Herzliya to Kos again. The 2015 version

After several years I decided to revive the blog and write a little about the sailing trip from Herzliya to Kos.

This time was special because it was the first time I sailed with Naama who’s already a skipper, Michael and his daughter Naomi, a 16 year old sea scout guide, also David, who’s an X navy, and my old sea scouts friend Shay, who’s sailing Princess Nayeli for the first time from Israel.

The forecast was for West winds, at part of the time relatively strong. It meant going close-hauled to the wind most of the time.

I used some new planning software that calculates the best route given the forecast and the boat specs (PredictWind). It also shows you the wind strength and direction throughout the route.

The plan was to leave on Thursday morning, motor part of the way a little more West than usual and when the wind picks up, start sailing close-hauled for two full days.

We left Herzliya at 7:30AM with a nice side wind, so we hoisted the spinnaker.

A couple of hours later, 15 miles from the shore, while sailing with the spinnaker, we caught this Tuna fish:

The bate Pavel gave me worked nicely this time.

We rolled in fishing rods because we had enough fish for the whole trip.

While hoisting the spinnaker again, the first incident happened. We had to go down wind for that. We needed to turn 40 degrees away from the wind. Doing it with the auto pilot caused a big overshoot that flipped the sail which in turn went all the way through the sun awning. The zippers were heavily damaged. The team used some extra ropes to tie it back to its place. Not perfect, but it worked as long as the wind was not too strong.

As we got closer to Cyprus the wind picked up (as planned). We started sailing close hauled, with a significant list, night and day. If you add to it the 2-3m waves, that the boat was hitting with loud bangs, it made the experience a lot more challenging.

Living on the boat for a couple of days with a steady list, banging waves, and sprays of water, was not easy.

Naomi couldn’t go in, so she slept all night on the cockpit floor, wrapped with cushions, so we always had an extra crew member in the cockpit if needed.

David got it really bad this time. As our main cook, he sat in the cockpit and gave us cooking instructions. With the help of Shay and Michael we had good food even if the boat’s list was a little aggressive. We still had a hot meal once a day and sandwiches otherwise. We made sure everyone eats and drinks.

Michael felt relatively well, given the circumstances. He was able to go in and even do some cooking. Making tea and coffee in those conditions was challenging.

The rest of us (Naama, Shay and myself), shared the best bed in this situation. The stern starboard side bed. This is because the stern doesn’t jump that much on the waves, and because we could put some cushions on the topping (bedroom’s wall) and just sleep on it…

The boat was not happy with the sea either and at some point the living room table broke and fell aside, missing Shay by just a few centimeters. Don’t worry, we fixed it as soon as the weather calmed down.

This is Naomi, in the 2^nd sunrise at sea:

After 48 hours at sea, the wind calmed down and so did the waves. We furled the jib, dropped the mainsail and started motoring our last 70 miles to Kastellorizo.

We arrived at around 6PM.

The weather for the next day was not any better. Head wind of up to 23 knots was expected in Rhodes channel. We checked PredictWind’s suggestion. It suggested we motor up along the Turkish coast, then when the wind picks up start tacking, starting with a long leg south towards the coast of Rhodes and then tack straight to channel. It looked smart, so we decided to follow it. Just before the wind picked up again, we got a short dolphin show

This was a long day. We started at 5AM, tacked against the wind the whole day, raised and reefed the sails many times, tacked many times, but crossed the channel very nicely.

We used the opportunity to practice manual steering while beating against the wind, so everyone had hours on the helm, trying to make the best out of the wind.

At sunset, we were about to enter the channel between the Turkish coast and Symi

Once in the channel, the sea dropped, the wind calmed down and turned to out back. At this point, David went down to the kitchen to prepare a “royal” dinner.

We entered Symi in full darkness at around 9PM. With Naama doing a great job on the anchor, we moored in Symi town, and sat down for a late dinner. This was a nice ending for a very long, adventurous and tiring day.

Symi to Kos was a piece of cake. Only 40 miles, some on engine with not much wind and some on sails, till we made the final approach to Kos marina.

So finally, I’d like to thank the great team for doing with passage with me. It was a great experience.

Korinthos-to-Galaxidi/Trizonia

As we departed the Korinthos canal we were welcomed by strong gusts of
~30kts uninviting sea. We decided to spend the night in the old Korinthos port
and reevaluate the situation in the morning. Unfortunately, the weather did not
smile at us the following morning so we opted not to make a hasty decision to
head out. While we were considering our options the harbormaster approached
us and announced that we have to leave the harbor as a cargo ship is about to
enter. We throttled westwards reluctantly with some help of the storm jib. After
about five miles it turned out that this was not such a bad decision as the wind
weakened and even rotated to a favorable direction until we reached Galaxidi.

