We set of early for Nisos Elafonisos 65 miles away. We were bargaining on taking 14 hours so we should get there before dark. There was an option if we needed to to just go as far as Porto Kaio just around Cape Matapan.

But our destination was a small bay called Frangos. Our route took us past the 2nd Cape, Tainarnon (or Matapan). This was the fabled entrance to the underworld, Hades, and despite my Sister in law’s post on Facebook , no you can’t buy pants there.

We arrived at 20:15 and dropped anchor just enough time for an evening dip and shower.

  

Cape Matapan

 

Approaching  Nisos Elafonisos  & Frango Bay at Sunset

The next day we woke to a Carribean vista and decided to stay another night. We did move further in as the wind was getting up. It was a rolly old night with white horses creeping round the corner of the bay but the scenery made up for it.

    

Morning swim

Having redone the laundry and used the spin drier this time, we set off to explore Kalamataville.

From a wintering perspective the Marina & staff are great. We just aren’t sure of the weather. We think it can be very wet and this is borne out by everyone we have talked to.

The town itself is large enough to have plenty to see and you are also well placed for the airport, but this closes in November so after that if we needed to get home it’s via Athens.

 

Main shopping area

There is a park with all sorts of old steam and diesel engines ,a trainspotters heaven (I think?)

T2

We climbed all the way up to the old castle and ,as usual for us, it was closed.

  

It’s the usual Greek mixture of run down bits and really pretty buildings

There was another Scots boat in, a Moody 34, Vaila owned by Petra & Andy and we were invited round for a pre dinner drink.

We ate out in the local restaurant a couple of nights, the 1st night it was fantastic, the next he forgot our order ,lol. OK peeps, this is Greece and he was Manuel’s double in looks and mannerisms.

So in essence we are unsure of winter as yet, it may well be back to Sicily?

On Sunday Louise took the opportunity to do the full laundry in the Marina washing machine.

She then hung it out all over the boat after much “ discussion” as to whether this was a good idea. For the past 4 days travelling up the gulf there had been clouds over the mountains above Kalamata.

Off we went for a walk along the front ……………….

    

Yep, well at least I got an unscheduled beer stop

Next stop was Methoni to anchor overnight. We had been here years ago when we had been on a Neilson Surf, Sail & Cycle holiday to Finnakounda. It feels strange to be back here on our own boat.

Approaching Methoni

 

At anchor Methoni

As Kalamata, was one of our possible wintering destinations we decided to take a detour up past Ak Akritas, the 1^st of the 3 Peloponnese capes you need to round to get into the Aegean Sea. As it turns out our wintering opportunities in Greece may be limited as Aghios Nicolas in Crete is full and already taking bookings for 2019-19, crazy!

We anchored off Petalidhion for two nights about 9 miles across the head of Kolpos Messinia from Kalamata. Our Rocna anchor had to do its stuff again on the 2nd night as we slewed from side to side to be brought up short on the chain. We still had plenty of water and the solar panels were keeping up with our charging requirements. Louise had added up 12 chargeable items (Phones, Kindles, Laptop, Fitbit, iPads, iPods …..) Incredible, wonder what Magellan did?

Swimming and a shower off the back of the boat is good but doesn’t match a proper shower in a Marina and a walk ashore for a beer. On the Saturday morning we set off for the short sail to Kalamata Marina.

  

Kalamata Marina (Proper one this time – you have to pay , bah)

 

1st night at Marina Bar to search out liveboard but only waitress was available for info

Our French pal Nicolas had been in touch and had invited us for “Hot Chicken” on his boat that night at Pylos. The day was 60:40 sailing & motoring for the 5 hours to Pylos. Nicolas had sorted a space alongside for us and came aboard for a lunchtime aperitif. Starting early today N’est pas?

We were then treated to a fabulous meal on his boat with bespoke china plates. Louise was well impressed with his culinary & entertainment skills. He had brought his family’s duck pate and a couple of bottles of good French wine. The chicken dish was hot and had a Moroccan flavour served with couscous. This was followed by cherries soaked in Grappa, again from his home in France.

