Leaving Bali, we head east and onto eastern Crete, a part none of us had seen before. Having sat in Bali with lots of beautiful wind blowing through, the day we decided to leave not a drop of it to be found... We said our many goodbyes to both old friends & our other cruising family, and motored eastward to Elouda Bay, and Ay Nicolaus where we planned to stay the winter. 

Eastern Crete is stunning, a world of big scenery..... The mountains climb out of the sea, and you cannot be amazed by the beauty of the place. Elouda bay is situated just as you come round the headland and past Spinalonga Island, one of the last leper colonies in Europe. As we head past the island and into the bay, the depth climbed to just 4 meters below Maya, so 2 meters below her keel, and watching the bottom go past as you peer over the side can be quite unnerving. However, this soon dropped again & the bay itself is stunning for the the sheer tranquility of the place. Crete, and certainly eastern Crete are totally off the charter yacht circuit. Once the last tourist boat had left for the evening (which happened to be a day tripper, party boat!), we had the place to ourselves. Just the lights of Ay Nikolaus in the distance. Swimming in these kinds of clam shallow waters are stunning & warm. Although we had planned to go visit Spinalonga, as we are wintering in Crete, 10 minutes away in Ay Nicolaus we decided due to the masses of tourists to give it a wide berth for now & see the island on our return. So following a quick stop in at Ay Nicolaus marina to sort out winter things for Maya, such as haul out dates, we head onto the most deserted part of Crete, the far east & last stop on the Island Vai. Vai is home to the palm beach where the bounty advert was filmed, and there really isn't much else there. We were the only yacht around for miles, and we enjoyed two beautiful days anchored off, with only the company of a hermit-esque old man living on the rocks with his dogs for company.

And so on to Kasos & Karpenthos and eventually Rhodes....... Well actually we gave Kasos & Karpenthos a wide berth in the end. With the words of 'Rod Heikell', the gentlemen who has written many a sailing bible, including the ones on Greece & Turkey, ringing in my ears, speaking of 'angry seas' around these parts, it was a nervous & hasty departure. You see when the Meltami blows through the Aegean, it starts up at the top near Istanbul, and tends to go east or west. When it goes west it whistles down the eastern side of the Peloponnese, being channeled between the many island in the middle of the Aegean & the mainland & zips out past the most western part of Crete. But when the Meltami blows in the eastern side, again because the many island in the centre of the Aegean, the wind has 300 miles to pick up speed before it whistles through the gap of Crete & Kasos & between Kasos & Karpenthos, and again between Karpenthos & Rhodes. So with the beginning of a Meltami week/fortnight ahead, we pushed on and onto Rhodes, not wanting to get stuck with my parents arriving in Rhodes the following week. As it happened, even with no real Meltami blowing the gaps between the islands were like sitting in the cockpit with 20 hairdryers trained on you. This combined with a nasty cross sea, was enough to be thankful once in the lee of Rhodes. My only complaint was loosing what i can only imagine to be a massive fish, be it tuna or whatever, because we were unable to slow the boat down enough, in these conditions to pull in the lure..... The one that got away! My lure bore the teeth marks and that was that. 

So after a long night at the helm, having been blown dried to bits, we finally receive some well deserved respite as we finally pulled in behind Rhodes. As it happened by not stopping in Kasos as we had wanted to we were now early for Mum & Micks arrival; So we went to a small bay just south of Rhodes Town - Lindos for a couple of days at anchor. Its a cute kind of place despite the hordes of tourists, but unfortunately in the water at anchor you get hounded by the waterspouts guys pulling every shape & creation behind them at speed, much to our pitching annoyance. And on land the beaches are over crowded and generally a bit tacky. That aside, we had a few lovely days just chilling out. I say chilling out, i mean that in the lying horizontal or hanging in the water kind of way, because one things for sure, you will never really chill out sitting on mirror in 40 degrees. This is something we had been warned about but boy did we get to learn about it first hand. Living on a boat i the eastern Med in mid July, August, September is not for the faint hearted without aircon. So during the days we swam to keep cool & took Audrey & Bertie on the obligatory donkey ride up to the ruins on the hill, and then would swim some more. In the evenings Nicky & I would hang off the back of the boat for 20mins before bed time just to cool our blood sufficently to sleep. We have decided going forward, we will have to either invest in a generator & an air conditioning unit for the boat or not be sailing in these parts at this time of year. Our sanity only just prevailed.

And so onto Rhodes, where we met up with Mum & Mick, and one of our other sailing family friends Pablo, Dini, Noah & Gael off SY Happy Dancer. We went into the new Rhodes marina which is an interesting place. A brand new massive marina all ready to rock & roll to bring in some juicy euro dollars for the cash strapped Greek government. Alas they forgot to put in 99% of the pontoons, doh! Nice try guys, try again next year. That aside the staff were lovely, and the ammenities such as water & electricity were running so all was fine down our end of the marina. We'd managed to get Mum & Mick booked into the Rhodes Sheraton which was right up their alley. They liked it, we liked it, everybody happy, job done. And we had a lovely week catching up. Now it has to be said going from Maya where you might just be able to swing a cat if you're lucky, to spending a few nights at the Sheraton, could be classed as an up grade for us simple sailing folk. But it was certainly a treat away from boat life that for sure. Choosing between which one of the 3 pools, or which one of the 3 pool bars involved some pretty tricky decision making, and Audrey & Bertie loved being by a hotel pool, much to my scorn. We did some of the obligatory sight seeing, of which there is plenty on Rhodes. But the heat being what it was made and excursion with kids especially exhausting. So we mostly enjoyed catching up with Mum & Mick whilst listening to the Aussies getting wooped in the Ashes, & drinking cold beer under the air con. Its the simple pleasures after all. It was also so nice to see our sailing friends again. We'd last seen them in Malta, and they'd already been to Turkey, and were now on their way back via Crete, before heading off to the Carrebean for the winter. They had really enjoyed Turkey, despite having done a lot of work on the boat. And it was so nice to be in the company of another cruising family again. As we bid them farewell, & fair winds we also decided to make our final last big passage of the season and onto Turkey.  

