All is well and we are back around Levkas Island, in company with our Kiwi friends Bruce and Lesley aboard their sailing cat, Midi. Weather is great with temps in the high 20s, but the season is ending – shops and tavernas are closing, and there are fewer boats around. Now we only have another week before we go into the marina for the winter. This posting brings us up to 8 September.
After Graham left us at Levkas marina we cruised back to Sivota, where we had arranged to meet friends from New Zealand, Lionel and Mary Rogers. They had shipped their 1930 Ford Model A over from New Zealand in a container, and had been touring countries adjacent to the Med - over several months visiting Italy, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia.
The only drama they had with the Model A was a rear wheel falling off while driving at 60 km/hr, due to a missing split pin on the axle nut. Apart from that, some starting problems when after heavy rain, and a slight rattle in the exhaust, the Model A has performed faultlessly, and the classic bright-red vintage car has attracted huge attention wherever they go.
Lionel and Mary covered 8,232 km, used 1,115 litres of petrol for an economy of 7.4 km/litre, 20.8 MPG, or 17.7 miles per USG
Lionel and Mary’s 1930 Ford Model A attracted attention everywhere
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It had been a while since we’d cruised to any new places, but on the way north to Corfu stopped at the very atmospheric town of Parga. Here there are two harbours, one either side of a castle on a promontory. We took our RHIB to explore the other harbour and saw the Silver Fern flag flying from a yacht. We soon met Colin and Christine Merryfair from Epsom, Auckland with their daughter Nicole. They bought a new yacht called Shapeshifter four years ago in Spain, and have been spending several months a year cruising the Med since.
Parga was a great anchorage except for speedboats towing water skiers far too close to Envoy for comfort.
This is Parga wharf on a nice day
This is the same wharf during a southerly blow
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We have towed various fishing lures for thousands of miles all over the Med and caught very few fish – in fact until recently none this year. Graham Reiher showed us a lure he’d caught some tuna on - a feather lure rather than a shiny one. So we changed to one of these lures, and have caught several small tuna since, and enjoyed some sashimi and barbecued fillets. Tuna is a great fish as it’s easy to fillet and bone, has no scales, and provides a good yield.
Di battles with a huge 1.5kg tuna!
We're not proud - this was good eating
Going to another anchorage on the island of Corfu, Petriti, for the first time, we met Dick and Val Carey from Norfolk, England aboard their Nordhavn 55, Tai-Pan, bought new five years ago. People coming aboard Envoy often say she’s like a small ship. Well Tai-Pan is like a large ship, and looks like she’s just out of the showroom.
On the flying-bridge you look down on the water from something like 25 feet above sea level. She has three double cabins and three heads, with one cabin being immediately aft of the pilot house – an excellent captain’s cabin. The walk-in engine room with full head room also made me very jealous. She has a hydraulic hoist for lifting their RHIB in and out of the water, resulting in a very un-cluttered boat deck, set up with a bimini and outdoor seating in a position which catches the breeze. For about a cool US$1.4 m or so, you too could own one of these! We’ll be seeing more of Dick and Val, as Tai-Pan winters over at Corfu’s Gouvia marina.
The magnificent Nordhavn 55, Tai-Pan
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Petriti is off the beaten track and a great little village. We found a perfect taverna set in a luscious green garden, and had ice cold beers at the end of the day.
This taverna at Petriti was set in luscious green gardens
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Wreck of German steel-hulled yacht ashore at Petriti
After Petriti we anchored for a few days off Corfu town’s castle while we explored more of Corfu.
TECHNICAL: Just as we were about to leave Lefkas marina I noticed the port side of our large RHIB was flat. Further checking showed that the valve had disintegrated, but within half an hour we’d located a local RHIB repair guy, who replaced the valve and for Euro 20 (about NZ$32) all was fixed.
A few days later the bush in the RHIB’s propeller failed (shortly after I’d caught the painter in the prop!), meaning we couldn’t get the RHIB to plane. I found a Yamaha dealer at Gouvia marina and he sold me a prop of the same diameter – 9 and 7/8 inch, but a slighter lower pitch - 10.5 instead of 11”. This results in a slightly lower top speed, but makes the RHIB easier to get up on the plane, which will be an advantage for us with guests. Cost was Euro 130 (about NZ$206). I had tried to get the prop re-bushed, as we do in New Zealand, but the dealer had never heard of this.
Dick showed me a product he uses to help keep Tai-Pan looking so great - Starbrite Rust Stain Remover. I was amazed when he demonstrated aboard Envoy how quickly and easily this spay-on product removes rust streaks from gelcoat. I’ve since bought some and found it to be excellent, although judging by its smell it’s based upon oxalic acid, so needs to be thoroughly washed off gelcoat.