Louise now has the recipe and has successfully (almost) replicated one of the best meals we have had.

Even Mau the cat was impressed, not!

We stayed 3 nights in Pylos

Ouzos with Gerry Adams

and had to have our customary visits to the Gyros restaurant, once with Nicolas and then again ourselves. Louise is complaining about her waistband expanding. Mine seems fine , though a trip to Specsavers is overdue.

Just like friday night in Partick after the Snaffle Bit

Pylos “ Marina”

The town and harbour quay in the distance

Captain Chaos here, the next few blogs:

We left the unfinished marina at Zakynthos (There are loads of them around Greece. They get development grants from the EU, partially complete the infrastructure and then move all the wee local fishing boats into berths that would take a 40 footer. No further development seems to take place, lol. Upside is you usually don’t pay, sometimes water available, sometimes not, cigar, cigar as they say here) early doors intending to head direct to Pylos on the Peloponnese, missing out Katacolon and Kipirissia where we had gone last year. Pylos was 73 or so miles away.

 

The Marina at Zakynthos and my view of it from the corner cafe , note the gas tank for a table

We were managing to sail but not fast enough, at that point, to make Pylos feasible and we wanted to be in relaxed sailing mode so we changed our destination to Kipirissia, which I really like. The wind picked up nicely NW 17 kts and we had a nice downwind sail the remaining 46 miles. We arrived at 17:00 and were helped to tie up alongside by some helpful Germans. Wine o clock

Kipirissia

In theory this section of the blog should be relatively short; the crossing from Syracuse to Zakinthos is just under three hundred miles and should take two days. However, for one reason and another it became quite protracted.

Susan arrived with us for a week to do the crossing, much easier with three people. We planned on having one or two days for her to see Syracuse and then leave. We did a bit of sightseeing, eating, drinking and generally taking it easy.

Sunset at Lakkios, Syracuse

 

Nicalos, Jim & Susan

Well I say easy but there’s no such thing a a free ride on Camira. The fenders needed cleaning so the crew were put to work, well; at least I think she’s cleaning them? and then me.

 

Anyway, the day comes for us to leave so it’s all go. I went for my morning run and came back to help get the boat ready for the off only to be told by Susan that Gordon had gone to the dentist. He’d been having trouble for a while and had now flared up. He thought he’d prefer an Italian dentist to a Greek one.

Susan and I were sitting there, sail cover off, instruments on, ready to slip the lines on his return. Ha! He informs us that after five injections and a fair amount of pain he has to go back on the Thursday. Instruments off, sail cover back on. He needed root treatment which in the end couldn’t be done easily or quickly so the tooth was to be extracted but it broke when being pulled and had to be drilled out and his gum stitched. The long and the short of it was that poor Susan had come out to go to Greece and ended up spending the whole ten days in Sicily.

I think she still enjoyed it though. We hired a car, which Susan had to drive as Gordon and I can’t see too well in the dark, we found this out on an earlier car hire escapade. Anyway, we didn’t weary, had a few evenings out with friends Jim and Jean who incidentally come from where Susan comes from and they know some of the same people. We went for pizza with our friend Nicolas from France and obviously did the aperitif bit on each of the boats most evenings. We did manage a day sail round to Grand Harbour but any further sailing we planned was put paid to by the weather, but that’s how it goes with boats.

 

The woman means business

 

Sailing around the Grand Harbour

   

Marzamemi

   

Fontaine Bianchi – brave woman went for swim

   

Noto

  

Madaonna di La Crime

 

 

Parc Paulo Orsini and very old anchors

 

“Space 1994” as Gordon calls it

One of our outings with Susan was lunch in Del Forrestier, a wee restaurant in a completely non tourist part of Syracuse. Gordon and I had eaten here many times without incident. You could see it from the balcony of the appartment we stayed in in the winter.

