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 [...]
Cephalonia
After Vathi in Meganisi, we all agreed that isolated anchorages were the preferred option and ports best avoided unless absolutely necessary. It was hard to get away from the numerous yachts sailing between the Ionian Islands, but somehow we managed to find some wonderful anchorages where the routine would vary between a mid-morning or early afternoon departure for the next stop, giving time for multiple swims, a few jobs on the boat, a few hours of sailing and time to settle in to the new spot. The latter (settling in) always takes longer than expected, and we made good use of our new stern mooring lines, and Richard's assistance with the swim out to the rocks to secure the ends.
There were some additions to the routine that provided great entertainment and enjoyment: watching goats with their incredible ability to climb up and down sheer rock faces in order to lick the salt from the coastal rocks, a cross island walk on Ithaca, and watching the super yachts with their choreographed entry and exit (and intervening activities). There was never time to be bored!
All too soon, it was time to farewell Richard, and he set off before sunrise on 1 August for the start of his Scandinavian adventure. It was so wonderful to share this brief time with him and we have priceless memories from the two weeks he spent with us on Intrepid Elk. Soon after his departure, Alan and Victoria got ready to leave and they left us mid-afternoon for the flight back to London. We were left to prepare for our return passage across the Ionian: provisioning, weather watching and preparing the boat for the big trip.