After Graham left us at Levkas marina we cruised back to Sivota, where we had arranged to meet friends from New Zealand, Lionel and Mary Rogers. They had shipped their 1930 Ford Model A over from New Zealand in a container, and had been touring countries adjacent to the Med - over several months visiting Italy, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, and Armenia.
The only drama they had with the Model A was a rear wheel falling off while driving at 60 km/hr, due to a missing split pin on the axle nut. Apart from that, some starting problems when after heavy rain, and a slight rattle in the exhaust, the Model A has performed faultlessly, and the classic bright-red vintage car has attracted huge attention wherever they go.
Lionel and Mary covered 8,232 km, used 1,115 litres of petrol for an economy of 7.4 km/litre, 20.8 MPG, or 17.7 miles per USG
Lionel and Mary’s 1930 Ford Model A attracted attention everywhere
.JPG)
.JPG)
It had been a while since we’d cruised to any new places, but on the way north to Corfu stopped at the very atmospheric town of Parga. Here there are two harbours, one either side of a castle on a promontory. We took our RHIB to explore the other harbour and saw the Silver Fern flag flying from a yacht. We soon met Colin and Christine Merryfair from Epsom, Auckland with their daughter Nicole. They bought a new yacht called Shapeshifter four years ago in Spain, and have been spending several months a year cruising the Med since.
Parga was a great anchorage except for speedboats towing water skiers far too close to Envoy for comfort.
This is Parga wharf on a nice day
This is the same wharf during a southerly blow
.JPG)
We have towed various fishing lures for thousands of miles all over the Med and caught very few fish – in fact until recently none this year. Graham Reiher showed us a lure he’d caught some tuna on - a feather lure rather than a shiny one. So we changed to one of these lures, and have caught several small tuna since, and enjoyed some sashimi and barbecued fillets. Tuna is a great fish as it’s easy to fillet and bone, has no scales, and provides a good yield.
Di battles with a huge 1.5kg tuna!
We're not proud - this was good eating
Going to another anchorage on the island of Corfu, Petriti, for the first time, we met Dick and Val Carey from Norfolk, England aboard their Nordhavn 55, Tai-Pan, bought new five years ago. People coming aboard Envoy often say she’s like a small ship. Well Tai-Pan is like a large ship, and looks like she’s just out of the showroom.
On the flying-bridge you look down on the water from something like 25 feet above sea level. She has three double cabins and three heads, with one cabin being immediately aft of the pilot house – an excellent captain’s cabin. The walk-in engine room with full head room also made me very jealous. She has a hydraulic hoist for lifting their RHIB in and out of the water, resulting in a very un-cluttered boat deck, set up with a bimini and outdoor seating in a position which catches the breeze. For about a cool US$1.4 m or so, you too could own one of these! We’ll be seeing more of Dick and Val, as Tai-Pan winters over at Corfu’s Gouvia marina.
The magnificent Nordhavn 55, Tai-Pan
.JPG)
Petriti is off the beaten track and a great little village. We found a perfect taverna set in a luscious green garden, and had ice cold beers at the end of the day.
This taverna at Petriti was set in luscious green gardens
.JPG)
.JPG)
Wreck of German steel-hulled yacht ashore at Petriti
After Petriti we anchored for a few days off Corfu town’s castle while we explored more of Corfu.
TECHNICAL: Just as we were about to leave Lefkas marina I noticed the port side of our large RHIB was flat. Further checking showed that the valve had disintegrated, but within half an hour we’d located a local RHIB repair guy, who replaced the valve and for Euro 20 (about NZ$32) all was fixed.
A few days later the bush in the RHIB’s propeller failed (shortly after I’d caught the painter in the prop!), meaning we couldn’t get the RHIB to plane. I found a Yamaha dealer at Gouvia marina and he sold me a prop of the same diameter – 9 and 7/8 inch, but a slighter lower pitch - 10.5 instead of 11”. This results in a slightly lower top speed, but makes the RHIB easier to get up on the plane, which will be an advantage for us with guests. Cost was Euro 130 (about NZ$206). I had tried to get the prop re-bushed, as we do in New Zealand, but the dealer had never heard of this.
Dick showed me a product he uses to help keep Tai-Pan looking so great - Starbrite Rust Stain Remover. I was amazed when he demonstrated aboard Envoy how quickly and easily this spay-on product removes rust streaks from gelcoat. I’ve since bought some and found it to be excellent, although judging by its smell it’s based upon oxalic acid, so needs to be thoroughly washed off gelcoat.
LOG. Up to 8 September had spent 162 days aboard, and cruised 1,522 miles for 293 engine hours.
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