TELL-TALES
Rod Heikell's very informal site on sailing around bits of the world and an eclectic collection of things nautical or nearly so.
Skylax blog GREECE 2007
26-09-07
It's blowing a solid 30 knots as this system goes through and it has also slowed down a bit (bless you ugrib for internet weather) so we have delayed departure until Friday. Hold on, that's a Friday... OK we will leave Levkas on Thursday and potter down to Sivota for the start of the voyage and continue it on Friday. The weather will still be SW for a bit, but going south and then all over the place, generally 5-15 knots.
Skylax is provisioned up, fueled up, watered up, and stowed. The inner forestay is on and the staysail hanked on. The main and genny are back from the sailmakers (Waypoint Sails in Levkas Marina - prompt and good repairs) and we are opting out of any more leaving parties for quiet nights in.
And then leaving Levkas...photo Kerr Whiteford
25-09-07
A few days ago in Port Atheni Lu went up the mast to drop a mouse for a spinnaker halyard that had mysteriously decided to drop down the mast. While up there she spotted the pin for the genoa sheaves was working its way out - somehow the plate holding it in had dropped off.
Now I know why I carry around all those old bits of wood, stainless plate, screws, bolts, you name it, I've got a box full of it on board. And magically I did have a plate that fitted perfectly so up the mast I went with drill, loctite, plate and screws and now, heed this gods of wind and weather, hopefully the pin won't drop out and the sheaves and halyards go all awry.
While up there Lu took a nice shot of Skylax.
24 September 07
Boat jobs... and the South Ionian Regatta
There comes a point when boat jobs have to finish. Otherwise we would be here forever fixing that, making this better, ensuring that is more than strong enough, and having another cup of tea while the job list gets a few things crossed off and a lot of scribbled notes all around the margins.
What doesn’t help is going racing just before the big off, even if it is a friendly informal race. Still we had to do the Ionian Regatta one more time before leaving the Med and so we did. It was a windy old race with the wind hitting 29 knots apparent at one stage and everyone struggling to hold on to all sail. Eventually up the side of Arkoudhi we put a reef in the main, but kept the full 140% genny. And did Skylax fly. Remember we are heavily loaded up with spares and food and all the paraphernalia to head west. Catching the boat in front we tacked over quickly and the genny got caught on the radar. There was a lot of adrenaline pumping and we didn’t notice until the genny was half winched in and the radar was sitting at a jaunty angle. We tacked back over, went backwards while we pulled the genny out and then finally got going again after losing time and places. Shall we motor in Kerr said, he was on the wheel, no way I said, keep racing. So we did.
Radar a little off-line. Good view of the sky and the deck though...
When we got in the next day we whipped the sails off and sent them to the sailmaker in Levkas Marina, then I started on the radar and bracket. Fortunately the cable was still intact and so I bundled the radar up in a bag hanging from a halyard and unbolted the bracket. It was a twisted mess that resembled some of the entries for the Turner Prize for art, but good old Pip had it down the workshop and back the next day, straightened and beautifully painted.
Oh the result… Well we were still 4th over the line, sixth on handicap and 2nd in Class I. 108 boats finished out of a fleet of 230, so we didn’t do bad. On passage we rig the inner forestay for a staysail so the genny can’t get anywhere close to the mast, but this was racing and adrenaline and a damn fine party at Sivota for the Ionian Regatta 2007.
Bit of sail damage to the genny...
06-09-07
Maybe theres a calm after the storm, maybe a light to guide you in, maybe a helpful soul waiting to help tie you up or point out a good place to anchor... and maybe theres an end in sight to all this refitting. I'll put a list up later, but the solar panels are fitted, a couple of halyards replaced, a lot more plumbing so the salt water pump works and the pressure tap in the galley doesn't leak, electrics and more electrics, the new Pactor modem is in place and the tablet PC more or less runs so we have email, GRIB files, RTTY, and we put our first Yotreps position report up. For those of you thinking of using Google earth to navigate with I'd suggest you look at our position firmly parked inland. Thats the actual position off the coast from the GPS (EGNOSS operating!).
So we have a bit more stuff to do but its looking good for leaving for Sicily at the end of September. Oh yesssss...
Grib files from the SSB - Lu has become radio nerd.
28-08-07
THE HEATHER CHRONICLES
These are letters written between 1994 and 1996, sent back by Eric and Robin Lambert from the good ship Heather, a 1964
I met Eric and Robin on Heather in
Sadly Heather was lost in 1997 off Saba in the Caribbean, an island I treat with trepidation when I pass it – the last time in Skylax we had 30 knots plus and a current kicking up horrendous seas. Oh, and the roller reefing jib, the only half decent foresail we had, was shredding all along the leach.
Eric and Robin have a new 36 footer now, Runaway, a kiwi boat they race locally on the west coast
RJH
Eastern Mediterranean: Israel, Turkey & Greece
28-08-07
Bows-to
In some of the harbours around Greece rock ballasting projects underwater from the face of the quay and going stern-to can ruin your day and possibly your season...so it makes good sense to go bows-to or take a long line ashore and use the dinghy to get back and forth.
Damaged rudder on Moody 46 ... did he go stern-to into rubble underwater off a quay?
28-08-07
Levkas Bridge
Just after we left the boat in Preveza at the end of June the Levkas Bridge, the F/B Santa Maura, a floating barge affair that swivels to let boat traffic through, suffered a major breakdown. Levkas town got one of the old landing barge type ferries up from Salamis that fitted exactly across the width of the canal. It opened only four times a day and boat traffic backed up massively. Lots of people elected to sail around the west side of Levkas and into the Inland Sea that way.