Galaxidi, as seen from Delphi

In previous years, Galaxidi marina has been a home to the Princess Nayeli
for about three months (on and off) and Eyal had close ties with Angelo, the
local ‘waterman’ (a person in charge of checking-in new vessels). However,
as we approached the marina an unfamiliar (not Angelo) skinny ‘waterman’
directed us onto a vacant space on the quay. As Eyal was preparing for docking
it was hard to overlook another bulky chap who was rushing us onto a different
space using vigorous hand gestures; another ‘waterman’? Soon enough, the
two ‘official’ waterman pretenders were engaged in a loud discussion and while
they were settling their dispute, we dropped anchor and invited ourselves into
an empty space in the quay. The bulky guy was the first to catch our ropes and
politely explained that we are allowed to use water and electricity for a flat fee of
10 euros to be paid until the morning. Although the skinny ‘waterman’ lost the
race to the ropes, he was very quick to grab our water hose and electricity cable.
“I am the waterman”, said the guy, and insisted that he should collect the 10
euros the very same evening “Give me a piece of paper and I will write my name”.
Roded decided to pay the guy (of course, no receipt) so that we could have a
quiet evening.

When Angelo finally arrived to greet us he explained to Eyal that the unofficial
Galxidi rule of thumb, which is the first person to collect the fee gets the 10
euros.

The next morning, Eyal, Gili and Mosh headed to Delphi, the famous site of the
Oracle, which was also considered as ‘the center of the world’. Roy and Roded
stayed in Galaxidi to visit the local museum.














We got back from Delphi to see that the boat is ready to go. 5 minutes later, we
were already on our way to Trizonia, a small island, 15 miles West of Galaxidi.

The marina in Trizonia was full of boats, one of them was under the water.
We anchored outside the marina, giving us a good opportunity to swim, row the
kayak and dive to the sunken boat. Lovely place, great view from our porch on
the water.

And as usual, you can click here to see the whole picture album.

Poros to Korinthos

Around 16:00 Vangellis arrived with our Jib back from Athens . We were happy to hear the good news . His sails maker agreed to fix the jib although it was Saturday and a day before the long weekend election day in Greece.... He also told us that the previous fix done in Cyprus was a bad job , done with a normal thread used for clothes and not with a UV protected one that should be used for sails !!!

Around 17:00 we left Poros on our way to spend the night in one of the bays around Angistri. We motored out the Poros canal and started our preparation for a nice short  15 miles of sailing in 20-25 Knots of wind. The moment the mainsail went up we noticed that there's a problem! One of the mainsail batten pocket stitches had at least a 1M long opening!
We had to take the mainsail down immediately.
We motored around 4 Knots of speed against the 25 Kn wind and just 10 min before sunset we anchored in a beautiful bay on the south side of Angistri.

This morning, we started the day by patching the batten pocket. We put a 1m sticker over the batten, hoping it will hold. We haven't tried it yet. No doubt, the windy hell under Amorgos did not spare our sails.

after a short swim, we started our way towards the Korinthos canal.
The sea was calm and the Meletemi started slowly to pick up . we decided to do some fishing again.
And this time we got a quiet big one! Another 10Kg tuna!!

Just when we finished to clean the fish , the Meltemi was already picking up and we motored the last 4 miles into the Korinthos canal.

The waiting time was just 15 min. after arranging all the papers and we crossed the canal around 14:00.

Just outside the canal , we felt the force 8 , and turned into the Korinthos port . the port is a deserted port , used rarely by small cargo ships and we were the only yacht there .

The port is completely open to the North , and the feeling is a bit choppy inside . Anchoring took us about 30 min. until we fixed all the ropes but the anchor has a good holding and it's quiet a safe anchoring inside.

Getting ready for an exciting dinner with tons of fish in our rocky shelter.

More soon...

As usual, you can see all the pictures from the past two weeks (including new ones from today) in our web album

Rhodes to Poros

We're now in Poros, having a day off, while waiting for the jib to come back from Athens. Wind is picking up from NW.
The main challenge we had was to be able to cross the Aegean sea before a heavy Meltem storm spreads all over the Aegean sea. There was a 7-8 bft N wind expected and we wanted to cross before is picks up.
Our plan was to motor North as far as we can before she picks up, and when she starts blowing, we would turn West and sail at 60 degrees to the wind so that we'll run fast and more comfortably. We would go west till we hit the Peloponnese and then go along the shore against the wind to the Corinth canal.
The minute Roy and Roded arrived from the airport on Wednesday night, in an unexpected flood of rain (that lasted 20 minutes), we left Rhodes.
We motored West to Kos and then up towards Patmos.
The night went smoothly, and then at about 10AM on Thursday, we realized we won't be able to pass beyond Amorgos so we decided to turn West and start sailing. We already had a fresh fish from the morning's catch, so we were ready to start sailing...


Click Here to see a video of what it looked like when we were still far from Amorgos.

At this point Gili was not feeling so well. The washing machine effect we had the whole day, sent him to bed and we didn't see him till after sunset.

