Freya & Us
| Vessel Name: | Freya of Wight |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Westerly Oceanranger |
| Hailing Port: | Portishead |
14 September 2022 | South Wales
Final Story
After 12 years, 8,924 miles, 376 ports of call we officially handed Freya to her new owner last night.
04 May 2022
Interactive Map
By clicking on the link below you can load an interactive map to see our route and explore the places we stopped at.
02 May 2022 | Kos - 8,924 NM
The end of another adventure
Time to move on as we needed to drop Ian and Jess off in Kos for their flight home. There wasn't a breath of wind as we motored to Kos harbour which is very atmospheric under the old castle. It all felt very hectic in the town after a few weeks exploring the tiny, peaceful islands. We were treated to [...]
24 April 2022 | Lakki, Leros - 8,914 NM
Stunning Aegean
It was 11 miles to Skala Patmos and an amazing broad reach sail all the way (almost!) - definitely what it's all about. The sea could've been flatter but it was as expected after the high winds. We went side to on the quay with a Finnish boat where it was very flat and peaceful, especially after the [...]
11 April 2022 | Lipsoi - 8,776 NM
At last, we’re off!
And finally we were ready to go! The engine started first turn, we let off the lines and left Samos marina. We've loved our extended stay on Samos but we're not sorry to leave the marina which is very is unprofessionally run. We were joined on our first trip for ages by dolphins just outside Pythagorio. [...]
07 April 2022 | Samos, 8,735NM
Very stressful final preparations
The engine was removed very efficiently and with great respect for the boat. It was taken to Zlatco's workshop for further investigation! They returned an hour or so later to clean up - very impressive and the engine bay has never looked so clean and shiny! It was very traumatic watching Freya having [...]
Back on Board
Our first challenge was picking up our hire car on the Tuesday evening. We arrived at Preveza airport 40 minutes before our scheduled pick up time, after a pleasant but long bus journey from Athens. Despite having booked an "In Terminal" pickup there was no one there. In fact there was no one at the airport at all. It was closed - for the winter. We tried ringing the local hire company but there was no answer. We rang rentalcars.com who had no luck contacting anyone either, but they did confirm our booking was at the airport and to call back if we still had a problem. We sat down in the car park and settled down to wait the 30 minutes or so until our pickup time. It felt very surreal sat on the floor of a dusty and all but deserted car park, watching the AWACS plane in the adjacent military airport practice its takeoffs and landings. We were quite enjoying the experience and needn't have worried, a few minutes before it was due our car arrived and we were soon on our way.
Quite surprisingly given that no one had set foot her since last May, she was in fine form and there was no sign of damp or the all too common boaty smell from the bilges. After a quick spot of antifouling and the replacement of a dodgy seacock, by Lorraine's nephew, Arran, we were ready to be launched on the Friday. This involved another mooring first for us. Med mooring using our anchor as opposed to lazy lines. We managed this with no problems, despite the anchor windlass playing up and adding another job to the "to do" list.
After checking the seacock wasn't leaking - how could we doubt Arran's skills - we started on the difficult job, cleaning away 10 months accumulation of dust. We got this and our other important commissioning jobs done in good order and on Sunday morning we set sail.
Our goal was to make it to Nydri, all of 17 NM away. The first part of the journey was with the engine, as we had to navigate the narrow dredged channels on the exit from Preveza and then a brief sail to the Lefkas canal. We timed our passage to perfection arriving just on 12:00 to make the scheduled opening of the bridge. We motored through the canal to enter the sea again about 50 minutes later. From the exit we had a spirited close-hauled sail to Nydri, sailing at up to 6kts.
We are now moored alongside the town quay (pontoon) where we will stay a few days completing our commissioning jobs and gate crashing Arran's social life. We have to attend George's birthday party, visit Vliho yacht club for a film night and then finally a musical revue featuring our very own Arran at the weekend.
Today's plan for the next few weeks is a gentle amble North and then into Albania for a few weeks cruising before we return to the Ionian to meet up with family in May.
Click here for the interactive map of our travels