A week or so ago the repaired Santa Maura was back in place and opening more or less on the hour again. When I came through in Skylax I have to say it sounded very creaky and the bridge operator was gazing mournfully at the mechanics, so don't hold your breath, they may need to get the ferry back from Salamis. In the meantime the bridge (to the relief of lots of yachties) is up an running and opening again on the hour.
The F/B Santa Maura 'bridge' that swivels open at the north end of the Levkas Canal is opening again on the hour.
08-08-07
Yacht design
Yacht design has always had fads and fashions. Think of all those awful distorted IOR hulls that made it into production as cruiser/racers basically because they offered a lot more volume than older cruiser/racers. It’s no wonder that a mantra could be heard all around the cruising community of ‘long keel good/fin keel bad’ when what was really meant was that IOR derived hulls were pigs downwind whereas long-keeled older boats were easier (and slower) to drive.
Now there are other fashions around that don’t suit cruising in warmer climes, the
Pilot houses (Deck saloons)
A pilot house letting in lots of light and allowing a panoramic view outside must be wonderful in colder latitudes. But put one anywhere there is a bit of sun and the owner will be scampering off to get canvas covers made up to cover up all those windows which just turn the boat into a super-heated greenhouse below. The object in warmer climes is to keep out as much sun as possible while allowing maximum ventilation and that’s why you put covers over all your perspex deck hatches. So if you are contemplating cruising anywhere warm discard the pilot house/deck saloon options and get a design which has a decent number of opening hatches to funnel air below. You will be spending most of your time outside in the cockpit (with a good bimini and an awning for shade) anyway and not inside the deck saloon.
Cover it up in the sun - OK this is on a motorboat but the same goes for deck saloons on sailing boats.
Fat arses
While there should always be a place for fat bottomed girls, as the song goes, it shouldn’t be on production cruiser/racers. Crewed up racing boats and Open 50’s and 60’s with canting keels are not what I’m talking about, though you wouldn’t want to go to windward for too long in one without ear-plugs. I’m talking about average production boats that are not overly wide at the stern, but wide enough, and into which the designer has tucked two quarter berth cabins which in turn push cockpit stowage even further aft. Imagine piling up a 100 metres of 10mm chain, a couple of big anchors, cans of fuel and water, maybe a generator and a watermaker as well at the back of the boat, and you have a boat which is arse heavy. Take a peek inside an older design (say 15 years ago) or in an Open 60 and you will find the back end is virtually empty. Boats don’t like to have a lot of weight at the pointy end and the blunt end. OK we all carry anchor and chain forward, but an effort should be made to minimise this as much as possible and carry light stuff under the forepeak berth(s). But on boats with the weight of two quarter berth cabins and cockpit stowage right aft the weight distribution is all wrong.
Now I have a theory (amongst others) that this weight concentrated in the aft end of the boat has distorted keel design and position. Have keels moved further forward on modern production boats. I’m sure any yacht designer would shoot me down in flames, but I’m still wandering around boatyards and looking at these boats and some of them don’t look right.
Less contentious is the fact that these designs are touted as off the wind flyers, but what happens when you need to go to windward, and lets face it, there is a lot more windward work involved even on a tradewind route than most people imagine. And what if you want to get somewhere interesting that lies upwind? Getting one of these fat arsed beauties going to windward is not easy because they like to be sailed flat or those stern quarters start digging in and the boat gripes awfully. Even worse they don’t seem to be that stable downwind, at least on some of the common modern designs I’ve sailed. I won’t name them but you should have a pretty good idea which ones I’m talking about from the biggest European boatbuilders.
Compare the stern sections of Skylax on the left and a pretty typical AWB on the right
Swept back spreaders
Yeah I know engineering-wise it works and it cuts down on weight aloft, but you can never sail directly downwind, at least with the main up. I remember on a trip from Antigua to the
A conventional rig with simple straight spreaders may be old fashioned, but you do get to go dead downwind and that works for me and lots of others.
Self-tacking jibs
Along with swept back spreaders there is the fashion for non-overlapping self-tacking jibs. The design imperative is a fairly large main so the boat is more main-driven than genny-driven and the convenience of a self-tacking jib. When the wind is light you put up an asymmetric the brochure blurb says. Come on, most cruising boats are handled by a couple and when the wind is light it’s not often you go forward and hassle about with an asymmetric. Skylax is a pretty main driven boat, but we still go for a 145% genny because it covers 90% plus of the wind range we come across. In fact the asymmetric on Skylax is so old that I’m pretty sure the next time it goes up it’s going to shred anyway. So go for a big genny and some decent deck gear to handle it.
Nice arse, good sized genny, sweet boat (old First 345)
For more bits on yacht design go here
For more on sails go here
A few email letters with useful info from
Rod,
I thought you should be aware of the attitude of the
staff at Olympic Marina. Not only were they unhelpful
they were positively rude. We had previously tried to
get a berth for a night there and were very curtly
told that there was no room. It is clear that this is
their normal attitude to visiting yachts.
Regards,
Clive Probert
The General Manager
Olympic Marina
Panormos 19500
Lavrio
Attiki
Dear sir,
We live on a yacht and are currently cruising
Two days ago during a voyage we suffered total
steering failure. Using emergency steering procedures
we managed to work our way with difficulty into
Rafti.
We now need a replacement part. Because we have no
address we needed somewhere for the relevant part to
be couriered to. As your marina was nearest we rang to
confirm that you would be willing to accept receipt on
our behalf so that we could pick it up either by yacht
or by road and thus be able to effect the necessary
repairs. We received from your staff a totally
negative response to our very reasonable request.