Having not been in Bali, Crete for over 11 years since Nicky & I met there, i think we were both wondering what had changed, and what our old friends were up too, and if they would still remember us. Well on the whole i think almost everybody recognised Nicky, and nobody recognised me. Some even needed reminding what i'd looked like 11 years ago... But it was great to see everyone, my old boss & captain of the Bali Catamaran Lefteris & his wife Maria, were a little stunned i think, but he soon pulled out the stops to find us a place on the inner harbour wall, moving small fishing boats to make room for us, and making sure we had some electricity & water, all free of charge. Amazing! His brother Yannis & Georgia, who run the 'Starbar' were as helpful & inviting as we'd both remembered, always helpful to our small requests, and Yannis always happy to get me drunk on beer & raki. Nicky's old boss from the dive centre Angelo had heard we were back in town & came by the boat, and when he saw we weren't there left a bag with watermelon, honey & home made raki, and shells for Audrey & Bertie. Very sweet indeed! And also Jim & Els, were still there, and Uncle Vasilis made his annual pilgrimage..... so great to see them all.

After a day or two we knew we'd made the right move by coming to Bali, our old friends were happy see us, and we them, but more importantly Audrey & Bertie were happy to have time to be in one place and go to the same beach every day. We would start our days by watching the giant turtle who we named George, and had made Bali his home swim into the port, followed by breakfast & swims off the boat to the beach. Going for pedalo rides or chugging through the village on the small train which there now was. Some things had changed, and Bali had grown a little, but on the whole most things were pretty much the same as when we'd left. 

A few days after we arrived our cruising family friends which we'd first met in Paxos, arrived one morning, totally to our surprise, Dominik, Natalia, Jonathan & Latizja on SY Manolito. What a lovely lovely surprise! Although their children are a little bit older than Audrey & Bertie, they loved to see Audrey & Bertie & visa versa, and were always happy to play with them both. For Nicky & I, i think seeing cruising children who were a little bit older was also very interesting. A totally dynamic to cruising, than with two small ones, like Audrey & Bertie are. For us too having new friends as company again was nice, as late night drinks in the cockpit with friends is one of cruising simple pleasures.

After a week of having been in Bali, Nicky & Audrey had return back to the UK for Audrey to be seen by the doctors at the Evalina children hospital, which gave Bertie and I some boy time to hit the beaches, go jet skiing, and generally get down and do some father son bonding. We did miss the girls a bit. Needless to say our diet was terrible, but we made up it in other ways. On the girls return we had talked about heading off at the end of the week to see a little more of amazing Crete, but with London having been so stressful we decided to stay the week, and do very little and relax & enjoy. With our friends also finding Bali so easy and conducive, the days rolled by in a care free manner. And so one week turned into two and before we knew it we'd been there  a month.

To be honest we have very little to report about Crete itself, we watched avidly as the Greek tragedy unfolded, with the referendum coming & going. Which was interlaced on our part by fleeting runs to cash point to make sure we could still get cash out. But with Audrey & Bertie so happy to just play & be kids on a beach, time just slipped by. With my parents having now made a firm date to meet us in Rhodes in a few weeks time, we slowly started break camp once more & say our goodbyes, to meander our way east.

We love Bali & our friends new & old there, we miss you all.

From the amazing setting of Zakinthos we head across to the Peloponnises, to the port of Katakolon from which we could visit ancient Olympia. Katakolon itself is a bit of a dive, with the main business being the large cruise liners which come in unloading the masses to go visit Olympia, or the nearest pub on land in most cases. We hired a car and made the pilgrimage to the site of the original Olympics. This place is truly stunning, the serenity & the 2500 year old history draw you in, and with plenty of shade from Olive & other trees, we happily wondered around, often sitting under a tree taking in the atmosphere. The sheer magnitude & preservation of the ruins is spectacular, and totally worth the visit. On the drive there and back we were stunned my the mountains of rubbish piled up at the sides of the roads. Every slip road or rest stop, off the main highway was piled high. Up till now we had not really seen the impact of the financial crisis Greece currently finds itself in, but this was a very clear manifestation of the difficulties this beautiful country finds itself in.

We stayed in Katakolon another night at anchor and then had a beautiful half day sail down to the small post town of Kiparissi. With not much on offer here, except a small town & a hightening Greek financial crisis, we withdrew some additional Euros, and moved onto the beautiful town on Pylos. Set in the beautiful bay of Navarino the town and bay have a great naval history as the sight of a battle between the Turkish/Egyptian navy & the British. Apparently there a few hundred wooden boat lying in pieces as the bottom of the bay. The town has a very French feel about it, as it had also been under their control for a number of years. We took the opportunity to be moored up, side too, against a large harbour wall to get the tender out and poodle across the bay for a day at the beach. Luckily i decided to take an extra jerry can of fuel, as by the time we'd arrived on the other side of the bay the outboard was running on fumes. Having been worried about not having checked the anodes on the bottom of the boat for a while i also took the opportunity to get the dive gear out and take a closer look. My worries were well founded. The anode around the prop shaft was missing, the ones on the rudder were loose, and the others very much almost worn through. Luckily Pylos has a decent enough dive shop which was able to order in all the necessary anodes, and after half a day in the water i was able to change them all with no problems what so ever. The dive gear is already paying for itself, and my confidence using it is also growing.

Having been on the road again for nearly 2 moths again, Nicky & I now decided it was time to find a place to stop and give Audrey & Bertie some time to feel settled, where we could relax near a beach & cosy restaurants & bars. Our initial thought was to push on and head straight for the Aegean Islands and onto Turkey, where our cruising friends Dini & Pablo on SY Happy Dancer were headed with their children, but the prospect of doing all these miles east, feeling slightly rushed, just didn't add up in our minds. With our Raymarine wind instruments having also decided to stop work again, the prospect of going though the Meltemi belt without them was another concern. So we decided to hold off making a decision and head onto the eastern corner of the Peloponnese of Elefonisis which is famed for its crystal clear waters and make a decision there weather to head east to Santorini & Turkey beyond or perhaps head south to Crete, where Nicky & I first met. We had a fantastic sail down with the wind blowing hard from behind, we made great time covering 80nm in just over 11 hours. A long days sailing but very exhilarating! We found a lovely little anchorage with a dozen boats all tucked up away from the wind for the night.... With a good nights sleep behind us we made the decision that we would Neopolis that day, stock up on some supplies & head for Crete the following night. 

