Tunis, many of our friends were counselling us against it.  We negotiated a safety net with Marina de Ragusa, that if we didn’t like Tunisia we could come back and they would knock our mooring fees to date off our monthly tariff.  We were confident there would not be a space problem if we returned; despite being warned that you need to book early we haven’t come across anywhere that didn’t have space for us.

So, we did another overnighter taking 33 hours straight to Monastir.  It turned out to be another horrid sail with a forecast that seemed benign but turned out to include gale force winds and thunder and lightning overnight and into the next day. In the end we just stayed down below with the radar on and rolled with the punches! 

No-one answered the VHF despite several attempts as we approached Monastir and we wondered what to expect, so it was a great relief to be met in a dinghy by the most wonderful port captain Macram and his deputy.  We have been treated like royalty, nothing is too much trouble.  Within an hour we were moored up, we had checked in with the Port Police and with Customs and been taken to the sailmaker to get our obligatory Tunisian courtesy flag. We were then shown the very clean showers and toilets and invited to a residents' barbecue. 

Monastir Marina

The beach front at Monastir

There are no fitted lazy lines so you have to get your own brand new mooring lines (no slime lines!) and Macram personally dives down and attaches you to the concrete blocks! 

Our lines have just been successfully attached by Makram.

The cost of mooring here is the equivalent of €200 per month.  So, we have booked for 3 months and today we joined the gym, went to the market and cycled to the fishing port to check out the lift out and antifoul costs.  It’s actually hard to believe these prices.  Eating out, food, wine etc is unbelievably inexpensive.  The best wine is about £4 and its delicious. We’ve already met some very nice people although most are French so we are dusting off our ‘O’ level French and making an effort! 

The Ribat in Monastir

Bourguiba mausoleum

Which piece of tuna?? Less than £3 per kilo!  We asked for half a kilo but were given a kilo as a half was clearly not worthy....

The spices in the market are fabulous and no plastic packaging in sight.

Best of all, this is a new country and culture to explore, with different and delicious cuisine and very friendly people.

We will be in the UK over Christmas and New Year visiting friends and family so we hope we will see and catch up with many of you then before we return to our adventures.  

Antiquities, gulfs, politics and poltergeists

Over the last month we have continued to explore the Ionian islands and have ventured into the Gulf of Amvrakia and the Gulf of Patros, both of which have yielded some interesting and unexpected experiences and contributed to our neglected cultural education.  

We crossed from Port Zakinthos on Zante to Katakolon on the mainland, the nearest point to moor up if you want to visit Olympia, the origins of the Olympic games.   From there you need a taxi, hire car or pubic transport. There is a little train, but it only runs once a day at 08:30 unless there is a cruise ship scheduled.  By the time we realised this…. yes you’ve guessed…. is was well after 08:30 and it was a not a cruise ship day… so the bus it was, breaking our journey at Pirgos famous only for its unprepossessing bus station! 

Being a no-cruise ship day however has some significant advantages; we had Olympia virtually to ourselves and really enjoyed wondering around undisturbed and soaking up the atmosphere!

Statue of Zeus in the Olympia Museum

The Temple of Zeus at Olympia

The entrance to the Olympic Stadium 

The Olympic Arch

They say you have to kiss a few frogs before you get to true beauty and we certainly kissed a frog in Killini where we stopped overnight on our journey into the beautiful Gulf of Patros.  What a dump, don’t go there if you can avoid it!

This summed up Killini....

We hadn’t really heard much about the Gulf of Patros apart from we knew of the Corinth canal at the southern end of it where you have to pay a King’s ransom to go through into the Aegean Sea. This year we were exploring the northern and central area, first crossing under the Rion bridge which at 2,880 metres long is the longest fully suspended bridge in the world. You have to radio ahead on the VHF when you are 5 miles away to get permission to sail under it and again when you are 1 mile away when they tell you which arch to go through.

Rion Bridge

After the bridge we headed for Nafpraxtos.  It is an old walled Venetian harbour and the pilot book said it was a pretty but very small - only suitable for boats under 12metres.  It turned out to be one of the loveliest places we have visited. It is very small – there is only room for about 6 yachts and on the first night we had to moor outside but managed to get inside the next morning,... swooping as another yacht left!  We then climbed up to the castle which was a good walk.

Outside the gates of Nafpraxtos Castle

Inside Nafpraxtos Castle

It was so lovely we were delighted to stay an extra night when we were joined by our friend Simon Thomas sailing with his friend Rog on Rog’s catamaran Polo.   It's a magical place especially in the evening when the lights come on.

Nafpraxtos at night

Moored in the Venetian Harbour at Nafpraxtos

Viridian waiting outside Nafpraxtos

Since the harbour was so small it was very difficult not to foul another boats anchor when mooring, as our neighbours discovered to their cost when they tried to leave.....

From Nafpraxtos we sailed further south to another gorgeous place called Galixidi.  The town reminded us of an old French town with faded paintwork and shutters in tasteful subtle hues and all of the shops untouched by time with regard to their internal fittings. We were joined by Rog’s Greek friend Petros in Galaxidi where we had dinner on the quay side and then the next day we shared a hire car on which Petros managed to negotiate a good price so we could all travel to Delphi. 