Then, moving towards the South tip of Amorgos, there was suddenly and silent moment where the wind dropped completely. But it was only 10 minutes later that we could see ahead what's expected.
I think I've never sailed (with sails on) in such a strong wind. We had 40+ kts gusts coming down from the high cliffs of South Amorgos. When a gust hit us, it would "swivel" the boat into the wind even with ALL the helm going down wind. Steering was impossible. Every time the boat went into the wind, the jib flapped in bangs that were as loud as gun shots.
After two or three such bangs, we went all the way down wind to furl the jib (there was only a small napkin out there anyway). Then the boat went all the way upwind again and we used the opportunity to drop the sail.
There were only wind waves there but the wind was so strong that we got soaked with salty spray.

Once out of the island's shade, we got clear sea with calm wind and sea.
We then decided, to change the plan and motor up all night to Kithnos so we're high enough to sail west. The wind was supposed to start only around 9am so we should have had enough time to motor up the 50 miles we had till Kithnos.

It was a calm night, we had a great night sleep except Roy who took a long night shift.
When I woke up on Friday morning, I knew we won. We cross the Aegean right before the storm.
The only problem was that we had a long stitch on the Jib's leach that split open the day before. We had to fold it and hoist the 6 m2 storm jib instead. It was good enough, together with the mainsail to run at 6-7kts.  As the crew regained their sense of appetite, Roy and his suchef, Roded, prepared a Mediterranean-Dutch style fish cakes from the Bonito we cached the day before, which was a nice relaxing end to this leg of our trip.

With Yael's help, we called "Greek Sails" in Poros who said they may be able to help us.

So we sailed to Poros, anchored and went to look for the guy. It turned out that we had two options to fix our jib: either try our luck with a 95 year-old and almost blind and deaf local tailor, who has a little shop on the island, or wait until the owner of the local yacht shop, Vangelis, will take the jib to another tailor in Athens. We opted for the 2nd choice as Vangelis 'promised' to do his best to return the repaired sail by Saturday afternoon.

The rest of pictures can be found at the trip's album

הרצליה - קסטלו

השעה כעת 19:15, יום ראשון, אנחנו מפליגים בקדמית חדה של 15-17 קשר (רוח שטח של 10-12 קשר), לכיוון החוף הטורקי.

מיכאל עובד על הכנת הקרפצ'ו מהדג שכרגע תפסנו. זה התחיל בוויכוח קצר אם לזרוק את החכה. אני אמרתי שכיוון שכולנו מפוצצים אחרי ארוחה ענקית על טהרת הדגים, אולי כדאי לחכות למחר. החברה' פחדו שאולי מחר לא נתפוס דג, אז כדאי לנסות היום. מוש חשב שאולי הדג הקודם היה מקרי וחייבים לבדוק אם הפתיון עובד.

אז זרקנו חכה, ולא הספקנו אפילו להשלים את התרגולת על יבש עד שהחכה התחילה לרוץ... עוד דג! התרגולת עבדה מצויין: ירדנו לגבית, קיפלנו את החלוץ והתחלנו להביא אותו לסירה. לאט לאט ראינו אותו מגיע מלווה בעוד דג. 10 דקות אח"כ הדג היה אצלנו בסירה, הפעם גודל יותר סביר – רק 5-6 ק"ג.

יצאנו ביום שישי, ב 7 בבוקר ממרינה הרצליה. בלי רוח, הלכנו על מנוע (דורו-דורו כמו שמוש אומר). העניין הראשון התחיל כשהגענו לאסדת הקידוח שמסתבר שהיא ממש על הנתיב לפפוס. עוד לא הספקנו להבין מה זה בדיוק המבנה הזה בים עד שהתחילה להתקרב אלינו גוררת ענקית שסימנה לנו להתרחק וליוותה אותנו מערבה. לא הצלחנו להבין למה הם לא עונים לנו בקשר אלא מדברים איתנו בתנועות ידיים עצבניות. אחרי שעה או יותר של ליווי מערבה הם עזבו אותנו וחזרו לחכות לפולש הבא.

בהמשך זרקנו את החכה למים, תוך כדי שיעורי ימאות והיסטוריה מעורבבים, וחיכינו לשקיעה. קצת לפני השקיעה, החכה התחילה לרוץ והביאה לנו את הדג הכי גדול שנתפס בסירה הזו אי פעם. פלמידה אדומה במשקל כ 10 ק"ג. זה היה ניסיון ראשון, ומוצלח של מיכאל להשחיל דג על הצלצל, וזה הצליח לו מצויין. העלנו את הדג לסיפון, ורק אז התחלנו להבין את המשמעות – איזה דג זה! צריך לפנות לו חצי מקרר, צריך לחשוב על כל מיני מתכונים, וכו'. בסופו של דבר אכלנו הרבה ארוחות דגים ועוד לא גמרנו את הכריימה שעשינו אתמול.

אז חוץ מדגים, הפלגנו גם קצת על מפרשים, נגד הצפונית מערבית הקלה שנשבה. התקדמנו לאט ולא בכיוון, אבל היה שקט ונעים.

