SV ICE BEAR

Vessel Name: ICE BEAR
Vessel Make/Model: Privilege 39
Hailing Port: Victoria Canada
Crew: Don and Cindy
About: From Vancouver Island British Columbia. Retired and enjoying relaxing Cruising.
Extra: we were hard core racers having sailed many many miles and loved the Long distance races with our previous three boats and friends boats but now we are pulling the throttles back. Even though ICE BEAR has a very nice turn of speed.
27 July 2019
12 July 2019 | Nydri marine
30 June 2019
07 May 2019
25 April 2019 | Temple of Zeus, Olympia
11 September 2018
03 August 2018
13 July 2018
27 June 2018 | Nafplio
11 June 2018
01 June 2018
19 May 2018
10 May 2018
06 May 2018
25 April 2018
20 January 2018
06 January 2018
19 December 2017
08 December 2017
Recent Blog Posts
27 July 2019

Paxos / Corfu

The next morning we paid the new Greek cruising tax said goodbye to the guys on Mangata and the lovely town of Preveza. Our next stop was Paxos. The island of Paxos was only a short hop up the Greek coast. It was a great place to wait for good conditions to cross the Adriatic sea to Italy. The harbour [...]

12 July 2019 | Nydri marine

The Bank

With our return to Vliho bay the weather cooled back down and the rain returned we spent the next few days doing more boat jobs.Found the rattle in the steering system there was wear in the linear drive and to fix it we needed new parts sigh one more job for Tunisia. Replaced the fresh water pump, fixed [...]

30 June 2019

The Aussie

We motored to the stern of Mangata and knocked. From inside we heard a hello woohoo he was home well we kinda knew he was home the dinghy was tied to the stern. We climbed aboard and went below for a quick tour and drink. I always forget how much room is inside a Bavaria. There must be at least [...]

07 May 2019

The next ten days were spent in the boat yard. Unlike last year there was no red dirt but it was cold and wet.Fortunately we had a heater and electricity. When it rained we went to the stores for parts and food when it dried for a few minutes we painted the bottoms, serviced the engines, repaired [...]

25 April 2019 | Temple of Zeus, Olympia

Adventure 2019 begins

The 2019 travel season started on April 2nd with a ferry ride to Vancouver where wonderful friends put us up for the night before the flight to Greece. Thank you so much. The flight was just the way we like flights uneventful. Once we passed through customs and satisfied the man at the exit that the [...]

24 April 2019

Wrap up of 2018 sailing season

When we left our intrepid traveler Emmet he was in Poros waiting for a weather system to pass. While waiting food was consumed and roads were walked. One of the boats near us had its anchor lifted and ended up side tied to the quay which wasn’t a great place to be. The surge from the storm and other [...]

Mljet

01 September 2017
Micasay had left before us to get some more pictures of Dubrovnik all we needed to do was find them should be easy it was open water lots of visibility except for the island we seemed to never be on the same side of..right sorted that. The trip to Mljet gave us the opportunity to try our new kite so exciting. It took a few minutes and woohoo we had all the lines rigged to fly. OMG its huge and colourful. I knew how big it was. Before we left home we had the thing covering the whole living room and up the stairs while we were checking for tears before packing it for the flight but when its up the mast wow. We didn't rush anything and pop there it was.
Micasay must have had the same idea because we looked over and she was sporting a lovely blue kite. As it turns out it was a first for her as well. As we neared Mljet the wind turned and we doused our new toys. They must have seen us coming because two small boats were racing towards us their drivers intent on getting our two boats tied to their mooring balls for the night. The deal is if you park on their mooring ball its free but you must eat at their restaurant. Sounds good to me. The view from the restaurant was hmm trees I guess they did say it was the only restaurant in the area made of wood. We spent two days in Saplunara bay swimming, then we moved to Okuklje bay. In this bay the restaurant had a quay so we stern tied. The restaurant was good there was a truck that came around and sold fruit and veg. We walked around the bay and looked at these really big clams. I suspect that touching one would result in some sort of fine. We spent two days swimming and watching the charter boats come and go. Our next stop was a little bay on Korcula island near Lumbarda I'm not sure why but I cant find its name on any charts. We spent two nights here as well and yes you guessed it we went swimming hehe. However the weather report was showing a bit of a storm coming our way so we thought maybe it was time to find a secure place to hold up. That's when we found this little harbour just North of the city of Korcula. Banja harbour didn't really look much different then any other harbour by that I mean they are all beautiful lined with houses and some restaurants. The thing abut Banja is the gentleman that owns the dark coloured mooring balls Ante. He charged us 20 eu a night for the ball then invited us for a taste of his wine made from his own grapes, offered us a drive into the town of Korcula both which we accepted. (The city of Korcula is a well kept walled city and the home town of Marco Polo) He offered to take us to one of the Restaurants in the bay. Micasay even ended up getting their laundry done while we were there and to top it off before we left the
bay he let us fill our water tanks all we needed to do was keep the boat near enough to the water supply as there was no dock. A very big thank you Ante for making your beautiful home so memorable. Once the big winds had past we headed North to the island of Scedro where we picked up a restaurants mooring ball. Just like every ball we have tied to the skipper dove down to check it out he didn't come back with his usual happy expression. While he felt the concrete block on the bottom would hold us in the light to non existent winds forecast for the next few days he didn't feel that this would be a safe place for a boat the size of Ice Bear if the wind picked up. After some swimming they had the big clams here as well and a nap we hopped into the dingy and motored to the restaurant only to be told that we should have reserved a table they were full.
It seems while we were playing two large charter flotillas had arrived. Flotillas are an interesting thing. Usually there is a boat (We on Ice Bear call this the mother duck) covered in flags. Now before someone gets excited I say flags because its usually a mixture of burgees, pennants and miscellaneous other things flying from the jib halyard. The mother duck arrives and ties to whatever. Then as the day progresses slowly the ducklings arrive and raft (tie) next to the mother duck. The experience level of the crews aboard the charter boats vary from lots to none at all and often the people on the charter boat met the day they boarded for the trip. Sometimes the mother duck crew needed to be very hands on with the docking assistance sometimes all they needed to do was throw a line to the boat. The next day when they leave the crew will help cast off the ducklings collecting whatever may have been left behind to the best of their ability. This enables the cruisers to check out swimming beaches or sight see without having to worry about finding a secure place for the night or apparently a restaurant for dinner. Not to worry there was a second restaurant in the bay and they had room at a table away from the main seating area for people that didn't have the foresight to make a reservation hmm. We shared it with some people from Denmark and had a lively discussion about Lego.
The next morning a boat puttered into the bay selling pastries wow how could you resist a boat full of fresh pastries 24 kn for a doughnut and a croissant mmmm breakfast of champions.
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ICE BEAR's Photos - Main
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Created 24 April 2019
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Created 25 April 2018