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 [...]

Riva di Traiano and Nettuno

27 February 2018 | Nettuno
Carole Young
After two nights in Giglio it was time to move on to mainland Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea to start our southwards sail to our winter destination in Gaeta, where we were booked in for the 1st October 2017. We knew that wherever we stopped along this coast it would be extortionate and none of the few anchorages seemed very appealing given the unsettled conditions; a Dutch guy on the neighbouring boat recommended that we go for the marina at Riva di Traiano rather than Civitavecchia, which is a commercial harbour where the cruise ships dock, we did see the Queen Victoria docked there as we passed. After a long slog, motor sailing for 47 miles we arrived and were welcomed in by a flock of storks flying in perfect formation. There wasn’t much of interest here so we walked to the Co-op half an hour away to stock up. At this stage we had both ‘hit a brick wall’ and were looking forward to hanging up our foulies for the winter.

On Monday 25th September 2017 we set sail for Nettuno , our penultimate leg. We started off with only a F1 wind and a smooth sea, we passed a solitary dolphin and the odd pot buoy; the plotter wasn’t working at first, which meant no AIS either, so we were relying on Captain Paul’s I Pad, if that fails then it’s good old fashioned paper charts, which I quite enjoy in calm conditions; panic over- Paul found the loose connection and normal service was resumed! As we passed Rome we saw a fairly flat unexciting coastline, who would think that such a vibrant, historical city lies beyond. We were then almost half way into our 60 mile passage; the wind was very fickle, the sun was shining down on the sea creating a bright sparkly blanket. Being an ex- aircraft engineer Paul enjoys a spot of plane spotting and so today he was thrilled to spot a formation of 10 fighter planes in front of us, made us think of the wonderful Red Arrows back home. With 5 miles remaining the sea became extremely rolly and the wind kicked up to 16k with 20k gusts, we were on a broad reach with a 1m swell on the beam; we had to negotiate a large fish farm on Anzio point whilst being tossed around all over the place, there were charted wrecks and pot buoys thrown into the mix too- certainly not a boring sail today; a French motorboat kindly came past us slowly and checked that we were ok. We arrived safely in daylight at 1730 and were thrilled to be moored up alongside, rather than the usual med style mooring, the staff were lovely- should be at 50 euros per night! This marina offers very basic facilities but is well protected and right next to the old walled town, which is rather quaint but spoilt by graffiti. The main town has many budget supermarkets so this a good place to replenish your food lockers. We found the whole town to be rather run down, dirty and unkempt; the two beaches were not particularly attractive either- we hoped that Gaeta would be better. The only pristine place in town, about half an hour walk away, was the absolutely massive second world war American cemetery which was incredibly moving. Now we just had to wait for a weather window to complete our journey to Gaeta which couldn’t come soon enough!





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Beautiful anchorage
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Day trip to Santiago de Compostella
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15 April 2018
49 Photos
22 March 2018
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