2002

Well another year in theMediterranean is drawing to a close. We have once again returned to Kemer Marina in Turkey for the winter and have settled into the busy live aboard lifestyle.

This summer was meant to be a quiet one but as usual we overdid it and ended up traveling vast distances. We traveled home to Australia in Oct 2001 and spent many months languishing in the bosom of familiar surroundings, good friends and family, delicious food and unbelievably tantalizing wine. During our time in Australia we gathered together a hoard of boat bits and other must haves like a supply of Vegemite and staggered to the airport where we were told that we were a bit overweight with our luggage, well surprise, surprise. But the charge was not too horrendous and so together with our 100 odd kg of luggage we flew back to Athens and after a bit of luck with customs we picked up a hire car and made it out of Athens in one piece. The road system is a complete shambles and so we did wonder how the Olympics will be run amidst the chaos that is Athens.

We found the boat safe and sound and we only lost 4 fenders during our absence, which we considered a small price to pay for 6 months marina fees. We used the hire car to travel around inland Greece for a week in the April and we now believe that the best time to visit Greece is in the Spring when it is not too hot and there are not too many tourists. The wild flowers were out in force and there was still snow on the highest mountains. Highlights of the tour were Meteora to the north and the Peloponnese in the south. Meteora, from which the word meteor comes, is a place with high rock pinnacles on the top of which are perched a number of monasteries. These guys must have been seriously worried about their safety to go the extraordinary effort of putting their buildings on the top of these peaks but they did and they only had nets and ropes to connect them with the outside world. And, of course, the Peloponnese, the home of the delicious Kalamata olive, the original site of the Olympics and the Spartans. The Kalamata trees are different to the standard olive tree with greener and larger leaves. Overall, the wild scenery and little isolated towns of the Peloponnese were refreshing after the more well-travelled tourist trails. The drivers of Greece all have a death wish, which was fine as long as they didn't try to include us. They overtook on blind corners, in the face of oncoming traffic, in fact, at any time at all and I am pleased to say that Stephen's driving allowed us to anticipate them all and make it safely back to the boat and begin to put the boat back into working order. We were planning to get away by the end of April but we hadn't reckoned on Greek Easter. We just couldn't miss the most important religious festival of the year so we stayed and celebrated Easter in Greece. It is a time for visiting relatives and of course much partying and eating. A bit like our Xmas, except the Greeks are far more religious about the holiday. We were on the small island of Trizonia with a population of maybe 50 people and 100 cats for 51 weeks of the year but at Easter the population swells to closer to 1500 and the sleepy ferry drivers work around the clock to keep up with the comings and goings of the happy throngs. We watched the services in the quaint Greek Orthodox Church as we tried to avoid the kids and the men (who behaved even worse than the kids) throw huge firecrackers into the crowd. Some of you reading this may remember back to the good old days of the threepenny and 6 penny bomb – well the Greeks still have them and there were quite a few rubbish bins and cats a bit worse for wear by the end of the Easter Weekend. The candle carrying ceremony at the end of the midnight service on Easter Sunday was moving. The candles are lit by the priests and the people try to carry them back to their houses without them blowing out. It symbolizes the hope of the resurrection and signals the start of a feast .The feast is lamb based and lasts for most of the night and after a short break begins again the next afternoon. Boy, those Greeks sure know how to party.

So after recovering from the excesses of Greek Easter we set off westwards through the Corinth Gulf towards the Ionian Sea and anchored in some delightful little bays with white sandy bottoms and aquamarine seas on islands called Ithaca (home to Ulysses), Paxos and Antipaxos and found the fabled River Styx on the Greek mainland. We visited Lefkas, Preveza and Corfu Islands as we traveled northwards.

We had been considering visiting Albania on our way up to Croatia and as we had the phone numbers of the mayor of Sarande and the commander of the Albanian Navy, we gave them a call and asked if we were allowed to come. They were a bit surprised at first but quickly recovered and told us we were most welcome. We were still a bit hesitant as we set off for Albania but as it was only 11 NM away from Corfu and so we dropped in. As we approached the port of Sarande, we called up their port control and asked for permission to enter. There was a moment of silence and then an incredulous voice came back, "You want to come here?" We said we did and so it was that we were met at the wharf by a shipping agent, the harbour master, port police, etc, who all piled on board and seemed fascinated by the whole event. The formalities were quickly completed and they even promised us a courtesy flag when we explained that there were none to be had in Greece (the Greeks had mentioned that the Albanians were known to have two heads so why would you go there). So far so good, the next step was to try to get some Albanian currency, Leks. No problem they said you just go up to the main street. So off we walked but after some distance and no sign of a currency exchange we stopped at a restaurant and explained that we would love to have lunch in their establishment but first we must get some money. The young lad points across the road and says the moneychanger is the man with a calculator in his hand on the other side of the road. Sure enough, as we approach him he asks us how much we want to change and so we receive our first hand full of Leks, then had a delicious lunch and headed back to our boat. We found the local children had adopted our dinghy as a mobile diving platform and they were most put out when we asked for it back.