Nicky and I met in the tiny hamlet of Bali, Crete 11 or so years ago, and made many good friends  there, whilst we were working there. With friends to stop in on, and the setting of nice beaches, bars & restaurants, and the possibility to park the boat up on the wall of small harbour, the decision in the end was easily made. With favourable winds we left Nepalis at dusk and head across the very busy shipping lanes off the Malea headland. We were given a small fright when the engine suddenly spluttered to a halt, just coming up to the west bound lane with very little wind at that point. But another turn of the key and it started again, thank goodness! Having dodged a few very large container ships & cruise liners we settled in for the night, with me taking the first watch Nicky headed for bed. 10 minutes must have passed when again the engine stopped, this time not to be started so easily. Having heard the engine stop Nickys head soon popped up through the companion way..... Alas no rest for the wicked! Luckily the wind had now filled in a bit and we let all the sail we could out and were soon zipping along at 3 to 4 knots. With the chart plotter giving a ETA of 20hrs, and having plenty of seaway, i set to work trying to find the cause of our engine sickness. After 3 hours of checking injectors, fuel pre & primary filters, the cause of our problem was a lack of fuel getting to the engine. With 2 tanks full my first fear was a fuel pump failure. However, in the end by isolation the aft empty tank, and manually pumping fuel through from the 2 full tanks the engine once more roared back to life. I feel like I'm slowly getting the hang of diesel engine diagnostics!!! With plenty of wind we made good progress & by first light we could just make out the outline of Crete in the far distance. It still took us the best part of the day to sail half way up the island, and into the familiar setting of Bali bay. It felt a little emotional sailing back in here after so many years, and it being the place where Nicky & I met many moons ago. We poked our nose into the harbour but all spaces were taken, so settled for anchoring in the Bay for night, and headed to shore in the tender for a well deserved beer, and to say high to some old familiar faces. So great to be back......

Having arrived at our first summer sailing area we are blown away by the beauty of the Ionian... From Corfu Town we first went north up to a the small beach of Kalami to savour our first swims, beach & greek meal since arriving. And it couldn't have been better, with the tender glue still drying, we anchored Maya just off the beach and swam with the Audrey & Bertie on the lilo to the shore. The simple pleasure of letting them run up and down the beach whilst enjoying a chilled karaf of Rose, followed by all the greek culinary delights was fab. So we stayed another day before reports of bad weather coming down across Albania made us seek some more shelter in a more protected bay just north, but equally charming, Ay Stefanou. Part of our reasoning for coming this way was so that we could meet up with an ex colleague of Nicky's, Chris, with whom we had a very long standing arrangement to come visit, when we finally came sailing past this way. And it was so great to see him. Chris is an amazingly talented architect, and has spent the last four years developing an old ruin into the most amazing house, perched high up over looking the Ionian we were welcomed by him & his friends Bob & Lesley to a proper greek BBQ and great greek wine. Thanks again Chris! 

From here we sailed back to Corfu town to take in a little culture and see if we could meet up with an old sailing buddy of mine Robert who's boat we knew was moored up at the Corfu sailing club. Unfortuntely, he wasn't around so we took in some of the sights, and provisioned for our sail south through the islands. I also needed to revisit our battery charging issue, which involved changing fan belts on the alternators & tightening them up. Corfu Town is lovely, if a little touristy, but its charm was still worth a visit. Audrey & Bertie also enjoyed keeping the shop keepers on their toes & playing in the park over looking the old fort. 

Leaving Corfu Town we had a beautiful sail down to a bay just north of Igoumenitsa, called Ormiskos Valtou, where we were one of only 3 boats anchored for the night. As we are now getting used to, evening swims were combined by a BBQ on the back of the Maya, before relaxing and watching the sun go down in the west. The following day we took the tender out as Bertie has now become obsessed with the little boat. So visiting the mud bank where the wild birds were nesting, was combined with giving Bertie his first lesson in driving the tender, which he just loves. Setting off around lunch time we again had great wind to sail across to a small bay on the north coast of Paxos, called Lakka. Now because Lakka is the first of only a few anchorages on Paxos it tends to get busy and by the time we sailed in there were somewhere in the region on 15 boats all anchored in a pretty tight formation. But finding a good spot next to a beautiful wooden boat called Diana, which belonged to a lovely family from Hamburg, we settled in for the afternoon. Little did we know that another 10 to 12 more yachts would try and squeeze there way in, mostly charter boats, and boy is it interesting watching these guys trying to navigate a busy anchorage. Watching the calamity of some of these guys trying to anchor has since become part of our afternoons entertainment. With anchors dragging & other yacht owners cries of protestation, an ice cold beer can ofter been enjoyed watching this spectacle. Lakka itself is lovely, very much geared up for the yachts which come to anchor in their bay there are many very cute restaurants & bars, and the ability to provision, if somewhat on the expensive side. Although we had read reports of rats in the bay swimming out to boats, i was pretty confident that this was more rumour than fact. Unfortunately, when we visited the small park near the centre of the town, Nicky saw a rat scampering through the play ground, and we beat a hasty retreat in search of a slightly more child friendly environment. And so onto Mongonisi on the south of the island. Here we were joined by another lovely cruising family from Germany (Dominic, Natalija, Jonathan & Latiza), with whom we would sail through much on the Ionian, finding them at anchorages or visa versa.

