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The journey home
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The journey home

It’s going to take a while but we are now heading slowly north and back to beautiful Guernsey Read more
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  • Trip start
    March 25, 2019
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    Cruising again the start of the return

    March 25, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We had a great last night in Levkas Marina there was even a party in our honour, well almost, it was both for the marina leavers and to celebrate the owners of the Porto Cafe having managed it for 5 Years. They provided nibbles a party cake and flowers for their staff.
    John was awarded a Golden Compass award for his carpentry skills having saved the New Years Eve party by constructing a wind proof surround for the outer area. Other awards were for eco warrior, cultural bridging, community spirit and a special one for Shadow the first marina baby 👶. It was a great night with Ugly Potatoes providing great live music and vocals.
    We left the Marina today, Greek Independence Day and headed south to Nidri just to check that all was well. We did encounter a small problem as we were preparing to leave, it looks like while tidying up some wiring and adding extra sockets John may have inadvertently removed the aerial cable for the small stand alone GPS unit!
    Tomorrow we plan to return to Lefkada town and anchor off for a night, this means I can go to knit and natter one last time before going to Preveza on Wednesday ready for a lift out on Friday at Ionian Boat Marina when we will start the re antifouling process.    Read more

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    Ionion Marina Yard in Aktio

    March 30, 2019 in Greece ⋅ 🌬 17 °C

    The boat was lifted yesterday a little late due to a scheduled power out but all chucked by 13:00, nice and close to power and water but sadly the toilet block next to us is out of action as they are installing new water tanks. The view across the fields and the Preveza Gulf is beautiful. Boats bottom was a lot dirtier than last year but we, well I have now scrapped and sanded it down, popped the bubbles and scrapped out wet bits and John has wire brushed back to steel where needed so almost ready for primer. Having a break now that we have finished the smurf jobs.
    Only problem at the moment is that even though we have now properly cleaned the transducer, the downward facing sensor, for the depth sounder we are still not getting a reading, it ticks and the receiving screen appears to function OK just no depth. John is hoping to hear from Robin shortly.    Read more

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    Boat maintenance done!

    April 6, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Hurray we have finished the antifouling, and received the completed insurance survey. Survey was great just need to replace one of the rollers on the anchor bow roller, we had noticed but then forgot about it as you do while in a marina using their slime lines. Boat bottom is darker than before as now covered with Seajet 33 mid blue previously it was Micron International blue. Looking good even if we say so ourselves, also liking the new red bar on the rocha anchor, done to enabling more accurate estimations of where it is once released.
    Will be back in the water as soon as the sounder transducer arrives, we know it arrived in Athens Wednesday evening but no one knows how long it will take to clear Greek Customs fingers crossed 🤞 not much longer.
    We have booked our flights home to a Guernsey for the summer, we will be there 9/7-9/9 so if anyone would like us to house/pet sit please let me know as we currently of no fixed abode for those summer months.    Read more

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    Greek bureaucracy

    April 11, 2019 in Greece ⋅ 🌧 18 °C

    Well sadly we are still here in the yard at Preveza waiting to receive the transducer that will fill the 2inch hole we currently have in the bottom of the boat. You really wouldn’t believe what a palaver it’s been, the transducer took I think it was 36-48 hours to get to Athens then three days of doing nothing we then contact DHL to enquire about the problem and they say they have been trying to contact us as apparently we have the wrong address on the parcel, by the way we have no missed called or emails obviously. We get sender to send revised customs invoice with amended address. No news call them again invoice has to have a number, sender sends another amended customs invoice with a number, through DHL Guernsey as cant be forwarded by us apparently. Next hoop, next day, we have to send proof of payment, I try to explain that we wouldn’t normally pay for goods until we receive the goods but to no avail, sender sends us invoice and we pay and send confirmation to DHL Athens. Next day I call again and they want a letter from sender saying exactly what is printed on the customs invoice, i loose it, why another thing that says the same. They should as we didn’t hear back now be clearing the parcel, but who knows?
    Rant over. We have been doing some useful things with our additional dry time, john managed to stop an irritating leak we had on one of the portholes, wiped the rust streaks and washed exterior and has now replaced all the fender ropes. I have done more internal sanding and varnishing finally finishing all the portholes, and some external touch ups, not as much as I would have liked as still scattered showers every other day.
    I have also finally finished baby Sophia’s cardigan and one bootie other is ongoing and have posted Sam and Nathan’s baby sleeping bag to them, I am hoping it’s a boy, well not really there just wasn’t as much colour choice as i would have liked so it’s in pale grey, pale blue and turquoise.    Read more

