Well, it's been an amazing year. This time 365 days ago we were in Beaucaire in the south of France, on Fandancer. We stayed there for five months over the winter before living on April 30th this year to start our journey to Greece. We sailed via Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, the foot of Italy, and then over to Corfu, arriving on June 14th.
On arrival in Kassiopi, Corfu, we encountered an unseasonal heat wave for June, with temperatures about ten degrees warmer than average, which lasted the whole of the summer. With apologies to those of you in England, we didnt see any rain last summer from before we left the south of France at the end of April until one day in early August when we had a ten minute rain shower while in Lefkas, resulting in even warmer weather for the rest of August and the whole of September.
We had various friends and relatives visit us on board Fandancer while in Corfu over the summer, and we hope more will come to see us in 2013. After the Ionian we reached the Argo-Saronic via the Corinth canal on 27 August, and during the first week of October we left Poros for the Cyclades, reaching our eventual winter home in Syros via Kithnos and Serifos.
Fandancer is now out of the water in the boatyard in Syros. We have rented a small apartment within easy walking distance of the boat and the town centre and we expect to be there until April.
Tim and I were both in the UK over Christmas, he has returned to Syros but I am staying on for a while due to the arrival of grandchildren!
During late summer I wrote an article for Sailing Today about our trip through the french canals which has just been published in the February issue. So I am basking in the glory of being a magazine writer and photographer for a short while, until the recycling lorry takes away all the copies. I mentioned this blogsite in the article, so I would like to welcome any new readers who made the effort to read my ramblings and find this blog! Let me know who you are.
More news soon ....