After just about a month away we arrived back at Albatros Marina. We were later than expected as Thomas Cook airline decided to delay the arrival of our plane into Gatwick by 90 mins and so our departure was similarly delayed. For those of you that have yet to enjoy the delight of flying Thomas Cook, it is enough to say that leg room is optional!

It was nice to arrive at the marina on a Saturday as the restaurant is still open and so after unloading our bags, we quickly made our way to the bar and had a well deserved Efes (the local beer). Nice. The boat was immaculate- the interior because Jane and Kels has slaved away to clean it before we left in August and the exterior as the staff here at the marina had washed her down.

If you have not yet been to Marmaris, it is safe to say that the "young and restless" are well served by the bars and clubs on the appropriately named Bar Street (I kid you not) and the music carries across the harbour. Those of us that are a little less young and not inclined to be restless, it is safe to say that we wish the music would die down well before it does (around 4 am). So, having experienced this before, we closed any window facing the town and then turned on our fan- a little white noise and slept through the noise.

Today was spent working our way through the market to buy some "real fake" shirts and flip flops before hitting the grocery store.

We managed to get back to the marina, unpack and settle in for our Efes and enjoy the sunset.

Hi, greetings from the crew at the restaurant at Albatross Marina, Libeccio's new home for the next year.

After a beautiful day of sailing we arrived at the marina at 19:30 local time on Saturday, August 24th.

We gave Libeccio a solid washing down before we washed down a few beers of our own- a well deserved celebration.

As we were all a bit tired after the sleep loss courtesy of the watch system, we had a meal on board and called it a night at a very respectable hour.

Today we had to go through the formalities of clearing customs and immigration and Jane had one more practical element (man over board drill) to complete for her Coastal Skipper certification.

One of the bonuses of this trip was that Andrew, Jane and I have all passed the Coastal Skipper certification, the theory portion of the Yachtmaster and have fulfilled all the prerequisites for the Yachtmaster practical exam which we hope to take next year before the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers).

While we were out we anchored in the bay and had lunch.



This evening we say goodbye to our skipper Tony Agar and mate Mark Cherrill over a dinner at one of our fav restaurants.

We fly home on Wednesday after getting the boat prepared and hope to back out here at the end of September for a month of sailing in the northern Greek islands.

We have had a blast and learnt a lot about the boat and how to sail in all sorts of conditions. It has been filled with a lot of firsts, pinch me moments and periods of uncertainty as we made our way along.

Hope you have enjoyed the updates. I have had fun writing them to fill those late watches.

Best wishes,

Jane, Kelsey, Andrew and Kevin

Whew, what a start to a watch.

No sooner had Andrew handed over the watch to me at 02:00 and I was playing "thread the Libeccio thru the traffic". At this time in the morning- what is everyone doing up so early!

Andrew had duly warned me about the cruise ship (Aida Aura, 633 feet long, speed of 16kn, going to Rhodes) to our starboard who had safely overtaken us with 1 nm room. There was the cargo ship (Sithonia, 354 feet long, and going 9 kn) which had just turned into "our" strait from behind an island but yet to declare its directional intentions and was showing us as passing too close for comfort. No prob, even with our combined speed we had 24 mins to sort out who went where.

Then a third boat (2Ladies, pleasure craft, 148 feet long!!, going 12 kn) came around that same island and into our bit of traffic.

The tanker, by this time, had made its intentions known by altering its course and was making headway and so would pass 0.5 nm from us- fine by me.

2ladies was not so definitive- The cruise ship was straight onto 2ladies over the VHF radio, observing correct radio protocol, asked them to turn to channel 6 and confirmed that "by the rules" they needed to pass "red to red" (passing with the other boat on your left) and keep 1 nm room. 2Ladies, or the low man on the totem pole stuck doing this watch, did what he was told.