We have cruised for 10 years and have nearly completed
a circumnavigation. We have travelled to over 50
countries and logged over 50,000nm. We have never
anywhere been refused help when we have been in need
of it. This reflects very badly on your marina, your
town and your country. This in stark contrast to our
experiences of 3 years cruising in
have always been overwhelmed by kindness and offers of
help nothing ever being too much trouble.
Yours sincerely,
Clive Probert
Dear Rod,
Yes I realise that things can change just thought you
ought to get the input.
Problems now sorted with great help frpm Speedex the
local couriers. Well on our wayto the Ionian and in
the
100s F.
One other piece of useful info. You can get diesel on
the dock at the east end of the
regards.
Clive Probert
Rod,
More info from
Page 154
Trizonia
Lizzie's YC is now closed. We were told that it was up for sale.
The key to the water is now obtained from the Trizonia restaurant and supermarket. Not sure what has happened to Christo. The tap is not where shown on the chartlet but is 50M to the west.
Page 158
Galaxidhi
The dock area to the south of for 100M and including the short mole is now cordoned of and a large floating crane is being used to dig out but harbour bed along this area. Apparently it is a new dock under constrution. We heard a rumour that this work had been going on for 3 years! The only option here at present is to anchor off.
Page 159
Itea Marina
There is now what appears to be an office building, unoccupied at present and also a toilet block,locked. There are electricity points on the docks but they are not functional and appear to be starting to rust. No water on docks, fire points are just empty metal boxes.
Page 161
Andikiron.
There is a new light structure on the end of the pier, extremely decorative and conspicuous. Illuminated at night but the light was not working!
We were getting short of water along this section. In Andikiron we rang the telephone number on the box on the dock. It was 1300hrs. We were told that they could not come then nor would they say when they would come. We rang again at 1730hrs. We then learnt that the tel. no. was that of a bar at the eastern end of town "Salonu". We went there and spoke to the barman who was very helpful. The man in charge of the water and electricity works there in the evenings, stays late and therfore has to sleep all day. It was arranged that they would ring on our mobile when he was available. We eventually got a call at 1945hrs. at which time we were dining so we abandoned our quest.
At Itea there is a very long hose at the toilet block which was administered by a little man who was also in charge of the mini tanker delivering diesel. The water point is about 50M to the west of where shown on the chartlet and one has to mor at the dock just east of the middle pontoon. It was very windy and difficult to get on and off that dock so we left it until the following day when of course the little man was nowhere to be seen and there were no signs of a telephone number.
At Galaxidhi of course the dock is not available.so we eventually filled one of our tanks using containers at Trizonia. The true joys of cruising.
Regards,
Clive Probert
18-07-07
Levkas again... well that's where we have been cruising. Lu's photo from Paul's FIB shows the southern approach to Levkas Canal and you can just about see the old breakwater that runs from the buoyed entrance (just off the islet) west across to Levkas on the left of the picture. From the deck it is next to impossible to spot unless the water is very still and clear, but it is there...
Choosing a favourite island is next to impossible. Is it the island with good restaurants and bars and a safe and friendly harbour? Is it one with uncrowded anchorages and spectacular scenery? Is it the one lost in a time warp so it seems like somewhere from the
Levkas is one of those islands I have a long relationship with. I first arrived here in 1977 in Roulette, a twenty foot plywood boat I had sailed down from
From the north you come to the tight approach and entrance to the
If there is a single blessing bestowed on Levkas island it is that it sits on the edge of the inland sea. From Levkas town you head south down the canal through the salt marsh where it opens up into the
On the eastern side of Levkas you have one of the best protected anchorages in the Ionian. You enter Port Vlikho through a bottleneck opening from Nidri and the narrow channel then opens up to a large bay with all-round shelter. The depths are just 3-7 metres everywhere with a mud bottom and once the anchor is down and dug in you could weather a hurricane in here. On the slopes about the bay pencil-thin cypress pushes up through the old olive trees planted in Venetian times and though there is now a lot of development around the bay, local planning laws ensure there are no buildings over three stories high.
Nidri just up from the anchorage is an all-singing-and-dancing resort, though it is more compact and less nasty than most resorts in the
Nidri (photo Lu Michell)
On the south side of Levkas is another well sheltered anchorage at Sivota. In fact it is so well sheltered it is difficult to see where the entrance is at first. Once you have located it the inlet curves to the west and you enter a dog-leg bay lined with tavernas and bars. Sivota is pretty much dependant on yachts for its income and in the high season can be very crowded. For that matter much of the
On the south-west of Levkas tucked under
Back in Levkas a new marina has been built that dramatically increases the number of berths and the services available here and will no doubt do much to put Levkas on the map. It is strange to look out over all the yachts berthed here and reflect on the fact that in 1977 the diminutive Roulette was the only yacht here. Not that I begrudge Levkas the changes that have gone on – after all everything changes and most of what has happened to Levkas in the intervening years is good or at worst liveable with.
09-07-07
Levkas Marina
Levkas Marina is rapidly filling up, so much so that the final pontoon on the north side extending out to the wavebreaker pontoon on the canal (left side of the marina in the picture) has been installed providing a lot more berths for the busy summer months. A lot of boats are basing themselves permanently in the marina which all works pretty well. Although there are lots of bars and cafes around the marina, most people wander over to Levkas town for a bite where there are a lot of good tavernas. Try Ev Zin in a little street just off the right side of the high street heading up into town AFTER the square.
