GOODBYE TO ENVOY

We're home in Auckland and Envoy is in Greece's Lefkada marina. 

Our involvement with Envoy is over as she's now under the control of her new Australian owners, Larry and Catherine.

We've been looking at buying a new (pre-owned) boat and have taken one to survey stage, so if we proceed with this boat I'll give more details next week.

It's early October and we're back in Lefkada marina with my brother Charles aboard. It's fitting that he's with us for our final days aboard Envoy as he's the reason we're here. In the early 2000s Charles and his French wife Marie sailed their 34ft yacht Acrobat from Brisbane to Turkey and invited us to join them there  in 2004 for a couple of weeks cruising. It was during that time Diane and I decided to do this Med cruising.

We came into the marina two days early because a “destructive thunderstorm” was forecast and we didn't want to take any chances – we've seen what they can do! However despite our caution this time the storm doesn't materialise.

The day before we come to the marina the generator fails to start – it turns over OK and runs provided the glow plug pre-heat switch is kept activated but stops when this switch is let go. 
Charles and I check it over and change a few relays to no avail. 
Sailand's electrician Velissaris comes aboard and when we explain the issue he nods his head knowingly, saying that probably the oil or coolant level is too low. I'm skeptical as I'd checked the coolant level the same day, however we check it again and find it's slightly low. We add coolant then lo and behold all is good.

The generator has always needed a very small amount of coolant added every couple of weeks, however we ask Velissaris to check the generator's cooling system during winter and the exhaust system while they're at it.

We have six days before catching the bus to Athens and this is plenty of time to prepare Envoy for winter. Our final short cruise is from our marina berth to the haul-out area – how many times we've stood by watching Envoy being pulled out or launched!

We watch Envoy being positioned on the hard stand for our final time

Maybe this will be our next boat?

This year's cruise has been great and we've enjoyed sharing it with Chris, Larry and Catherine and Charles. We've visited Greece, Albania and Italy and cruised 964 miles. 
We recall some of the challenges we had making this an interesting cruise: a leaking bilge that took Sailand about a week to permanently repair, the major storm in the marina at Taranto, a large motor vessel hitting us in the marina at Gallipoli, getting our anchor stuck in a bay in Italy, a storm in Ay Eufemia harbour with other boats adrift, being detained by Coastguard for a week after our EPIRB inadvertently activated, losing and then finding our RHIB in Albania and being anchored in Vlikho Bay when an adrift yacht nearly hit us. All good fun!

So folks I see that our first post was in late 2006, so after 13 years that's the end of the Envoy Blog, although I will post a bit more material here, particularly regarding our new vessel. 
Envoy was perfect for this Med adventure, but our next boat will be somewhat different!
Thanks for following us.

OUR FINAL CRUISING DAYS ABOARD ENVOY

Envoy's ownership is now transferred to Larry and Catherine Wood of Brisbane, Australia and we're sure they'll have as much fun and adventure as we enjoyed. 

Envoy has been de-registered from the NZ Shipping Register in preparation for her new Australian listing.

We've been back home in Auckland for three weeks now and busy searching for a new boat. We looked at about 15 before we found one we really liked and signed the deal last Wednesday, subject to survey, sea trial and engineering report. This should be all complete in about two weeks and then I'll provide some details.

Now back to the Med. It's late September and we leave Kastos Island to cruise through the Dragonera and Echinades Islands. There are several islands in this remote and barren group with many fish farms among them. 

The Dragonera islands

Although there are good day anchorages here it's not the place you'd want to move around at night if you needed to, so we head to the nearby mainland coast and anchor at a bay called Ormos Dhioni. This is nothing special but well sheltered and just a few hundred metres from the mouth of Greece's longest river – the Achelos, a slow flowing river passing through marshlands and forming a shallow sandspit where it flow into the sea.

Next day we cruise about 25 miles to Messalonghi. This is a very sheltered harbour about half a mile wide at the end of a two-mile-long canal from the sea.

The canal going to Messalonghi has some interesting dwellings

Here we find a handful of yachts anchored and the superyacht Christina O moored alongside the jetty. This is the ship formerly belonging to Aristotle Onassis and named after his daughter. The ship is a converted WW2 warship which saw service at the D Day landings and was beautifully restored and modified.

Christina O by day and night

Messalonghi is important in recent Greek history as a centre of resistance to Turkish rule. In the early 19^th century the Turks attacked the town and 7,000 citizens escaped through a gate in the walls and fled into the hills. Unfortunately they encountered some Albanian mercenaries working for the Turks and were ruthlessly slaughtered.

Here my brother Charles joins us having flown in from Scotland for our final cruise aboard Envoy back to the marina.

Charles by gate through which 7,000 people passed before their slaughter

19th century hospital now a tourist spot

We cruise to Ormos Antissamos on Cephalonia Island and during the night there's a lot of distant thunder and lightning but no problem for us. Next day we head to Kalo Limani where it's very calm until midnight, but then another thunderstorm starts and continues non-stop until dawn with some very heavy rain but without the violent winds that normally accompany these storms. Charles wonders what he's got himself into having come here for some great Med late summer weather.

Next day we motor to nearby Ay Eufemia to find it's been severely flood-damaged by the heavy rain and the sea is brown to several hundred metres offshore. As we approach the harbour we're warned not to enter because of the large amount of driftwood floating around so we anchor outside and take the dinghy in. Many shops have been flooded and the locals are busy cleaning up and trying to get the thick mud off the roads and footpaths.

A very muddy Ay Eufemia harbour

And equally muddy footpaths

Next day we cruise to Ormos Vlikkho on Lefkada Island. Our anchor isn't free-falling very well indicating the windlass needs greasing, so we strip the above deck components and give it a good grease – then it's all good. We spend a few days here basically just filling in time before we go to the marina and doing wintering preparation.

There are hundreds of dinner plate sized jellyfish in Ormos Vlikkho

Ormos Vlikkho is a bit of a boat graveyard as you can see in following images

On Monday 7^th October the forecast is for strong winds and “destructive thunderstorms” so we decide to go into Lefkada marina a couple of days early. On the way in we refuel for the only time this year (our new boat won't be quite so economical!) putting in 1,690 litres plus the Stanadyne fuel stabiliser that we use.

Next posting – our final days aboard Envoy.