In doing so, his newly altered course put his "CPA" or the Closest Point of Approach as calculated by both my chartplotter and radar, an uncomfortable 100 feet for us- effectively a direct hit if you were playing battleships. A little more exciting was the fact that he was travelling at a slightly quicker speed so that our TCPA (same a before but with Time to CPA) was 9 mins.... Yikes! I was also concerned that he was a bit transfixed with the cruise ship he had just avoided and was slightly blinded in his view of us because of the tanker just ahead of him. So, picking up our trusty VHF, trying my coolest airplane pilot voice and observing my finest protocol (on channel 16 you say their boat name 3 times, then our boat name 3 times and wait for an acknowledgement). 2ladies duly replied and I asked him to go to channel 14- I switched over, called his boat name again and no answer- we were getting a bit closer by now. So back to channel 16, call 2Ladies, he acknowledges and ignoring protocol, and maybe using just a slightly less cool airplane captain voice, I inform him that we are the sailing boat ahead of him and can I confirm he "sees" us. He calmly says yes and that he is changing course. Yah right buddy- but, he did and we all continued safely on our way.

I need a cuppa, but, first have to change course. You know that Island that the cargo ship and 2 ladies came around? That is the one we are turning around as well- a popular route to Rhodes, a stop we have to make today. For those of you with google earth we are just in the channel south of Syros.

Ok, back with the tea and biscuit- how civilised. These last two events- dodging the other ships and turning onto a new course around islands while in the dark are good reminders of how helpful the technology is. I would not have been able to determine as quickly the courses of the other boats and our CPA if I had to rely on taking bearings using our hand compass. It is something that we do, but, at night it is very challenging. Same with the islands- the majority of small islands have no navigation lights on them. So we use our chart plotter which carries a map of the area and then the GPS superimposes our position on that chart. Like sat nav in cars.

Not trusting it completely, we have a backup chart plotter/GPS running on an iPad as well. And then just in case the GPS is out of whack or it gets foggy we also overlay the radar which can also identify that there are objects out there but not with the richness of the plotter. When the radar feed is overlaid on the chart plotter then you have a neat way to confirm that the island or even boat is out there. Whenever we turn a corner we also set a depth limit that we will not go shallower than- in this last time we had set the limit at 100m. Not because we are worried about going aground, but, because it allows us to confirm the position on the chart that we wanted to turn on. Finally, we use our eyes aided by binoculars- there are often lights on boats and land that will allow you to identify what type of boat you are seeing and what direction they are going. There are lots of smaller boats without AIS out there. Makes sense?

Anyways, back to the sailing. Last note we had just cleared the Corinth Canal and were winding our way thru a few islands to make our run across two stretches of more open water between islands. As I handed the watch over to Andrew at 23:00, the wind from the North and East was building and the traffic constant. As we got out of the shelter of the islands we then also had the seas to contend with- they were as advertised 1-2 meters for the most part with the occasional bigger one for excitement! Seas of that size are generally not a problem given we are 13m in length, but, these waves were quite tightly packed and steep. As well, because we needed to go to the east to get to Turkey we were cutting across them. No where near as rough when compared to when we went straight into them (remember the Biscay) but "thrilling" enough. Being a bit of a nervous Nellie I was up a fair amount of the night "suggesting"' that we reduce sail to the point where we lowered the main completely and ran just off of the very reefed genoa. Never really scary or the least bit dangerous, but, I am
pretty conservative when it comes to situations like this. In any event, we had bobbed along like this for about 12 hours when we completed the crossing of one of the open water bits and came into the down wind side of an island. Because we were hiding behind this island the wind and waves just died- or had the whole of the Agean just calmed down as well? A quick look thru the binoculars confirmed that the whole of the area had calmed down so up went the full main and we unfurled the whole genoa. Not more than 10 mins later we were back into the strong winds and bouncy waves- so, we double reef the main (always a challenge in strong winds) and took two-thirds out of the genoa. Hmm, lesson learnt- be more patient before you declare a dramatic change in winds at the same time you are hiding behind an island!