Moored up in Galaxidi

We absolutely loved Delphi although it was much busier than Olympus. It was certainly worth the trip and amazing that so much still survives.  I don’t think we had fully appreciated how much this area has been devastated by earthquakes over the centuries though. So many places have had to be rebuilt and so much history destroyed.  

The treasury at Delphi

Views over the Temple of Diana

The running track at Delphi 

One of the amazingly well-preserved exhibits in the museum at Delphi

We next headed north stopping off at Messalonghi to anchor overnight which is a safe stopover and where Lord Byron died.

Fishermen's huts on stilts near Messalonghi

We then entered the Gulf of Amvrakia which feels like an inland sea. We anchored in a lovely quiet spot off Vonitsa on the first night and then moved onto the Vonitsa town quay for a second night and climbed up to the castle.

Viridian anchored off Vonitsa...

We met some people who told us they had been there a month but hadn’t managed to get to the castle yet.  We can't imagine what they had been doing for a month because there is not a lot to do in Vonitsa except visit the castle and that isn’t very exciting – not a sign or information board in sight throughout the visit!

The view from Vonitsa Castle

At the top of the castle

Vonitsa Castle from the sea

Now on a roll in the antiquities department, we stopped off at Preveza and then cycled 20kms to the ancient remains of the Roman Citadel of Nikopolis   Once again we were virtually the only people visiting.  We felt a bit sorry for the chap in the ticket hut as it was clearly a very slow day, he had obviously abandoned all pretence of working as he couldn’t even be bothered to charge us and carried on playing candy crush! 

The amphitheatre at Nikopolis 

Inside Nikopolis

Now feeling sated with ruins and the dead, we were in need of spending a bit more time with the living, so we headed to Meganissi, Lefkas and then Paxos – our favourite island where we met Maggie and Richard again in lovely Port Gaios and amazingly we coincided with Katja Quist (on her second holiday to Greece in 6 weeks!) when we met her lovely friend Tash and family Nick and Nikki in beautiful Lakka. It’s amazing how many people you meet and the new friends you can make following this lifestyle; most people we meet are friendly, interesting and interested.

Port Gaios

At anchor off Port Gaios

Lakka

So, we are now back on Corfu. The weather is changing, it’s a bit cooler and pretty windy.  Some parts of Greece and the southern Med have got huge storms ....we believe the term Medicane has been invented!  We have therefore holed up for a few days until our next guests arrive and decided to do some forays without the boat.  

Firstly, we hired a car and drove around Corfu for a day.  It’s a beautiful island.  We spent several hours following high altitude hairpin bends and cart tracks in search of an elusive restaurant that Greg had read about in the mountain town of Old Peritha.  Sadly, we became far too ‘hangry’ before we found it and realised we had been following signs for Perithia which when reading Greek words looked very similar but unfortunately isn’t the same place at all!!!  We finally ate in Cassiopi on the north coast which is always nice if not as special as was hoped for. 

Whilst driving around we were able to see the reality of some of the local political news we have been reading about.  Apparently, the rubbish tip in Corfu is full and the site of the second tip has been banned by the EU, so there is nowhere to put the rubbish.  The Corfu council is trying to ignore the EU and take the rubbish to tip 2 but now there are protesters trying to stop it and police in riot gear keeping the peace.  We were diverted round them near Lefkimi.  The rubbish issue is now becoming critical and seems to be at stalemate.

The rubbish is piling up!!!

The next day we took the ferry to Albania and visited Saranda.  We had learned the value of doing a recce when we checked out Tangier by ferry and found the marina was closed.  When we got to Saranda we discovered that there is nowhere to moor for a yacht of our size so the only option would be anchoring off the beach.  Having spent the day in Saranda though, we were a bit underwhelmed.

I think we expected it to be more exotic or culturally different but it felt a bit like a Greek version of Marbella.  Lots of people cleaning the beachfront area, numerous high end designer shops presumably catering for cruise ship clientele, wall to wall apartments and hotels all a bit high rise which reminded us more of Spain than Greece.  We probably should have taken the tourist tour to the ancient sites…maybe next time.

Saranda is not a pretty town.....

The beachfront at Saranda

Not known for our language acquisition skills apart from how to order beer and wine I found that I quickly learned and have not yet forgotten the word for ‘For Sale’ in Albanian.

Finally we think we may have a boat poltergeist.  We have ‘mislaid’ quite a few things but these are the creepiest.  If you can explain away these oddities we would like to hear from you…..

1. The wheel and instrument console cover for the boat has disappeared.  Its huge. We’ve ransacked the boat several times in search of it.  

2. I got two matching mooring lines out of the locker as we came to moor alongside in Ormos Nikolaos on Zante.  I took the bow line and attached it, leaving the stern line on the deck.  Went to collect the stern line to attach that and the line had gone.  We have never seen it since.  No, it’s not still in the locker.  Yes, we definitely had it on board. No, it wasn’t in rough seas, it was flat calm.  It was creepy!

The disappearing rope.....

3. This hat just appeared in the cockpit when we were on anchor off Gaios.  It definitely doesn’t belong to us.  Nothing was disturbed on the boat or stolen.  

The appearing cap........

Answers on a postcard…….

Our next blog will entail tales of our trek down to Tunisia for the colder months which we are very excited about.