Greece

September 10, 1998: Greece

Sorry this is gonna be another long drawn out letter that has been added to over a period of time, due to not being able to send or receive E-mail for quite some time. I just cannot find the right combination here in Greece. If you are reading this It means that the Americans that we met today have let me use their acoustic coupler. Brad is going to send us our very own acoustic coupler via Gavin and Katie, we should than be back on line on a more regular basis, ie after 9/21/98.

Santa Maria de Luca Italy - Aug. 29

Twas a dark and stormy night! Actually it was a dark and stormy two days and nights. We pulled into Santa Maria de Luca 3 days ago in the evening after a 72 mile sail and the wind was up only a little, we got up at 6 the next morning to go onward to Greece, but the storm clouds were forming so we went back to bed. the wind got up to about 20 knots from the south blowing directly into the marina where we were, giving heavy surge. We were moored with the stern of the boat backed into the pier and the front tied to their mooring line with winds of 20 knots on our side. It got a bit rough, and we finally set another anchor out in front and tied another line with a rolling hitch onto their mooring line and ran it to our electric anchor winch. We then got out our trusty one inch docking lines and doubled everything to the floating pier from both sides. We did a lot of rocking and rolling for the next two days and nights with winds up to 27 knots and black black clouds. Not a very pleasant time or place.

I have now learned how to take a 65 lb. CQR anchor and heavy chain into the dingy and to reset an anchor as needed. It ain’t easy, but can be done once you get your adrenalin up.

Early today, 8/29, we got up and it looked OK out, so we left for Greece. We were headed for a small Island off the north coast Corfu, some 48 miles away, an easy sail, and it was! We did have a little excitement though, as a huge black cloud formed behind up. We kept an eye on it, and about 1400 we saw the water churn and felt the cold air in time to get our sails down. We had a wind shift and it increased to 22 knots. We arrived at North Othonoi Island about 1700. It is a wonderful little anchorage. We anchored in 2 meters of water in a sandy beach. There is a small village here and the country side is green. That is a color we haven’t seen in some time, as the Italian countryside has been rocky and barren. A cool n/w wind blew all night, and it felt great to be cool for the first time in 6 or 8 weeks.

much later - 3 days- 9/1/98 From Corfu Greece

We sat in Orthoni Harbor for a couple days as it was a lovely spot, and the wind was pretty strong day and night. We left after two days in winds of 18 knots. The winds built and we were soon going warp speed with all sails up, we came past the north of Corfu Island, within a couple miles of Albania, and turned south down the Albania/Corfu channel. We were averaging 9 knots of boat speed. Once we got into the smooth water in the bay we really got moving. A 60 ft. racing sloop, with the biggest genoa I have ever seen in my life ( it was almost dragging in the water) tacked to have a race with us to corfu city. We all tightened sails ( with Ruth reminding me we are not racing) and away we went in smooth smooth water with winds 20 to 24 knots. It didn’t take us long to get to the other end of the 15 mile bay! They beat us by about 200 yards, but it was a fun sail with spray flying. We were running 11+ knots of boat speed and never quite made 12. Our old F-31 trimaran Noor, would have been going a solid 20 knots!

We checked into Corfu and have a transit log, cost $20 and took an hour or so. We refuled only for the second time this summer and are now anchored in a quiet bay underneath the lee of an ancient citidel high on a hill on the point. We have only been into the city for a short while but it looks delightful. There are parks, museums, and trees trees. The Island is very green. With 300 drachmas to the dollar it doesn’t seem too expensive. In the port officials office we saw on the TV that the markets of the world were collapsing. We are also down a bunch, but money isn’t everything.