From Paxos we then had a longish sail down to the Lefkas canal, with the day starting off rainy with no wind, and ending up with 30knts just as we came to the tricky bit at the entrance to the canal. The canal in only opened every hour on the hour for a limited amount of time, so getting there on time is paramount. As we got to the entrance there were several boats jostling in the wind, waiting for the horn to signal so we could make our way through. As it happened we were at the front of the stack as the horn went off and with a little trepidation were the first boat in. The canal is cut through the salt flats and lets boats of a limited draft through to what is called the inner sea, to the islands below. At the advise of our German friends we head past Scorpio and on to a beautiful bay on the north side of Meganissi. Here we spent a few lovely days in the beautiful bay of Spillie Beach, swimming, go on bike rides and even getting the new diving gear out to have a look at the underside of the boat.

And so onward to Kefalonia and our wedding of the summer. Our friends Rob and Kate from South Dock had arranged to get married in Fiskardo, a beautiful little bay on the north of the island. And many of our London south dock friends were all flying in for a week of fun & frolics. We managed to get a spot on the wall, and one by one they all started to arrive. It was so lovely to see Rob & Kate, as well as all our other south dock family. We had Geoff & Bel come stay on Maya, and Audrey & Bertie loved seeing all of them and hanging out. We went to the amazing Myrtos beach, and buzzing around the bay in the tender looking at all the mega yachts as they came in. On the friday night we had the pre wedding warm up of a meal on the west side of the island, with a Pig, Goat & Sheep spit roast BBQ, and all 60 guest of the wedding sitting around the longest table setting I've ever seen. And Saturday was wedding day! As we head across the island again to the small hillside hamlet of Assos we were treated to a spectacular setting for the wedding. With Rob looking nervous & Kate looking stunning, the back drop of a small chapel & a mandolin playing, the wedding was beautiful....... and then the heavens opened. With very little cover the wedding party got a little soggy, but the spirits were not dampened. With the reception back in Fiskardo, we were treated to an excellent best mans speech... 'what could possibly go wrong!', and dancing until the wee small hours. Just a few sore heads the next morning...

With the wedding over it was time to say good bye to some friends before the wedding parties flotilla around the islands began. Not wanting to head straight north to where the flotilla began, we found a little bay just next to Fiskardo, and spent the next two days at anchor with south dock friends Kate, Adrien, Shebby, Lee & Julie all coming to hang out and chill on Maya. BBQs, walks in the hills, visiting caves & mucking around in the tender, were all a plenty. I think we may have a few causing converts! With a few restful days behinds us at anchor we head across to the small island of Kastos to meet up with the wedding flotilla. As it happened we ended up just meeting up with the largest boat a 40 catamaran skippered by our friend Alex & his crew Shang, Gloria & Jade, and their friends Jon & Max..... The next week was amazing, beach BBQs, star filled skies, blue lagoons, stunning caves & ship wreaked beaches. The ship wreaked beach in question is on the west coast of Zakinthos, and is totally stunning. I first saw a photograph of this beach 10 years ago when i was in Crete, and there was no ship wreck there. Arriving at dawn you have the beach to your self for a few hours. Alas by 11 o'clock, we took refuge on a tiny pristine beach just off this beach as the 100s of tourists arrived in an armada of boats... Being able to anchor in this bay again alone in the evening was again stunning. We took sun downers to the beach & enjoyed the most stunning of sunsets.

The next day Alex & his crew had to return north to send people off to the airport and we made our way south/east and onto Kallithea on the Peloponnese from where we could visit Ancient Olympia. 

So we finally slipped out of Marina di Ragusa at 7 in the morning due south and happy to be on the road again. A beautiful morning and a few last good byes and we were on our way to Valetta! With a light easterly to blow us the 50 miles across to Malta we had a beautiful sail down, crossing the shipping lanes with no bother & arrived into Valetta late afternoon and found our mooring in Msida creek Marina next to our new found cruising family friends on the good ship Happy Dancer - Pablo, Dini, Nona & Gael.

Sailing into Valetta is an experience not to be missed, the cities history is undoubtedly based around the sea and the comings and goings of many great cultures over the centuries. The following week was spent letting Audrey & Bertie have time to play with their new found friends, Noah & Gael, seeing the sights of Valetta, and making good use of the excellent chandlery facilities to be found in the city. 

On the weekend we decided to head out of town and head up the north west coast to see what the islands of Comino & Gozo had to offer. A blowey night anchored in Mellieha bay, gave way to an amazing day anchored in a tiny sheltered bay just off it & a chance to enjoy our first beach BBQ, fire and a little live music, thanks to Dinis guitar & my harps, excellent stuff. The next day we sailed round to the west of Comino to the blue lagoon, which is indeed very very blue. Sunday, however, is the not the day to visit. Over run with tourist boats, we moved a little further round to another very picturesque bay and anchored in 3 metres of crystal clear waters, and soaked up the sunny afternoon swimming & enjoying time away from everything, total bliss...

As our friends had to return to work in Valetta, we decided to take a cruise around Gozo for a few days, before deciding our next move. The coast off Gozo is stunning and a sailing delight. The stunning sheer cliffs & second cleanest waters in Europe after Cyprus, making for some sublime sailing & anchoring. I'd never been to a place where you can watch the anchor drop down seven metres, and see it bottom the way you can here, very rare indeed! For our final sail down to Valetta again we were blessed with a beautiful westerly breeze on which to sail all the way back down.

With Marina fees jumping from €25 a night to €50 a night in May, we decided to ancor in St.Juliens bay with is just north of Grand Harbour & Msida creek. We have now re christened it Rolly Bay for obvious reasons. That aside, the parks, beach & general facilities on offer here are excellent. And a short tender ride, and we have bars & restaurants on our door step. Audrey also had a touch of conjunctivitis, which we managed to get seen too by a local doctor & drops from the chemist. She's very much on the mend now.

After a few days of rolling around in Rolly Bay we decided we needed a little break so head back down to a small anchorage just inside Grand Harbour to do a little more adventuring with the tender. Dockyard creek is fabulous, on the left you have Billionares row of mega yachts & on the right an array of stunning Venitian style gondolas made of wood & varnished to the max. We visited here on Maltese Mother's Day and all the families were out in force, sitting at the restaurants which line the dock side. In the late afternoon we made our way across to Valetta to have a fair well drink with the crew of Happy Dancer, alas as we came along side the quay a wave washed us against the wall and large metal spike which sliced a 3 inch gash into our little rubber ducky, disaster! I left Nicky & the Audrey & Bertie to meet our friends, while a speedily turned the boat around and head back to Maya in the tender with only the port side inner tube of the Tinker keeping me & the valuable outboard engine from going under. Luckily I just made it, as the outer tube was now taking in a lot of water.
Nicky was able to call one of the beautiful Venitian style gondolas, which works as a water taxi, to give her & the two munchkins a ride back to Maya. My envy on their arrival must have been noticeable!