משמרות הלילה עברו בנעימים. הארוע המעניין היחיד שהיה זה אונייה ענקית שמערך האורות שלה הטריד אותנו במשך שעות רבות. היו לה כנראה 2 אורות אדומים, ירוק, לבן בחרטום ועוד הילת אורות בירכתיים. אנחנו עדיין לא בטוחים מה היא התכוונה להגיד בזה.

אחה"צ הגענו לפפוס. הסתובבנו לא מעט זמן במעגן, מחפשים מקום. אף אחד לא ענה לנו בקשר. בסופו של דבר, ניגשה אלינו סירת משטרה והרשתה לנו לעגון ברציף המשטרה. מחשש לעומק רדוד מדי, עגנו עם חרטום למזח. נעמה ויובל אירגנו את עוגן הירכתיים מהר מאוד ותוך כמה דקות היינו עגונים.

את פנינו קיבלה תזמורת צבאית בריטית שהופיעה בנמל באותו ערב. באופן מקרי לחלוטין, תוך כדי שאני מעלה את דגל קפריסין – התזמורת ניגנה את: God save the queen

בהמשך עשינו בדיקות למכשיר הקשר והבנו שיש לנו בעיות עם המקלט. שומעים אותנו, אבל אנחנו לא שומעים אף אחד. משהו שאנחנו צריכים לפתור ברודוס, כנראה.

הבוקר, אנחנו מתכוננים לצאת לדרך, ואז מתברר לנו שאנחנו יושבים על הקיל. מזל שעמדנו עם החרטום למזח. קצת כוח עם המנוע, והרבה סבלנות, וירדנו מהשרטון הקטן.

ומילה בשבחם של קולטי השמש החדשים. אנחנו היום מפליגים כל היום על מפרשים, שני המקררים עובדים, ובכל זאת המצבר מלא. ממש מדהים.

חוץ מזה האווירה פה מדהימה. הרבה ארוחות, הרבה צחוקים, וים נפלא.

קישור למסלול ההפלגה שלנו עד כה:
 

הצג את Herzliya-Messolonghi במפה גדולה יותר

קישור לתמונות מההפלגה


מחר: מערה כחולה בזריחה וממשיכים לרודוס.
 

Crete, Chania and Rethimno

We arrived at the port of Chania at about 6:30pm after a 3 hour flight delay due to the strike in Greece and a 2 hour taxi ride from Iraklion airport.
We had a lovely welcome from Ofer and all the French community in Chania. I'm referring to Benoit, Florence and their kids as well as other French families that winter on boat in Crete.
Thanks to Ofer and Benoit, Princess Nayeli survived the storm that hit the Mediterranean last week, flawlessly.
We enjoyed Chania very much. The beautiful surrrounding of the old town, the nice neighbors and Nikos who runs the local Synagogue, made our stay very pleasant.
It was very interesting to join the Friday night prayers at the Synagogue that was recently rennovated. We may come back for Passover.

Today we sailed out of Chania. There was an annoying swell, so the girls had a little bit of a hard time, but once we were past the cape (that is more difficult to cross than cape Carmel in a strong SW), we started running at 8-9kts to Rethimno.
Once we had the sails down, a heavy rain started, that made our entrance a lot more interesting.
Our main concern now is the general strike that's expected in Greece on the 19th and 20th. Yael and the girls have a flight back on the 19th that will probably be cancelled with this strike.

Zakynthos to Pilos

We're now anchored on a beach at the North of end of Navarino bay: Map of where we are
 It is very peaceful here, not so many boats and the weather is calm. It's just the four of us on the boat (Yael, Noga, Yasmin and myself), so we have plenty of room and plenty of water to stay in bays for a few more days.
We're planning to stay here another day and just relax before we start our last couple of legs into Kalamata.

We had great sailing getting here. The first leg, was 45NM. We sailed most of it with the Gennaker. The wind was right behind us, about 18Kts, and we had some waves. The only event we had on the way was that out of a sudden, while I was at the helm (trying to make the Gennaker happy), the sail disappeared! We lost sight of it, and only when going out of the cockpit, we saw it fluttering way above us! The tack snap shackle unlocked for some reason and the sail was only holding on two lines. Fortunately, the sleeve was still working and we could sleeve it back rather easily. At that point we just opened up the jib (which we just talked about doing anyway cause the wind was increasing), and pointed the bow at Kiparissia.

Kiparissia: So first, the port of Kiparissia has been extended and it is well protected now, with water and electricity on the quay. Rod Heikell warns boats from going in here because the port is not protected and suggests to drop an anchor in the middle of the port. I waned to update him, but then I saw that he has a blog post from this summer with an update along those lines.
The town is really strange. Many brand new house, next to ruins and empty roads. No tourists at all. The castle and old town are lovely, with great view over the South Ionian sea. At the main square, we found a lovely Cafe where the highlight was that they had a 1 month old puppy. He was beautiful and we had to go back there the next day to see him.
Noga keeps saying that she likes Kiparissia and that we have to go back there. It's a great stop over between Methoni and Zakynthos.

