Sundowner II log – 2009 update 32 – Malta to Greece

August 21st 2009
Having been unable to find work and the weather wet and extremely cold, rather than sit around spending money waiting for the hull to dry,

after nearly 10 years in the water, (we didn’t realise fiberglass boats get wet and need to dry out regularly) we made the most of the cheap airlines and took time out visiting friends and family, first back to Gaeta to surprise the Viglietti family and then on to Portugal to Buddy’s new home east of Lisbon in the countryside, where we even managed to go up to the mountains and play in the snow,

then England where we were delighted to learn from Alex and Tania that we will become Grandparents in December - aagh - and Scotland to see the Bears before returning to what we had hoped would be a warm Malta which turned out had started an early summer and was unbearably hot making the work on Sundowner particularly hard and took 2 months of 12 hour days to complete. Exhausted and very stressed Sundowner was launched and a crane used to raise the mast which still took 2 hours to complete and it was very unnerving taking on the responsibility of tensioning the rigging on our own.

After a week of testing and resting we said a final goodbye to Gilbert, Keith and Heidi who had been unbelievably helpful and kind and got us through the hard previous months keeping us sane with their humour, positiveness and Keith’s teethy smile and antics – Keith is a dog by the way but nobody has told him yet!

When we first met and chatted to Gilbert he asked how we got ashore as we spend most of the summer at anchor, we told him by dinghy but it was finished, the next day he returned with his 3 metre Avon and gave it to us and so the following months passed in a similar vein even taking us away for a chilled out weekend exploring Gozo – marvellous. We tried to head directly to Crete, Kos & Bodrum where our friends were on holiday but the wind blew from the east so we ended up going north to Porto Palo on the south eastern tip of Sicily anchoring for two nights before setting off.
We had hoped to go up the Messina Strait to see friends but with the wind blowing from the west we decided to head straight for Greece, saving the long trip around the foot of Italy. After filling the tank from the jerry can we still only had two thirds of a tank, about 100 miles worth. We returned to the fishing harbour only to find the nearest fuel available was two hours up the coast so at 10am with what would be our longest trip yet of 300 miles which could take 4-6 days we raised the genoa and then two hours later the cruising chute and settled down for the journey with the thought ‘well we are a sailing boat after all!’ Just to help settle any nerves a turtle gave us a wave as he drifted past then a pod of dolphins stopped nearby for lunch blowing their bubbles circling and diving as the birds hovered above. It was a beautiful evening pottering along at 2-3 knots as the sun went down and the nearly full moon shone to light the night. At midnight the wind died and after 12 hours the chute was taken down, we drifted for a couple of hours before trying again but with a large ship nearby and the moon gone we motored away into the pitch dark, not a nice feeling after so many blissful hours but we let Perkins rest again as the dawn rose. Once again with no wind we drifted and then made lots of sail changes before the chute was set again, we had covered 70 miles 15 motoring in the first 24 hours. It was a frustrating second day with variable winds and we only covered 51 miles but we weren’t in a hurry and didn’t use the motor the solar panel supplying all our electrical power for the fridge during the day, lights at night and GPS 24 hours and we had passed our 6000th mile since leaving Guernsey. At one stage after dunking the cruising chute and emptying it of a ton of water we lost our nerve a little and had thoughts of heading north but it was never really an option. We passed the halfway point in the evening of the 3rd day and celebrated with a promised small glass of wine and by 10am the following morning had sailed 91 miles in the 24 hour period then the wind really set in strongly from the west so strong that we had to snuff the chute behind the genoa. Later still we had to drop the genoa as it was struggling to stay filled with the following wind and waves and when we opened the chute it blew the ropes out of the cleats, the fact we were doing 2.5 knots in between times without any sails should have been a bit of a clue as to how strong the wind was but it feels so much less coming from behind. When the wind changed more to the north we had to reef both the main and the genoa powering into the night with the moon quite often hidden behind the clouds, large seas and constant shipping all made for a bit of a scary night and it was a welcome dawn that revealed our first sight of the Greek Islands but with only 10 miles to go the wind stopped and then blew from the island ahead so strong that we had to motor or risk being blown back to who knows where, luckily the large waves were still with us going east. We then entered the bay of Vasiliki and raised the genoa to sail north to the head of the bay so we could at least say we sailed into if not all the way to Greece.

