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Friday 25 June 2010

24th Post - Leaving the Mediterranean


Pippa and I sailed from Finike on the 1st April 2010, revisiting some favorite old haunts as well as many new anchorages and harbours as we sailed west.

A quiet anchorage at sunset

Detail from a wall in Chania


A note on Greek spelling may not go amiss at this point. We have frequently found that our pilot book will use one spelling, our map another, and local signposts yet another. Please forgive me if you prefer a different spelling to the one I have chosen Our journey started with a cracking sail towards the Greek island of Rhodes. We were on a beam reach, with Sula often reaching at her hull speed (Max possible speed) of seven knots. However, later in the day, as we neared land, they turned to head winds, so instead, we found an anchorage on the southern tip of the island. We sailed next day for Nisos Karpathos. The light early morning wind soon increased to force 4, but we were sailing nicely often reaching a good six knots. Our chosen anchorage was near the southern tip of the island. In the last couple of miles as we approached the anchorage the wind suddenly turned nasty. It veered to dead ahead and increased alarmingly. We couldn’t even motor against it. Things were becoming a little dangerous as we approached the land. So there was nothing to be done but turn round and go to Pigadhia, ten miles back the way we had come. A long hard day. We eventually reached Crete on the 7th April. Anchoring in Ormos Erimoupolis on the extreme east end of the island. Next day we sailed to Sitia to clear customs. We considered we deserved a rest, so had a siesta after lunch and then decided to stay on for a couple of days to enjoy this thoroughly pleasant town.


A car parked on the jetty at Soudhas
Seen on a marina notice board in Greece

We then sailed on to Spinalonga lagoon, a fine, well sheltered, inland sea of only 3 to 5 metres depth throughout. It even had a small mountain that needed climbing. We discovered a fine ridge that became more interesting as one gained height, until both hands and feet were required as walking became scrambling. Oh, if it could only have gone on for a bit longer.



Our serendipitous climb


Our next port of call and our next mountain was at Ayios Nikolaos. As we approached we had seen a fine view of some interesting looking mountains. The next day we hired a car drove to Avrakondes and climbed the 2,148 meter Spathi Madharas, the birth place of Zeus. While trying to continue our westward quest, bad weather forced us to return to Spinalonga where we sheltered for a few days. We found it quite hard to leave this delightful safe haven. Our next port was the Venetian harbor at Iraklion, a nice enough place amongst the hurly burly of the city. Then it was off to Rethimno. We spurned the marina and anchored off the beach in the inner harbour. We felt quite smug about this. It was a lovely, though very small anchorage, room only for Sula and an easy row ashore.

However, strong winds kept us in harbour for three more days, so we relented and found a berth in the small marina. As soon as the weather improved we sailed for Ormos Soudhas. This was to be our main base for visiting Crete and we stayed free of charge in the fishing harbour for the next three weeks. Our first climb in the White Mountains was Mt. Psari which beat us down with a very long walk in the afternoon sun. In the end I could no longer bear the heat and we dejectedly retired. The 7th and 8th of May were rare social events for us. My sister Celia had arranged a walking holiday to coincide with our visit. So we joined her for dinner on the Friday evening. We swam in a pool for the first time in ages and spent a most pleasant evening in her company. On the Saturday we were delighted to discover that Tony and Annie from the yacht Sunburnt, whom we had met in Finike, had anchored in the harbour. We soon made contact and had a very pleasant meal aboard Sula, swapping stories and initiating dreams of sailing in the Great Barrier Reef.

High in the White Mountains

For our climb on Melindaou, we planned an early start. Set the alarm incorrectly and got up and dressed before realising we were two hours too early. Never the less we set off and started our walk at dawn. We got most of the hard work done before the sun came up from behind the mountain. Then it was a very pleasant ridge walk over two more summits. A grand day out. Celia’s walking holiday having finished, so we joined up for a visit to Chania on Tuesday 11th and next day a gentle sail to a deserted islet and delightful anchorage at the entrance of Soudha bay. As she is the first to admit, indeed to insist, Celia is not by any means a sailor, but she seemed to enjoy the day.

Our desert island

(note the low tech, yellow shower facility)


Celia returned home on the Tuesday and the same day Pippa returned to the UK for a few days to attend the wedding of her friends Hannah and Johannes. Pippa returned on the 18th May and we sailed on the 20th for Malta. We had strong winds, light winds, no wind, a hail storm, sunny weather, too much motoring, and fabulous sailing, during the six days it took to get to Malta.


Arriving at 1am on Thursday, 27th May, Grand Harbour was truly spectacular. We picked up a mooring for the remainder of the night in Sliema Creek.

Malta

We explored Valetta the following afternoon. I had told Pippa a little of my misspent youth, regarding a visit on a Navy ship to the port. I won’t bore you with that story. Enough to say we found the famous Strait Street or, as we knew it, The Gut. It is now a mere relic of those bygone days. The faded facades are all that remain of a street full of bars and houses of ill repute, (though of high reputation). I always found it amusing, that the Navy in their wisdom published orders of places that were out of bounds to sailors going ashore in foreign ports. We studied them carefully and made notes of the best places to go.