Lu's photo from Paul's FIB shows Levkas Marina with the new pontoon installed.
Stormy weather
This photo was taken of a summer thunder storm over Levkas with George Catchpole's Verdi (Halberg Rassey 42) coming into the CYS mole in Levkas harbour. Mavis Woods took the photo and has allowed me to reproduce it here. This is not a retouched photo - this is what it was like!
Hieromiti Shoal
Another of Lu's wonderful pictures from Paul Newell's FIB (Flying Inflatable Boat right). This one is of the Hieromiti Reef between Skorpios (left) and Vathi on Meganisi. The reef is right of picture. Local gossip has it that any poles, flags, etc. marking the reef are removed by one of the boatyard owners who does a roaring trade in the summer hauling out boats that have hit it.
The northern entrance to the
Greek Waters Pilot 10th edition
Somewhere sometime over a deep blue sea this proof 
Still here is the preface for Greek Waters Pilot 10th edition out in September 07.
GWP 10th ed
PREFACE
It is some 25 years since the first edition of this book, 30 years since I first sailed down to Greece, nearly half our ‘allotted span’ on this planet plotting harbours, scribbling notes, sailing onto the next harbour, the next anchorage, another page in the book that has grown into a tome that can bring on a hernia when you lift it. In the early days the plans were all hand drawn with a Rotring pen and then annotated at Imrays with little stick-on numbers and symbols. The first editions were all typed up on board Tetra, on a manual typewriter kept in a waterproof case to protect it from the ever present leaks through her wooden decks. Depths were by lead-line and the shape of a bay or a harbour was obtained using old fashioned triangulation methods with a hand-bearing compass and a measured foot-fall. Today this edition will whizz off by courier on a couple of optical discs that contain the whole book, plans, photos and text, to the printer who will insert it in his computerised press and then push the green button to start it all rolling. In a quarter of a decade things mechanical, the hand drawn plans, the typed and tippexed manuscript, the black and white photos rendered to half tones, have evolved into a digital soup strewn with suffixed file types and transmitted through the ether in the blink of an eye.
Or so it seems. In practice the medium has changed but all the rest of it is recognisable. We still survey harbours and anchorages using basic triangulation methods with a hand-bearing compass and the addition of a hand-held GPS and a hand-held depth sounder. To check on the accuracy of the depth-sounder I use the lead-line from the early days. The plans are still drawn by hand because you can rub out the shape, features and position of things and scribble it in again a whole lot quicker than you can on screen with Freehand. And just try balancing your precious laptop in the dinghy with a bit of wash around. It’s a lot easier to use an old fashioned notebook and pencil and you don’t mind too much if it gets damp. We still type things in on an old fashioned QWERTY keyboard that goes to the silicon innards of the laptop. How it gets there makes little difference to what gets there, whether on a hard disc or on A4 typing paper. As the old computer adage goes: rubbish in/rubbish out. And a good photo is still dependent on the operator whether it is stored on a memory card or old fashioned celluloid. So while the technology has changed, the process has not changed all that much. Marshall McCluhan’s prescient The Medium is the Massage comes to mind.
So it is with
And yet the backbone of this country, those colossal mountains and cobalt seas, are recognisably Greek. There are some 7000 miles of coastline once you unravel all those islands and most of it is still untouched by second home syndrome and package hotel-ville. Enlightened policies early on put historical preservation orders on towns and villages and height restrictions on buildings have mitigated much of the impact of new housing. I still shed a tear when I arrive on these shores and another when I leave. Aspects of the coast and islands, and the hinterland, may change, but the same sky is overhead and the same winds blow over the seas and over our own collective psyche.
The Greeks are a loud and theatrical nation that can be hard, on first encounters, to be fond of. On the street when friends meet just saying ‘good morning’ and ‘how are you’ can sound and look like the first round of a prize fight. But in these hearts there is locked that gut feeling for life, of personal passions and public expression, a very old and important vitality that Kazantakis captured when he has Zorba tell us to ‘DANCE – INE I ZOI’. It is
Sailing around these coasts is a privilege and one I hope many others come to love. It is, after all, a bit of a paradox that we choose to get around by this distinctly old fashioned mode of transport, hauling on ropes and putting bits of white cloth up to catch the wind. Yet in
Rod Heikell Levkas 2007
Boat jobs
Sold but not really designed for the job. This is our anchor washdown pump bought new in the
Cruising down the Gulf of Corinth
04/06/07 Petala Island Greece
Anchored in 3.5 metres on sticky mud behind Petala Island. Hurricane hole. The weather has turned again with another light front coming through with 20 knots from the SE and rain. Odd for this time of year when the prevailing winds from the NW are usually established. There have been fronts like this coming through every week. Last week we sat out 30-35 knots from the S-SE in Vlikho near Nidri – another hurricane hole.
Anchored off the cave in Petala
At least we have got rid of the proof reading for 10 days or so before we return to Levkas. We will potter down into the Gulf of Patras and Gulf of Corinth before turning around and galloping back to Levkas for the next set which Imrays will Fedex to us. In between we will try to get a bit boat fit and do some much needed work on the boat fixing electrics, plumbing, running gear and all the other things needed before we set off westwards – though there will be a lot more weeks on out return from the UK with things still to do.
