We now have only five weeks cruising left before we go back into Marmaris marina for the winter. Quite suddenly about two weeks ago the temperature dropped to low 20s day time, and high teens at night. Checking the log for 2007 I see that the same timing happened then. The days are getting shorter, and the sea temp has dropped to 22d, but we’re still swimming every day. We had a couple of showery days in late September, but none since. Many of the tavernas are now shut for winter, and the remaining ones will close by end of October, to open 1 May.
After Don & Kerrin left, we spent a few days anchored off Dalyankoy before heading further north. I found a water tap ashore and took seven empty 30L drums ashore to fill. Believe me this is !*&?#% hard work (read “jolly” hard), as 30L weighs 30kg. I loaded the drums aboard Envoy, and started to siphon water into one of our tanks when shock horror – the water tasted salty (I get a taste when I stat sucking the water through the siphon). All the effort was wasted, and I’d filled 7 drums with salt water, so I had to empty them all and find a new source of water the next day in Dalyan harbour. Lesson: always taste the water first.
After leaving Dalyankoy we went to the small quaint village of Ildir, previously Greek until all Greeks were relocated in 1922. Most of the really attractive Turkish villages are where Greeks once lived. There are still a lot of fish farms around the area, and a lot of people line fishing from small boats.
We cruised up, and across the top of the Karaburun Peninsula to Eskifoca in the Gulf of Izmir. We had a NE wind up to 30 knots with short breaking seas up to 2m on our port bow throwing up considerable spray, but we were nice and dry in the pilothouse listening to music, and drinking tea as we caught up with our emails.
When we arrived off Eskifoca a Coastguard helicopter buzzed us again, just like a few weeks ago. This one called us on VHF 16 and asked us “what we were towing in the water”. We explained about our stabilizers and the CG seemed happy, but about 15 minutes later a CG RIB approached us. As we headed to our anchorage they circled us and took some video camera footage. After our anchor was down they came alongside and two officers came aboard. They were perfectly friendly, and after I explained about our stabilizers, and raised one of the birds from the water for them to see they happily departed.
Eskifoca is a great spot; it has a Genoese castle, and like Ildir narrow cobbled lanes and many architectural remnants of the former Greek residents. It’s also a military town with a major Commando training centre for the “blue berets”, and immediately behind Ildir is some rugged hill country the army uses for assault training. All day and into the night you can hear small arms fire as the soldiers do their target practice.
We couldn’t find a water supply on the quayside – the taps were all locked, so I asked a fisherman about water. He couldn’t speak English but went off to find someone who could (sort of). I explained that I wanted to bring some containers ashore and get 300L of water, and they wanted to charge me L50 – about $50. The price for bulk water is about $0.50 per tonne, and this was my first experience of a Turk trying to overcharge. They were friendly, and I offered L5 before we agreed on L20 – still a rip off, but what’s twenty bucks to replenish your water supply. They were baiting a 300 hook long-line, and said on average they land about 5kg of fish per setting of the line. Back home we’d be disappointed with a catch like that on our 20 hook long-line. Envoy has intermittently towed a lure around, and had a couple of strikes but nothing caught so far.
We cruised south down the Gulf of Izmir. Parts of the Gulf are a military zone and a warship was patrolling around two islands which boats are not allowed to approach.
We anchored in a sheltered bay called Gerence Koyu, and this time we didn’t have our paravanes out. Small fishing boats passed close to us, and gave us friendly waves as they came in and out of the bay. About two hours later a Coastguard RIB came into the bay, circled us taking photos, returned our wave, and then roared off. Envoy must be the most photographed boat in Turkey.
There are very few cruising boats around, and in the last couple of weeks we’ve only seen three yachts.
Amy arrives next Thursday, and we plan to cruise south back to Dalyan to meet her. From here back to Marmaris the route is all south and east, so we’ll be heading into slightly warmer weather with the wind and seas behind us.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 185
Engine hours and distance this trip: 273hrs, 1,280NM
Technical: Again nothing much to report, in fact since leaving Marmaris 1 June we’ve only had one major issue – the gearbox. When we get back to Marmaris we have to get the HRO watermaker and the Naiad hydraulic stabilizers working again. I’ve checked with the service guys, and the parts will be there.
We now lift our smaller RIB out of the water suspended against our stern using the boom winch. This RIB only weighs about 50kg all up, so there’s no strain on the boom or winch, and it’s a big advantage to keep the RIB out of the water overnight and when cruising as opposed to lifting it onto the foredeck. Our friends Steve & Jane Wilson arrive in a couple of weeks, and Steve’s an engineer so I’ll get his help working out whether it’s safe to lift our larger (350kg) RIB out the same way.
