AC Docked in Nafpilo


Chris's Motor Yacht Departing Hydra


Don and Glori onboard AC in Hydra


Don and Glori and Us in Hydra


AC Docked in Hydra... eventually!

GREECE – Nafplio, 25 MAY 2007

We arrived in Pylos, Peloponnese at 12.30pm on Saturday 10 May after a 3 day journey from Malta!

Overall the weather was as predicted – light winds and mostly in the right direction fortunately – however we could have done with a little more wind so we didn’t have to motor the majority of the time but were nevertheless grateful for a pleasant time which included enjoying a cocktail hour or two on the aft deck watching the sun go down! Heading east we had to adjust our time clock ahead one hour (we are 2 hours ahead of London)!

We tied up at the public wharf and Terry went to find Customs and the Port Authorities to clear in. Fortunately he managed to locate someone and made an appointment for the customs officer to come at 6.00pm to issue our transit log for Greek Waters. Meantime we got our ship ‘ship shape’ tidied ourselves in readiness for our formalities followed by dinner ashore at a popular Taverna – food was very good and reasonably priced we thought – especially the wine!

As we had our visitors Don and Glori Watts arriving the following Saturday and we still had a wee way to go to get to Hydra, our agreed meeting point, so we decided to keep moving and headed off from Pylos on Sunday afternoon. We spent the next 4 four days travelling around the southern part of the Peloponnesian peninsulas sheltering in some lovely bays mostly by ourselves! We had 36 hours in one bay hiding from the North East wind which blew 25 – 40 knots consistently over this time!

We arrived in the eastern end of the Island of Spetses on Thursday late afternoon after our 143 mile journey from Pylos and anchored in a small bay close by a 150 ft yacht! It was lovely remote bay with a view to some superb houses ashore! We enjoyed a rather surprising wifi internet connection - courtesy of either the super yacht or one of the very nice properties ashore!!

The next morning we headed around to the Old Harbour at Spetses to get fuel. We tied up in a very protected small harbour right outside a few tavernas and bars! We fuelled in the afternoon and then went for a wander along the foreshore to the old town and had dinner on the waterfront – very pleasant evening! Overall the quality of the food is very good as are the wines and you can eat very reasonably.

We left early the next morning for Hydra and arrived there around midday! This island is obviously a very popular destination for tourists as well boaties with a relatively small harbour, therefore space is limited, but as luck would have it there was space for us right in the middle of the harbour alongside many of the restaurants and bars!

As many of you would know the style of mooring in the Mediterranean is ‘Med Mooring’ where you place your anchor down and let it run out as you reverse into the dock or foreshore and tie up at the stern. As easy as that may sound sometimes it is not quite that simple, as we have found! Unfortunately for us this time we managed to foul someone’s anchor which wrapped itself around our prop as we reversed and subsequently seize our steering! At this point AC started going sideways towards some moored boats. Alas with lots of fending off by me and manoeuvring on Terry’s part with the bow thruster, as well as some additional help by a couple of people ashore, we eventually managed to get securely tied up! It was indeed great entertainment for the many people in the adjacent Tavernas!

Now that we were tied up we felt we deserved a little aperitif but no, that had to go on hold while Terry donned his dive gear and sort out the little problem we had down under, which of course,he managed to do successfully, to cut the line free! The anchor line belonged to a tender moored on the port hand side and he was most gracious to us about this little mishap when he returned to find he had no anchor attached to his boat!

Having made our agreed rendezvous point on time to meet our friends Don and Glori Watts, they subsequently phoned to say they were not going to make it over on the last ferry as their flight into Athens were delayed. However we were well entertained for the afternoon watching in amazement as many more large motorboats arrived in Hydra and manoeuvred their way into these small spaces! We were in awe of all the skippers and their competency in doing so! By 5.00pm that evening there wasn’t an inch of mooring space in that harbour to be had! The moral of the story; you have to get to a harbour early if you want to dock - can’t imagine what it would be like in the height of summer!

