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 [...]

Italy

08 December 2017
Today is a bucket list day for one of us. He is like a child in a candy store. At 11:00 am we crossed the border into Italian waters and the countdown began. As buildings became visible on the horizon
the excitement increased even though they didn't belong to our destination. Then it happened get the camera I think I see the bell tower. Sure enough in the distance you could see a bump then several bumps after a bit more buildings and trees came into view and then some low lying islands and very small fishing boats. We entered the channel and passed the first barrier islands. beyond them we could see and would eventually pass the man made barrier system to stop the sea surge from getting to the city. Unsure of the etiquette of travelling the waterway we slipped behind a Vaporetto and tried to stay out of the way. It was insane boats of every description were going everywhere at high speeds with no regard for wake or waves if there was a rime or reason we couldn't see it. Then we came around a bend and there it was Venice.
Who hasn't dreamed of taking their boat to Venice. Marina Santelena was going to be our home for the next week it was the first marina on the main island and easy to find. When we motored past the break wall we interrupted two boats engaged in gondola paddling practice or perhaps we just made it more realistic. Even though the marina was expecting us they needed to shuffle some boats to make space. We where tied by 4 pm and ready to start exploring. We bought a three day transit pass while checking in at the marina office and headed out to the vaporetto (bus) stop. Hehehe the bus stop was bobbing in the waves caused by the boat traffic we waited for a few minutes then the #5 arrived. The driver was anything but gentle he drove at the platform smashing into to it his lone crew threw a line over the bollard and held on the driver never let off the throttle. Everyone at the stop piled on and we were off. This process was repeated several times as we traveled around the main island of Venice. We headed for the Roma stop. Probably the furthest point from the marina. We were looking
for the Frontier police and customs. New country new check in procedures. We found the police and got our passport stamped then set off for customs which it turns out were closed for the day. Whatever we were in Venice time to explore. We headed back towards Ice Bear and wound our way through the small streets and over the bridges looking at the shops and forming the plan of attack for the next few days. It wasn't long before we
found ourselves walking down the boulevard that starts where the grand canal exits or starts I guess it depends on your perspective and runs almost all the way to the east end of the island.
Walking down this street you pass the Doge's palace and other ornate buildings on one side and all the water things on the other. By now it was getting late and most of the tourist had left the island the Gondolas were all tied in their respective slips and the vaporetto where also tied together and what a sound. Imagine 70-80 ft long steal behemoths tied three and four deep bashing together in the waves not a fender in sight. The sound left a knot in your stomach. We arrived back at Ice Bear exhausted we hadn't intended to walk all the way back but with so much to look at it just happened. Day two started slow it seems the walk was farther then it felt the night before. One of us also traded in the sandals for runners which also ment they lost the sock bet sigh...... We walked to the vaporetto stop and headed back to Roma station to check into customs
we made it as far as the ports outer security gate. the guards looked confused and phoned someone. That someone arrived by car took our papers then some more someones arrived dressed all official they looked at the papers then they looked at something else then our papers again Im certain none of them were actually at the gate to look at our papers but in the past we have noticed Italians
like paperwork and papers from a Canadian pleasure craft were unusual. After about 10 minutes they declared we didn't need to check in with customs. If Italian customs changes its mind and suddenly begins to require private boats to check in its not our fault. We headed into the maze that is Venice. Today's main goal was
to find the Realto bridge. Its the main bridge over the grand canal its not really hard to find there are signs pointing in many different direction to help guide you there. Stores run length wise down the middle and all manor of boat traffic goes under it. We were lucky enough to be filming when an ambulance boat passed under the bridge. I felt for the gondola passengers when it went by. I think ambulances are the only boats that don't need to
honour the speed and wake limits. We walked to the fish market which was for the most part done for the day and watched two men with a barge type boat full of logs set wooden pilings into the canal for a gondolier. It was quite the thing to see they would place the piling into the canal then press it into the silt with the end of the boom of a Hiab type crane. They seemed mostly done when the gondolier arrived after some discussion they lifted the pilings and began resetting them.
It looked like the plan was to build a little dock for loading and unloading passengers. It didn't seem to take much pressure to squish the piling down into the silt from what we could see it looked like there was maybe 6 ft of water and then the piling went another 6 ft into the mud. I'm not sure they were hitting anything solid maybe the little dock was going to hold the piling into place? We went to St Marco square and checked out the exterior of the buildings and generally just wandered around enjoying the city. Day 3 we decided to go to the island of Morano where the glass blowers were. Little did we know that the Italian transit union had also decided late the previous night to stage a strike.
We wandered to the bus stop and there were signs with the help of google translate we got the jist of their meaning hmmf. Then out of nowhere a vaporetto crashed into the stop picked up passengers and left. Seems some were still running but they weren't displaying route numbers. We knew which direction our boat bus would be heading so we stood at the stop and got on the one going our direction. oops poor choice it was going to the wrong island. We ended up on Lido island. Thats ok we stayed on the boat and headed back the way we came. Our second attempt was successful and we made it to Morano. We checked out the glass stores and some outdoor glass sculpture had a late lunch did some people watching then caught a vaporetto back to Venice. Note to self just because a bus stop is closer to where you want to go as the crow flies doesn't mean it is closer to walk.
We could see the marina so we hopped off the vaporetto. This stop was on the opposite side of the marina and not the one recommended by the Lady at the marina office. We could see the boats masts all we needed to do was cross one canal.
20 minutes, several bridges, many narrow roads and one leaning white bell tower later we finally found our way out of the residential area into the one with our marina.
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ICE BEAR's Photos - Main
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