Intrepid Travels
| Vessel Name: | Intrepid Elk |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Outremer catamaran 51 |
| Hailing Port: | Fremantle |
| Crew: | Robert and Revle Elks |
16 May 2017
Cherbourg encore
We are reunited with Intrepid Elk after a winter/summer separation and it is good to be home again. IE has had a facelift and her shiny white hulls are dazzling once more. She has a beautiful new bimini (shade cover) over the helm seat, which Robert designed and which was fabricated in Portsmouth and [...]
06 October 2016
IE preparation for winter
Our sailing days for this year are over and we are once again busy getting IE ready for a winter in the northern hemisphere. This year, she will be in the water for most of the time, with a short interlude on land in a large painting shed, where she will have her hulls painted. In order to get her into [...]
30 September 2016
Cherbourg, France
It was an inky black moonless night as we slipped out of the river and across the sand bar with fishing vessel Emma Louise behind us. Revle was on the bowsprit with a spotlight looking for hazards ahead. I was at the helm, peering at our chartplotter and concentrating on following our inward track. [...]
22 September 2016
Plymouth
We made a motoring passage of 35 miles to Plymouth Sound, then battled against strong currents up the Tamar River to an anchorage at West Mud where we spent a peaceful night. Plymouth has been a major naval base for centuries and we had some close encounters with modern navy ships in the harbour. We [...]
18 September 2016
Falmouth
Our passage to Falmouth took us past The Lizard, a projecting headland with a ferocious tidal race. We passed a little too close and got caught in the race which was too bumpy for comfort. Approaching the Falmouth harbour, we had the excitement of crossing our track from June 2015 when we made landfall [...]
17 September 2016
Newlyn
We left the Isles of Scilly early in the morning to catch a light northerly wind to Land's End and the fishing port of Newlyn, just south of Penzance. We couldn't believe our luck, having another gentle passage through one of the most treacherous and notorious waterways in northern Europe. We galloped [...]
Tyrrhenian crossing
The first part of our journey took us through the chain of volcanic islands that make up the Lipari group, and we were treated to an amazing display of weird and wonderful rocky outcrops and the unmistakable result of numerous volcanic eruptions and lava flows. One particular cluster of rocks, poking their heads out to the sea off the coast of one of the islands, has become a favoured calm weather anchorage, and the sight of numerous yachts anchored in a line between the rocks prompted Robert to comment that it looked like a strange pagan ritual, reminiscent of Stonehenge. The things we humans do.....
Soon, we left land behind, and headed out into open sea. The winds were light initially and we were able to use the gennaker and then get out the spinnaker for the first time. The big white sail with its bright blue stripe was a beautiful sight! The next 48 hours were a mixture of no winds and lots of wind and we had some wonderful sailing, saw several pods of dolphins, and negotiated our way between numerous cruising ships and tankers. At 11 am on the second morning, we arrived in Porto Brandinghi, a pretty sheltered bay on the Costa Smeralda of Sardinia, where we dropped anchor, had a swim, and slept! The rest of the day was spent catching up with emails and tidying up after our long passage, and I finally got around to sending a thank you email to our Italian friend, Fabio, who had given us so many helpful tips about sailing around the Italian coast, and in Greece.
