Update

Hi Everyone.
Clive has been nagging and nagging me to do this update. I am sorry it is almost 18 months since the last one. Yet again I have no excuse except laziness.
We left Finike on the 7th April 2011 ( yes that long ago) and made our way to Fethiye via Kekova and Kas. We hoped to catch up with our friends, Keith and Carole on 'Kirsten Jayne'. We hadn't seen them since Asia and were so pleased to see them again. We spent a week with them admiring the new paint job on 'Kirsten Jayne'
Our plans for that season was to go up the Turkish coast and cross to the Greek islands, spend a little while there and then go through the Corinth Canal to leave the boat in Messalonghi mid July to late August while we flew back to the UK to escape the heat. But our plans whent to custard when we decided to be good cruisers and check in with the Port Police in Samos. To cut a long story short - Jane-G is a Guernsey registered boat. It is still a British registered but unknown to us and the majority of Greek officials, except the one in Samos. Because our address is within the EU and the boat is registered in Guernsey we could only stay for 1 month. Eventually he did say after checking our passport that we could stay for 3 months. But this gave us a problem because he said it was OK but what if another official said it wasn't. So change of plan. We made our way to Lesvos and within the month went to Ayvalik, Turkey. We checked out the marina and booked to leave Jane-G there when we fly home. We now had 5 weeks before flying home to go cruising and decided to go north to the Khalkadiki region. This is the '3 fingers' in the north Aegean Sea. I should go back to the Port Police in Samos and thank them because it was a much better sailing plan that we were forced into. It was so beautiful and quiet and the weather was much cooler and with no Meltemi (that is the strong wind that blows from the north through the Aegean). The registration problem we sorted by changing it back to Small Ships Registration when we went home.
The Atki peninsular is the furthest east and special permission is needed for men to visit and women are not allowed at all. In fact we were supposed to sail at least 1 mile off shore because I was on board. At some time in the past it is said that even female animals were not allowed to live there. This is because it is a religious area that is dedicate to the Virgin Mary and for centuries was divorced from the outside world. There are stunning monasteries all the way up the coast, some clinging to the rock face, some small and some monstrous. We pottered around the area finding some beautiful anchorages and the peace that we enjoy so much. There was a little problem in Port Kofus where a charter boat came into the anchorage at 1.30 in the morning partying and ran into the side of us and just carried on with the party. The next morning we saw them and after a lot of hassle of them refusing to show us the charter papers Clive settled on €50 for paint. They were very lucky we are a soft touch!
It was time to start heading back down the Aegean to Limnos, which is one of our favourite islands. And then to Lesvos. We did have a disaster in Skala Loutra when we went for a lovely walk through the olive groves to the town. It started to rain and by time we got back to the boat it was REALLY raining. Unfortunately the hatches were open and my computer was underneath one. We took the battery out straight away, tipped the water out and then we took it apart. If there was a screw, it came out, if there was a plug it came off and then we put a fan on it to dry it out. After a few hours we put it back together and guess what - nothing, bummer! So what do you do - go ashore and have a couple of Ouzos! When we came back I decided to try again and discovered we had put a cable on the wrong way - bingo we had life. Unfortunately shortly after we went back to the UK for 6 weeks and when we came back it only worked for a little while.
On our return from the UK we were ready to make our way to Messalonghi . First we crossed to the Northern Sporades to the islands of Skopelos and Skiathos. As beautiful as they are we could not take the disco music that started at midnight and went on to 4 in the morning. We went down the Evia Channel which is sheltered waters between the main land and the Island of Evia. This is about 100 miles of flat water and we actually had some good sailing. The weather was starting to change with more wind stopping us for a few days in places so we now had to move when the weather allowed us not when we wanted to. With the higher winds we also had some 'exciting' sailing on our way to the Corinth Canal.
In 1978 we went to Athens for a holiday and took a trip out to see the canal. Clive said then he would love to take a boat through the canal. This was before we even owned a boat. Here we were 34 years later doing just that. The Corinith Canal is the most expensive canals in the world if you take it as £/mile but it is worth it for the sheer thrill of seeing the work that went into it and the 'hand holes' that the workmen would use to climb out of the cut. The Gulf of Corinith was spectacular with the mountain ranges in the distance. When we saw snow appear on the tops we knew it was time to stop for the winter.
We arrived in Messalonghi on the 18th October and sadly my mother died the same day. We booked flights for the 21st. We had already booked flights for December to go home for Christmas which of course we lost when we decided it was not worth going back to Jane-G before Christmas and also it would keep my Dad company for a while longer.
I will end here and tell you about Messalonghi in the next update which should follow very shortly.