Our billet for the winter

We went in, sat down and next thing this man from the next table tips his cap at Susan and I, we exchange smiles and greetings etc, then he wants to join us! He loves the fact we’re from Scotland and we clink glasses with him quite a few times. He had obviously been clinking his glass quite a bit during the day and was a tad tipsy. Next thing out he goes, but he’s coming back he tells us. Lo and behold he returns with a bottle of Cava and a lovely cake from the bakers. By this point everyone else in the restaurant is looking at our table and we’re not sure how the restaurant owner is taking all this when our benefactor asks for new glasses, cake plates and cutlery for us all! I was so stressed with everyone looking at us I nearly ended up in same state as him necking the Cava. All of this took with him not speaking a word of English and us not speaking Italian, it was incredible! He seemed to take a particular shine to Susan and wanted to exchange addresses. His name was Peter, his kindness and generosity was lovely and is something I‘m sure we will all remember.

 

Peter

We returned to Del Forestier with Jim, Jean and Susan a few nights later but Peter wasn’t there this time.  I think I’ll send him a postcard tomorrow and sign it “Susan”.

Back again with Jim & Jean

  

Lakkios

It was great having Susan here but we’ve decided that future visits should take place a bit later in the sailing season once we’re well and truly under way. Maybe then she will actually get some sailing in.

We had a good weather window to go after Susan went home so, once again I readied the boat and we were leaving within the half hour. Or maybe not! Just ready to go and I thought “I’ll nip to the heads (toilet) before we cast off” Hmmm! toilet won’t flush, you couldn’t pump the flush as the pressure behind it was too great………blocked! We tried everything with the hope of still getting away but to no avail.  We couldn’t leave for a fifty-five hour sail with blocked heads. Yip, you’ve guessed…..instruments off, sail cover back on.  You get the feeling we’re not meant to go to Zakinthos for some strange reason!!!!!

The heads thing delayed us by a day. We had a chat with the lady in the chandlers and she suggested taking the toilet pipes out and banging them to break up the calcium that builds up in them. No easy task on a Moody, there are four meters of pipe which runs behind all the furniture and fittings which need to come out to get at it.  Anyway, we did that and took the pipe up to a wall and battered nine bells out of it against the wall, stuck this twisty spring think through it, ran copious amounts of water, cleaning agents etc and et voila! it did the jobby! Oops, sorry, the job. See, it’s not all G & T’s and lounging about.

Next two days we spent at sea, mostly motor sailing as we’d missed the good wind the first day over to Zakinthos. The start of our summer cruise.

 

Cold two night crossing to Zakyntos

When we arrived in Zakinthos, our friend Nicolas was there. He’d had a bad trip over, his fuel pump gave up on him and there was little wind, it took him eighty hours! He has a cat – thought he might have eaten him !

 

Dawn 2nd day Zakyntos in the distance

Zakinthos is where we suffered damage to the boat last year so we were being extra cautious to stay off the quay as far as we could to avoid the ledge that protrudes under the water. There was some bad weather forecast so we moved the boat to keep us well of. All in vain! The storm was worse than expected and the French boat next to us anchor slipped and he came hurtling into us…..not once but twice! He had footered with his anchor so much I think he lifted it. On his second attempt at causing us damage he succeeded, he panicked, gunned his engine while up against us, caught our rigging on his dinghy davits and then caught our guard wires and completely snapped two of our stanchions. As you can imagine there were a few choice words at his complete madness and total idiocy. He seemed to be in a world of his own.

While all this was going on we were getting pushed onto the big motor boat at the other side whose stern line was catching our life raft. It had already knocked the danbuoy off and we had to remove the life raft and solar panel before they were taken out as well. Most boats had their engines on holding them off the quay, us included. But the wind was so strong you couldn’t hear the engine and didn’t realise we had stalled. With effect, we went back and bounced off the ledge under the water. We had stalled because we now had a rope round the prop, not one of ours but one that was unused and had fallen in the water. Gordon had to go in after it had calmed down to get it off, but that was once it was pitch black and couldn’t see a thing, poor soul. Honestly, it was horrendous, the wind was shrieking, the water was coming up over the boat battering us in the face, we were exhausted trying to fend the crash boat off us and trying to fend ourselves off the three big stern lines on the starboard side of the motor boat. Into the bargain when Gordon went down to free the prop, he felt the rudder and knew we had suffered damage that had to be repaired before we could move on. Maybe this was why we weren’t meant to get to Zakinthos???

