Well last time we updated the blog we had been on a bit of a trek from Greece to Croatia and back via Montenegro. We had next planned to go through the Corinth canal into the Aegean and then to race down to the Canaries in Autumn ready to cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean. We also had several trips back to the UK to sort out including Greg’s duties as best man for Phil Kay and Phil and Jules’ wedding itself.
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| Greg and Phil before the ceremony |
So,....we gave ourselves a good talking to and both agreed that it was time to calm down, slow down and take a reality check. In the meantime, Miranda came to visit and we met up with the lovely Quist family in Corfu.
So, for those of you who are still thinking you might like to come sailing with us in the Med, we are going to be in the Aegean next summer and then going across to the Caribbean.
For any of you who might like to cross the Atlantic with us in December 2019, we will be looking for crew well in advance. So, please do get in touch now to discuss what would be involved.
If you are thinking a Caribbean cruise might be nice – 2020 will be when we are there, following the race calendar to visit the islands and join in the fun when they are having their regattas.
As we are travelling we always have half an eye on the property market in the places we really love, with a view to thinking once we are sailed out or too decrepit …..where would we most like to live? So far, our top three places are Valencia, Elvissa and Corfu in that order – always assuming the UK isn’t likely to have hot summers for ever more.
We have loved Greece and the Ionian islands so far. They are very beautiful and for sailing there are a lot of islands with easy hop journeys from one anchorage to another. Most of all it has given us a chance to draw breath from our excessive spending of the previous twelve months because its virtually free to moor up alongside on the quay and absolutely free and easy to anchor.
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| Kioni |
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| Vathi |
We are however tiring of the cuisine – its fine if you are here for two weeks but beyond that there are only so many Greek salads and souvlaki that you can eat and most of the fish is frozen and imported – these are not rich fishing grounds. It was great to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary in Kionio and we have also been seeking out the very occasional restaurant that dares to be different. Salto in Corfu, Thymari in Lefkas and then with Mags and Steve Dewsnap in restaurant No Menu in Nydri where there is no menu, but you say how much you want to spend and they bring what they think you will like.
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| Not souvlaki!..... |
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| Not Greek salad!...... |
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| Steve and Mags at NoMenu |
Having said there is a lack of fish, we have seen an endangered Monk seal off Ithika and our son Ed arrived today and within half an hour we were visited by an amazing sea turtle whilst on anchorage in Argostoli on Kefalonia. Check out this video of the beautiful turtle.
Over the past few weeks we have continued to have endless minor maintenance issues, the details of which we won’t bore you with and Greg has been getting down and dirty trying to fix things with some coaching from Steve Dewsnap who is sailing with his wife Mags on their Moody 42 - Silver Fox, and Kevin Armstrong who was very patient and helpful on the last day of his sailing holiday. I am pleased to report that after this tuition Greg has cracked fixing the water pump!!!! 😊
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| Greg trying to mend the pump....... |
Other important news is that Greg has very reluctantly sold his paramotor. Sadly, its just too difficult to find safe and suitable places to take off and land so I tried to sympathise whilst secretly feeling pleased that we were releasing a bit of storage space.
People ask us if we have arguments given that we are together 24/7/365. The answer is of course we do but I have to say that the most arguments we have are about what we are storing on the boat and what is taking up too much space. So, I have moaned endlessly about the paramotor and Greg moans endlessly about the bags of bedding that I keep just in case it gets cold and for when we have visitors. My recent solution has been to buy bags that you can vacuum suction to remove the air and reduce their size by 80% - Ed has just brought them with him so I will let you know if I am out of the dog house in the next blog. Greg definitely isn’t……...he’s bought an inflatable paddle board which I naively assumed would be deflated when not in use. Annoyingly, even deflated it’s still about the size of the paramotor and quite often it gets put down below and isn’t deflated…its bloody enormous.
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