Tonight was special ragu night, a dish you might call spaghetti bolognese but which should be a finer dish
Fry up some lardons or chopped up bacon
Add a finely chopped onion, a finely sliced carrot, finely chopped garlic (I like about 4 cloves but to taste) and finely sliced celery sticks x2 if you have them
Fry slowly
After 5 minutes or so add sliced mushrooms (or tinned at a pinch) and fry a bit more
Turn the heat up a bit and add around 500 gm of good mince and brown stirring often
When browned add 400-500 gm of passata or tinned chopped tomatoes, 300 ml of stock, 2 glasses of white wine, a smattering of freshly grated nutmeg, some black pepper and put on a low heat for 1½ -2 hours
Cook pasta of choice (I favour penne)
To serve heap over cooked pasta (al dente PLEASE) and add some cream on top (UHT is fine) and grated parmesan on each plate
Serves four.
If you are two it works well the next day either as a pasta sauce again or with kidney beans and chilli sauce added as chilli con carne (with rice).
05-06-07
A sitting it out day. By last night there were eight boats in here and it blew and rained off and on through the night. One of the boats had anchored close in front of us so when a 40 knot squall went through we had little chance of letting out more scope on the anchor. In heavy rain and lots of wind we up anchored and moved further into the bay. The bottom slopes very gently up to the shore here so we re-anchored well inside everyone else in 2.4 metres and let 35 metres of chain go. Then inside for a shower and a cup of tea confident we would not move now. Even if we did the worst would be going aground on a muddy bottom, though our wing keel would probably act like a giant suction cup and I wasn’t too keen on that.
By evening the worst was over. The low had moved off across the Peloponnese to the Aegean although the weather was far from settled. This year seems to have brought a whole series of depressions in across the Mediterranean and on over Greece, about one every week or so in the last month. Until high pressure is established over the Azores and in the central Mediterranean, the lows are not bounced off to northern Europe where they belong and meander down into the Mediterranean.
06-06-07
A very light wind sail to Missalonghi. The forecast was for F4-5 from the W, ideal for us to scud along eastwards, but we had nothing much over F3 so it was a light downwind sail with no more than 4 knots or so on the clock. At least until we got the sails down before entering the canal into Missalonghi when the wind got up and it started to rain. In the SW corner of the basin at Missalonghi a ‘marina’ was built in 2005, a few pontoons off the concrete dock mostly colonised by the local fishermen and two detached pontoons. We went alongside the inner detached pontoon in the rain. The pontoons are all looking a bit dilapidated already, but it is a safe enough place to tie up.
We had a mission in Missalonghi: to find a good taverna. The town has been plagued by some of the worst tavernas in Greece that sort of fit with some of the worst pour-and-fill architecture in Greece around and through the old town. For those seeking the connection between Byron and Missalonghi (or Mesolonghion) there is but little to be found. We had a drink in the Byron Café in the town square, though there were no poetry readings, just basketball on the wide screen television. Now parts of the old town have been pedestrianised it is all a lot more pleasant and once we had found the taverna street running approximately E-W just S of the town square and intersecting bar street, we settled in for a meal at the Filoxeni (love or friend of the stranger or foreigner) which was excellent. Hurrah for the new tavernas in Missalonghi.
07-06-07
Another very light wind day of westerlies funnelling down the Gulf of Patras and Gulf of Corinth. We toodled along goose-winged although just before Rion and Andi-Rion we lost the wind and had to motor. No bad thing when traversing the new bridge.
Yachts under 20 metres must call up Rion Traffic on VHF Ch 14 when 5 miles off the bridge and give the boat name and mast height. It surprises me how few boats use the phonetic alphabet for the boat name and call sign. You will be instructed to call up again when 1 mile off the bridge. East bound yachts normally use the N side (1 pillar to the left/3 pillars to the right) though in fact the designated channel for eastbound yachts is the S channel. Likewise in practice the S channel is used by westbound yachts though it is not the designated channel. The bridge controllers are friendly enough and quite professional about traffic control. Yachts over 20 metres must call up when 12 miles off and give a lot more information about the boat and crew.
Once into the Gulf of Corinth Skylax fairly flew along to Trizonia. For those of you who haven’t heard, Alison Frasier who operated Lizzie’s YC here in Trizonia recently died at the tragically young age of 42 and the future of the YC is uncertain.
Trizonia ‘marina’ still has a pretty permanent assortment of boats that have been left and liveaboards who look unlikely to leave in the near future. There is still room to go alongside the west mole (be careful of the shallows towards the western end) and on the eastern mole or inside if there is room anywhere. Or anchor off.
The hamlet on the front is as pretty as ever though there seems to be a bit of a taverna war going on with newly arriving boats being handed leaflets for one or other taverna. We will try the Kalypso tonight though I suspect they are all much of a muchness.
And some will likely never leave
Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2007, 11:50 AM (UTC 1)
The great bottled water myth
Sitting around Levkas reading proofs, well actually when I take a break for a cappuccino in the internet café on the waterfront, I see all the mini-buses bringing in new people to the charter boats lined up on the quay. Along with bags, food, beer and wine and other things, the new charterers unload pack upon pack of bottled water and struggle on board to load the boat down to the gunwales with it. Even if W C Fields said, ‘I never drink water because fish shit in it’ or something like that, I bet he had ice in his drink.
It is a curse of these seas that they are peppered with empty plastic water bottles bobbing around, washed up on beaches and casually disposed of ashore. Even if they are taken ashore to be disposed of they invariably end up being burnt on a rubbish dump somewhere releasing all sorts of toxic compounds into the environment. Plastic bottles are mostly made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), but also contain traces of plasticizers, phthalates, anti oxidants, heavy metals, fillers, and anti-static agents. PET can be recycled, but not by burning it in an open air rubbish dump. And for what?