So we've had a beautiful stay in magical Malta, perhaps we shall come back next year on our way back out of the Med, but for now we are looking to leave on Wednesday, as a fair wild blows from the west, and takes on to Greece.

So to burst any bubbles the none cruising folk may have about life on the ocean waves, the winters are also a lot about getting the boat prepped for the coming season which includes fixing all those bits which broke the previous season, and potentially adding a few new bits to make life a little easier....

Despite having spent the last three years getting the boat ready in London the winter list was extensive & somewhat time consuming. So for those of you who have no interest in such practical things, I advise you to stop reading now. For everybody else, here's the boat work....

When we bought our Aerogen wind generator second hand off eBay the pivot bearings were shot, so we lived with the banging till Sicily, but these now had to be changed to allow us to sleep at night whilst charging our batteries. We also managed to totally melt down the rectifier which changes the AC current to DC, so this also needed replacing, when we were blasted by a 70knt catabatic wind in our anchorage in Malfatamo. On the way down from the UK we also suffered from not knowing how much chain we were letting out at anchor, which can be a little disconcerting, so all the chain had to come off the boat and marked by painting 10 meter markings for ease of reading as it shoots out the front of the boat. While we were at it, we also bought & fitted a new & bigger 33kg Rocna anchor, to aid with our sleeping at anchor over the coming years. Another major issue we'd had on the way down from the UK, was not knowing how much fuel or water we'd consumed as the old pressurised system had stopped functioning some years ago. This had led to a few hairy moments of not know if we had enough of either en route. Probably one of the most time consuming jobs of the winter, as we had to order all the new senders, drill all the holes in the tanks & once through my thumb, in order to fit them, and the wire them all in, which involves taking half the boat apart to lay the cable, and then to finally mount the displays. We also added one to our holding tank, as Turkey is very strict on water pollution from cruising boats close to shore. Next came cleaning the diesel tanks, and making sure we had no diesel bug which could block up the fuel lines. This was the third time I'd had to do this since we've owned Maya, which involves pumping all the diesel out of the tanks into Jerry cans and getting down with your arm in the tank to clean out any sludge, filtering all the diesel back into the tanks and treating with biocide. Happily this time there was very little sludge to speak of, so we can rest easy that our fuel tanks are clean of this scourge! Whilst in this part of the world the engine service also has to be done. This involves doing a full oil change, oil filter change, fuel filter change & a pre fuel filter clean & change, changing the impeller on the water cooling, and complete water coolant change. Checking & perhaps changing the fan belts, cleaning the turbo, and changing the gear box oil, and lastly topping up the greaser for the stern gland..... Oh mother! To add one final one, I also had to change all the rubber nipples in the cockpit for the engine buttons because Audrey & Bertie found them to irrisitable to pick off. Next up new LEDs throughout. One thing you soon realise is that a major part of living off the grid and living the life of Riley, means living within your means when it comes to the consumption of power. What you consume you must produce & visa versa. With the solar panels & the wind generator we have we broadly speaking can produce enough power to supply our needs, such as fridge, freezer, water maker lighting etc, however, we noticed on our way down to Sicily that lighting was chewing up a lot of our spare power, so we changed all our navigation & internal house lights to LEDs. The result has been amazing. We've been able to reduce this lighting electricity consumption by over two thirds, which will now allow us to now run a water maker even more freely. So on to the Watermaker. As Jesus was able to make wine out of water, so in these technological times we can make sweet drinking water out of salt water. We were fortunate enough to acquire a second hand Katadyn water maker from one of our new cruising friends Duncan & Caroline for a great price over the winter. The way this piece of kit basically works is by taking in a large amount of salt water, passing it through a very fine membrane which only allows fresh water to pass through it, and rejecting the larger salt molecules as a larger amount of brine as the reject fluid, simples! Well first I had to strip down the water maker replace all the seals & membrane, plumb it all in..... needles to say many a fun hour sucking up salt water priming it & adjusting the intake valves later, and a few more measuring flow rates, but we now produce a handsome 5 ltrs of sweet sweet fresh water an hour, which is a massive money saver when you don't have to be running into marinas for water..... So another integral part of cruising is not only enjoying the sea, but enjoying the hard bits you try to avoid running into, and to do this you need a decent tender. When we bought Maya she came with a little rubber boat called a Tinker Tramp. My initial scepticism regarding our little rubber ducky has definitely changed over time. You see most rubber duckys are just that, you blow them up and stick an engine on the back and away you go. The difference with the little Tinker is that they were designed as little rubber sailing boats, so they come with a centre board and sails, all the other bits. Now our little Tinker was made by Sarah Cox in 1988, so she's as old as Maya. When we left London she was all working fine, but in the course of our trip two of her wooden floor boards snapped, which I provisionally managed to stop water gushing in in Lisbon. But this winter I had to find a better solution to stop everything in the boat getting wet. My friend was epoxy resin, fibreglass matting & ply. I was able to epoxy in the large cracks then glass matted over those cracks, and finally fashion a whole new floor section for each floor board out of ply. Expoxy the lot together & cover with a layer of epoxy paint, and hey presto, we now have a Tinker that's not only dry & stable to stand in, but also plains from time to time. Throw in an outboard engine service, and we're now ship to shore mobile. (As i post this, i have to say, today we hit a large metal spike in Grand Harbour, and have managed to put a 3 inch slice into our port outer tube! The inner tube saved our little Tinker & outboard, so some major surgery required!!!)