Within an hour of being in Albania we were interviewed by a Finnish film company who asked why we had come to Albania and if we liked it. So one day you may be watching a travel log on Albania and there will be our smiling faces. The travel guide assisting the film crew offered his services and so we arranged a car and driver for a couple of inland trips. It was suggested that we have a driver because until a few years ago nobody could own or drive their own car and they still didn't have to pass driving tests so the rules of the road were a bit laissez faire.

The first day we visited an ancient site called Butrint and then an amazing spring called the Blue Eye. The Blue Eye is the gushing start of a surface stream. Watching the huge amounts of water well up from unfathomable depths was fascinating. The next day we went to the ancient city of Gjirokastra. It is set on a steep hill overlooking a wide and fertile valley. Above the town is an immense citadel in an excellent state of preservation. It is now a war machine museum and because tourists were so rare the driver had to go and find someone to open up. We then visited an old house, which is an ethnological museum. It was interesting that the house resembled an Ottoman Turkish house with the lowest level for storage of produce for winter, the next level had the kitchen and summer rooms and the top floor was for winter. Many family units may live in one house and each family room is used for sleeping and during the day the beds are folded away into a cupboard and the space is used for sitting, reading, handicrafts, etc. With the aid of the driver we found a restaurant for lunch. The driver went off to visit his daughter who was attending college nearby and so we settled in for an interesting lunch. There was only one other table occupied but the 6 guys and one lad were having a great time eating and then drinking some of the local fire water and of course it wasn't long before we were invited to join in the festivities. We had Graham and Lyn, a New Zealand couple with us, and Graham began to enjoy the local drop. The restaurant owner called in his daughter to assist in the translating and so it wasn't long before Graham was proposing to the daughter and everyone was understanding each other much better – thank goodness we didn't have to drive. We left the port of Sarande shortly afterward and visited a couple of other Albanian ports on our way north. A couple of notable items about Albania were, one, that the countryside is literally peppered with pillboxes. Apparently there are 750,000 throughout Albania and, two; the country is full of new model Mercedes. We found this a bit strange in a country that is so poor, but it was explained to us that not all cars are paid for!

Our last port of call in Albania was Durres, a modern port with an ancient town behind. At this port the harbour master was so concerned about the possibility of thieving that he insisted that one person remain on board the boat at all times. We stood watch all night and decided to leave early the next morning for Croatia about 100Nm away.

Our arrival in Croatia at dawn the day after and our clearing into the country was easy if a bit expensive. We were charged nearly AUD$400 for a 12 month cruising permit. We walked the city wall of Dubrovnik and wandered the old streets and the port area. The streets and houses are built from a particular light coloured stone and the roofs all have orange tiled roofs. The city suffered extensive damage during the recent war and there was still a lot of repair work being undertaken although the most obvious damage has been repaired.

We were anchored in Gruz, which is the new harbour for Dubrovnik, and the guy collecting fees had spent some time in Australia, so he could tell a bit about the war and its effects on people. Pretty sad mostly. Our anchor did not set right while we were at Gruz and when we pulled it up we found a piece of partly burnt sail hooked on it. Obviously a legacy of the war. From Dubrovnik we meandered amongst the myriad of islands just off the coast and spent a bit of time just swimming and generally getting used to being mostly naked.

We were trying to arrange a rendezvous with my sister Sue and her daughter Edie and so while we were waiting we decided to sail up to Venice and see the sights before it got too hot and busy. A good move we thought, but we ignored the weather forecast and so of course we got to experience the north Adriatic Sea at a most unkind time. At about 40Nm out of Venice and 4 o'clock in the morning we encountered a front coming through and as the wind changed direction we found ourselves in seas that would have done a washing machine proud. In hindsight we worked out that this amazing sea was whipped up because the depth is only about 50-20 metres for the last 100 miles of the Adriatic Sea. It was the closest I have come to being sick – something to do with trying to clean up the coffee that spilled on the floor when the cupboard door burst open as we were hit by a particularly nasty wave. Luckily, the tide was with us and so we were able to keep up a respectable boat speed (7 kts) and make it into Venice in time for lunch. On our approach to the canal entrance we saw a large passenger ferry called the Duchess of Dubrovnik rolled over so far by the seas that we could see its topsides and we laughed as we thought of the coffee cups flying across the dining room. The wind was still hooting as we tied up to poles at the end of the Grand Canal but our view from that location was unbelievable, I felt that I had stepped into Bannister Fletcher's History of Architecture.