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Cruising north up the west coast of Turkey
Well our big news since the last update is that on 13/9 we had a call from our son John with the great news that he and Alice, his girlfriend of three years, have become engaged. They are working on a superyacht called Imagine on the East Coast USA, and plan to continue that for the time being. We first met Alice in 2007, and many times since. She is really super, and Di and I are over the moon with this news.
We’ve been heading north up Turkey’s west coast. One small remote bay we stopped at for a night was Port St Paul. There is nothing there except a sheltered anchorage, but the apostle St Paul stopped over here about two thousand years ago, giving his oarsmen a rest as they rowed north against the prevailing Meltemi. Just north of Port St Paul we passed through the Samos Strait, where the distance between the Greek island of Samos and the Turkish mainland is under a mile.
As we neared the coastal town of Sigacek we pulled into a sheltered bay to retrieve our stabilizer birds. Just as we lifted one using our block and tackle a military helicopter passed overhead. It must have seen us lifting something out of the water and got very curious, hovering about 100m away close to sea level for about 20 minutes watching us. We think they might have suspected us of lifting relics off the sea bed. We thought a Coastguard vessel might turn up, but when the helo went off that was the last we heard.
Sigacik has a marina but the area outside the harbour is very sheltered and we anchored there. This brings me to the subject of marina prices – they have increased enormously, and to the point that they are now a blatant rip-off. For a boat of Envoy’s size a typical casual rate is about Euro 80 per night plus water and power. That’s about NZ$140 per night. Consequently we avoid marinas and look for good anchorages - which are free.
Some towns have harbours where a visiting boat can moor, these used to be next to no cost, but now charge about Lire 50 per night (about $45). When you stay at a marina for a long period of the course the rate reduces dramatically.
Don & Kerrin arrived 18/9 in very good shape after their non-stop trip from Auckland, and the final leg of their journey was a RIB trip from the Sigacik wharf to Envoy.
Sigasik is an interesting small town with a large part of it contained within the walls of (yet another) medieval castle. Nearby are the ruins of the ancient Ionoan city of Teos, with the highlight being the remains of a temple erected for our favourite Greek God; Dionysus – the God of Wine. That reminds me – Don & Kerrin very kindly brought over two bottles of NZ white wine. The Greeks have been making wine for 3,000 years, but they don’t seem to have learned as much as NZ winemakers have learned in the 40 years wine has been popular in NZ.
Within the walls of Sigasik there was a market, and we had a traditional Turkish lunch of Gozlemes – similar to pancakes - for a very reasonable price of Lire 14 in total.
We had decided to visit the Greek Island of Chios for a day by ferry, and needing a safe place to leave Envoy headed for Dalyankoy. On the way we experienced a bit of rough water when we headed for a couple of hours directly into some very short, steep 1.5-2m breaking waves. One larger wave broke over Envoy’s bow (2.3m above sea level), and swept across the foredeck.
We anchored off Dalyankoy harbour, and all went ashore to try to organize a berth for Envoy. We needed to find the Harbourmaster, so we stopped at the Coastguard jetty and asked them. They couldn’t speak much English but invited us ashore for a cup of tea, and a few minutes later the Harbourmaster arrived. We arranged a berth for Lire 50 per night including power and water, and as common with berths like this, we were berthed right by a restaurant – diners literally 5m from our cockpit.
From here we were able to get a dolmus (bus) to the nearby port town of Cesme, interesting because of its mix of architecture, and because there are few tourists there.
Here is some input from Di.
On Don and Kerrin’s last day with us we decided to go to the Greek Island of Chios. This involved a 45min ferry ride from Cesme, where we bought the tickets the previous day, departing at 10am and returning 5pm. We turned up at 9am, strolled through customs and had a lovely trip across with a full ferry of people. When we arrived we wondered why everybody was in such a hurry to get off until we discovered there was only one customs officer to check and stamp our passports for the whole ferry! One hour later we finally got through and went to find the car rental place. With our limited time we decided to concentrate on three places that Lonely Planet had recommended in the southern part of the island. The village of Pyrgi had been described as one of the most extraordinary villages of the whole of Greece. What makes it unique are the building facades decorated with intricate grey and white designs, and fascinated, we wandered around the narrow, labyrinth streets to the main square beside the 12th century church, and had lunch. We then moved onto the 14th century village of Mesta, completely enclosed by massive fortified walls, and where entrance was through one of five gates. This was for protection against pirates and marauders. Fortunately they still let us in, and we walked through narrow cobbled streets with bare stone houses and archways that hadn’t changed since the 14th century. It was absolutely amazing to see people still going about their everyday life in such a setting. This area was (and is) famous for the production of mastic from mastic trees. A major use of mastic was the production of chewing gum. In 1822 the Turks massacred most of the population of Chios, but left the villages producing mastic alone as the Turkish Sultan and his concubines didn’t want to interrupt the supply of chewing gum.