This is probably as far north and east that we will be going. We plan to turn south to visit Paxos, Ithica, Skorpio, etc before going to Malta. In Malta we need to get a couple of things done to the boat in preparation for the Atlantic crossing. Also I consider Malta our last easy sail. The other sails Tunis, Ibeza, & to Spain are long and will be windward. We hope Gavin and Katie join us soon. This is a big boat and Ruth is usually the one that ends up with the skinned hands and mashed toes. When we come into port it is often very tricky, with wind and waves, to jump off and wrap mooring lines around whatever is available and to secure the boat. I stay at the helm, handling the two engines, and the wheel trying to get us into a safe position , but I don’t always get it right. With one more person, Ruth could take the bow line and the other person the stern line, making life a whole lot easier. We did not have nearly as many problems with our light trimaran, but this is a 16000 lb. beast. Sailing is easy though. Well I better go now, hope all is well with you all, and that the financial markets get better for us all. Marvin and Ruth

Sunday 9/6/98 Corfu

We were not able to send or receive E-mail so I’ll add to this already lengthy letter. You cannot believe how difficult and frustrating it is to get on line each time, especially in different countries with different phone connections and different dial tones. The biggest problem is finding a telephone to use, it is maddening. All we need is a telephone jack to plug the computer into, you cannot use a pay phone. I go around begging people to use their phone to make a simple local call. They will not let you use their phone. I put the computer into a carrying case, launch the dingy and go ashore, then walk all over town begging to use a phone. One lady let me use her phone, but then when she saw that I had to unplug her handset, she got mad as a hatter with lots of screaming and hollering. I literally traipzed all over Corfu finding a phone, when I did finally get one to use, the damn system would not work, even reducing the baud rate to 1200 and reconfiguring the string to ignore the dial tone. Really really frustrating! AOL has a number right here in Corfu. I can pick up any telephone, dial AOL’s local number and get the modem screech, but I cannot get the computer to acknowledge it, because of the dial tone. Brad is going to send me an acoustic couplier that will allow us to use a pay phone.

After being here for a week (that is the longest time we have voluntarily stayed in any one spot) we were ready to leave when during the night here came a storm. The sky got black and a wet storm moved in from the south east. Not a lot of wind but plenty of rain, and dark dark all day so far. I was out in my skivies this morning scrubbing and mopping the entire boat, then taking a rainwater shower myself. Lots and lots of water! Maybe we will leave here tomorrow. This big boat is really great, we are anchored in an open exposed bay with plenty of chop. In front of us is a small monohull, the poor guy is bouncing all over the place and has to be uncomfortable. It is so bad that he must be sleeping on the sole! We barely joggle around and are comfortable.

We have anchored out all the time here. It is quiet, and the water is clear for a swim anytime. Yesterday we motored around to the city docks to go shopping and reprovision. We considered staying there tied onto the concrete pier, it was free, but it was smelly with little breeze and boats were coming and going. We are really developing a preference for anchoring even though you have to reset anchors, joggle around a lot, and ride the dingy to get to shore.

We enjoyed Corfu. We went shopping, sight seeing, and ate out a little. We rented a motorscooter one whole day and went across the Island to Paliastrokia, and off the main roads to a small village up in the mountains. Saw little old ladies wearing traditional costumes riding donkeys into the village down a steep trail.

This is all nice, but after two months we are a little homesick. Traveling and sight seeing in a strange country.