So those were the biggies for this winter, together with the following list which stimulated the mind & body & soul over our 7 mth stay in Marina di Ragusa, so to bore you any further here the rest of the bits:
Fix the wooden shower trim, Reseal the shower, Re fix aft toilet seat, Fix Bertie's Lee cloth, Change the Water filter, Re mesh all the porthole mosquito nets. Re glue the book shelf holder bar, Clean the shower run off & sump, Fix the cabin sole by the chart table, Service both heads, Attach new mounts for new solar panels, Change the pennant ropes, Check if we have a Diesel leak, Investigate breathers on stern of boat, Change deck light cable, Re-adjust current bilge pump system adding in new Rule 2000 pump, also add Bilge pump automatic switch, Add clips for the dodger, Sand & Spray gas bottles, Fill freezer holes to stop water leakage, Change Pacerelle screws & hinges, Check the guard rails, Fix Audrey's blind, Fix Nickys reading lamp, Rewire Solar & Wind to the Victron display, Fit replacement battery Diode box, Fit aft head 240v plug, Fit fwd head 240v plug, Fix fish gutting chopping board, Fix teak car ends, Fix gel coat bumps & dinks & sand back, Varnish side rails, Varnish companionway, Varnish around hatches, Re-stitch Genoa small section, Check issue with wind speed Raymarine head unit auto helm, Replace Raymarine speed & depth transducer. And relax.......

So we returned back to Sicily from UK at the end of February, having enjoyed seeing friends, family and having seen to a lot of real life stuff which needed sorting… As much as we enjoyed being back in London town, the pace and hecticness seemed even more insane than when we left, so returning back to Marina di Ragusa was like heading back to the village. Unfortunately we were greeted by 50kts gales, and none to inclement weather for the first few weeks, and all the cruisers who had remained whilst we’d been away were suffering from severe boat cabin fever. 

March, however, brought good weather and time to get out and about and do stuff again. The never ending list of boat jobs could continue, and the supplies of stuff brought from the UK were soon assembled and put to use around the place. New learning resources for kids had also arrived while we were away, and were put to good use immediately. With the improvement in the weather, marina activities also commenced with an Optimist regatta, for kids from all over Sicily coming to Marina di Ragusa to compete. Seeing these young kids going out and competing in 30kts winds outside the harbour without the slightest sight of fear, and fantastic skill was quite breathtaking. March also brought the festival of St.Guiseppi where statues were carried around the streets of Marina di Ragusa for all to behold, before being out back in their boxes for another year. And all manner of cakes & cheeses where produced and auctioned off in the main square to raise money for the church.

March also brought us Tilly, Toddy, Sophie, Juju to visit from the UK. Although only a short stay we managed to pack in quite a lot! We had a lovely villa in the old part of Taormina where we all stayed together with open fires, great roof terrace brunches and lots of laughs. We took in the sights of Taormina, managing to visit Isola Bella beach the last evening on a whim only to find a bon fire about to go out, which the boys resurrected and with a few beers we relaxed by the sea. It was such a great way to end the visit, and was Toddy, Audrey & Bertie's first beach bon fire. Catania market was vibrant and lively as ever, with the open fish market and numerous fruit and veg stalls and cheese and meat stands. And the fresh Oysters went down a treat. Syracusa which is one of our favourite Sicilian towns (from those I we’ve visited) didn’t disappoint as we were treated to an amazing lunch at the best deli with delicious Prosecco flowing. Seeing the mosaics at Villa Romana del Casale was something else. It show cases some of best mosaics in situ from the Roman world and was one of the most luxurious villas of its time. Year 310AD…. amazing what they accomplished and how well it is preserved to this day. It was really sad to say goodbye to these guys once more, but cant wait for our next fun get together soon!

Not so long after our trip to Taormina, it was slowly starting to come to the time when some of our new cruising friends would slowly depart. Our Aussie friends Duncan and Caroline on Maggie Drum where one of the first to set sail and was an impetus to get us to get going on the seas again too! However, no one left before we had our ‘provisioning’ wine tasting on Maggie Drum. With a few of us stowing wine from Sicily before heading out, we had a small blind wine tasting. Using socks to cover the labels (ingenious) we tasted, graded and named the wines. From a selection of wines ranging from 2.50-5euros, it was the cheapest which won the most points in the end! Needless to say this family fun boat may have a few bottles stashed in the bilges!

St Patricks Day also didn't pass us by either. It was celebrated in the local bar by a few of the Cruisers with some cans of Guiness, Guiness cake and a general away of Greeness and silly banter. We also attended a proper English Afternoon Tea organised by some of the Brits, with everyone dressed in their lar-di-da best and lots of tea, cakes and Pimms consumed. 

In the final week the Marina staff organised a party on the main pontoon to say farewell to all. A great party with an array of local Italian and Sicilian dishes served and BBqd. Beer and wine on tap, and lots of kids running around the pontoons. It was a real blast and helped to make the last few weeks of our stay in Marina di Ragusa complete, with sunshine, laughter, parties and general happiness. Time for us to also say goodbye before our trip across to Malta to see Valetta and see some new family cruising friends we met the week prior. However, not before the big Country and Line Dancing Festival. We attended this on our last night and it was a real hoot. An Italian country line dancing bonanza with all welcome to join in with the 50 Cowboys and Cowgirls. Bertie and Audrey loved it and it was almost impossible to keep them out of the middle of the rows of dancers! 

We set sail early the next morning, on a calm and bright day. It was great to set sail again! We had a great winter in Marina di Ragusa and are grateful to have met some of the people we did there and hope to see some of them again soon. More details of our crossing and first few days in Malta on our next blog!

So we've been in Sicily three months now and we felt it was time for a bit of an update. Marina di Ragusa and indeed Sicily is a wonderful place and we have been overwhelmed by both the friendliness of the locals as well as our winter live aboard community in the marina.