There we were, just back in the water about three or four weeks and had to be lifted out again.  Kostas, the guy who looked after the motor boat was really helpful and arranged for us to be lifted out and for the repair to the rudder to be done. Yiannis, a man whose boat was out on the hard lent us his ladder for the four days we were there and helped us out with translation. Neither Zissis the crane driver nor Andreas the rudder repair man spoke any English but they were so nice and so helpful. The night before we went back in the water, Zissis and his wife Zena came and asked us to go out for dinner with them which was lovely.  We couldn’t get replacement stanchions but we did find a guy who managed to weld them as a temporary measure to at least allow us to get going again. So even although Zakinthos has been bad luck for us on two occasions, the people are great and couldn’t help us enough. Also, I won a lucky dip on the Lotto, so not all bad.

 

Lift out and damaged rudder

 

Post repair

 

Zakynthos Harbour

 

Yannis & Zissis

 

Going back in

We left Zakinthos on 19 May at 07.30 heading for Kipirissia.

Screen shot of places visited on trip so far (2014-2017)
 
Our berth in Lakkios Yacht Club on a stormy day
 
Better day and showering with “Mao” the French cat
 
Dinner on Camira with Keith, Julia, Jim & Jean followed by sore heid preparations

Well, it was our intention to spend the whole of the winter in Syracuse and lift Camira out of the water for a well overdue clean & antifoul. We arranged to move into a small but very nice apartment. It wasn’t quite ready so our lovely landlord Marco let us stay temporarily in his other larger apartment until it was.  We moved in one day and Gordon moved out the next!

 
The 1st apartment at Piazza Euripide

He had found a suspicious looking “oily mark thing” on the sole of his foot. When he contacted our Doc at home she wanted him home asap and was arranging an urgent referral for him to see a specialist.

I stayed on as I had to move our things from one apartment to another in the hope that Gordon’s visit home would be a short one, but after being seen by a couple of dermatologists and a plastic surgeon, it was apparent that he wasn’t coming back to Sicily anytime soon. So, I moved everything out of the apartment back onto the boat and made arrangements for the work we wanted done to be carried out while we were away.

Missus Clampit on the move

To cut this short, everything, thankfully, turned out ok with Gordon’s foot. He did need a biopsy done which took a considerable length of time to heal as they can’t stitch the sole of the foot. But in the scheme of things that was a good outcome.
We were once again very fortunate that Diane, Harry, Billy and Jayne put us up between them. Where would we be without such good friends and family!  If the outcome had not been so favourable, we would have needed to let our tenants go and move back into the house. So it’s a massive thank you to Diane for the Boutique Hotel East Kilbride & Billy and Jayne for Badger’s cottage
It was great spending time with everyone that we managed to catch up with when we were back. Gordon was loving it having me as his personal driver.  Just as well I had decided to do “Dry January” or it might not have been quite so  harmonious.
I did on the odd occasion leave him stranded on his own to catch up with the girls. In hindsight maybe this wasn’t a good idea. What should have been lunch only turned into dinner and an unplanned overnight stay in EK, requiring a rescue mission from Carol’s wonderful, patient husband Derek who had to drive from EK to Glasgow then Shotts and finally back to EK with four women in various states of incapacity in his car. Oh dear!

 
The girls lost day out

We also managed to fit in a night with Dave and Iain when they were home visiting their family.

Louise is let back in to Vronis Bar

A day down at Inverkip with Sandy and Evelyn to see their new boat it was blowin a hoolie so we couldn’t get out, but we did manage lunch of course

Sandy & Evelyn’s new boat 
                   
A great curry night in Dundee hosted by Brian and Hazel, with Val, Dave, Phil and Eileen.