From Kiparissia, we did a short, 30NM leg, to the famous bay of Navarino where we are now.

Some more pictures were added to this summer's sailing album.
BTW- I added a picture of our message in a bottle that was found in Italy and the picture was sent to us.
Eyal

Princess Nayeli Adriatic summer 2011

Otranto to Zakynthos

The three days of the storm in Otranto were a bit traumatic. There was maybe 40 kts of wind outside, the sea was high and choppy and we were moored alongside the cargo pier waiting for the storm to die. Two mooring lines were ripped by the cement quay, the whole boat was black, inside and out from the dirt of the truck road above us and everything had a think layer of salt from the spray that was going over the 10m breaker wall.

So, after 3 days of storm, we left Otranto on Saturday, August 13^th at 5AM, heading SE towards Corfu in Greece.

10 minutes after we left, a speed boat was heading towards us, it was just before dawn, and she slowed down as she was about 100m away. It was clear that they wanted something… Yael was thinking of Albanian pirates and I was thinking that I should have told the coast guard that we’re leaving so early. As they got closer, we could see the words “Guardia Finanzia” and could hear them speak Italian so we knew it was really the coast guard. A couple of minutes later, they were tied alongside to us, asked us to neutral the engine and they had full control over out 10 ton boat. One of them asked permission to go on board, and we “let” him. He even agreed to take his shoes off. The only problem was that he was wearing sun glasses and had some kind of a pirate like head cover. Yael showed him in, turned on the indoor lights and showed him Noga and Yasmin sleeping. That was good enough for him to tell his friends that we’re OK, and they left apologizing for the disturbance.

The rest of the day was wonderful. We had side-back winds of 15-18 kts and the boat was flying at 8-9 kts towards Corfu. Once we passed Erikousa, the small island NW of Corfu, the wind died and we motored the rest of our way to Gouvia marina.

In Gouvia we met Yael’s parents, Ruth and Shaul that were waiting for us.

Yael had a recommendation for a restaurant close to the marina. I called them, and asked how to get to the restautant. They lady said: “have you a dinghy?”. I said: “yes”. “Then”, she said, “take a look towards the East side of the marina. Do you see a fishing boat tied up to a small pier?”. “Yes”, I said. “So just take your dinghy and go next to our fishing boat”. That’s all I needed. I knew it was going to be a good restaurant, and it was.

From Corfu, we sailed down to Paxoi, and then went down towards Lefkas Bridge. We planned to cross the swinging bridge at 3PM. The bridge is supposed to open every round hour and we’ve crossed it maybe 10 times already. We got there at about 10 minutes to 3 and got in slowly hoping it will open on time. After circling for about 20 minutes in the small entrance with 4 other boats, Yael decided to call the bridge control on Ch. 12. Surprisingly they answered her, and said that they’ll open only at 4pm. They skipped the 3pm opening. You can imagine how many boats were there at 4, waiting to cross...

From the bridge we sailed down to a beautiful bay in Meganisi and then left for Ithaka on Tuesday. Dan Goldstaub and his family were there on a chartered boat and we planned to spend the night with them. We tacked our way towards Itaka till suddenly the wind picked up to 24kts on our head. To Yael’s request to go to the nearest port, we turned around and entered Sivota on the South side of Lefkada Island. We’ve been to Sivota several times before, but it’s always nice to go again to this lovely landlocked bay.

On Wednesday, the sea was flat, zero wind, so we motored for two hours to meet the Goldstaubs in a picturesque bay near the main town of Ithaka, Vathi.

The bay is beautiful, the beach is shaded by pine and olive trees, the water is amazingly clear and warm. It’s really a perfect bay. And what’s really amazing is that the girls, led by the experienced fisherwoman- Yasmin, fished about 6 fish, one of them is a 400gr sea bream!!!! The biggest we ever had in bay fishing. Shaul then BBQed them ashore and after a couple of hours we had a delicious fish dinner.

After a peaceful, star watching night, the Goldstaubs started their journey north while we got ready to sail down to Zakynthos, but then, when I went down to switch to the engine battery I realized we accidentally spent the night on the engine battery, and that battery was already empty. We had both our battery packs empty!!!! I tried to start the engine anyway – but nothing. The two service batteries were showing 10v while the engine battery was showing 11v. What do we do now? I started thinking of taking the dinghy to town to find some starter battery. Yael called Dan on the VHF but he was too far and did not answer his phone either.

We had to come up with a good solution. We had to be in Zakynthos that day because Ruth and Shaul had a flight to catch on Friday morning.

After some thinking, I decided to rewire the batteries and connect the two ‘dead’ service batteries in a row (so they give me some 20v) and use them to charge a little bit the engine battery. Shaul was holding the wires real tight while I went up to the switch. I switched the battery switch to “both” so get my circuit going, and tried to start the engine…

It started immediately!!!

Then I quickly switched back to the engine battery, to minimize the damage and off we went to Zakynthos. It was clear that now we needed new service batteries urgently.