We bounced along until dinner time (spag bol) and then were able to make a much anticipated change in course- turning to our right (or south) so that we had the wind and waves coming from behind us. This is called running. No longer are you cutting across the waves, you are going with them. Life changed instantly- it all got quieter and a lot less bouncy. It wasn't that we had a miraculous change in weather, it was just our angle of approach. Often, if boats are faced with very challenging seas they will turn and run with the wind and waves.... provided that they have room before they hit some land. We stayed on that course for an enjoyable 7 hours until I made that corner around the islands I mentioned earlier in this note.

We will stay on this course for another 7 hours and then stop in Rhodes where we have an opportunity to test our initial views on Greek officialdom. I know which way I am betting!

After that it is a mere 4-5 hour trip over to Marmaris and Albatross Marina where Libeccio will stay when we are not sailing.

Apologies for the lack of photos in this note- it was either a bit stormy or too dark.

Best wishes,


Jane, Kelsey, Andrew and Kevin

We are just departing the Corinth Canal and about to make our crossing of the Agean to arrive in Marmaris in about 2 days time.

A quick recap, we have travelled approx 2,825nm and have slightly more than 300 to go. With our fuel tanks filled to the brim (a total of 700l), water tanks topped up (725l) and food stores replenished we now don't have to stop until we reach our destination. Part of the reason for doing all of this that most of the islands that we will be going thru will not have a fuel dock- instead, you have to call ahead to organise a mini tanker to come to the dock so that you can fill up. As we don't know the fuel suppliers and don't want to wait, it was better that we get it while we could.

Another thing we topped up with was Kelsey's baking. I mentioned that she had come bearing gifts and we sampled a new desert on her first night: a s'mores bar. I think you all know what a s'more is-- just picture it without all the mess of getting marshmallows off of the hot stick.

First, for those still patient enough to look at our weather outlook on passageweather.com - there was a sizeable period of antisocial winds that could hit us 12 hours into our crossing of the Ionian. To avoid this, we left Palmero as quickly as we could and then kept the boat ticking over at a smarter pace- around 6.5 kn/hr- easy enough with the right seas.

This pace got us into the first pinch me moment- the Strait of Messina- just after dawn. Despite all of the night watches, the whole boat was up to witness this. According to mythology, there was was a massive whirlpool at the Northern entrance of the Strait that swallowed up whole boats. While there was some swirling water we didn't feel very threatened. What did make us feel uncomfortable was--- another traffic separation scheme! For those that recall how well we dealt with the one in Gibraltor (think squirrel) you will understand it when I say that we chose to play it safe and motor across this one. It was a lot narrower and as a result the boats were more tightly packed. Put the boat into overdrive, grit teeth and stare resolutely ahead ignoring the other boats... we made it.

We were lucky to have the tide with us for most of the strait which gave us a fighting chance to get into the Ionian and try to dodge the strong winds expected. Inspired by this opportunity we really cranked poor Libeccio up and cruised at 7 kn/hr... You could hear the diesel draining from the tanks as we motored along. We were largely successful- in the early morning when the weather was to hit we could look behind us and see the leading edge of the front where the winds would be. Understanding that everything is relative, we still had choppy seas for the rest of the crossing which was "shortened" to 36 hours as a result of the extra speed.

At the start of the Gulf of Corinth there is a remarkable structure- the Rion-Andirrion suspension bridge. It is the world's longest cable stayed bridge with a span of 2,252... All Greek to me (get it- Greek-- ok, so not so funny), but, Sean was very impressed. Once again, even though it was 05:00, everyone was on deck as we went thru. There are three lanes to chose from and you have to contact the control centre to be told which one is safe to go. Very impressive.

Greetings from the crew of Libeccio, we hope you are all well and enjoying some sunshine.