We stayed for a couple of days in this spot and roamed the city, enjoying the glorious food and the sights until we found that we had to move or pay Euro 55 per night, so we moved. As we moved a spectacular thunderstorm rolled through and there we were cruising along a canal with wind driven rain giving us almost zero visibility and nowhere to go. Great, we thought, what do we do now.

But the storm passed and we found a place by the side of a canal. We spent the next week wandering around the larger canals in the lagoon surrounding Venice and into little towns perched in the lagoon surrounded by water, all miniatures of Venice with narrow canals for streets crisscrossed by low bridges. We used our dinghy to travel through these narrow canals and do our shopping and sightseeing.

As Sue and Edie were close to arriving we went back to Venice and secured a berth in St Elena Yacht Club. So there we were again back in the heart of Venice roaming the streets and marveling at the beauty and richness of the buildings and, of course, finding out the best places to shop for provisions. Sue and Edie duly arrived and after they had a look around Venice we headed south again to re-enter Croatia at the north and travel slowly southwards. We stopped at the towns of Novigrad, Porec and Pula on the northern Mainland of Croatia. All these towns have extensive ruins of old castles and other fortifications. Pula, in particular, had a large coliseum in an excellent state of repair and a Roman temple that was still roofed. From Pula we sailed across to the island of Cres (pronounced Cresh) and anchored in a little bay where we swam and snorkeled and of course ate and drank too much. We experienced our first "smoking water" phenomenon here and unfortunately it was not to be the only time during the summer. An ominous dark cloud appeared from behind island and moved toward us as the first strong gusts hit us. I could see what looked like sand blowing across the water, but of course, it couldn't be sand because there wasn't any. It was the surface of the water being whipped up into a white mist by strong gusts rushing down the valleys. We reckoned that it had to have a speed of 60 Kts to do this.

Our anchors held for the first half of the blow but when the wind swung through 180 degrees they were unable to cope and we had to start the motors quickly, pull in the anchors and motor around until the wind eased and we could return and re-anchor safely. Sue and Edie coped well in the face of this unexpected event with Edie sitting quietly below while Sue helped me with the anchors.

Next day we left for a nearby island called Otok Losinj and over the next week or so made our way slowly southwards stopping at islands called names like Otok Dugi, Otok Ugljan, Otok Iz and Otok Rava. We spent a couple of days in two island groups that are designated parks called the Telascica National Park and the Kornati Group. The weather continued to be unsettled and every night thunderstorms and lightning rolled around. The days were also cool. We found a beautiful anchorage in the Kornati Group with white sandy bottom and a little beach with a pebbly/sandy beach and spent one day swimming before another front came through. We had another unsettled night before heading off in the morning to find a more protected anchorage. And so it was that we found ourselves in a small keyhole shaped anchorage with about ten other boats hanging on for three days and nights, doing anchor watches at night and watching some of the other boats break their lines and end up on the rocks or replacing their lines after they snapped or wore through. By then we had had enough and so we left early for the mainland and hopefully a better anchorage.

We passed a number of bays where smoking water was happening and had a very hard slog across to the mainland into the wind, but as we approached the shore the seas lessened although the wind stayed up. Entered Kanal St Ante a deep river with steep cliffs of rock on each side, and passed by Sibernik before stopping in a little town called Zaton for supplies.

We then headed further up the Kanal, Edie on the helm, Gail and Sue looking nervous, and crossed a lake to a wonderful anchorage on the lakeshore, which gave us protection from the wind. We met up with our Kiwi friends on Minaret here. They told us that the locals told them not to wander from the roads as there were anti personnel mines everywhere. The water in the lake was brackish and had a fresh water layer on the top so we washed some clothes and ourselves and had a good night's sleep before heading up to Skadrin to see the Cascades higher up the river in the Krk National Park. This was a delightful little town but was scarred by bullet holes, and had a lot of young men with war related injuries.

The Krk National park was teeming with tourists but the old operating water-driven felt-pounding and wheat-grinding mills were well worth the visit. The cascades are covered with travertine formed when mosses and algae retain calcium carbonate, encrusted in their roots.