Here are the reasons why it is pointless to carry all that bottled water on board – APART from the very obvious matter of pollution in the sea and on the land.
- Most bottled water is not required to comply with the sort of standards and rigorous testing that is applied to municipal water supplies. You get a list of the ‘ingredients’ in terms of x% or PPM sodium, potassium, calcium nitrates, sulphates, nitrites, etc., but these do not have to conform to the levels set by the government for drinking water from the tap. I well remember Mr MD of Perrier being put on the spot in a TV interview and asked if he would give his small child Perrier or tap water to drink. He replied tap water, though rather sheepishly.
- Drinking bottled water is not going to keep you away from any perceived nasties in the local tap water. What do you clean your teeth with? Do you eat ashore? If you do then what do you think the ice in your drink is made of? What do you think the glass is washed up in? And the plates you eat off and the utensils you use? What do you think the salad ingredients are washed in?
- You cannot insulate yourself from the local water unless you never eat or drink ashore, never clean your teeth except with bottled water, never touch the stuff.
Water in another country will have some benign bacteria of a slightly different strain to that your gut is used to at home and maybe it will cause a slight tummy upset or a mild dose of the runs for a day or so. Your gut will then adapt to the ‘foreign’ bacteria and you won’t experience any more problems in the normal course of events. And you get to eat ashore.
So don’t buy all those bottles of water. It is an affectation you can do without. And you will be doing yourself and the environment a favour as well.
Note
While local water is often perfectly OK to drink, in some places it is heavily chlorinated. We use a Brita water filter jug to filter water for tea and coffee and fill water bottles to go in the fridge for drinking water. It gets rid of any taste in the local water, especially chlorine, and costs very little compared to bottled water.
Posted on Thursday, May 31, 2007, 11:50 AM (UTC 1)
Lu's photo from Vonitsa market where the local sheep were trying to advance on the horta stall. Horta is a green that grows wild in Greece, a bit like a cross between spinach and rocket. Stewed up with good olive oil and a splash of lemon its just ... like peppery spinach even if the stalks are sometimes a bit chewy. 
Boatyard blues
07/08-05-07
Arriving off Easyjet in Athens at 1230 local time we sprint for a taxi to try and make the 1330 bus to Levkas. We miss it by a couple of minutes but see a bus for Preveza leaving so sprint over (with 40 Kg of luggage each!) and flag the driver down. Don't you love Greece. He stops the bus, opens the luggage bay and bustles us on board where we buy the tickets. At the first stop at Rio we buy water and some chocolate milk to keep us going (oh and an ice-cream for Lu). The only trouble with the Preveza bus is it takes a wayward route through Arta and lots of little villages before finally deciding to head for Preveza itself. We phone Joe and he tells us he will pick us up in Amfilokhia at the eastern end of the Gulf of Amvrakia and take us to Levkas, well to Nikiana actually where we drink lots of beer and wine and tell tall stories.
Tuesday morning we are in the yard. Arriving at the yard everything is covered in dust. I am Mr Mop for the rest of the morning cleaning off dust, birdshit and anything else that got blown over the decks. And then somehow we have to make a small space down below where we can sleep and make a cup of tea.
By evening my winter sloth is shot through with aches and pains: arms, back, legs, thighs, and neck all feel like they have been wrung out and then squeezed back together like plasticine. Up and down the ladder. Did you bring the wallet? Bugger! Up again and down again. And then joy O joy - off to the O Kontos taverna for beers and dinner. And then home to bed.
Mr Rubadubdub in the yard
09-05-07 Yards are a pet hate topic amongst liveaboards. Nearly everything a yard does will be criticised and chewed over in innumerable and often bitter forum and bar chats. They can never do any job right and they charge too much for too little. Why? Because I, the 'I' talking about it, didn't do it. If only yards were more like us.
I don't think so. I have recommended boatyards in the past and in some of my articles because I thought they were good yards for 
a number of reasons: good toilets and showers, friendly staff, useful workshops, handily situated, or sometimes because they had a certain ambience that made you want to come back. The problem is that one liveaboards paradise boatyard appears to be another's hell. Or is it just that there are people out there who have to bitch about just about anything and recreate the hell they believe they are leaving behind, in the place they are in. As Strabo said: We carry the same sea and sky with us when we leave our native shore. So maybe these were just the sort of people you wouldn't want to bump into in the local pub or on the No. 37 into work.
Anyway I was about to join the bitching club when I gave myself a hefty kick up the rear with an admonishing: if I really wanted it to be right then I could spend a few years here doing just that instead of getting someone else to do it and going sailing. So mea culpa and NO, I'm not joining your mean minded club to winge about yards and work contracted out. I'm going sailing after a bit more cleaning and some repairs to get us on the sea soon.
10-05-07
In the winter a bat somehow found its way on board. A new holding tank was being installed in the aft heads (just like the one I describe in the section of Practical Boat Stuff 2) and I guess with the short days it flew in to take a break from eating the autumn mossy 
plague. As I was cleaning out the locker with the holding tank I spied something in the bottom and hauled it out. (Actually I hauled it out the second time after a bit of a shriek and dropping it before I realised it wasn’t a monster spider or scorpion or some mutant insect.) The bat was perfectly desiccated and even his poor little wings still worked. Well I’m sorry there is one less bat around as the mosquitoes on an Aktio evening are as bad as anywhere and twice as voracious.
