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 [...]
Spetses
On Monday morning, we set off early for a short 3 mile hop down to Spetses town. The wind strengthened earlier than usual and by the time we reached Dapia (New Harbour) we had 15-20 knots and a lumpy sea. We spotted a likely space and started to reverse in, while dropping the anchor in typical med mooring style. All went smoothly until we ran out of chain and onto rope. Suddenly, the rope jammed in the windlass and we could not move beyond the length of the anchor chain and could not get the chain up or down. It took us about 3 hours to deploy the emergency anchor, unjam the windlass, and get back control of the boat. It was a real test of ingenuity and team work! By this time, we had decided that the berthing spot did not look so inviting as a big swell had developed, so we set off another mile to the old harbour, where we miraculously found a spot on the fuelling dock where we were allowed to stay (for a fee). What a place: there are no rules and nobody polices the comings and goings so it is a free-for-all (that night we got back to find a monohull had wedged itself, nose in about half way, between us and the adjacent boat, tying itself to the two of us. As you can imagine, Robert was not at all happy!) We felt quite shattered by the mornings' adventure and both 'crashed' in the intense heat for a couple of hours before contemplating an evening walk before my birthday dinner. The evening was truly magical: a short ride in a horse drawn carriage through the streets of Spetses, and around the port, then dinner at 'The Old Olive Press', with a table on the waterfront from which we could watch all the activities in the port.
