Newsletter June 2010
and the Maltese are reluctant to
acknowledge this. Their culture is
the result of countless invasions from the Arabs in
north and an overlay of British influence. The Maltese are generally dark and slightly thick set, although being light skinned and thin is highly
prized. We met up with friends Wayne
and Angie from the yacht Hitrapia, and
pies, delicious!!!
Approaching
Valletta harbour Malta
In Valletta harbour
The country is hot and demanding. If you ask a Maltese which side of the street he drives on, he will answer “ the shady side.”
architectural style to the island towns. The old town of
seen. It was built by the Crusaders.
Soffit support in limestone Apartments with limestone facades and box verandahs
We could find no room in the main ancient
ferry to the main island to sightsee.
Some of the traffic which regularly passed the boat !!
A cute old-fashioned bus which was the norm throughout
The marina berth was the roughest we have ever had the dubious pleasure of paying for with ferries and local craft scooting by at regular
intervals, but we got to meet some local fishermen, and enjoyed our stay.
The local fishermen And again, they obviously love their boats
After restocking
we headed north to
We anchored in an open roadstead anchorage as the wind veered through 180 degrees but it calmed down and we stayed put until morning.
A short run in the morning saw us in Siracusa, a well protected natural anchorage with an old town attached.
Siracusa town square
We anchored in soft mud and spent a few days sightseeing, shopping and met up again with Ton and Ingrid on their beautiful boat, Xelia.
Sailing north again, we headed towards the notorious
currents and winds, made even trickier by constant ferry and boat traffic across the gap . We had planned to anchor at night and then
pass through the Strait in daylight, but a lack of anchorages meant an overnight trip which brought us to the Strait at dawn. I was sleeping
as Stephen negotiated the strong current and dodged a continuous line of ferries. But it could have been a lot worse and as we exited into
the
of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world.
A quick look at the active volcano,
Stromboli, before, mostly motoring across to
anchorages along the coast as we
slowly cruised northward The
weather was getting just about warm enough for a swim.
packed with caravan and mobile home
parks along its long sandy beaches.
explains the popularity of the
area. Extensive reforestation has
taken place on
One anchorage we stopped in was used as a water pickup point for firefighting planes and we found ourselves facing a continuous stream
of planes dipping to the water to pickup water before slowly regaining altitude, waving and smiling as they flew past our deck.
Met up again with Lloyd and Lynel from the Australian yacht Chappie.
A continuous procession of fire fighting aircraft dipping to pick up water
We tried to have a look at La Maddalena at the top of the island but it was now July and it was busy with boats and no anchoring was
allowed anywhere near the town so we
went to a snug anchorage about 3 miles away. We had to decide where to go from
north to Corsica, west to the
Balearics or straight to the south coast of
end of Sardinia, to check out and
then out through Passaggio Dei Fornelli, a real tricky little strait, on our way to the
South coast of
The forecast was for light winds so we expected to take two or more days to get there. The wind actually hooted and we had a fast (reefed)
sail and it took only a day. Just a few miles off the French coast a gust caused our main halyard clutch to explode into many small pieces and
our main sail and boom to drop. No
other damage, so hauled the sail back up( with an extra
reef) and sailed into
We carried this spinlock for 10 years and it broke Hyere sailing school
within 2 months of installation. Luckily, we had kept
the old one
Hyere sailing activity The head was the only place a decent signal could be received
Pretty coast and towns, great food, friendly people, lots of sailors and sailing schools for juniors, and nice anchorages sort of sums up this
Part of the world. Very enjoyable but not very relaxing as the threat of a Mistral ( the strong northerly wind which arrives with little warning)
Was always at the back of our minds..
Across the
clue as to the windiness of the area was the wind surfing activity. The sails on the windsurfers were tiny!
!
The cloud forming over the hill was the first sign a Mistral
was about The
Port Vell marina at
to arrive
Day sailed down the coast to
walked our feet off seeing the sights. We didn’t take any photos as the pickpocketting was so bad we left our camera on the boat
Port Vell marina A hard day at the office
Next port of
call was the
Met our old
friend, David from the yacht Sunshine, who we visited Saana in
Spanish mainland and day sailed down to Mar Menor, a small inland sea, where we rested and caught up with laundry etc. We then day sailed
a bit further down the coast before
heading to Smir in
Smir marina office
Our timing was bad as it was Ramadan, and everyone was
sleepy, so after a few days we crossed over to
The Rock of Gibraltar
The Rock of Gibraltar from
The shopping lady
After restocking the galley we sailed to
arranged a nine month berthing contract. Started the process of maintenance, ordering parts etc, and getting into the marina activities and
lifestyle. The cost of yacht stuff
in
were the odd bits that were priced normally. Our first try at getting stuff sent from overseas went well with no delays, the second had a four
month wait in customs and a duty to be paid, the third went well, and we are still waiting for the fourth.
Being non-EU residents we are subject to the Schengan Agreement which allows us to spend 90 days in the EU but then we must spend 90
days out of the Schengan countries ( not all EU countries are party to the Schengan agreement).
We decided to spend our compulsory 90 days out of the Schengen countries in
countries.
Steve’s first Guinness in
Arrived in
enjoyed the tour of the Guinness warehouse/brewery. After a
few days in
for Christmas and New Year. Had our first white Christmas and went for a walk in the falling snow. We watched in amasement as two guys
went surfing while snow turned the
beach white, they breed them tough here!!! We travelled back to pretty
was our next stop and then down to Wexford and then a beautiful picture-postcard train trip to Wicklow. Wicklow became our base for the
rest of our stay in
Seals sunning on the beach just near Wicklow The Little Green House – our cosy accommodation in Wicklow
The seagulls were very friendly Ancient bridge at Wicklow
We were made very welcome by the wonderful members of the Wicklow Sailing Club, home of the Round Ireland Race. Caught buses into
trip was the All Ireland Irish Dancing Championship at Killarney. Saw the Meeting of the Waters (Thomas Moore) and had lunch in the Avoca
pub (BallyKissAngel). We both really enjoyed the Irish Pubs, they
are very friendly and sociable places to meet and talk.
picturesque and the people are very friendly so our time there went too fast.
Near Kenmare - Black Creek
Looking acoss
Avoca (Ballykissangel) - the pub Wicklow
Were performing a different ballet every night for a week. We got good seats and enjoyed the ballets, they were really good. Caught up with
Gail’s sister Pat and her friend Dave as
they visited
visited
The lakes district in
the yacht Aliesha, in the very Thames-side town of
buy some boat bits.
The
Lymington harbour Lymington flats
The three
months holiday went all too quickly and all of a sudden we were back on the boat
in
Anzac Day Lagos
Street in
Opening pedestrian bridge into the marina Rosco and Suellen on Barrenjoey about to do renaming ceremony
We had hoped to visit friends in the Balearics and
extended our visa(non Schengen) for
On my way back to the marina after clearing out and getting some cash, I had to wait as the canal bridge was up to let another boat leave the
lunatic waving at them they pulled into the reception dock, where we had a catch-up chat.
We have spent the last couple of weeks relaxing on the Portuguese coast and are now 20nm up the Guadiana river, where we shall stay for a
few more days. Another year has just flown past way too fast.