The marina itself is big, with capacity for over 400 boats, the marina is not quite full but almost. Having first taken our allotted slot right by the main runway we have since moved to a quieter spot in the 'burbs' on the outer reaches of one the pontoons, and are very happy to have space either side of us. The marina community is great with British, Dutch, Canadians, Swedes, Australians, Belgians, Americans, Germans, French, Norwegians and a host of other nationalities too boot all wintering over. Because Marina di Ragusa is a relatively new marina & appears to have got its pricing right for the winter, the number of people returning over the last few years has meant the community here is pretty well organised already. There is a radio net every morning hosted by different boats, telling you whats going on, where to access services or help or advise, and whats happening on a social level. We've had a boat jumble & Halloween party, a Thanks giving meal & every Tuesday & Friday we take over one of the local bars for a happy hour evening... Although we aren't apart of them there is also knitting groups, guitar lessons, and thai chi on the beach every morning amongst other things. And the Marina itself offers very good services to all the boats, from the chandlery to the laundry, to the excellent Pizza takeaway & bars...

Marina di Ragusa itself is a lovely, lovely place. From the marina you walk along a sea front promenade by the beach to the main square where you find cafes & bars & restaurants dotted about. With coffee & ice cream to die for, 'Cafe di Rosa' being our favourite. In fact the coffee in Italy across the board has been amazing, with a fixed price of 90 cents for a maciarto, you can't help but develop a coffee habit. The prices for food and drink are increadble, and the quality is simply out of this world compared to the super markets in the UK. There is a small market on a Tuesday morning we always go to, and for under 40 euros we have a plentiful weekly supply of fresh fish be it Sardines, Calamaries, Dorate or Octopus for the BBQ and so much fresh fruit & veg, which just tastes amazing. What we don't get at the market we get at the local Spar which has a everything else including good cheap local wine & beer.

The Sicilians themselves are some of the nicest people we have so far come across on our travels. Everybody greets you in the street with a Bonjourno or Ciao, and with Audrey & Bertie all we hear is countless Bellissimos & Bella blonidia. They are so friendly & can simply not do enough for you, it really is quite staggering compared to the hustle and bustle and busy lives we lead in London.

So what have we been up to? Well up for the first 4-6 weeks we were splitting our days between being on the beach, visiting the areas around Marina di Ragusa & doing small jobs on the boat. Our first priority was to get some transport & Rolf managed to find some abandoned bikes in the marina which needed doing up & getting some kids seats on the back. This has meant we are able to get around Marina di Ragusa with ease as well as head up and down the coast on bike trips. Audrey & Bertie have loved playing on the beach, but now the weather & sea are a little cooler Audrey has started nursery here, in a small nursery in the town which she seems to love, three mornings a week. Although we do still often toddle along the beach with the kids in all weather suits, climbing rocks, finding treasures and playing. We've visited Ragusa which is set in land 20mins away by bus, with the old town being a stunning old Baroque style. We have also been to Catania & Siracusa which are both stunning, Siracusa in particular. The morning market in Catania in something else, with the most incredible variety of fresh fish, meat, cheese, fruit & veg on offer. And Siracusa is an amazing city, which we can't wait to go back and visit again. The winding back streets are made to get lost in, and we would really like to go back there again and stay for a few days. Perhaps early spring when the weather is nice we will sail down and anchor off. 

We are all loving the outdoor simple lifestyle here. And have enjoyed also having people come to visit. We've find ourselves out and about allot going on long walks to places like Punta Secca Lighthouse, or along the beaches. Family time is more plentiful and it feels nice to slowly be relaxing into the cruising lifestyle and slowing the pace down, but keeping the excitement high! We have found that we have managed to find a rhythm around when Audrey goes to nursery & the days we need to get food & do jobs on the boat. And with the weather having been so warm up until a week ago, just being out doors has been a real joy compared to in London at this time of year.

Audrey unfortunately had a bad fall back in October/November splitting her top lip quite badly. A trip to A&E and 3 stitches later, with no pain killers, she was really brave. The stitches are all out now and the scar is healing really well. Again we were amazed at the genuine kindness, where in our initial panic, a local bar manager drove us all the way to the hospital, stayed with us for the 2 hour wait, and even had Bertie sleeping on his shoulder. Our first emergency A&E trip as parents, hopefully not to be repeated often. 

We've just had a lovely Xmas, with our traditional Schnitzel Christmas eve meal, followed by some friends coming over for drinks once the kids had gone to bed. Christmas day morning was spent Skyping family near & far and then down on the beach as it was that warm. Unfortunately the party we had planned for Rolfs birthday was blown away by 50knt winds, but New Years was fun with the all the marina community coming together for a big party & a swim in the sea on New Year day.....

On Saturday we are off on a road trip up the east coast of the Island to visit Acireale, Riposto & Taormina, and go up Etna for some sledging in the snow or see the volcano spouting lava as it has just had an eruption we were told. 

We will be returning back the UK on the 12th January for a number of weeks, so hope to catch up with as many family & friends then...

Having returned to Sardinia after our wonderful time on the mainland, we were pleased to find Maya safe and sound and we were refreshed and ready to finally start taking the pace a little slower & start enjoying our time finding little anchorages to hang out in & relax.... Having stocked up on fruit, veg, fish, diesel & water, we head off just north of Algehro to a small anchorage known to us both from when we had last sailed to Sardinia with our good friend Robert. And it was just as we had hoped for, a tiny bay with us being the only boat there, peach! We spent the next two days, swimming, relaxing & in between hitch hiking with the kids to the local 'Neptune's grotto' to see the amazing stalagmites & tights.... Good thumbing Nicky!