We then drove through the centre of the island to the Nea Moni, an 11th century World Heritage monastery. In 1822 it was set on fire by the Turks and the skulls of the massacred monks are still on display in the chapel! As we were running out of time we made a hasty trip back down to the port and ferry. It had been a great day and a wonderful way to finish Don and Kerrin’s time with us.
We had a farewell dinner with Don & Kerrin on 25/9, and late evening there was a shower for the first time since early May. Since then we’ve had several slight showers and overcast days.
For the last few days we’ve anchored near Dalyankoy while we re-supply, and make some future cruising plans.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 178
Engine hours and distance this trip: 253hrs, 1,210NM
Technical: Nothing much to report, and that’s the way we like it!
I’ve changed the filter on our Racor filter based diesel pumping system as the vacuum gauge was getting up over 24 bar (should be about 20).
I had to do some more work on the anchor light as even after changing the bulb it was intermittently going off & on. In fact the bulb was not the problem, but the spring loaded +ve & -ve pins on the light fitting have got weaker, and not making constant contact with the terminals on the bulb. I soldered some extra length on the bulb terminals to make a more positive contact, and all now OK.
While in Dalyankoy I had a reminder that it’s necessary to monitor on-board power usage against power available from the shore. I was running our fridge/freezer and hot water heater at the same time when the 2-pin 220v plug melted. In retrospect I think the power available was only about 10amps and I was trying to draw about 20.
Di was cleaning our loo, and the brush broke in half with one half disappearing down the loo. I unbolted the toilet from the deck, and fortunately found that the macerator pump body has an inspection cover. It was a simple matter to remove the brush from there.
We’ve been heading north up Turkey’s west coast. One small remote bay we stopped at for a night was Port St Paul. There is nothing there except a sheltered anchorage, but the apostle St Paul stopped over here about two thousand years ago, giving his oarsmen a rest as they rowed north against the prevailing Meltemi. Just north of Port St Paul we passed through the Samos Strait, where the distance between the Greek island of Samos and the Turkish mainland is under a mile.
As we neared the coastal town of Sigacek we pulled into a sheltered bay to retrieve our stabilizer birds. Just as we lifted one using our block and tackle a military helicopter passed overhead. It must have seen us lifting something out of the water and got very curious, hovering about 100m away close to sea level for about 20 minutes watching us. We think they might have suspected us of lifting relics off the sea bed. We thought a Coastguard vessel might turn up, but when the helo went off that was the last we heard.
Sigacik has a marina but the area outside the harbour is very sheltered and we anchored there. This brings me to the subject of marina prices – they have increased enormously, and to the point that they are now a blatant rip-off. For a boat of Envoy’s size a typical casual rate is about Euro 80 per night plus water and power. That’s about NZ$140 per night. Consequently we avoid marinas and look for good anchorages - which are free.
Some towns have harbours where a visiting boat can moor, these used to be next to no cost, but now charge about Lire 50 per night (about $45). When you stay at a marina for a long period of the course the rate reduces dramatically.
Don & Kerrin arrived 18/9 in very good shape after their non-stop trip from Auckland, and the final leg of their journey was a RIB trip from the Sigacik wharf to Envoy.
Sigasik is an interesting small town with a large part of it contained within the walls of (yet another) medieval castle. Nearby are the ruins of the ancient Ionoan city of Teos, with the highlight being the remains of a temple erected for our favourite Greek God; Dionysus – the God of Wine. That reminds me – Don & Kerrin very kindly brought over two bottles of NZ white wine. The Greeks have been making wine for 3,000 years, but they don’t seem to have learned as much as NZ winemakers have learned in the 40 years wine has been popular in NZ.
Within the walls of Sigasik there was a market, and we had a traditional Turkish lunch of Gozlemes – similar to pancakes - for a very reasonable price of Lire 14 in total.
We had decided to visit the Greek Island of Chios for a day by ferry, and needing a safe place to leave Envoy headed for Dalyankoy. On the way we experienced a bit of rough water when we headed for a couple of hours directly into some very short, steep 1.5-2m breaking waves. One larger wave broke over Envoy’s bow (2.3m above sea level), and swept across the foredeck.
We anchored off Dalyankoy harbour, and all went ashore to try to organize a berth for Envoy. We needed to find the Harbourmaster, so we stopped at the Coastguard jetty and asked them. They couldn’t speak much English but invited us ashore for a cup of tea, and a few minutes later the Harbourmaster arrived. We arranged a berth for Lire 50 per night including power and water, and as common with berths like this, we were berthed right by a restaurant – diners literally 5m from our cockpit.
From here we were able to get a dolmus (bus) to the nearby port town of Cesme, interesting because of its mix of architecture, and because there are few tourists there.
