After a whirlwind inland tour it is time to go sailing and get in the turquoise water that we've been bragging about to Jen & Amy. So, we give Jen the Greek Pilot and Islands Guide books and Amy the helm and we're off. The passage leaving Messolonghi is a narrow 4 mile channel through shallow salt marshes with interesting wildlife we'll explore when we return in the spring. For now it is a pleasant motorboat ride to help Amy acclimate to the movement of the boat before we head into the Ionian and start sailing.
Our first day out is about 5 hours and we have a fresh breeze to carry us north to a peninsula off the mainland to anchor in the remote Petalas Bay. The peninsula-like wrap-around is actually an island "Nisis Petalas" and it provides very good holding and protection from most wind directions. It doesn't take the crew long to grab the snorkel gear and jump in for a swim ~ an activity we repeat all afternoon. There's not much to see in terms of fish and coral and the real aquamarine waters are yet to come, but it is absolutely delightful!
But wait, there's something really big jumping and diving nearby! What a show the local dolphins perform as we leave the bay the following afternoon! (check the lower left corner of the montage!) Our "still" photos don't begin to capture the excitement of the dolphins' dance, but wait 'til you see the video clip! Just click the "Play" button on the window below.
In 1999, Katherine and Craig "sold up" to go cruising aboard their 46' Amel Santorin ketch "SANGARIS" and since then have sailed some 25,000 miles.
Leaving Florida they headed south to the Caribbean, then west along the "Spanish Main" coast of South America to Colombia and Panama. [...] Through the Panama Canal and down to Ecuador, then out to the Galapagos, they then turned north to Baja Mexico.
After a couple of years there, they headed back to the Caribbean and completed a circumnavigation of that Sea. Then came a season up and down the east coast of the US and, in 2004, a TransAtlantic passage from Florida to Ireland by way of Bermuda and the Azores.
Thence two years in northern Europe and Scandinavia followed by a leisurely trek south along France, Portugal and Spain's Atlantic coasts. 2007 found them entering the Med where they continue today, with 2014 finding them in Marina di Ragusa, Italy to start a season of sailing around the Tyrrhenian Sea and a likely stop in Malta.
Travel along with them via the "Slog"!