Swallow's adventures

Vessel Name: Swallow
Vessel Make/Model: Barbican 33
Hailing Port: Premier marina, Gosport
Crew: Paul Young Carole Young
About: Paul's been sailing for over 20 years ; Carole has just completed her Day Skipper Practical . Been living aboard for 18 months.
Extra: Giving up our jobs and sailing off into the sunset!!! Here we go.................
Social:
26 May 2023 | Agios Nikolaus, Crete
26 May 2022 | Agios Nikolaus, Crete
14 April 2022 | Kalamata
22 March 2022 | Zante Port
22 March 2022 | Preveza
07 March 2022 | Parga
17 February 2022 | Orthoni
06 December 2019 | Santa Maria di Leuca
19 February 2019 | An evening in Marzamemi
19 February 2019 | Theatre at Segesta
19 February 2019 | Temple at Selinunte
19 February 2019 | Temple at Segesta
19 February 2019 | Sicily
12 January 2019 | Egadis
12 January 2019 | Sicily
27 July 2018 | Aeolian Islands
13 June 2018 | Tropea
Recent Blog Posts
26 May 2023 | Agios Nikolaus, Crete

Cruising the Cyclades Spring 2022- Part Three

NAXOS

03 June 2022 | Ios

Cruising the Cyclades Spring 2022- Part One Ios

Swallow has been safely hanging out at Agios Marina, Crete since June 2019 but various factors, including Covid, have prevented us from doing any cruising; all we've managed up until now is a few days anchoring in Elounda and a lively sail to Sitia last Autumn. However we did enjoy some land based sightseeing [...]

26 May 2022 | Agios Nikolaus, Crete

Kalamata to Crete

Kalamata to Crete (via Kithera)

14 April 2022 | Kalamata

Kalamata Winter 2018-9

At 0815 on Thursday 1st November 2018 we departed Koroni through the heat haze; the low lying mist all around was spooky. We were close hauled with only the main out, a pleasant but slightly chilly 15 miles passage. With only 3 miles to go we saw flying fish whilst a pair of old jets were soaring above [...]

Cartagena

12 June 2017 | Cartagena
Carole Young
On 02/06/2016 we edged around this attractive, arid coastline with low rise apartments and sandy beaches, in search of a sheltered anchorage. We passed a sunfish flopping his fin from side to side on the surface; I think it must be quite lonely to be one of these solitary species.; after this we past a small fishing boat housing three hopeful locals with their rods out. There were a few small villages tucked into the hills, one of them being Nerja , where you can visit the prehistoric caves; this bay seemed a little too exposed for anchoring so we carried on. The views along here are spectacular, suddenly all of the buildings have disappeared and we can see steep cliffs coloured with shades of yellow ochre, sand and beige and beautiful beaches with a few houses scattered in the hills. There are quite a few look-out turrets perched on the high rocks. We motored around the next headland and came to the Ensenada de Herraduras and dropped the anchor in 5m of clear water; this was a beautiful little bay with a town which sprawled into the mountains. We saw an impressive large house perched on the edge of the cliffs; some of the houses gave the impression that if you walked out of your front door you'd fall off the edge- not a place for those suffering with vertigo! This is a much nicer coastline than I had envisaged- I had only imagined high-rise hotels and bars serving English breakfasts! A British couple in kayaks paddled up to Swallow for a chat and told us that they had been renting a house here for over a year and had fallen in love with the place. Unfortunately this perfect little spot turned into a very rolly setting overnight- oh well, you can't have everything!

The following morning we set sail for a 48 mile trip to Almerimar; the wind was funnelling into the bay and we had a good beam reach, starboard tack. We could see Kinni Rossi in the distance with no sails out and we soon realised that once we reached the headland that we would have no wind. The whole journey was very still and I even managed to chop the vegetables for that evening's dinner. We spent two nights in Almerimar, which is a 70's purpose built complex for the marina with plenty of shops and bars. This is one of the cheapest marinas on this coast and lots of boats over-winter here. We grasped the opportunity to leave here before the easterly winds set in so that we could make our way towards Cartagena.

When we set off on the 05/06/17 it wasn't our intention to go the whole 120 miles to Cartagena but we didn't fancy any of the anchorages or marinas on the way, especially as we would have been stuck there for a few days whilst waiting for the wind direction to change; so we went for it, the full 24 hours! We had a close reach motor sail for most of the way, although we did enjoy a couple of hours with the engine off in the evening, making 4.5 knots with the wind on the beam; we hadn't prepared any food for this unintentional long journey so I made us some tuna pasta and ate our dinner without the drone of the engine, it was very tranquil. We watched the sun go down and at 2130 we put the engine back on. I had about four hours sleep down in the saloon and then at 0200 I kept watch while Paul rested. The moon shone over the water behind us and there were thousands of twinkling stars. Paul reappeared at 0500 and so I took the opportunity of another micro sleep; at 0730 Paul called me, I was in such a deep sleep that I woke up panicking thinking there was an emergency; turned out we were approaching Cartagena, what a relief! The next minute, after an uneventful 23 hours, a cruise ship, Celebrity Reflection, was bearing down on us; Paul called them up and the captain told us to keep our course and he would overtake us shortly to enter the harbour; we cautiously followed him in, unsure of where he was going to tie up, and watched him do a 360 turn to rest against the terminal wall, right next to the Real Club marina where we were heading for. We were welcomed in at 0845 by Sue and Ed (Locomotion); Ed had kindly organised a berth for us as the Cartagena Yacht Club next door was rather expensive. What a result- a lovely little club with a swimming pool!

Cartagena is rather an elegant town with some great architecture. We visited the Roman museum with an amphitheatre which was excavated in the 1990's, this was awesome. The beautiful marbled streets are lined with shops and restaurants. There's quite a lot to see here but we were happy chilling out for a few days as we were exhausted. We were to leave here on 09/06/17 which was a year to the day that we left Yarmouth and headed across the Channel to Alderney- how far we have come, at least 2300 miles so far! Feeling a great sense of achievement. We are not far from Valencia now which is where we will leave Swallow for a couple of weeks to head home for Jack's graduation.
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Beautiful anchorage
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