Soon after we arrived and in the course of the final tweaking of our lines this rather large classic gorgeous motor boat or should we say ‘Motor Yacht’ parked on our starboard side! The owner, Chris, introduced himself and during the course of the afternoon at various times he chatted to us and in fact offered one of his crew to find a plank for us so we could walk off the back of the boat (we used the tender alongside, with the owners permission, the one whose anchor line we severed)! At cocktail hour we invited Chris over for a drink! We enjoyed his company and although Greek he was educated in England so hence he could speak perfect English – a very smart young man! Later he invited us over to his boat – we met his friends - and he showed us around – what a gorgeous vessel! We ended up sitting on the aft deck around his outside dining table enjoying a few drinks and then were served dinner! Later he arranged to have a case of Greek white wine delivered to our aft deck! What a wonderful opportunity to meet a local person and be entertained on our ‘ideal boat’!!

We returned to AC around 1.00am and invited our other neighbours on the port hand side on board – they were from Vienna - and later Chris and a couple of his friends joined us again! It was a rather long evening but so much fun!! We just couldn’t have had a better introduction to Greece in such a fabulous place like Hydra!

Don and Glori arrived on Sunday morning and we spent the remaining 2 days in Hydra wandering the streets and enjoying many great restaurants of course! What a perfect spot Hydra is – although touristy still quaint and has a great atmosphere!

We set off from Hydra on Tuesday and headed North West towards Spetses once again but this time anchoring in a lovely bay at the west end of the island. The next morning Don and Glori were in swimming and did an excellent job for us cleaning the waterline! Then after breakfast we headed off for a nice sail towards Tolo. The wind generally throughout the day is very fickle – however we managed a have a few good periods of sailing time.

The next day we headed for Nafplio a town at the end of the north west coast of Peloponnese on the mainland. Another quaint but quite a large town which is clearly visited by many tourists! Plenty of shops, bars and restaurants along and behind the waterfront. On the hill top is a Venetian Castle which was worth a visit and if you are keen you could climb the 1000 steps to the top – we went by car!

Yesterday we took a private car to the archaeological site of Mycenae which was well worth while and incredibly fascinating! It dates back 2000 -3000 years!!!

Yesterday Don and Glori left us and AC on their way to Tuscany for a week with friends before they head back to Washington State! We have so enjoyed having them aboard once again – this was their 3^rd visit on our journey! Many laughs and good stories were shared! Glori does a very good cosmopolitan with the pulp of a lemon. She has many talents and one is being an excellent photographer, so we are fortunate to have some fabulous photos of our last week!

I went off to the supermarket and en route stumbled across an excellent produce and fish market, which was a great surprise, to provision with such good quality at good prices!

We are enjoying being in Greece and especially having the choice of so much shelter as we move around! In many places when tied up to the dock we don’t have to pay anything – but in some places we do – in Hydra it was only 15 euros a night! Very reasonable for this side of the world.

The water is mainly crystal clear so we are looking forward to swimming and showering off the stern of the boat when we are at anchor! We haven’t caught a fish as yet, but have spotted whitebait in a couple of places so will get my light rigged up very soon to see if I can catch a meal!!

We now have a Greek number which is +306956162101

In terms of email – we are endeavouring to pickup a wifi connection when we can or visit a wifi site or internet café!

Love

The Jolly Rogers

Vicki and Phil Joy Riding around Mdina & Rabat

Joseph and Terry after we helped lift J,s Boat

Robert Zammit and Family

Farrugia Family on Board AC

AC Under Repair

MALTA - 6^th MAY 2008

The temperature in gradually on the increase now and most days we are experience low to mid and even high twenties so Summer is definitely on the doorstep!! Along with that process we are now seeing a substantial increase in tourist numbers which makes us appreciate the time we have had to wander around many parts without the crowds!!

Our shipwright Daniel and his crew have now finished our decks which are looking like new and Terry and I have almost completed our long list of jobs – just a final journey up the mast for Terry to repair one of the lights will do it! Her cockpit has 8 coats of varnish and we are very pleased with the outcome but the last coat was challenging keeping the dust off, it especially the red version, which floats in from the African continent continually at this time of the year! We have been delighted with Daniel’s quality of workmanship and work ethic is faultless – he came back to polish our transom and the extra bits I wanted done at no charge! Plus a cake and a pressie for me!!