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    Cycle to Vonitsa

    April 14, 2019 in Greece ⋅ 🌧 15 °C

    Nice day today so after John has applied another coat of paint to the inside of the old gas locker than he had cleaned a few days ago, I managed to persuade him that we should go for a bike ride. Not too many directional choices from here so we headed North past the end of the runway at Aktio Airport and were then going to decide whether to go left or right, Vonitsa or Agios Nickolas. I am secretly hoping that we can get to Vonitsa as not sure there is even a cafe in Nickolas.
    At the end of the runway we find the unfinished A52 motorway and are directed onto it for a short stretch before being turned off to the existing roads but as the motorway seems to be going in the right direction we decide to stay onboard as we were the only traffic and there were no work vehicles either.
    We have a beautifully smooth ride 11km to the Vonitsa turn off and a delicious lunch at one of the cafes before riding back along the lonely the motorway. Great day out.    Read more

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    TRANSDUCER
    Goodbye Ionian Marine Yard

    Floating again !!

    April 19, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Well it took a while but we are back on the water. The boat was all ready to go except for the new transducer for the the depth sounder, a week after lifting but it took over 2.5 weeks for the transducer to arrive. I think this was partly my fault in the way that I had asked the remitter to address the package but also partly Greek bloody paperwork. We ordered the transducer on 1/4, it took only 36 hours to travel from Guernsey to Athens but then spent 3 days waiting to be processed before DHL failed to contact us, they used incorrect email address, we called them. We then started the painful process of complying with Greek paperwork, 3 customs invoices, a payment to Guernsey for goods not yet received, a further payment to DHL for assisting with customs clearance and finally at 3:00 on wed 17/4 it arrived. It took 10 minutes to fit but no lift space until Friday morning. Thursday we gave the dinghy outboard a blast and took ourselves across to Preveza to check out fuel options and space on the town quay and met some more expat locals, Dave and the dog that had adopted him for the winter, Frank from NY and his daughter, Steve on a self built stainless steel 30ft yacht and Mary a Polish/Canadian whose been in Greece for 15 years now whose waiting for crew to help with the pre season maintenance.
    It was a relief this morning to find that the depth sounder was fully operational, don’t want to contemplate how we would have felt had it still not worked. There is a festive feel in Preveza as it’s Christian Good Friday today even though the majority of Greeks will be celebrating next weekend.
    Fuel and then were off    Read more

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    The power of nature

    Damp but underway in Meganissi

    April 22, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We got the fuel in Preveza it was 35c a litre cheaper than at Lefkas Marina, then next day after buying some olive oil, olives and honey from the back of a scooter we headed back south to the turning bridge on the Lefkas Canal. We also bought a Minions rug for the wheelhouse floor.
    We were a bit early at the bridge so while waiting we had a tea but.... the water stopped..... John decided to check the pump. Arghh all the water 💦 from the fresh water tanks, about 700litres because we had filled up at the boat yard, was now in the bilges!!
    The water had just reached the bottom of the prop shaft, bilge pump on, and level dropping rapidly. By the time we had got through the bridge and to the anchorage just off the town quay the bilges were empty and John had identified the cause of the problem. We had very kindly been given a giant round buoy and we had deflated it and stowed it in the engine room by the water pump, without realising John had knocked one the pipes and then as we were coming across to the bridge the rock and roll of the sea had dislodged it completely. We know it was OK when we left Preveza as John had checked the engine room as he does before each voyage. He has decided to double jubilee clip the pipe now.
    So first job was to empty all the gear out of the bilges to dry it all out and see what could be saved and what had to be trashed We were lucky a lot of the gear was no worse off for a dunking, but we had to throw all the cardboard boxes 📦 stuff was in, we also disposed of some things that had been left by previous owner that were parts and spares for things that John had replaced.
    We were half way through the job when Nick and Gemma called us over for a drink, and we discovered that it was Gemma’s birthday 🎂 and that they had got engaged that morning, Ziggy was ring bearer. So we had a Buck’s Fizz to celebrate 🎉.
    Next morning we refilled the fresh water tanks, we had to pay this time, and then headed south to Meganissi where we anchored in Abelike bay. Lovely walks around the headlands on Meganissi with some great views.    Read more