We are just departing the Corinth Canal and about to make our crossing of the Agean to arrive in Marmaris in about 2 days time.

A quick recap, we have travelled approx 2,825nm and have slightly more than 300 to go. With our fuel tanks filled to the brim (a total of 700l), water tanks topped up (725l) and food stores replenished we now don't have to stop until we reach our destination. Part of the reason for doing all of this preparation is that most of the islands that we will be going thru will not have a fuel dock- instead, you have to call ahead to organise a mini tanker to come to the dock so that you can fill up. As we don't know the fuel suppliers and don't want to wait, it was better that we get it while we could.

Another thing we topped up with was Kelsey's baking. I mentioned that she had come bearing gifts and we sampled a new desert on her first night: a s'mores bar. I think you all know what a s'more is-- just picture it without all the mess of getting marshmallows off of the hot stick.

First, for those still patient enough to look at our weather outlook on passageweather.com - there was a sizeable period of antisocial winds that could hit us 12 hours into our crossing of the Ionian. To avoid this, we left Palmero as quickly as we could and then kept the boat ticking over at a smarter pace- around 6.5 kn/hr- easy enough with the right seas.

This pace got us into the first pinch me moment- the Strait of Messina- just after dawn. Despite all of the night watches, the whole boat was up to witness this. According to mythology, there was was a massive whirlpool at the Northern entrance of the Strait that swallowed up whole boats. While there was some swirling water we didn't feel very threatened. What did make us feel uncomfortable was--- another traffic separation scheme! For those that recall how well we dealt with the one in Gibraltor (think squirrel) you will understand it when I say that we chose to play it safe and motor across this one. It was a lot narrower and as a result the boats were more tightly packed. Put the boat into overdrive, grit teeth and stare resolutely ahead ignoring the other boats... we made it.

We were lucky to have the tide with us for most of the strait which gave us a fighting chance to get into the Ionian and try to dodge the strong winds expected. Inspired by this opportunity we really cranked poor Libeccio up and cruised at 7 kn/hr... You could hear the diesel draining from the tanks as we motored along. We were largely successful- in the early morning when the weather was to hit, we could look behind us and see the leading edge of the front where the winds would be. Understanding that everything is relative, we still had choppy seas for the rest of the crossing which was "shortened" to 36 hours as a result of the extra speed.

At the start of the Gulf of Corinth there is a remarkable structure- the Rion-Andirrion suspension bridge. It is the world's longest cable stayed bridge with a span of 2,252... All Greek to me (get it- Greek-- ok, so not so funny), but, Sean was very impressed. Once again, even though it was 05:00, everyone was on deck as we went thru. There are three lanes to chose from and you have to contact the control centre to be told which one is safe to go. Very impressive.

Not sure if you can see much.


The wind has not always been our friend and this continued in the Gulf of Corinth with the wind strengthening and coming directly on our bow-- makes it bouncy.

One of the technical requirements to cross Greece is a Transit Log- the guides say they are available from the Port Police at entry ports. So we picked one up on the way. I thought I was doing well when I was able to get one of the locals to direct me to the office and even more chuffed when it turned out to be the right office. My elation was short lived when I was told that it was in fact the customs office that issued the transit log and that once I had it I could then return to the Port Police to pay another fee-- one I hadn't heard of. So off to the Customs office- once again, very pleased to have found it- less happy when it transpired that the clerk speaks as much English as I speak Greek (souvlaki anyone?) and that the customs officer would not be back for an hour. If this was the case then I would be very near to when the Port Police closed. But, very hard to argue when you don't speak the same language. So off I went, back to the boat with the form in hand and completed all the sections IN TRIPLICATE. No carbon paper, you just have to hand write each copy. Back I go to customs- the clerk checks the form and when satisfied, makes a call and the customs agent shortly arrives... with his wife. Why couldn't we have done that earlier? After paying a fee for a document that the guide book says is free, I then hustle back to the Port Police- hurray, they are still there. I almost beg them to take my money for the "first time entry into Greece fee".... Again, never mentioned in the guide books. I was all smiles until they then said that I had I pay for an overnight moorage at the marina despite being there only for two hours. "It is the law". I am sorry dear reader, but, even though i knew that they could invent all sorts of new hurdles for me, I vigorously remonstrated using short words that are internationally understood. Long story short, I did not end up paying the moorage fee- one for the good guys.