11-05-07
The boatyards here run a mini-bus into Preveza town every morning and evening with a set return time. We showered, buffed and polished ourselves and climbed on the 1900 to the big lights over the water. G & T’s on the waterfront, a pizza at the Venezia and a green salad with balsamic vinaigrette. Life: Ene Zoe as Zorba used to say on a beach in Crete.
There was also the small matter of knickers. On our trips out we carry boat gear, books, files, a couple of laptops and cameras, but very little in the way of clothes. I thought I had an adequate supply of knickers on board - but no. After looking in a couple of shops including one called 'Playboy' (nahh, you're right) I found an old fashioned shop with a young Chinese girl in charge. Now I'm a medium. I am. But the Chinese knickers were definitely for a smaller race of people and in the end I had the humiliating experience of buying XL. No more big Chinese boys knickers for me. I'm going back to M & S where a medium fits.
Greece has had an influx of Chinese immigrants, mostly illegals bought over from Turkey, and they have been setting up shops and market stalls all over Greece. While the British have been described as nation of shopkeepers, really the Greeks (and Turks) beat them hands down in the entrepreneurial stakes hands down. Now the Greeks seem to have met their match with the Chinese who, having arrived with nothing, have set up shop in Greece selling cheap Chinese imports. I expect to see a real Chinese restaurant in Preveza soon.
12-05-07
In 1981 I bought Tetranora, a 31ft Cheverton New Campaigner designed and built by Cheverton on the Isle of Wight. They stopped building yachts some time in the early 70's I believe, though they continued producing workboats in GRP. In Preveza Marine next to Cleopatra, Martin has a 35 ft Cheverton. Long keel, graceful counter, a boat that stands out from all the other AWB's (average white boat) and Benny-Jenny-Bavs in Aktio.
Owning a boat should be an affair of the heart and not some practical exercise. It should have that elusive RAF (row-away-factor) where as you row ashore, you lean on the oars and gaze back at the girl in the water and know there is none other than her, that despite the sea miles and harbour wear and tear, she is the one.
13-05-07
Oh dear. I feel a winge coming on. Mr Elvstrom Greece came down himself and measured the boat for a new mainsail. Only apparently it was too windy so he didn't but took the approximate figures for the quote. So the new main is too big. Too long on the luff. Too long on the foot. So it's gone back to Mr Elvstrom Greece in Thessaloniki to be re-cut. This is not a recommendation for Elvstrom Greece and while I know that I opted for a lower price main in view of a funds problem, on hindsight this may have been a mistake. I also ordered it in Greece for just this reason on the basis that it's a lot easier to send a main back to Thessaloniki to have it modified than it is to send it back to the UK or elsewhere in Europe.
Let us see if Elvstrom Greece comes up with the goods and gets it back here looking half decent. In my heart I'm still kicking myself for not saving up for a North main.
14-05-07
0900 and we are launched into the Ionian. I don't know how many times I've chewed my nails, smoked cigarettes, tapped my foot, walked rapidly up and down and around in circles as the boat is being launched, but it's got to be close to a hundred odd times and yet I never lose that nervous tic where you run everything past buzzing neurones over and over again. The mantra goes seacocks, transducers, engine check, stern gland, rudder gland, bilge pumps - not to mention all the other things you have been doing on the boat that might or might not affect whether it floats happily or starts slipping under the waterline. Well we floated and motored and sailed happily down to Levkas town.
Harbours that silt
Harbours that silt are the bain of my life. A friend has just texted to say that Vlikadha on the SE corner of Thira has silted to just 1.6 metres inside the entrance. Last year we were there in July and surveyed the entrance to find 2.2 metres least depth, though we cut it down to 1.8 to be on the safe side. Now in just six months it has silted even more. Just as well I put SILTS in red letters on the plan.
So if you are headed for Vlikadha - it really does silt!
Vlikadha looking out across to the (silting) entrance
Over the years I've felt I had to be nice to our motoring cousins on the water. No more. Apart from polluting the waters I sail on in excess of what a few people on a boat should do, modern motorboats create wash that disturbs the sea and makes it uncomfortable for others on it, cause wash in anchorages that set everyone rolling around and cause damage to those berthed on a quay (why do you never slow down), noise pollution (often the only noise I can hear is a motorboat hull down on the horizon), and in the form of powerful RIBS and waterbikes you zoom around anchorages irritating the hell out of everyone and also endangering anyone swimming or messing around in small tenders. You also exhibit moronic behaviour (two syllables are difficult for you) when we ask you to slow down. So no more.
Americas Cup kicks off - and what does that have to do with cruising?
I blow hot and cold over the Americas Cup. Amazing machines, amazing sailors, gazillions of dollars, and a lot of hot air blowing around in various blogs like Magnus Wheatley’s Rule 69. What I do get the feeling of is that there is a lot of comment from people who are not at the sharp end. Sitting in front of your laptop and passing on rumour, half-cocked opinion and your own idea of how it should all be is fine except for the fact that it comes close to tabloid headlines. Dean chokes – let Ben drive to win the cup (in relation to Emirates Team NZ and their less than expected results). I don’t think so. Or the blogs that suggest moving the cup to
That said in an earlier blog I did say that anyone who cruises this area would know that the sea breeze is not a given this early in the season. And all this hot air reminded me of those cruising bloggers who are firmly glued to an armchair or to a quay (check out the TV satellite dish bolted to the quay and the amount of junk scattered around shoreside: bikes, motorbikes, cars, bits of boat in various stages of repair or not), in a boat that has never been out for years. What is interesting is that these blogs know everything about everything to do with cruising from what engine to fit to your boat to what the pirate situation is in the Malacca Straits (pretty much nil as far as cruising boats go). Received opinion is passed on and metamorphoses into fact when it’s genesis was a conversation in a bar.