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    Walk route ish
    Goats near Poros turn offView looking east though south to west at view point

    Sivota and Vliho

    April 23, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    From Meganissi we headed west then south to Sivota, on south of Lefkada. It was interesting to see it open as when we had visited before in December everything was closed. We met Nick and Gemma and their visitors and had a good meal at Stavros’ Taverna. Next day we had planned to visit Big Vathi on Ithaca but as we were leaving Sivota Ocean Wolf arrived and advised that Vathi was still very windy and choppy, so we decided to stay in Sivota for lunch with Su and Pieta and a game of Uno, then headed up to Vliho to try out their quiz night. We had fun we didn’t win but the belly pork with jacket spud and coleslaw was delicious. We did make a Minion though he’s Stuart apparently. Today we did a mammoth walk (20km) from Vliho to Poros then the Southeast point of Lefkas before heading to Dessimi beach along the east coast and back to boat. Would have been a lovely walk if we had followed road out of Vliho but we went a bit cross country and ended up scrambling along a stream bed to avoid the main road so it took us an hour and a half to cover about 4km. Plain sailing after that but at one stage we really thought we would have retrace our steps that was after about 3 km of scrambling so that wouldn’t have been good, saw some beautiful flowers, lots of butterflies and grasshoppers as well as goats.Read more

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    Orthodox Easter in Greece

    April 28, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Just spent a wonderful day with Stephanie K and her family celebrating Easter Sunday in a typically Greek fashion with the whole family and lots of friends at the family villa just up the hill in Ligia. 3whole spit roasted lambs, dyed hard boiled eggs, that you use to try to crack your opponents egg, overall winner gets a year of good luck, lamb innards soup 🥣, name begins with a K, (surprisingly delicious) and wonderful patisserie style desserts.
    The previous evening we stayed up till midnight to attend the church service, see the icons on parade and light our candles from the light of Christ that gets flown to Greece by fighter jet from Jerusalem. We also got to hear a lot of giant banger and I mean giant, they hurt your ears. Photos of the parade to follow, will use those from the Lefkas press.    Read more

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    Easter Sunday early morning parade

    April 28, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    As I mentioned the flame of Christ is flown in and after a church service the priests light the congregations candles and the congregation then light everyone else’s candles. Unfortunately it was a bit windy and the candles kept blowing out but the idea is that the flames get carried to peoples homes to bless the houses and families for the coming year. This is also the ending of Lent and some families break their fast after the service eating meat and other blood related food stuffs for the first time in 40 days, others wait till Easter Sunday lunch. Part of this also involves walking the churches decorated icons around the town.Read more

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    Katouna for a swim
    Spot the cowLefkada farewell panoramaLefkada marina

    Northwards

    April 29, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    After the Easter BBQ we, well I had a lovely swim, john lifeguarded then we headed back to spend the night in Vliho where we had a look at all the boats that appeared to have been abandoned then back to Lefkada for final time and a meal at Zimis with Su from Ocean Wolf before departing the island this morning for good. We enjoyed ourselves immensely while there and will keep in touch with a lot of the lovely people we met. The sun was shining, the sea was flat it was a great day for our first decent length trip since November beautiful, unfortunately it clouded over on our way North and we have arrived in Paxos and anchored up in Mongonisi bay to the south, in the rain!! I am hoping to take some photos tomorrow as right now it’s still raining with a bit of additional thunder too, and the sun will show it in it’s true glory.Read more