We quickly left the dock and excitedly set off for our next pinch me moment: the Corinth Canal. Even though it is open 24 hours a day, we really wanted to get thru before dark and we had just a few hours to get there.

Although it is the worlds most expensive canal on a cost per kilometre basis, it does save a lot of time for our journey. It is just over 3 miles long, has a depth of 6.5 m and is somewhere around 25m wide (we are 7.5 m wide and it seemed pretty tight). We had seen it from above during a previous trip to Greece and were impressed. The guide books suggest that it could take up to 3 hours wait to get passage as, unsurprisingly, it is a one way system so you may have to wait for the traffic in the other direction. We again lucked out and were able to go thru with a 15 min wait- in fact the only question they asked us was "will you be paying in cash?". Had they been talking to my credit card company? Was the Greek economy so weak?

Safely through, we are now in the Agean. We have sailed here before and really enjoy the islands. For those of you that have been reading ahead and looking at the weather maps-- it has been blowing hard here for the past week. There is a solid block of antisocial winds expected during our crossing and it does not look like there is a clever route around. As it is expected to last for a few days we can't wait it out. So something to look forward to!!

As we head out tonight, it is already dark, we have pre-emptively double reefed both the main and the genoa.

That's it for now- I have the easy shift tonight 20:00-23:00 and need to wind our way through a few islands and tankers that are going to/from the refinery that is also at the entrance of the Corinth Canal.

Wishing you all the best,


Jane, Andrew, Kelsey and Kevin

Ciao,

I am on the 23:00- 02:00 watch, just made a cup of apple crunch tea and have a granola bar at hand-- boring I know. So lets go-

Here are the stats- we have approx 725 nm left to go with just over 2400 nm behind us. At our current average speed of 6 knots we should be close to Marmaris in 5 days. Probably one day longer to allow for a stop on one of the smaller Greek Islands on our way thru. Our path takes us thru two of my big pinch me moments and our last long passage out of the sight of land- a mere 2 days.

We have "just" left Palermo about 11 hours ago and are about 7 hours away from the first of my next pinch me moments- the Straits of Messina.... Sounds pretty cool- particularly when you say it in a dramatic voice. We plan to arrive at dawn--- even cooler!! More on that later.

We are ghosting along the coast of Sicily and so have Sicily to the South and the island of Vulcano to the North. Very unusual for this trip, we can see the lights of the towns on both sides of us. It is a busier body of water and during my watch I will need to look out for high speed ferries and fishing boats. The challenge with the latter is that they can be VERY small so won't have AIS nor show up on radar and they will have only have a single white light. This all means that I actually have to pay attention for a change.

Speaking of change, when we last sent you an update we were kind of mid Med, heading towards Sardinia and thinking of giving it a pass. Which we indeed did- again, at very early in the morning. The only interaction was to use their mobile signal to update our weather and send a few emails. For those of you who have been following the weather, you will have noticed that an area of "high pressure " dominated the region and so we had beautiful weather, but, sadly not a lot of wind. We were rewarded though by Mother Nature who chose to entertain us with a pod of Pilot whales and numerous pods of dolphins. Andrew wins the prize for photography with this one of a mum and baby jumping at the same time just in front of our hulls...

No, it is not a painting.