One of these bits of received opinion is that you have to motor around the Med. I’ve just read a passage about it in a book covering a circumnavigation and there it is: 95% of the time you will be motoring in the
So just thought I would get that little bit of angsty stuff (as promised) off my chest.
Posted on Tuesday May 1st 2007
Beaulieu Boat Jumble
Tomorrow we are off early to Beaulieu Boat Jumble (the largest boat jumble in Europe for those not from the UK) to buy an assorted collection of bits for the boat ...and us. We need wet weather gear. My last jacket was a coastal Henri Lloyd a friend brought out to Cuba after mine was stolen in Marina Hemingway near Havana. I'd left it in the cockpit while I went out and someone helped themselves to it while I was out. I hope whoever it was got some use out of it. That was in 1999 and it's getting a bit threadbare after quite a few thousand miles including three transatlantics. The wet weather trousers are newer from 2004 in Fort Lauderdale, but they were the cheapest own brand from West Marine and not up to much. Lu's breathable Henri Lloyds are breathing a bit too much and letting in a lot of water.
Beaulieu is a place where end-of-line, slightly marked seconds, and old stock are sold off and I don't give a fig for the fashion aspect. I just want to be warm and dry.
We have other items on the list as well: deck and steaming light, some string, a new stern light and in all likelihood some things not on our list.
When we go back to Skylax our bags bulge with bits for the boat and files, books, cameras, a couple of laptops, and usually just a few T-shirts and knickers. We keep clothes on the boat so we don't need much. Oh and lots of Earl Grey teabags - very difficult to find at a good price outside the UK and Sainsbury's is doing a special on them.
Posted on Sunday April 29th 2007
New sails
When we sailed back across the Atlantic in 2005 with Skylax we were woefully short in the sails department. The main is at least 15 years old. The roller reefing working jib started shredding down the leach on the way down to Grenada from Lauderdale and by the time we arrived it looked like we were flying giant tell-tales all the way down. Surprisingly the rest of the sail inside the vertical leach panel was not too bad. I enquired about getting a new sail made in Grenada and was promised one from the loft in Barbados in a month. Then I asked around and found that others were still waiting after a couple of months and realised we could be stuck there waiting for it, leaving our departure across the Atlantic a bit late. So I had the old roller furling jib cut down and re-made so it was probably around 75% - somewhat smaller than a working jib now.
Before leaving Lauderdale I had rigged an inner forestay (there were fittings for one) and bought a second hand (pre-used in that lovely American vernacular) sail to hank on that was about right for a staysail. In practice I found that when it was up it made no impression at all on our speed. I tried just about everything but none of it made a difference. Some boats are just not designed for cutter rig and Skylax is one of them. Maybe in heavy weather it would be useful though I have to admit that in the past I have just used the roller reefing genny reefed down to a rag.
Skylax with the cut-down jib
So with a 75% less-than-working-jib we were severely handicapped on the way across the Atlantic in anything less than 15 knots of wind. It was painful at times. So one of the first items on my list on arriving in the Mediterranean was a nice big roller reefing genoa. At least 140% for all those light wind days and I'm not just talking about the Mediterranean. You get more light wind days in the ocean, even on trade wind routes, than most people think. And most people's response is to fire up the donk when boatspeed falls below some arbitrary figure, often 4 knots or so! Some superyacht skippers tell me the engine goes on when speeds fall under 6 knots, that is if they have bothered to put any sails up at all.
So in late 2005 I ordered a 145% genoa from Elvstrom. They have a loft in Thessaloniki so transport down to Levkas was not too much of a problem. They make reasonable quality sails, not the best and not the worst, and I ordered the cruising version with extra stitching and reinforced eyes. After a bit of research I cried off the composite laminate sail I really wanted. Sailmakers can be a bit coy about laminates versus old fashioned dacron, but if you press them then the consensus is that dacron will last longer and is more resistant to chafe. Dacron is also cheaper and importantly you can repair the sail in most parts of the world. If I was sailing solely in the Med I think I probably would go for a laminate for its better shape in most wind ranges.
Skylax with 145% genny
The new sail has improved boat speeds no end. We recently sailed (to windward) from Nikiana down the Meganisi Channel to Sivota in company with an Oyster 82 which a friend was skippering. There was hardly any wind, around 4-10 knots apparent, yet we could make our way down (OK its flat water) for a long enjoyable sail. I have to hand it to Rob Humphreys as the 65 ton Oyster sailed all the way down as well - well the owners weren't on board so skipper enjoyed doing some sailing. But in such light airs it was amazing a boat of this size could move at all. When the wind gets up we do 7 knots hard on the wind and 8-9 on a reach. Hey - it's a heavy boat fully loaded for cruising and I'm talking average speed here, not occasionally touching 7 or 8 knots. We carry over half a ton of water and nearly as much fuel for starters.
So now I've ordered a new main from Elvstrom which will hopefully be waiting in Levkas when we get there. Its in Dacron again and 2+2, not fully battened. Why? We normally sail with just the two of us and getting a fully battened main down in a squall or because we have just left it too long can be tricky. Unless we got something like Harken's bat-car system or some other system involving a lot of extra cost (probably min £2K by the time it was fitted), a fully battened main was off the list. Anyway I notice that a lot of the new Swans use a 2+2 system so it can't be too bad. I had a 2+2 system on seven tenths' main and it had a good shape. And it's an awful lot easier to get up and down and easier to reef when there is a bit of wind. We shall see.
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