September 10, 1009: More of Greece

9/8/98 Paxoi Greece. Hello, hope you are all well. We are anchored in the lovely bay of Lakka in Paxoi Greece just south of Corfu. We sailed here today from Monastery Bay in Mourtos, which is on the mainland, just across from Corfu. With Islands and beautiful bays every few miles we have been only sailing 10 to 15 miles a day and going ashore in each place to take a walk. We do not moor to a dock or pier even if it is free and right there. We prefer anchoring in clear water, where it is quiet. This bay has a constant stream of Moorings charter boats coming and going. There must be 20 boats in this small bay at the moment. With each boat flying their home country flag, it is very international. Being in Europe we do not often get english speaking neighbors. Had a British couple next to us for a little while this morning but they had been here for two days and soon left. We have only seen two or three American cruisers here. Most of them we have talked to leave their boat here for the winter and just sail in the summer. I will admit that one cannot see Europe from a boat in one summer, even if it is a long summer and you are constantly on the move. We would like to have the time to go up thru the Greek Islands and to Turkey and other places, but will probably head west in a couple of weeks. After the hot August we had with very little wind, we are having a fair amount of rain and some unsettled weather. It rained for two days, hard and lots of water, in Corfu and this morning it was totally cloudy. We set off, with wind increasing, to sail the 12 miles out to Paxoi. As we rounded the headland the wind and seas increased, we were soon crashing into big seas with 20-23 knots of wind and all sails up. The wind soon eased to 16-18 knots and Ruth said: leave it all up, it is only 12 miles! So away we went, crashing and smashing along at 10 -11 knots hard into the wind. It got better as we got into the lee of the Island and we had a fine sail. It rained hard just as we came into the bay washing all the saltwater off the boat. We couldn’t ask for more! The boat sails well to windward at 14 to 15 knots of wind, we trip along at 10-12 knots of boat speed. The only complaint I have with the boat is that is just doesn’t have enough house battery power. It has three 105AH sealed batteries for house power and three starting batteries one for each engine and one for the generator. When we somewhere with a good electrician, I am going to have two more house batteries 180AH each installed. That will give us adequate power for a boat this size, and be much more efficient. I now have to crank up the 4kw generator every day just to charge 3 small batteries, that is wasting a lot of power. The refrigerator is also a problem as it gobbles power day and night, 6.1 amps. I think it needs freon, if that doesn’t work it will have to go.

The next day - We are still here in Paxoi. We had an early dinner and turned in reading our books. Outside the clouds were forming. By midnight we had a thunder and lightening display the likes that I have never seen. It lit up the whole sky and kept it lit. It got so bad that I was worried about lightening hitting us, with our mast sticking up some 67 ft. and a big copper ground plate below for our radio. I had heard that if lightening hit you with the instruments on it fried all, so I turned off the house batteries and all instruments. It is a good thing I kept the engine starting batteries on because about 2 oclock in the morning the wind shifted from south to north and blew and I mean blew! We drug anchor and were going backward thru a whole fleet of boats toward the rocks on the back of the bay. It was raining, blowing and lightening lit up everything. It was surreal! I threw the other anchor (a 65 lb. plow anchor) overboard but it didn’t catch either, so here we were dragging two huge anchors and lots of chain thru a fleet of boats. We finally got both engines started and were able to control ourselves a little bit. With the wind and rain and lightening we couldn’t even hear each other, we were screaming to each other while other people were also hollering at us, some offering help and others saying don’t hit my boat. They couldn’t be much help anyway unless they were on our boat and spoke english. Speaking english didn’t help a lot either! The wind blew us all the way out of the bay after we got both anchors up, where we had to make a decision, to sail out where we would just crash and smash into soft waves or risk going back into the bay. The wind was 20 -2 25 knots and the sea was rough so, back in we went. We managed to set two anchors in the clear away from everyone, and just sat there bouncing around, on watch until daylight. When it got daylight we pulled both anchors and went into a sheltered part of the bay. Within an hour every boat in the bay pulled their anchor and joined us in the sheltered part of the bay.

They were really getting bounced out in the open bay. It is world of difference between a quiet serenity and all hell breaking loose in the middle of the night!! After re-anchoring, we dried off and went back to bed for a couple of hours, as did everyone else, while it rained steady. It is now mid afternoon, and still raining, but no wind and we are going out to dinner in the small village. It is a delightful place. The hills are covered with olive trees, and pine trees, with occasional little whitewashed houses. Quiet and peaceful. We were very very lucky to have survived the night without loosing anything but a few hours sleep. This is a big boat with lots of windage, and we must really anchor more carefully. Neither of us seem to be much worse for the exercise, Ruth comes up to the task! I better go now as the computer battery is about run down.