We were also rewarded with "being turtled". As you may know (if not, you shortly will know) to turtle in a catamaran is to somehow end upside down with your mast pointing to the bottom of the ocean and your hulls greeting the sky. It is a very stable position, but, not very comfortable. It is a position that I have found myself on occasion when sailing Hobbie cats (small catamarans) during our SunSail holidays. It is ok for Hobbies but definitely not for cats like Libeccio. So, in this situation- we were being turtled because we were passing many turtles who were basking in the fine Med sunshine. Not renowned for agility nor reaction time nor pace- it was amusing to see them lift their heads out of the water as we were already beside them, watch them duck their heads in to the water, paddle a couple times underwater and surface maybe a meter away. Not exactly a successful exit strategy if something was after you. I guess it explains the hard shells. Anyways, we thought it a bit unusual that they would be there so many miles from shore and in water that was 1,000's of meters deep.

You know sometimes when you are at the end of your rope, you have been working hard, you are tired, you are not really sure how you got in this situation and you really don't know how you are going to get out if it. Kinda sounds like the last few years working in finance. In this case, it involved a fowl situation of a different kind:




Meet our travelling companion. We were as surprised to see him land on our stern as he was relieved to have something to land on. I have no idea how far away from land we were at the time but know we hadn't seen it for a couple days and we weren't to see it for a couple more. Anyways, he lands on the back of the boat and takes a good 20 mins to catch his breath. Then, he casually hops to the floor and into the main cabin- flies down into the port hull where Andrew's room is, flies back up into the main cabin and hangs out for a couple hours before flying off. Not clear where he was headed, if he would find another helpful place to rest or if he would make it.... Hmmm... sounds like my retirement.

The lack of wind allowed the seas to calm down and become almost glass like. For you water skiers out there, this was the water that you wake up early to get to before the land breeze kicks in. And it remained flat calm for hours! It was so hot that we decided to put the engines in neutral, coast to a stop and have a swim. There is something a little surreal swimming in water so far from land and so deep. Even more so when you have left the main raise fully and the only person on board is the skipper that you have recently hired and don't really know THAT well. Doubts start to creep in.....



The swim was very refreshing and cooled us down in time for a lovely dinner.

A bit of chill time (from what, I don't know) and it was time to call it a night..

I liked this picture of Andrew reading on the roof of the back part of the boat...





Very peaceful, which changed slightly the following morning...


Benvenuto a Libeccio...

No second guesses where we are right now! It was certainly easy for us to spot which country we were in as the power boats sped by with the eye candy splayed across the bow and the size of the speedos sported by the drivers of said boats. Let us say that in most of the cases a lot more material would have been appropriate given the (lack of) physique. I have told you of our "dry boat policy"- we have a new one- a "no speedo for men" policy". But I digress.

We had arrived in Italy and much like Ibiza, we soon found where the other boats had gone. It was hopping. We lucked out in finding a place to stay the night in the "sud mole" which was nothing to look at, but, away from the traffic and the noise. We celebrated another long passage by finding a restaurant ashore and enjoying a nice cool beer.

The best thing about Palermo was the arrival of Kelsey- bearing gifts from home. Most important of which were her baked goodies. Kels has recently embraced the challenges of baking much to our benefit. She had sent me away with ample supplies of monster cookies and ginger creams. She then sent more supplies when Jane joined us in Gib and had packed more in her luggage. We have so far sampled another set of ginger creams and an amazing "s'mores bar"-- you have to eat it to believe it. Apparently no calories as well. She has some of her sourdough starter on board and has promised us fresh bread once she gets her sea legs.

You are up to date- and I am coming to the end of the watch. During this chat, I have had to duck 3 of those pesky fishing boats that I mentioned- one of which came up a little quicker than I had thought.

Hope you are well,


Kelsey, Andrew, Jane and Kevin

Ps. At the time if sending we have passed thru the Straits and are now making a dash for the Ionian. The weather forecast had changed somewhat and there is a patch of unsociable wind expected to arrive during the early hours of Weds. We would like to be as far across as possible to avoid as much of that wind as possible.