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    House near Oxia John would like to buy
    St stephens church on PaxosOlive grovesGaios looking northGaios squareLakka

    Lakka north of Paxos

    May 4, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Did a couple of nice walks between Mongonisi and Gaios saw the house John wants to buy and renovate, we then travelled north and went through Gaios harbour and up to Lakka, lots of our Levkas Marina friends had commented on how pretty it was so I thought we ought to have a look. It was beautiful turquoise water, white sand, blazing sunshine and.... Alex and B moored up on the town quay. We stopped off for a coffee and a chat, then Alex persuaded me to go for a swim with him and we managed to get B in as well, it was so nice. We met up again for tea at a newly opened Taverna -Stasanis I think it was spelt, my salad was delicious, rocket, lettuce, fig, pine nuts, prosciutto, sun dried tomato, basil, balsamic sauce and sultanas to hopefully name most of the ingredients. We were given a complementary Ouzo shot, that really is the only way to drink it, and complementary yoghurt and homemade marmalade. Today we headed NE are now anchored up in a shallow lagoon to the North of Igoumenitsa, we will be here a few days waiting for an early Meltemi to blow through.Read more

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    Next stop Mourtos Islands

    May 9, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    While near Igoumenitsa we took the bikes ashore, dodging the cow pats, cows and dogs, and rode into town. It was nice enough but not sure where real people shop, there were loads of tavernas and cafes which I suppose makes sense as Igoumenitsa is the second largest passenger ferry port in Greece. The cafes all seemed to be really busy even though it was 10:30 on a Monday morning. I know in the UK it was May Day bank holiday but over here they celebrate May Day on the 1st of May and that was when the shops were all shut etc.
    Well Wednesday as forecast was beautiful, we decided to return south, only about 10 miles, to the Mourtos Islands near Sivota on the mainland. We are anchored up on our own on the west side of Bella Vraka beach, it wouldn’t be possible in full season as this is a Neilson resort with dinghies, kayaks, SUPs, wind surfers etc but it’s not open yet. The beach is only about a 5min walk from town but is so much more sheltered than the harbour. While here John finished off a small teak repair so now we have a piece of s/v Ocean Wolf on our deck, John used a piece of the old passerelle that he removed when he built the new one.
    Today we took the kayaks around the islands and saw bright red starfish, a natural chimney and an arch we could kayak through, and I didn’t bring the iPad as thought there would be nothing to see.
    Off to town later to jointly celebrate Liberation Day and 2 years of travelling and living aboard Take Five.    Read more

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    Mitchel 31
    Apartments in SivotaAlykes Beach

    Benitses on Corfu

    May 10, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We had a lovely Liberation Day evening in Sivota town, the bar we went to gave us free crisps, two coffee shot cocktails and a little toasted sandwich 🥪. The meal was also good and we got to watch a replay of the Spurs v Ajax Champions league semi final, a great game.
    The night was a bit rolly though so we decided to move on.
    First we visited Plataria that was a bit exciting John decided we would go through the Channel between the island and the mainland. It looked OK on the plotter but we had a close call with a very unfriendly looking rock in the middle of the Channel, lucky I’d randomly decided to go up to the bow and saw it just in time. After some reversing we managed to find a channel between the unfriendly rock and its smaller friend on the mainland side and anchored up just outside the harbour where we went for a mooch and a coffee. Nice quiet place saw some people practicing their stern too mooring so maybe and RYA tutor is based there. John saw a old white Mitchel 31 and a little green speedboat that had a flashing green light on it. We can only assume it doesn’t mean lifeboat personal as it does in
    Guernsey.
    Next we popped into Igoumenitsa to do some provisioning, then because wind had swung around again we headed across to Corfu island and a small harbour on Alykes Beach near Levkimmis point. The water was so blue and clear.
    Today we headed up the east coast of Corfu and are now tied up in Benitses harbour as thunder storms forecast for next few days. We took a short walk earlier inland to see the remains of the old aqueduct, if it’s not raining tomorrow morning we will go again and take camera as some lovely houses and sites.    Read more

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    Starvos Mount near Benitses