We dropped the anchor having done 99 miles in the final 24 hour period 311 miles in total (all hand steered as our autohelm had packed up long ago) and only 25 of those with the help of a happy Perkins using 6 litres – 6 euros worth of diesel fuel.
Vasiliki – there are always little hints to help you along to make life easier like high hills mean accelerated wind down off the slope, windsurfers and hobbie cats mean wind, a sailing school that boasts to be in one of the top 10 spots in the world means regular wind, so as you are drifting backwards through the anchorage helped by 38 knots of wind it’s no good making excuses – the signs were there and it’s no good asking yourself why you didn’t put out adequate chain, you have to calmly start the engine and drive into the wind retrieving the rode and chain as you go whilst missing the surrounding yachts, attached chains and anchors. We re-anchored rather sheepishly closer inshore with a bit more than the recommended length of chain which the next morning with a change in wind direction put us conveniently across the hobbie cats start and finish line which aided their lessons in tacking skills no end.
After two nights we up anchored and went in search of bread, water and our first steps on dry land for 8 days which we found in Vlhiko just 8 miles up the coast and we passed the Onassis island of Skorpios on the way. We had tried to enter a harbour earlier but were forced to retreat by a dozen of charter yachts heading out, this being the chaos season and passing port to port is only done when refilling a glass. After one night, for some space, we headed north up and through the Levkas canal to the inland sea of Amvrakikos collecting diesel on the way. When the road bridge finally opened the hectic charge from both directions began and in the chaos we passed HT Janix going the other way with Shane and Mayuri waving as heartily as us, to the bemusement of the dozens of other vessels racing through. We motored to the buoyed channel into the inland sea and anchored off Preveza, the next day being a Sunday we went shopping and with all the shops shut saved lots of money but we did pop into the nearby hospital casualty unit which was quiet and got a prescription for Dennis’ spotty chest rash / infection that he had brought with him from Malta we were unsure of the cause whether stress or heat, we had tried a few boat remedies which involved sticky honey and when that didn’t work a poultice of porridge oats was tried, all very humourous and messy but a course of antibiotics was the final solution. Heavy smoking was hinted as to the cause but we have a suspicion that two mosquito bites became infected after a swim, it seems wherever you go harbours and populated bays make for the most convenient dumping grounds.
With our classical education of ‘Up Pompeii’ and the channel 4 series ‘Rome’ we were keen to see the victory city which was built by Octavian after defeating Mark Antony’s fleet out of Preveza (Aktion) and Cleopatra ran away with hers. We anchored in a quiet spot for a couple of nights going ashore only to find that the walk to the ruined city was too long but we did manage to take a nice photo of the pile of rocks in the distance and some delicious blackberries,

we also sampled our looked forward to first Greek coffee which was disgusting and tasted like the dregs of a coffee pot as unbeknown to us you are supposed to leave it for ten minutes so that the dust settles - oops. The two days here gave us time to relax and complete the making of our new bimini.

Now being in the north west we used the prevailing winds to go in search of the dolphins ending up later anchored under some land giving us shelter for the night from the strong winds.

More sailing and exploring the next day took us to Vonitsa

with it’s beautiful anchorage and it’s small harbour town and with our first chance to consume copious amounts of the local beer it was a dark wobbly walk back to the anchorage.

The following morning with a final battle with the wasps at the tap by the church the last two cans were filled with holy water and we set sail taking a slow four and a half hours to cover the 8 miles back to Preveza with a lovely fry up breakfast and cup of tea in the sun on the way.
Conveniently we arrived just in time for a short walk down to the Sports Bar to watch United play their first game of the season. On the subject of United when we were in Malta the matches were always a good distraction to get us away from the yard, we even managed to attend the 50th anniversary celebration member’s party of the supporters club

and along with David May Superstar were the last to leave the problem was it was a down hill walk to the room we had rented and involved a lot of bruised stumbling and trying to get the key to open the door of the wrong house for two hours was interesting. The next day the late morning singing in the sunshine at our local bar in Marsascala went down well but we did take their advice to go home and have a siesta. Our next excursion to Valletta Harbour for the European cup final was fun too, expecting a waterside full of singing supporters and large screens we were confronted with posh restaurants and being three hours early for the kick off got prime seats with the wide screen tv just one metre from our eyes