We ventured out of the river and visited a few more islands and bays as we continued to head south and a few days later arrived in the town of Split. This is an old town with a huge palace called the Diocletian Palace after the Roman Emperor. The area within the walls still operates as a town with shops houses cafes and about 3000 residences. Stephen had a wonderful time exploring this town with Edie, going down to underground museums and up a very high belfry, not to mention finding fantastic ice creams, and a Maccas. We managed to have the odd beer and pizza ashore for dinner and enjoyed the fire-jugglers buskin on the sea front at night. Pizzas were about the only Croatian food that was OK, most of the meat served up I wouldn't feed to my neighbours' dog and the rest was very bland not to mention overpriced. After Split we headed for the island of Hvar(pronounced Quar) to shelter from more thunderstorms, then after a few days sailed to the island of Vis(pronounced Vish). Here we tried to have dinner in the very nice garden restaurant, Villa Kaliopa, but found we had to book days in advance, bugga! Next island was Bisevo to visit the Blue Grotto, then the island of Brac. We sailed to Mljet Otok where we toured the lakes and an old Benedictine monastery, then onto a bay that was great for swimming, and making sand castles. We found beaches a rare commodity in Croatia. After a few more island stops we ended up back in Dubrovnik.

We stayed in Dubrovnik until Sue and Edie caught a ferry to Italy, another sad farewell. We then sailed to Corfu, and slowly made our way south thru the Ionian Islands, until we ended up back in Trizonia. We were expecting Danny Vos, an architect I had worked with in Darwin, join us somewhere in the Greek Islands and so we made our way back through the Corinth Canal and Saronic Gulf below Athens. In Poros we again met up with an American couple, Randy, Sharon and their son Kai on their boat Uhane Kai and an English/Spanish couple Darryl and Annie and their children Lisa and Jay on La Liberte. We had a great feast of BBQ fish salad and baked bananas before going our separate ways the next day. Uhane Kai and Gone Troppo headed to Serifos to meet up with some English friends while La Liberte headed off towards Athens.

Our email contact with Danny was proving a bit touch and go but we managed to arrange with her to met at the Island of Paros(home of the famous white marble) in the Aegean Sea. It was pretty windy when she arrived in the middle of the night and the quay was unsafe so I picked her up in the dinghy while Steve circled around outside the wharf area. She took it all in her stride and we were soon safely anchored back in a protected anchorage about a mile away.

Over the next couple of weeks we motored and sailed through the Greek Islands in the southern Aegean towards Turkey. We were getting a bit keen to be back in familiar waters as the autumn weather became more unpredictable but we were glad we decided to visit the spectacular volcanic island of Santorini. It is thought that when this island erupted in 1650BC it was three times as powerful as Krakatoa, and the tasumi and ash ended the Minoan civilization. It maybe the fabled lost Atlantis also. Certainly though, the volcano has erupted severely over the past a couple of thousand years and islands have been formed and then been destroyed. The landscape is bare jagged basalt and layers of soft ash. The countryside is very fertile and they grow vines for wine. The area is so windy, however, that the vines are cultivated into a circle on the ground to protect the grapes from the wind. The buildings perch precariously atop the cauldron and seem set to slide into the water below at the first tremor.

The wind increased again and so we had a brisk sail to Astipalia sometimes doing 11 knots, but our sail towards Tilos, Simi and Rhodes Islands was calmer and after a quick stock up of provisions that we knew were not available in Turkey headed across to the Turkish mainland and arrived back in Kemer a couple of days later after showing Danny some of the sights along the way.

Danny celebrated Halloween with us dressed as a witch and I went as her cat or familiar. Lots of fun as Randy and Sharon and their son Kai had turned one room into a haunted house and there was a pumpkin carving competition. Sharon went as a head on a plate- very gory.

The marina is a fun place to be during winter with many activities happening all the time. We went and had a complete physical, something I had never had before and we both passed with the comment from the doctor that we appeared to be 10 years younger than our actual ages so maybe this sailing life is good for you. We hired a car and met the Schallers in Izmir and spent a hectic but fun ten days touring inland Turkey. Seeing Ephesus, Cappodocia and the underground cities, as well as a stopover in Kemer. James had much fun, and did very well, negotiating cheaper rates at the places we stayed.

As this year draws to a close we would like thank all those friends and family who keep in touch with us for their welcome emails and calls through the year. We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

2002

Gone Troppo Newsletter Number 8