    May 12, 2019 in Greece ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Took a stroll today up to the mountain top well a bit more of a scrabble in places I think we were up at 435m. Saw lots of lovely views, newts, a mini more, 1830s aqueduct, phone box, lots of churches obviously, hair pin bends that even as pedestrians we had to use the outside edge of and then got rained on, on the way back to the boat.Read more

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    From old fort looking west
    View from lighthouse looking northSt Georges church

    Corfu town

    May 13, 2019 in Greece ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    After a blowy night and with a very damp forecast for the day ahead we headed by bus to Corfu town to be proper tourists for the day see the sights we missed last year. The old fort was impressive, some of the Venetian buildings as well as the British ones were still standing some had been restored. The fisherman’s shacks lining the moat walk were brilliant and we enjoyed walking through the fort to visit Mandraki Marina. The view of old Corfu Town from the lighthouse at the top of the Fort took our breathe away mostly coz it was so windy but also pretty impressive. The church was a lot less sparkling than the average Greek church but so was the day, from about noon it has been raining but we are snug in a cafe with our first English paper since Dad bought one over in February. Had lovely lunch at Bellisimo restaurant in Corfu town. We stopped off at Lidl’s on the way back and bought a case so can start packing a few presents for when we come home. Who wants Ouzo?Read more

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    Corfu old fort looking north
    Fort looking south3 Cruise shipsUsual greek lighthouse

    North past Corfu town to Ag Stefanos

    May 15, 2019 in Greece ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    We departed Benitses after a lovely if very wet couple of days and motored our way up past Corfu Town and on to Ag Stefanos for coffee/ beer. Very relaxing location with some nice walks around headlands both north towards Kassiopi and south. We anchored up just around the corner from Stefanos in Ormos Vroulias for the night and switched off the AIS ready for our clandestine visit to Albania. As you can see three cruise ships stopped in Corfu town on Wednesday so glad we weren’t there then.Read more

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    Fertile valley behind sarandeCorfu on fight Albania on leftSarande town

    Albania - New country for John

    May 16, 2019 in Albania ⋅ 🌧 21 °C

    We spent yesterday and last night in Sarandë in Albania. For those of you not in the know, if you have a non EU registered boat, we do, and don’t want the authorities to consider that you have imported the boat into the EU you must exit the EU at lest once every 18 months, well thats how we think it works. So last year we visited Tunisia and this year Albania. Sarandë was lovely not especially picturesque but clean and friendly, the people were very welcoming and helpful, checking in and out was painless but you do have to use an agent. Food and drink is cheaper than Greece but sadly there are not many sheltered anchorages, even Sarande only has a town quay and it’s fairly exposed. We took a walk up the hill to the east of the town to Lekursi Castle and were rewarded by breathtaking views and a very nice coffee. We also saw a converted Yamaha motorcycle with a two wheel trailer as the front end, road legal? Who knows.
    Wish we could have spent a bit more time but the anchorage was rather rolly and there is a weather window for Italy so we are on our way we are now anchored to the north of Orthoni, very near our first Greek anchorage when we arrived almost 11months ago.    Read more

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    9th century burial chamber
    Inside chamberStone house?Stone house John heading up stepsStone houseConical house

    Return to Italy

    May 18, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Bongioro Hello from Italy 🇮🇹 we travelled west from Albania and anchored up just North of Orthoni, the North western most of the Greek islands. Unfortunately on our way to the anchorage John decided to cut a corner and we collided with some rocks seemed OK at the time, we spent a rolly night and then headed off early towards Santa Maria de Leuca, 8 somewhat unpleasant hours later we arrived.
    Living on a boat for 2 years has not helped my seasickness, neither did the lemon and ginger tea or the sea bands, I don’t think there is much hope now that I will ‘get used to it’.
    Yesterday we spent a overcast day walking around the villages near Santa Maria, there were of course some churches and Mussolini’s steps but also some much older constructions including a 9th century burial chamber and lots of stone rooms/ houses, the older ones were conical the more modern ones square but they all had flat tops and steps up to the roofs. They don’t look like the Puglia houses but are of a similar construction two limestone skins with infill. Almost every modern property seemed to have at least one of these in the garden.
    This morning while I was trying to do a bit of yoga 🧘‍♀️, couldn’t run had got some beaut blisters yesterday, John had a check on various things and identified a small leak near the keel that may have been a result of our rocks encounter. We are looking into where we might be able to get this looked at.    Read more