On Thursday the 18^th, we entered the port of Zakynthos at about 3pm, after a nice sailing day, using the spinnaker a good part of the day.

This morning, at 5:45AM, Ruth and Shaul left to catch their flight to Tel Aviv. It was great having them for a week with us. They were vivid and helpful. Shaul was great crew and did everything from hoisting sails to tying the boat to rocks and trees. Ruth specialized in navigating the boat between all the “dangerous targets” we had around us. This for itself was a full time job. They both felt great at sea and got used to boating life very quickly. We hope to have them with us in many more cruises.

Today, we used the day to buy new batteries, clean the boat, get some laundry done and just rest before the last sailing week. We are sailing down to Kalamata soon.

As usual, this summner's album with additional pictures of the last week can be found at:

Princess Nayeli Adriatic summer 2011

Montenegro to Italy with the Levinsons

For some reason, every time the Levinsons join us, we find ourselves struggling with mother nature.

This time, they joined us for a week and we planned to sail together from Montenegro to Corfu.
We thought we had a lot of spare time, but eventually at this point, Tzvika and his family are still waiting for the ferry boat to be able to leave the port due to the bad weather.

So it all started when they joined us in Kotor bay in an unusually hot afternoon. After two weeks of lovely weather, there were now very hot days expected after which a gail in the Adriatic sea was expected.
We started by sailing the Kotor bay and spending the night in the nice bay of Bigova, just outside Kotor bay. We put all our bay gear in the water, including the kayak, the dinghy, inflatables, etc. It was a nice quiet night in the bay.
Looking forward, we realized we may have problem getting to Corfu on time, so we decided we leave Montenegro the next morning to Italy, beating a South wind, and then hopefully cross back to Corfu after the storm dies.
The weather had other plans.
So, next day, we docked at Budva, trying to make the departure arrangements. While doing the paperwork, the customs officer asked if I had a bottle of wine for him and for the police. I was amazed by the request and told him I don't drink wine... After I left, I saw an Italian skipper approaching the offices with two bottles of white wine...
Anyway, we moved from the noisy town, to anchor under the interesting island of SV. Stephan. The island who hosts celebrities, and government officials, looked great at the sunset.

On Tuesday morning, at 3:45AM, we left SV. Stephan heading to Otranto, Italy. In a couple of hours the wind picked up and steadied on 15Kts close hauled, what made us run in 20Kt winds, healing dramatically all the way across the Adriatic sea. As the day went by, the wind became more South and we had to just do the best we can to get into Bridisi (about 40 miles North of our desired destination).
Anyway, running all day, the 102 miles to Bridisi in strong healing and some nasty waves, was a challenge to everyone. Almost all the crew was feeling sea sick at some point, although the boat was running steady against the wind.
We had a lovely visit of a school of dolphins, as if they realized we can't go to the bow to watch their ride, they came over making spectacular jumps right in front of our eyes. It was a beautiful sight.
At 8pm we were docked in Brindisi.
On Tuesday, 11am, we left Brindisi, with empty water tanks (there was no water in Brindisi for some reason) towards Otranto.
We arrived at Otranto at 6pm, to find out that the dock was full and the only place we could stay is on the cargo pier, which is on the main breaker, close to the entrance to the harbor, with no water supply and a little bit exposed.
An hour later, an Italian HR42 asked to moor long side to us, and we agreed. They are very nice people from Venice, the owner is a originally from the Jewish community of Corfu but he grew up in Venice.
At midnight, the wind started blowing at 30-32 kts, but the sea was still OK and standing at the dock was manageable except the fact the all the black dirt of the cargo area blew right into our boat, getting everything inside and out dusted with a thick black dust.
The night between Wednesday and Thursday was even worse. We lost two lines during the night as the load of two boats was too heavy on them adding the fact that the lines shaffed against the cement quay. We replaced and doubled all the lines with a very thick and flexible line we have on board that we're using now for the first time.
Getting off the boat is really a  challenge as the wind pushes the boats off the quay and you have to pull on two boats to get yourself ashore.

Water. Luckily we have a water maker on board. We've living for the last 3 days on that only. We're running the water maker (together with the engine), for a few hours a day to give us water to wash our hands, wash dishes, and some showers. We mainly take showers in the marina.
It's amazing how we can empty 420 liters in 24 hours on one day but manage with very little water on another.

Since the Levinsons have a flight to catch from Corfu tomorrow night, they bought ferry tickets from Brindisi to Corfu, and reserved a hotel in Corfu.
They left us at 11:30 this morning, planning to catch the 3pm fast ferry to Corfu.
When they arrived at Brindisi, they found out that ferry is being delayed, waiting for the weather to calm down! I guess the sea out there is really high!
Hopefully they'll leave sometime during the night.