and veggie burgers and chips to soak up our reasonably priced large beers and after 6 hours United still hadn’t turned up so we returned to our hotel room over looking the beautiful harbour.
Up early on the Monday morning and with the wind from the north east the genoa was raised from the first buoy and we sailed out heading south west more or less in a straight line cutting out the channel buoys which our draught allows, anyway they’re only there for the big ships? After setting the course south the wind moved to the east and we had a beautiful sail down to the canal anchoring while we waited for the bridge to open,

after negotiating the channel we sailed again down to Nidri where we were met by Emanuela and Fulvio aboard Tetis their beautiful Warram Cat

that we had last seen two years ago in Gaeta and we had kept in touch. Shane also arrived aboard Janix and before they left the next day we had a photo shoot and Mayuri gave us a huge selection of spices which were well received.

We must give our trusty Honda a word as with all the time spent in the yard a few jobs were neglected, Honda being one of them spent a full year mounted on the stern and became home to our pet fly catching spider, incredibly with one year old petrol Honda started first time and has continued to do so even though the manufacturers wouldn’t gift us a new exhaust after we told them of his colourful exploits in a letter – boo.
In the evening after a meal in the busy town with plenty of local grape juice whilst passing over a small fishing boat to the dinghy Sandra showed that dancing on a wobbly deck is not possible and ended up bruised sat in the cockpit - he must have been a tidy fisherman as no fish hooks had to be removed from the battered behind. We motored over to Meganisi, swam and had lunch with the Tetis crew then it was time to say farewell, Fulvio being a particularly gifted guy and a fellow Scorpio with Dennis and soon to be a fellow Nonno gave us a carving he had made of Capitan Harlock

http://www.myspace.com/fulem
which will look good mounted by the steering column, we then set sail to Kalamos where once again all the hints were ignored and we got caught out in the heavy gusts between the islands which was not nice eventually making it into the southern anchorage of Port Leone where Sten, a nice man from Sweden, took our line ashore in his dinghy and with his wife Maggie from Glasgow kept us laughing until three in the morning as the wine flowed. A north east wind started blowing into the anchorage a few hours later the small waves rocking us awake at 6 and by 10 we had had enough and with a well reefed genoa headed for the shelter of the island Petalas and on the way received a phone call from our son Sebastian on holiday in Australia to tell us that he had asked his girlfriend Rebecca to marry him and she had tearfully said yes – wonderful! The anchorage was stunning mainly because there was nothing there just a few yachts quietly at anchor

and a turtle Sandra woke up as she lowered the anchor. Finally peace and quiet and Dennis slipped into a semi coma and it took a lot of nudging from Sandra to wake him, she had inflated the dinghy because just ahead a turtle was flapping and gasping for air trapped in a fishing net

– not for long though because the offending trap was cut to free the panicked shellback. We have this vision of the fishermen retrieving their net only to find a turtle shaped hole in the middle - ha ha! An hour of so later the turtle did return but this time he was released by just rolling him over and untangling his head and flippers and when he re-surfaced he departed with a wave.
After a second peaceful night we awoke early with the dawn and after our cup of tea up anchored without starting the engine and sailed out of the bay and down to the last island to turn east into the Gulf of Patras where the wind died. It’s amazing how you can go so quickly from heaven to hell with the only close anchorage filled up with a fish farm we made the mistake of motoring the 23 miles to Messalonghi. Without regular forecasts we were unaware of the bad weather ahead in the east and being a Saturday the large motor boats were out in squadrons and we spent a murderous few hours at the helm being thrown around in a drunken kangaroo boxer dance kind of way. Eventually things quietened, we didn’t realise that there were major fires around Athens ahead of us which is not surprising because we haven’t seen any proper rain since we left Malta to go on our walkabouts, the day we arrived in Italy the rain stopped after three months, the same in Portugal and England and only one days rain in Scotland, so basically we have experienced one day’s rain in 7 months. We turned up into the buoyed channel to Messalonghi in the hope of seeing a piece of land that is forever England (Byron) also big turtles. With Sandra determined to anchor and Dennis making every excuse not to we were waved over from the marina which turned out to be free and had our first showers for a month, then found an internet café to watch Manchester United v Wigan followed by some celebratory beers and home made pizza on board under the tilley lamp – perfect!