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    Gallipoli fishing harbour
    Castle at Santa Maria al BagnoTorre Alto above Santa Caterina looking NorthSanta Maria al BagnoTower in Porto CesareoVilla near Santa Caterina

    Return to Gallipoli (Italy)

    May 24, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    The trip from Saint Maria up to Gallipoli wasn’t the smoothest, but I was on the helm for 3 hours and that definitely helped. Unfortunately when I took a break on a smoother patch I noticed wet carpet, John!! Bugger another bloody hose had come off the fresh water system and the bilges were again full of water, we had to slow while it was pumped out as John had to keep going below, clearing the bilge pump filters as the oil mats had disintegrated in all the water. We eventually made it to Bleu Salento Marina, it’s a bit flash and I worried about the cost, but there was a bit of a deal so only €42 a night. Once moored up we emptied the bilges again and dried everything off then we checked the forward bilge and it again had some water in it, from the leak we thought was near the keel after the rock encounter, but it wasn’t getting any deeper. Had a day mooching around both the new and old town and decided to ask at the yards here if anyone could lift us so we could check the welds on the keel.
    Joy Coralias Cantieri Marine could lift us ‘tomorrow morning at 8:00’ for €700 and they had a welder on site. Back on board we readied the boat, moved the kayaks and the dinghy, checked ropes etc. I also checked the forward bilge, No Water!! Oh well we would get lifted and see what we could see. Well the lift was an experience, first of all we reversed in ready quite narrow and shallow, but then they decided they had to put a small boat in so we had to move out, back in and then debates about how many and where to put the strops, I stay out of the way in the cabin. Next thing I know the boat’s being lifted with me on board, not a good experience the strops squeak and creak as they settle, the boat swings even when hoist is still! But all’s well that ends well the guys got everything settled and off I scuttled. After everyone, and I mean everyone had come and had a look and could find no hull breaches only 1 biggish scrap but it was to the rear and not through we concluded the water was not coming in from outside so after three days of sanding priming priming and antifouling we are back in the water and pondering our next move.
    Yesterday between coats of paint we decided to go for a bike ride, well I have worked out that we travelled about 70km in total, we got as far as Porto Cesareo a well sheltered lagoon with harbour that’s in a Marine Reserve we tried to find out how we go about getting an anchoring permit but failed, but well we’ve seen it now anyway. On the way we passed about 7 defensive towers built by for Spaniards, I think they were 16th century. Some had been renovated others were only ruins, the ride was pleasant as the roads weren’t very busy. On the way back we passed some fairly large estates but sadly most of the houses were in disrepair.    Read more

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    Castle
    Doric temple ruinsView of harbour, very choppyBuilding in new townDuomo in old townInner sea

    Taranto

    May 27, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 20 °C

    From Gallipoli to Taranto, and this trip surprisingly was actually calmer than forecast making us wish we had headed straight across the Gulf of Taranto instead of into it. Our plans to anchor off San Pietro island as is mentioned in Navily, were scuppered by the port VTS who told us that permission had to be obtained to do this so we headed towards marinas. No one was responding to our radio calls except the port authorities who confirmed we were on right channel. After milling we decided on a piece of wall to go alongside and miraculously a marinaro ( here they are called ormeggio) appeared with a radio on his belt. He moved us back and sideways onto a stern to mooring but said we might have to move the next day. Once secure we had a quick mooch around the old town, it is very sad, dilapidated, deserted and dirty, we were not feeling inspired about our choice of sheltered location, we would have to be here at least two nights. Next day we had another look around after formally checking in this time, perhaps because the sun was shining, things were looking better, the new town was wide avenues trees people and we found the main historic street of old town which was cleaner a few cafes people other than groups of young men.Read more