Anyway, we had interesting adventures with the Levinsons, as we did 5 years ago with them on a charter boat in Greece.
The Levinsons coped with challenges very well, and made a lot of progress in their sailing practice. Tsvika can now do two knots (bowline and hitch knot) and mastered jumping off the boat and tying her to the dock. Ilana is feeling great at sea, and was able to make sandwiches and cheer everyone while running against the sea. Hadar was great friends with Noga and Yasmin and learned to do the "Turkish head" knot (I have no idea how it's called in proper English). Shaked is ready for his cruising diploma. He managed to control the Raymarine instruments, steer the boat and do all the navigation work.
Noga was in charge of the laptop and taught Hadar and Shaked, together with Yasmin, everything about living on board. She was also great help with setting up the mainsail and taking care of the fenders before we dock. Yasmin was charming and had a lot in common with Hadar. She really mastered about 10 knots and she can do a bowline in 2 seconds! She's also a great helmsman, steering beautifully when going close hauled.
The both hosted our friends brilliantly. And of course Yael, my lovely wife, who made sure we have everything we need on board, took great care of the boat, waking in the middle of the night double docking lines and so on.

More soon...




All this Adriatic see journey pictures can be found at:

Princess Nayeli Adriatic summer 2011

Eyal

Kotor, Montenegro

After leaving Budva, we sailed to a small swimming bay just before the entrance to the bay of Kotor. The place is called Bigova. The main attraction was an old yacht that had roots there in the bay with two kittens living on board.

After a nice lunch break, we sailed to Kotor.

The bay of Kotor is probably the most impressive bay I've ever seen. The bay is deep with dark blue water and 1000m mountains surrounding it. We made our way around in the bay, with full sails up, till we made it to Kotor.
Rounding one of the corners, we crossed the largest sailing ship in the world - the Royal Clipper. I'll post our pictures soon. In the meantime you can see her
Here

Compared to Budva, Kotor is much nicer, and even with all the tourists around here, staying on the town quay is more quiet than the marina of Budva.

Tomorrow, we're planning to rent a car and go up the mountains for a couple days.

Budva, Montenegro

After a week into this cruise we were moored in Budva.
We did a morning leg from Otranto to Brindisi. We went through Brindisi mainly because we wanted to cross the Adriatic at the narrowest point North to Albania.
To make the crossing as easy as possible for Noga and Yasmin, we left Brindisi at 4am and passed the 100nm in about 17 hours, half of it sailing in light winds with the jenniker and half on engine.
Throughout the crossing we saw many times schools of fish jumping for their lives. Unfortunately, trying to get close to them, got us nothing on our hook. We haven't caught a single fish so far. On the other hand, three dolphins joined us for a nice ride.
We entered the port of Bar a little before 9pm.
Noga and Yasmin got a new crew certificate for doing over 100 miles in one leg!
Formalities were a little strange. The harbor master charged 230 euros for a sailing permit (viniette) of one month. Unfortunately you either pay for a week or a month or 6 months. We're planning to stay for 2 weeks so we had to take the month. Anyway, after I agreed to pay this outrageous sum of money, he told me that I have two options: I should either wait for the morning and then Go to e bank to pay the fee or just give him the money and he'll go to the bank the following day and make other payment for me. I did choose the 2nd option but I must say I don't know if he ever went to the bank... Anyway, he did give me the Viniette and a signed crew list so hopefully it's OK. When it was all done he asked me if I happen to have a bottle of whisky on board...

The following morning we motored in no wind the 15 miles to Budva. We entered the tricky entrance in heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Budva is on one hand a charming old town, very well preserved and maintained but it became the center for young tourists, mostly Serbs and Russians who come here to lie on the beach, consume lots of alcohol and hang out in noisy bars with lousy music.
Sleeping in the marina was a challenge. Even with all windows closed and with the AC on.
There is one disco that blows up the whole bay! I remember hearing it loudly when we anchored across the bay off Nikolas island, and were amazed by the high volume that was coming from shore.

On Sunday morning we decided to leave Budva and move to Kotor.

More soon...Eyal

Corfu to Otranto

We are now in the beautiful town of Otranto.
We started this cruise with a lovely tacking day against the wind to the small island of Erikoussa. What was expected to be a deserted island was in fact a nice resort beach with a small hotel, some restaurants and even a small shop where we could get a fresh watermelon. The beach is lovely with real sand like we have in Israel. The only problem was that waves made their way into the bay what made our night sleep not so comfortable.

 The following day we had a challenging voyage, leaving Erikoussa (the small island 25miles NW of Corfu), at around 11am finding ourselves in a notable swell and no wind. Motoring towards the Italian coast was challenging, with the girls feeling sea sick with not much we could do about it. Fortunately, at some point a school of dolphins joined us for a short ride. They went on their way a few minutes later leaving both Noga and Yasmin refreshed and feeling good.
Later on the wind picked up gradually steadying at 20kts 70deg on out port side. We could really feel the power of the boat riding the sea at over 8kts.
It wasn't till 7pm that we were moored in Otranto.
Otranto is surprisingly beautiful. The old town is really impressive, very nicely preserved and very lively with tons of shops and Italian tourists. We even had a chance to listen to a live performance of local percussionists including marimbas, xylophones and a vibraphone.
Tonight there's a ballet performance of Romeo and Julia expected.