   
        Dundee curry night …          …  &  our gracious host

Christmas with Harry, Diane and Andy. Afternoon tea with the girls (no alcohol consumed at all this time !). A visit out to see Robert and Francis. Suite shopping with Magoo. Helping Billy and Jayne to host the annual Nomad’s night in their beautiful new house. Lunch at Jim & Jean’s  and last but by no means least, lunch with our pal Dave.  Gordon even gate-crashed a MITIE night out.

 
               Badger’s Cottage                          Two unwilling models inside
   
  Day trip to Killin – Hotel where Gordon was a cocktail barman !  lol

We returned to Syracuse on 28th February and managed to get back into the wee apartment   we were originally meant to be in, though we could only stay until the beginning of April. The boatyard said this would be fine and that the work should be completed by then. However due to rain there is a bit of a hold up and we’ve had to find another apartment, and now hope to be relaunching the boat on Wednesday 12th or Thursday 13th April. Fingers crossed!

    
Lift out in Antonio’s yard – stripped back to gelcoat

Epoxied waiting for antifoul
 
The 2nd appartment at Pizza Euripide

Siracuse is a busy city in Summer and gets loads of tourists. In winter it’s much quieter but still has a buzz about it. It’s been a wetter and colder winter compared to previous winters, we are told, but I think this is true of most places in the Med this year. There’s no live aboard community in the marina and in hindsight it may have been a bit quiet if we’d been there all winter. In saying that, we’ve still met loads of people and had a great time. Our friends Pete and Ali who we met  much earlier in our trip stopped here last year and have now bought a house out in the hills and intend staying put for a while.

   
Ali & Pete’s House and Tigger
 
Tapas on board with Mal & Liam                   Jim’s birthday at the apartment

Syracuse is located in the southeast corner of the island beside the Ionian Sea. The city was founded 2,700 years ago by Ancient Greek Corinthians and became a very powerful city-state. It was allied with Sparta and Corinth and exerted influence over the entity of Magna Graecia. It was the birthplace of Archimedes. Cicero desrcibed it as “the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all”. It equalled Athens in size during the 5th century BC. After this Palermo overtook it in importance as the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily.

Dionysius’s Ear

Dionysius used the cave as a prison for political dissidents, and by means of the perfect acoustics eavesdropped on the plans and secrets of his captives. Another more gruesome legend claims that Dionysius carved the cave in its shape so that it would amplify the screams of prisoners being tortured in it.

 
Teatro Greco                                                         Teatro Romano

The nucleus of the ancient city was the small island of Ortygia now joined by a bridge. It’s lovely narrow cobbled streets are teaming with shops, restaurants and cafes.

The bridges across to Ortygia

Temple of Appolo , Ortygia
 
Grand Harbour front , Ortygia

The main Piazza, Piazza Duomo is beautiful with it’s cathedral and city buildings. It is a gorgeous place to sit and watch the stylish Italian people take their passeggiata each night

Piazza Duomo

or round by the castle the bars and cafes line the high walkway (lungomare) and is a great place to watch the sun going down.

Fountain of Artuesa
  
Lungomare looking out onto the Grand Harbour

Dusk in Ortygia with Etna in the distance

The square at Temple of Appollo and a Granita Bar

Bridge to Corso Umberto from Ortygia

Ortygia market

Between days away on bikes, the local buses, trains and hiring a car we have managed to see quite a bit of East and South Sicily. Notable for the stunning Baroque architecture are Noto and Ragussa Ibla.

Noto
            
Ragussa Ibla

Mount Etna is another one of the must see things, quite something, especially when it’s snow covered. We circumnavigated it by car visiting some of the towns and villages surrounding it.

     
Etna & Randazzo

We took a trip to Licata which is where we were originally going to winter on Sicily but later changed our minds.