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    Alberobello

    May 28, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We got there eventually and I’m glad we made the effort, we bought our online tickets and waited early at the first bus stop only for bus to go sailing past us even though I was waving at him, next bus was hour later but we went to different stop after visiting tourist information. Great got this one but it only went half way to destination and the connecting bus that the website listed was for some reason not happening, eventually well after 45 mins hanging around we found another stop that had an early connection so walked to the train station, no trains only buses! So we arrived Alberobello an hour and a half later than planned so visit was a bit rushed and we were nervous about getting back. But our afternoon was lovely we first went to the less visited Trulli near the cathedral before lunch and then main tourist area houses are lovely and on our bus ride to the town we could see that many homes had been built around and over Trulli. Here are just a few of the photos I took.Read more

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    Martina Franca
    Martina Franca churchDuomo Martina FrancaCariati, old town on the hillCariati old townTake Five has now completed 10,000nM since John bought her

    Ciro Marina

    June 1, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    After a slow start we are now making swifter progress west. We spent another night in Taranto and used the day to visit Martina Franca photos attached, this is where we changed buses to go to Alberobello. The old town on top of the hill was beautiful, lots of tiny winding streets opening to Piazzas. From Taranto to Policoro Marina it’s about 5km from the town but so sheltered, clean, cheap and with good facilities. Then a night in Cariati Marina, old, expensive, no facilities but old town, again up the hill, was pretty and latte’s cost €1 each! We are now back in Ciro Marina, we stopped here about the same time last year, but this time we might have to pay as have been asked to visit an office later, not sure where, the wave from the guy who helped us moor was fairly vague.Read more

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    Castella castle
    Rocella CastleRocella CastleSanctuary at RocellaTower at RocellaMe in my homemade and designed poncho

    Ciro - La Castella - Rocella Ionica

    June 5, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    36nM calm trip yesterday from Ciro, we didn’t end up paying as no one in the office when they said or later that evening or the next morning. We watched the first half of the Champions League final Liverpool v Spurs so saw the first goal, we were watching the match with some Italian/Sicilian Canadians from Montreal apparently they do an Italian holiday every year.
    In Ciro we did a shop as we knew there were no supermarkets either here in La Castella or in Rocella Ionica our destination tomorrow. Took the day off today and did some baking more carrot cake and also some cheesecake to use some GF biscuits John decided he didn’t like. The only thing worth photographing here is the castle, but as I didn’t carry iPad here is photo from the internet, we had hoped to go for walk around the castle but it’s not open till the summer so we literally just walked around it! Over here that means July and August.
    We had another long trip to Rocella, it started off well but then 3hours of chop before a calm finish, we were underway for 8 hours. Having another couple of days off then a 10 hour trip to the Messina Straits. We have visited the castle and tower here in Rocella, wandered around town, done washing, and replaced tap washers so cleaning tomorrow. We found a random pedestrian trail up to the Castle in Rocella and only realised when we tried to leave through the main gate that it was actually closed well gates were padlocked shut. They have done a fair amount of renovation work on the old church and seaward side of castle rest still to be finished. We think that in season they have artist displays or similar.    Read more

  • Cruising donkeysThe journey homeCruising donkeys
    Scilla looking eastwards
    Swordfish boatScilla harbourScilla lighthouse

    Scilla

    June 8, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    From Rocella Ionica we had a 10 hour trip around the toe of Italy and up towards the Messina straits stopping the night in Reggio Calabria. We started out at 6am so were moored up around 4pm and managed a stroll through town and then back along the promenade. In this region of Italy there aren’t many old buildings the earthquakes keep destroying them, but the rebuilds in Reggio were Baroque in style and the streets were wide there were trees there that had definitely withstood many of the quakes that had toppled buildings, they were huge. We only stayed the one night then had a short 2hour hop to Scilla tomorrow we plan to go towards the Aeolian Islands but stopping at Milazzo on the way for a night.
    Scilla has a castle and lots of winding streets and two sword fish boats, they are weird most seem to do tourist trips nowadays, where you can climb to the crows nest to look for swordfish.    Read more

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