Surprisingly the weather here is exceptionally good. It's even raining here and there and the morning walk was even a little chilly. Most convenient because the visitors quay at the marina has no electricity.

We're thinking of leaving tomorrow towards Brindisi and then cross to Bar in Montenegro.

Pictures soon...

Gouvia marina - Corfu

Started the summer season yesterday. We had a good flight to Corfu. The surprise was when we went out of the airport in Corfu and found out that Taxis are on strike!! We were lucky to find a car to rent so we can get to the boat in one piece (we were lucky to get a BMW-X3 as they ran out of any other car :) )

We found the boat in great shape, and starting getting her ready for the cruise up North.


We'll keep updating.

Eyal

Last two days with the Sea Scouts team near Corfu

05/06/2011	רשמיו של דורון משני ימי ההפלגה האחרונים: יום ראשון - סיבוטה (לשעבר מוטרוס)
	יציאה מהמעגן בפקסי קצת לפני 10:00 כדי לפנות מקום למעבורות שמגיעות למקום בו עגנו. היעד הוא אזור בו ישנן כמה מערות ונקרא ארימיטיס. למקום הגענו דרך גלויות שנמצאות בחנויות במעגן של פקסי. ואכן לא מעט סירות תיירים היו שם. אנחנו השארנו את רוני ביאכטה ויצאנו עם הדינגי והקיאק לטיול עתיר צילומים במערות שבמקום. כמובן שבהמשך נעשה חילוף וגם רוני נהנה מהנופים המדהימים של המערות. מערה אחת גדולה ומוארת איפשרה כניסה ליכטות מנועיות די גדולות. מערה אחרת קטנה יותר התגלתה כמערה כחולה (בעומק המערה היה חור מתחת לקו המיים ממנו נבע אור כחול מקסים). בהמשך אנחנו שטים לסיבוטה (SIVOTA) שמנמצאת ביבשת מזרחית לקצה הדרומי (הזנב) של קורפו. באזור יש כמה איים קטנים ובהם מערות, קשתות, חופים לבנים והמון מלונות (גם בניה חדשה של מה שנראה כמו שכונות מגורים - חלקה בעזובה וחלקה בתהליך). במקום היו גם הרבה סירות השכרה של נילסון - יכטות וסירות קטנות, קטמרנים וקיאקים סטייל קלב-מד. אנחנו טיילנו עם הקיאק, ניסינו לדוג (אל דאגה - רק ניסינו), דיברנו עם זוג גרמנים שמנהל מרינה פיראטית במקום מזה כ 15 שנים. ובסוף היום ישבנו לאכול ארוחת ערב בסירה... מעט אחר שסיימנו לאכול את השניצלים והחצילים המטוגנים היה מופע זיקוקים נחמד שהפר את השלווה. ומיד אחרכך לישון כאשר היתושים בלבד מפריעים את השלווה.
05/06/2011	יום שני - קורפו
	כדי להגיע מוקדם לקורפו אנחנו יוצאים מוקדם (כאשר הרוח חלשה) על מנוע לכיוון גוביה מרינה (מעט צפוני למרכז העיר ולמבצרים של קורפו העיר). האזור עמוס במעבורות ואניות גדולות - כך ש ה AIS עובד שעות נוספות, ומצפצף ללא הפסק. אחרי שהפיילוט של המרינה מוביל אותנו למקום העגינה אנחנו מתחילים בסידור ונקוי הסירה, ב 13:00 אנחנו פוגשים את יעל, נטע ומיקי. ואחר כך שוכרים רכב ויוצאים לטיול בקורפו שיסתיים בשדה התעופה ב 19:00 בערב. בטיול אנחנו מגיעים לחלקו המערבי של האי למקום שנקרא פלאוקסטריצה (PALEOKASTARITSA). כמה מפרצונים מקסימים ומרינה שגובלים בצוק שעליו כמה מסעדות שמתהדרות בנוף מהמם ואוכל לא רע בכלל. לפי המלצת המקומיים אנחנו עולים למסעדה שנקראת בלה ויסטה, כאשר טעות ניווט מביאה אותנו למקום דרך שביל כורכר צר שדי דומה לשביל עיזים. למזלנו אורן נמנע מבירה או יין בבוקר ואנחנו מגיעים בשלום למסעדה. בהמשך אנחנו חוזרים לעיר קורפו לטייל במבצר הדרומי ולטפס עד לפסגה שלו. הנוף מקסים ופורש לפנינו את כל העיר. עייפים אך מרוצים אנחנו פונים לשדה התעופה לחזרה הביתה.  וכרגיל, התמונות מרוכזות באלבום ההפלגה (חלק מן התמונות עדיין לא שם אז מומלץ לעקוב במהלך השבוע הקרוב):

PrincessNayeli20110601_Preveza_Corfu