Freya & Us

Vessel Name: Freya of Wight
Vessel Make/Model: Westerly Oceanranger
Hailing Port: Portishead
14 September 2022 | South Wales
04 May 2022
02 May 2022 | Kos - 8,924 NM
24 April 2022 | Lakki, Leros - 8,914 NM
11 April 2022 | Lipsoi - 8,776 NM
07 April 2022 | Samos, 8,735NM
20 March 2022 | Samos - 8,735NM
31 October 2021 | Samos - 8,491 NM
09 November 2020 | Severn Beach, Bristol - 8,735 NM
08 November 2020 | Samos Marina, Pythagorio - 8,735 NM
26 October 2020 | Samos Marina, Pythagorio - 8,735 NM
20 October 2020 | Marathakampos - 20th October 2020 - 8,715NM
09 October 2020 | Limnos - 8,620 NM
30 September 2020 | Patmos - 8,602 NM
25 September 2020 | Evdhilos, Ikaria - 8,552 NM
13 September 2020 | Oinoussa - 8,491 NM
03 December 2019 | Bristol - 8,443 NM
05 November 2019 | Mytilini - 8,443 NM
18 October 2019 | Mytilini, Lesbos - 8,413 NM
11 October 2019 | Molyvos, Lesbos - 8,379 NM
Recent Blog Posts
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 [...]

More Piles of Stones

14 November 2017 | Athens - 6,606 NM
Coll Nights
It was an uneventful but beautiful three hour bus ride from Kalamata to Athens with the highlight of the journey being the crossing over the Corinth Canal. The canal connects the Gulf of Corinith (and the Ionian) with the Saronic Gulf in the Agean Sea. The first plans for building a canal date back to the 7th century BC and despite a number of attempts over the last two thousand years, it wasn't until 1893 that the canal was finally completed. Its very impressive, a long narrow gorge carved through over 20m of rock, that is today used mainly by leisure boats, as it is to narrow for modern merchant ships.

We checked into our hotel in Plaka which was very conveniently located in the heart of Athens. Our bedroom had views of the Acropolis and Parthenon, which we visited on our first trip to Athens 8 years ago. We immediately set off to explore and only a 100m from the hotel, came across our first "pile of stones", vast remains of the ancient agora (market place). Like Rome there seems to be an ancient monument around every corner in central Athens and we joined the throng of tourists winding our way through the narrow streets and alleys filled with shops and cafes. There were a lot more tourists here than on our last visit and we think Athens has developed its "tourist offer" a lot since then.

We worked our way across town to the Lykavittos Hill and took the funicular railway to the top of the hill to enjoy the views and the sunset. We were a little disappointed when we realised the train made the whole journey in a tunnel but the views at top across the rooftops and the Acropolis were well worth it. We were planning to stay and watch the sunset, about 30 minutes away, but so it seemed were all the other tourists in town and it was getting crowded. That and the cold wind made us decide to head down and we slowly wandered back to town past the stadium that hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, found a nice (under a patio heater!) place for an al-fresco dinner and then back to our hotel.

The next morning after breakfast on the hotel's rooftop terrace (more Acropolis views) we headed to the area of Monastraki. On a Sunday morning the streets of Monastraki become a giant flea market where you can buy almost anything from tourist tat, to expensive antiques and everything in between. After a few hours of perusing the stalls we explored further afield finding some more piles of stones to look at before returning to our hotel for a siesta.

We set out later that afternoon, this time climbing to the top of the Filapappous Hill. It was very atmospheric and looking across the rooftops of Athens surrounded by hills and mountains reminded us of a similar view of La Paz in Boliva. We slowly walked back towards our hotel, around the bottom of the Acropolis, which as it was now dark gave us lots of opportunities to look at floodlit piles of stones. The evenings in Athens in November are cold, so we opted to eat inside a restaurant, the first time we'd done this in Greece since we first arrived in March.

Our flight out the next day wasn't until the afternoon, so after a leisurely breakfast we retraced our steps of Saturday afternoon to explore the Olympic Stadium and its surrounding areas in daylight, followed by a long slow lunch before catching the metro to the airport and our flight back to Bristol.

We hope to be returning to Freya to continue our travels into the Aegean next spring.

The link to our map seems to be stopping people leaving comments on the blog, so I've removed it from these posts for now. I will be keeping it up to date so simply go to one of the special map only posts and click the link there to see it
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