Thinking that is the end of the maintenance we had friends Simon, Debbie and their son Oliver popped over for drinks a week or so ago and because of Oliver’s inquisitiveness about the instruments we found that our radar was not working!! Shock horror at the cost of replacement but Terry finally managed to fix it without any cost – our Radar is now know as Oliver!!!

We had planned to leave mid April however the previous week we made a visit to the skin specialist for a check up and I had a ‘little something’ cut out of my leg! Well a few days later we find out it is a melanoma! So then went to a plastic surgeon to have another excision to ensure the margins were clear – fortunately they were so hopefully that is the end of that! We are grateful that we caught it early – thankfully Terry insisted we get our check up! So I have had to rest up my leg to assist in the healing process so going to sea at that point was not an option.

We have had my niece Vicki and her husband Phil here for the last 10 days and they were hoping to come to Greece on our passage which obviously didn’t work out because of my leg, however they have enjoyed touring Malta regardless.

These last few weeks we have enjoyed some fabulous local hospitality – dinner on board Chris and Caroline’s very nice Beneteau yacht across the way from us (Chris is the Marina Manager mentioned last blog) a most enjoyable evening.

We have become friends also with a young couple, Mario and Christine who own the local superette or grocery shop not far from us. In fact Christine took Terry and I to the hospital for my check up and waited until we had finished. They had us for dinner at their lovely apartment a few weeks ago plus we have had them a couple of times on AC. Their children Michelle (5) and Daniel (3) are extremely well mannered and behaved and have had a bit of fun on the boat.

We have spent quite a bit of time with our next door neighbour here on the pontoon – Robert, his wife Antoinette and daughter (10) Nikita and sometimes their other daughter Brenda (19) and her friend Nick. They took us to their restaurant in Valletta for dinner and is situated directly across from the renowned St John’s Cathedral (Knights of Malta) which houses all the very famous Caravaggio original artworks! (Probably one of the best examples of churches we have been in!) Plus a number of lunches on board their boat and last week we went out around to Grand Harbour and enjoyed a very nice lunch while on anchor. On Monday this week we had a lovely evening in their fabulous home complete with swimming pool in the farmlands! Robert is a collector of cars generally and in particular racing cars – his garage is much bigger than his house! He also organised for our supply of duty free diesel which we are most grateful for!

We finally went over to the outer island Gozo last week for an overnight visit! We took the bus to the west end of the island and jumped on a ferry to Mgarr Harbour – all very efficient. We then got the local bus to Victoria which is the main town and had a wander around. It coincidently happen to be the annual celebration of St George (the Malta flag also bears the St George Cross) this day so the town was very buoyant! We enjoyed a nice lunch in the Piazza outside the main church which had banners draping the outside facades and we listen to the sounds of the ringing of their bells! Not what you would call a quiet lunch! Later we took the bus to Xlendi Bay and checked into our hotel – St Patrick’s which is situated right on the water’s edge. We enjoyed sundowners on our balcony and then found a very nice fish restaurant along the water front for dinner. Next day we went to the Citadel and took in a few more historical sights before heading back to Malta. A most enjoyable 36 hours!

We assisted our friend Joseph last week to have his boat lifted for antifouling etc. Joseph has continued to be our Maltese procurement officer and his wife Michelle has very kindly altered some of our clothing as she is professional dressmaker!

This last week has been busy knowing we are finally leaving tomorrow! Our next visitors Don & Glori Watts are flying in from Washington State into Athens on the 17^th of May so naturally we would like to be in a good position for their week long visit!

We have enjoyed our time here Malta very much and will be sad to leave for many reasons especially our new friends! It has been perfect for wintering over and especially getting our maintenance jobs done. However it will be good to get back to cruising mode and exploring new territory.

When we leave here we will pickup our normal email alphacrucis@110pct.com when we can get ashore somewhere. Meantime we will revert back to our UK number +447787793398 for phone communication until we secure a Greek number.

Farewell to all our friends here in Malta and thank you for your kind hospitality!

Take care

Love Lois and Terry

The Jolly Rogers!