Before the weather really turned ugly we ran the gauntlet and headed 50NM north to Pisa. The wind was light and variable and the sea state ok, with about 1m of swell. But as we arrived at Pisa Marina I was a little surprised by how swell really heaped up around the entrance, forming 1.5m... Continue Reading →
Elba
New crew, Damian and Helen, joined us for the penultimate leg of our 2017 cruise from Bastia in Corsica to the Tuscan Island of Elba and then north to Pisa and the famous leaning tower. Their arrival seemed to coincide with a decided change in the weather. It had been blue sky’s and sun all... Continue Reading →
Venice
On these kind of trips you need a plan. If you don't then we find you can sometimes end up a little aimless. In croatia, we did get a little aimless for a while and Heather found it a bit troubling. Our original plan was to get up to Venice, but its a long... Continue Reading →
Passage to Montenegro
We left Monopoly in Italy bound for Montenegro, a small county wedged between Croatia, Algeria, Serbia and Bosnia Hertzegovina. The passage was 120NM and took us 23 hours. The wind was mainly light and just forward of the beam allowing us to sail straight for Montenegro at about 4 knots. Around midday the wind got really... Continue Reading →
Otranto Festival
It just so happened that there was a festival on in Otranto on our last night there. Summer is in the air and everyone was out late into the night listening to traditional music from the Salento region of Italy. The kids were the early entertainment highlight with them congo dancing and waltzing around the... Continue Reading →
Refugees
The morning after arriving in Italy we woke and it was still blowing hard. The coast guard appeared in a high-speed rib, full of bedraggled looking figures wrapped in foil survival blankets. Yoannia (from Calyxia) and I walked over to see what was going on. They were refugees, I have read a lot about the... Continue Reading →
2016 Route Plan
We are busily preparing for another live aboard season in the Mediterranean. This years plan is to leave the island of Aegina (where Vega is wintered) near Athens in Greece and head East through the Cyclades and then South down to Crete, where amongst other things we hope to do some whale watching (the deep... Continue Reading →
Season 1 – Route and Key Stats
The Red line shows our approximate route from Spain to Greece. Here are some brief trip stats: We visited Spain, France, Italy and Greece. The main islands visited on route where; Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Sardinia, Corsica, Capri, the Pontine Islands, the Aeolian Islands, Sicily and lots and lots of Greek islands... We travelled just under... Continue Reading →
Straits of Messina
The Straits of Messina separate Italy and Sicily and they had a formidable reputation amongst Sailors of old. Greek Mythology talks of Scylla, a monster and Charybdis a whirlpool on opposing sides of the narrowest part of the Strait where only a mile separates Sicily and Italy. Boats trying to avoid Scylla would be sucked... Continue Reading →
Stromboli
We have had a great few days in the Aeolian Islands - a volcanic archipelago in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The highlight of which was climbing Stromboli – an active volcano that spews lava and other volcanic stuff on a regular basis. Stromboli rises 1000m straight out of the Med and It’s a tough 5 hour trip... Continue Reading →