Licata marina & town

Ragussa marina (different from Ragussa Ibla)  was another which we considered. On reflection, I think we made the right choice with Syracuse. It may not have had a live-aboard community but the actual place has more going for it than either Licata or Ragussa.

Marina di Ragussa

Marzamemi is a small fishing village not far from Syracuse. We had lunch here one day. It was very quiet at this time of year but imagine it would be bunged in the tourist season,its a cute wee place.

    
Marzamemi & Lido di Noto

In October Diane and Harry rented a beautiful villa in Javea Spain where we visited them for a week followed by a couple of days in Valencia.
On the way out we stayed over in Catania the night before the flight.

Catania

It was great to see them and to see Harry having such a ball in the pool. He is so comfortable in the water and was loving the company of his Uncle Gordon, if for nothing other than a wave maker in the pool.

  
Javea Diane & Harry

Susan our friend is coming out in a few weeks time, she’s not booking her return flight just in case we whisk her off to another country as has been done before. We will hopefully soon be back in the water and ready for our first sail of 2017.

  
20 mile cycle – Syracuse and Etna in distance.          Lakkios Pontoon

Yet again it’s been a great and varied year, but one that’s was also tinged with sadness as well with the loss of two of our friends.
We’re looking forward to our fourth year cruising around the Med and fingers crossed it’ll be starting around the end of this month.

Captain Chaos here again
On Monday 12th September 07:00  we set off on what was to be our longest passage yet.
As it turns out it was a mega motor; 300 miles, 55 hours , 2 nights at sea.
Just for a change I have lifted some excerps from the blog to give a flavour.
Day 1
08:00   Heading down towards South Zakynthos,log fouled again,considering going over side to clear.
19:00   Hoisted radar reflector and changed courtesy flags,  prob too early. Wine in fridge to cool , Chilli for tea.
23:40   Bow navigation lights out replaced bulb.
24:15   Buzzed by spotter plan, came inlow and circled twice. At 1st thought nav lights a fast ship !

Day 2
04:00   Thunderstorms ahead , moderate seas on beam, uncomfortable, log working again!
12:00    Full main helps a bit but not enough to sail.
14:10   Motor sailing but wind dropping, refilled with diesel, buzzed by spotter plane again.
18:00   Engine a bit noisy thin oil / tappets?
Day 3
05:00   Altered course to  avoid tanker crawling 1.5 kts
14:00   Arrived YC Lakkios , Syracuse

After a wee sleep we had a brief excursion ashore to get fed and a quick lookaround

Well looks like its here for winter then. Distance logged 1933 ish miles.
This will be our last sailing blog of the season.
Bye for now

Whilst we both wanted to go back home to see Lotty, we knew that the harbours in Greece were not the best place to leave the boat unattended so we made the decision that Gordon would stay with the boat. As it turned out, this was the right thing to do as we might not have had a boat to come back to.

However, I am so glad I got back to spend some time with my pal, she is such a strong and amazing  person. She was even up for a “girls night in” since our usual night out in Glasgow was a no goer.  So on the Saturday the usual girls, Carol, Karen, Diane and I got titivated and set off for the hospital kitted out with champagne and nibbles. Unfortunately Lotty was only able to wet her lips with the bubbly while the rest of us polished it off. It was such a nice night and great to be in the company of some of the best friends anyone could ask for.

In between visiting the hospital every day, I was able to spend time with Diane and Harry who very kindly put me up at the Boutique Hotel in East Kilbride.

My other friend Fiona, as usual made time to catch up with me in between visits to the hospital. She was looking fantastic, not that she doesn’t all the time, but specifically so this time. Keep it going Fif!  

I even got a couple of hours shopping with Dave, Lotty’s other half. Lotty was feeling a bit tired so Dave and I headed out to Braehead to give her some piece and quiet. I know going to Braehead is nothing momentous, but Dave never goes shopping, he detests it, so I think this is worth a mention in the blog.

The week flew by and sadly it was time to come back.  Lotty was so pleased that I had gone back just to see her but it was nothing compared to the friendship she has given us over the last 25 years.