A Dyhso or Maltise taxi

(correct spelling unknown to author) The Gut

One Matelot's local Malta. A special island
On Saturday we sailed to Gozo and anchored in Dwejra a spectacular cliff-lined cove behind the island known as Fungus Rock. Sailing for Sicily the following day it wasn’t long before we met strong headwinds. But we were getting used to it by then. We considered turning back, but instead altered course to go anti clockwise round Sicily, (the long way round), but hopefully with better prospects for a fair wind.


We anchored overnight off the ports of Xifoni, near Augusta and Reggio Di Calabria, on our way to the Strait of Messina. We saluted Scilla and Charybdis, though thankfully, they were in benign mood.

Do bow sprits come any bigger?
A fishing boat in the Mesina straits. The skipper cons the boat from the crows nest, while men with harpoons use the walkway to harpoon Sword fish. Sailing westwards once again, we soon encountered cirrus clouds followed by a mackerel sky and a forbidding prospect ahead. Once again, we altered course, this time to a safe anchorage on the island of Vulcano, arriving in the wee small hours of the morning. We avoided Palermo and instead visited the very pleasant Castellammare del Golfo on the north western extremity of Sicily. Sometimes when arriving in such charming places one has to pinch oneself to become truly aware that we are in a foreign country and a long way from home. However on a street in Castellammare we witnessed three ladies representing three generations, arms linked, chattering happily as they strolled along the pavement without a care in the world. I love the Italian language! We managed a few buongiornos and grazies; people do really say,' Bellissimo, belissimo...' and 'ciao!' No doubt about it we were in Italy. We enjoyed exploring the small town and treated ourselves to a rare meal ashore. Rare not because we are mean or impoverished, but because we have, with one or two notable exceptions, consistently found that buying fresh local produce and a bottle of local wine and eating on board, is not only far better value, it is more often than not a much better meal. One notable exception was a small fish restaurant we visited in Soudha. I asked to see the menu before we sat down, but our restaurateur demurred. “No Menu, but come and look”. He took us into his kitchen, opened the cool room door and showed us a selection of fish and crustations. “How much do you want to pay?” “I will make you a good meal, Shrimp Omelet, Fish, Salad. 10 Euros” And he did, we had an excellent meal. We thought it was over and anyway could eat no more, when we were served “Oranges from my wife’s tree” Huge sweet delicious Creatan oranges. Wow! On Saturday the 5th we made a deliberately late start for our passage to Sardinia, so as not to arrive in the dark. As we neared the coast on the following Monday a Coast Guard vessel hove into view. He took a keen interest in us, though we did our best to appear not too disreputable. As we gently sailed along he came very close astern, he learnt where we had come from and where bound. Then, asking for our papers, a crew member held out a large fishing net to collect them. It was all highly amusing to both parties. They then left us to continue our journey to Porto Malfatano.
“Papers please”
After four days amongst the pleasant islands off the south west corner of Sardinia, we sailed on an overnight passage for Mallorca. The very strong following wind moderated by morning and became a head wind. Arriving in the early morning of Saturday 12th we picked up a mooring in Porto Petro. Amongst the jobs to do ashore was to visit an Internet cafĂ© to pick up Emails. I had just found a seat, ordered a beer, set up the laptop and was about to answer a fairly urgent Email when, to my horror, a bunch of very noisy local youths came in. They turned the huge wall mounted TV on full volume. They then cheered, shouted and let of a hand held fog horn while they watched the football. The waitress explained to me that the Football World Cup had started. We spent the next four days visiting the delightful calas of Mallorca before sailing on Monday the 14th for Ibiza. We arrived at Calla St Vincent the following day, but it was too crowded, so we moved to Cala Boix for a much needed rest. We had a lucky break as we approached an anchorage the following day. We don’t have a fuel gauge aboard Sula; I rely instead on counting the engine hours and calculating the amount of fuel left in the tank. Well today, for the first time, I got it wrong. We motored past some ominous rocks and a large headland as we approached Calla Castella. Then, just before we anchored, the engine stopped! We had run out of fuel! Fortunately I was able to coast into position and Pippa let go the hook in exactly the right spot. Phew! On Thursday 17th, after calling in at the very helpful Botafoch Marina in the town of Ibiza for fuel, water and provisions, we sailed a few miles south and anchored off the island of Espalmador. We then indulged in a good swim, and an equally good lunch. A fair wind and a good weather forecast having at last arrived we then sailed to the Spanish mainland near Cartagena. We will now hop down the coast, mainly day sailing to Gibraltar, where we have booked a berth in the Marina, from the 1st of July. We plan a short refit at Gibraltar, where we will fit Hydrovane self steering gear, An Echo Tec watermaker, and purchase a flexible water tank to replace our rather old fibre glass one.