We'd been told by a German couple Bernd & Hedi in Alghero, of a lovely little village only 30 miles south, where we could anchor and enjoy the beautiful beaches for a few days so we decided to head off the next morning only to find the windlass didn't work! That's an anchor puller upper to you none lays! Luckily we'd only been anchored in 7 mtrs for the past few days so the job of pulling up the anchor by hand was not too back breaking.... So off to Bosa, slightly upset that we might have to go into another marina with the windlass not working, we went. As we gently made our way down the coast I set to working trying to figure out if the windlass had gone, the diode had gone or if the switch had gone. Having short circuited the windlass and got it wizzing around above my head I found the deck switch had totally corroded. Bring out the Coca Cola! For those not in the know, Coke not only tastes great, rots your insides but it also cleans up corrosion on metal in a jiffy. After 10 minutes of scrubbing with a tooth brush the switch was clean & working as good as new. Time to hit the beach!!! As we head out of Bosa town quay marina & into a beautiful bay around the corner, we were again the only yacht around. Audrey & Bertie just love being on the beach & the excitement of getting in the tender & zooming ashore always makes them smile.... Having read in one of our yachting books that it's good to get the kids involved & rowing ashore can be one of these activities we rowed ashore. One dicky oar & a slightly deflated starboard side tube was nothing to worry about! We'll not until the afternoon wind picks up anyway! As we were almost ready to leave, the beach turned into a scene from Lawrence of Arabia and I suddenly realised we might seriously struggle to get back to the boat.... Leaving Nicky & the kids on the beach I frantically rowed for all I was worth against the onslaught of wind, and as I reached Maya I dropped an oar in the water. As I leant over the side to save the oar I fell out of the tender, much too Nickys fright on the beach. I was now faced with the tender rapidly going one way, the oar & Maya going in different directions. Luckily I was able to swim to the tender & rescue it, the oar & myself by swimming in the lee of the yacht. Pretty? Pretty ugly! and not to mind feeling a wee bit silly for leaving home without the outboard motor! Lesson learned.

Our next stop was to be one of culture & nature goodness. The ancient city of Tharros is situated pretty much half with down the west coast of Sardinia & was founded by the Phonecians in approximately 1900BC. As you pull round the headland you are treated to the sight of the cities ruins, with its columns still in tacked, and a beautiful anchorage right beside the city to spend a few nights. We enjoyed walking to the look out tower which over looked the whole head land, and the ancient ruins below.

Our next port of call was to be the beautiful island of St.Pietro, so named because Saint Peter had apparently been shipped wrecked on its shores, and perhaps more renowned for where many children from the children's crusade were also washed ashore. We again had a beautiful sail down the coast till around 3pm when the wind picked up to around 30kts plus, which seems to be pretty standard around these parts at this time of year. Unfortunately Carlo Forte which is the only harbour on St.Pietro is located on the east side of the island and is only accessible by a very narrow channel and more worrying is a very very shallow channel. With less than half a mile gap to get through and more importantly the water suddenly disappearing to around 3-10metres, the prospect of racing down wind with that much wind up our bum didn't fill me with any joy. So we bit the bullet and took the scenic route round the outside and came in from the south instead. Once round the back of the island the conditions improved dramatically and although it added a few more hours to our trip, I tend to think this was the more prudent option.....

Carlo Forte is a lovely lovely place, the long promenade with its palm tree lined front, you feel like you could be in the south of France, but it's kind of cuter than that because it's so not glam & glitz. The pace is slow and the food is excellent. We visited a local restaurant which specialises in tuna, and the food was excellent. St.Pietro & Carlo Forte seem to have a special history regarding Tuna, and we were amazed to find you can buy Red & Blue tuna in a tin at up to €35 a pop. Not quite your John West then! We also enjoyed the delight of the Italian piazzas.... Here around evening time everybody comes out to play, especially the kids. Audrey & Bertie were in heaven... The tens of kids running around playing games, on their bikes, setting out small stalls with their dolls on, whilst the parents & grand parents look on, is something of another world from London. And they immediately picked up on Audrey & Bertie & included them in their games....

We left Carlo Forte & St.Pietro starting to feel what it's like to be living in Italy, and pretty happy with that!

The next leg of our journey would take us around the south west coast and up in to the capital of Sardinia, Cagliari, to pick up spares, refuel & look for a weather window for our crossing to Sicily. This south western tip of Sardinia is stunning with beautiful islands just off the coast, and we finally had some company of yachts again which made for some interesting afternoon racing! We decided on a final anchorage before we hit the big city again, and found the most beautiful bay of Malfatano on the south coast which had a perfect anchorage to the west and beach & anchorage to the east. As we arrived in late and there were already quite a number of boats in the western bay we took our place on the outer side of this bay, which to be fair I'm always happy with. As long as you have enough shelter, the side with the most water to run too is my preferred choice. We put the hook down and enjoyed an evenings swim around the boat before supper on the BBQ. 

At 7am we were woken by the kids. By 7.30 we were all sitting up on deck as the most deadly rumble of thunder rolled over head followed by huge cracks of lightning. By 7.32 we were in total white out being hammered by a 70knt blast. I was just quick enough to jump on the fore deck and tie the tender on before it got blew away. Maya was healed over at 30 degrees and we were being hammered by a blizzard with hailstones the size of large marbles. With Nicky & kids down below all I could do was sit behind the dodger and watch on the chart plotter as we were slowly dragged out to sea. I started the engine just in case we needed to move some, but my greatest fear lay in a yachts above us to the wind, loosing or dragging on their anchor more rapidly than us on ours, and come flying towards us. After 25-30 minutes of the strongest winds I have ever seen or felt had abaited, we were 200-300 mtrs from our original anchorage spot in 20mtrs of water, which had been 7mtrs. Thank goodness for plenty of chain & a big enough anchor & for being pushed out to sea. We had been lucky to be on the outside. A catamaran inside us had dragged so badly that it had taken a large monohull with it and they had both almost ended on the rocks behind by metres. On the other side of the bay one poor unfortunate had been blown squarely on the beach & lay stranded, pending coast guard rescue. Lessons here a plenty, but anchor, chain & katabatic winds..... Beware!

Unfortunately after this rather rude awakening, we didn't stick around for the day, which I now regret as the bay was really very pretty, and the kids especially would have enjoyed to stay. I think in the forefront of our minds now was that the season was getting long, and we had a hole chunk of water to get cross to get to Sicily for the winter. As we came into Cagliari the two Prada AC45s were practising in front of the harbour which was a real treat to see these boats up close & foiling Americas Cup stylee! We pulled into Cagliari for the evening and decided to stretch our legs by means of a walk around the old town, which we decided was ok but not really worth a prolonged stay, so by the morning were looking at the the weather gribs, ready to make our final tracks for Sicily for the winter......

To go, or not to go.... That is the question?