We left Tunisia at the end of March thinking we were imminently embarking on summer in the Med. Well here we are in May and it still feels like winter. This is sometimes called the ‘shoulder season’ leading up to the summer high season; but we are calling it the ‘cold shoulder season!!!’.
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| The weather wasn't great! |
The length of the winter has surprised us and made us understand why many people don’t winter onboard in the Med but prefer to leave their boats and then return to them at the end of April. Hopefully this won’t be a problem next winter when we should be in the Caribbean.
Unsurprisingly places don’t look their best when it is cloudy, cold and pouring down and when the many outdoor bars and restaurants are closed or empty. This makes it makes it harder to judge whether we really like some places or whether they appear charmless because it’s just out of season. To make matters worse, the rain has brought loads of red Saharan dust with it which has turned to mud on everything.
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| We had just cleaned the windows.... |
Despite the apparently gloomy start to this blog, we have visited some exciting and beautiful places, which have shone though the challenging weather conditions and we have managed to capture some lovely footage on the few sunny days that we have experienced.
Our first stop after Monastir was Gozo then onto Malta. It was a windy crossing with big rolling seas and we were a bit sea sick after so long on land. We had to get out the thermals and our woolly hats but on a positive note we managed to sail downwind virtually all the way.
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| Arriving in Gozo - dressed for the weather |
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| Gozo wasn't busy.... |
Neither of us have ever been to Malta so we were excited by the architecture and the vibe in Valetta. The city has great energy and we managed some sightseeing despite the frequent torrential rain. There are some sites which have been used for the setting in Game of Thrones and you can even have your photo taken on a replica of the Iron Throne but we didn’t bother as it would have been a bit strange sitting there in sailing kit!
The cathedral is decorated in an embarrassment of riches; probably the most ornate place of worship we have seen so far on our travels and has some fabulous original art work from Caravaggio
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| The interior of the cathedral in Valletta |
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| Caravaggio's depiction of "The beheading of John the Baptist" |
We didn’t see much of the rest of Malta because of the weather but would love to return to see more. Greg was very taken with the huge range of little pies sold in the numerous pie shops and because it was cold, it seemed like pie rather than salad weather. Rabbit was my favourite,... mushy pea pie had to go overboard for the fish though!
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| The view from Valletta |
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| Valletta harbour |
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| Pie heaven! |
From Malta we did our longest continuous crossing so far,.....which was three days and two nights non-stop, ending in Zakinthos. The weather was awful! We lived on soup and hot chocolate but thankfully had overcome the worst of our nausea as we got used to the motion again. It was windy and bucketing down as we moored up. We ventured out in the cold to our favourite restaurant Prosilio in Zakinthos but it was closed! However, we found an alternative called Yard of Taste that had opened for the season on that very day and the chef was obviously on top form aiming to please. Their squid was wonderful and Greg gave it a 5 star rating on Trip Advisor.
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| The squid was excellent! |
Zakinthos was really just a landing spot on our way over to the Peloponnese as we had been there before and we had planned on making our way down the coast and into the Aegean. We stopped at Kypirissia and we were adopted by a dog that led us up into the mountains to the old town and the ruins of the castle. She then waited for us outside a lovely restaurant called Palia Agora and escorted us back down to the marina. We were convinced we had made a friend for life but Greg was heartbroken the next day when he spotted her with some other tourists in tow and she didn’t even acknowledge him!
Unfortunately, we had some problems with the generator and had to miss out some places in order to pull into Kalamata, so we have been slowed down for repairs. Over the last month we have spent most of our time in Kalamata apart from a wonderful few days down in Kythira with Petros and Clive for Greek Easter.
Greg got a posh drone for his 60th birthday – the Mavic 2. He has been practicing with it and we hope to be able to include some more footage on our blog as he gets more confident.
Kythira was a gem that continued to delight. We had never heard of Kythira before we met Petros last year in Galaxhidi but he had shown us some photos and invited us to visit so we decided to take him up on it. What a fabulous few days we had. We were taken to friends of Petros and Clive for their Greek Easter lunch with a lamb and suckling pig on the spit.
We ate under the olive trees and met really lovely people. It was just magical.
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| Anchored off Agio Pelagia in Kythira |
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| Easter celebrations on Kythira |
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| Sunset at Clive and Petros' new home |
Petros and Clive then also showed us around the island. Having welcomed us into their lovely home, we visited some of the fascinating building projects that Petros is project managing, all with stunning sea views and we saw the ruin that Petros and Clive are renovating for themselves with amazing views at sunset.
We really enjoyed the abandoned medieval village which was spectacular
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| The castle at Kapsali |
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| The remains of the old medieval village in Kythira |
And we went to the south of the island to Kapsali where we had dinner with Petros, Clive and their lovely friends Basille and Isobele Slumberger.
We will definitely be returning to Kythira.