Here is some input from Di.
On Don and Kerrin’s last day with us we decided to go to the Greek Island of Chios. This involved a 45min ferry ride from Cesme, where we bought the tickets the previous day, departing at 10am and returning 5pm. We turned up at 9am, strolled through customs and had a lovely trip across with a full ferry of people. When we arrived we wondered why everybody was in such a hurry to get off until we discovered there was only one customs officer to check and stamp our passports for the whole ferry! One hour later we finally got through and went to find the car rental place. With our limited time we decided to concentrate on three places that Lonely Planet had recommended in the southern part of the island. The village of Pyrgi had been described as one of the most extraordinary villages of the whole of Greece. What makes it unique are the building facades decorated with intricate grey and white designs, and fascinated, we wandered around the narrow, labyrinth streets to the main square beside the 12th century church, and had lunch. We then moved onto the 14th century village of Mesta, completely enclosed by massive fortified walls, and where entrance was through one of five gates. This was for protection against pirates and marauders. Fortunately they still let us in, and we walked through narrow cobbled streets with bare stone houses and archways that hadn’t changed since the 14th century. It was absolutely amazing to see people still going about their everyday life in such a setting. This area was (and is) famous for the production of mastic from mastic trees. A major use of mastic was the production of chewing gum. In 1822 the Turks massacred most of the population of Chios, but left the villages producing mastic alone as the Turkish Sultan and his concubines didn’t want to interrupt the supply of chewing gum.
We then drove through the centre of the island to the Nea Moni, an 11th century World Heritage monastery. In 1822 it was set on fire by the Turks and the skulls of the massacred monks are still on display in the chapel! As we were running out of time we made a hasty trip back down to the port and ferry. It had been a great day and a wonderful way to finish Don and Kerrin’s time with us.
We had a farewell dinner with Don & Kerrin on 25/9, and late evening there was a shower for the first time since early May. Since then we’ve had several slight showers and overcast days.
For the last few days we’ve anchored near Dalyankoy while we re-supply, and make some future cruising plans.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 178
Engine hours and distance this trip: 253hrs, 1,210NM
Technical: Nothing much to report, and that’s the way we like it!
I’ve changed the filter on our Racor filter based diesel pumping system as the vacuum gauge was getting up over 24 bar (should be about 20).
I had to do some more work on the anchor light as even after changing the bulb it was intermittently going off & on. In fact the bulb was not the problem, but the spring loaded +ve & -ve pins on the light fitting have got weaker, and not making constant contact with the terminals on the bulb. I soldered some extra length on the bulb terminals to make a more positive contact, and all now OK.
While in Dalyankoy I had a reminder that it’s necessary to monitor on-board power usage against power available from the shore. I was running our fridge/freezer and hot water heater at the same time when the 2-pin 220v plug melted. In retrospect I think the power available was only about 10amps and I was trying to draw about 20.
Di was cleaning our loo, and the brush broke in half with one half disappearing down the loo. I unbolted the toilet from the deck, and fortunately found that the macerator pump body has an inspection cover. It was a simple matter to remove the brush from there.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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Monday, September 13, 2010
Envoy has cruised over 1,000NM since 1 June, and now back in Turkey
Since leaving Marmaris 1 June, and cruising to Rhodos, Karpathos, Crete, Santorini, Astipalaia, Kalimnos, and Bodrum in Turkey we’ve now logged over 1,000NM.
We cleared out of Greek waters on 2 September at the island of Kalimnos. This involved first visiting the Coastguard to get our Transit Log stamped, then going by taxi to the Police Station to have our passports stamped, then back to the Coastguard to show our passports, then to the Port Office to pay 5 Euro, and finally back to the Coastguard to get our departure form. As you can imagine, you have to allow a little time for this. The Coastguard office and the Police Station looked like something out of an old movie set, being very dilapidated buildings with shabby paint, old furniture, and jumbled electrical wiring on the walls. No computers were to be seen, and everything was written down using carbon paper to make copies, but all the officials were friendly and helpful.
In Kalimnos we also got some more water using our 30 litre drums. We are always on the scrounge for water, and only need two drums per day. There’s plenty of water available if you go into a port, but that’s generally a hassle. You not only have to pay the port fees, but also for the water. So we take the drums in our dinghy, and find a free source. Sometimes there are grocery stores on the wharf, and we buy some supplies and ask for water from their hose – never a problem. The water here is mostly not suitable for drinking, and we go through about three 1.5L bottles per day for drinking, making tea (most important), and cooking.
Clearing in to Turkey requires an agent nowadays – a change since our last visit. So we cruised the short 20NM distance from Kalimnos to Bodrum, anchored off the marina beneath the Crusader’s castle, and went ashore to find an agent. This was no problem, and two hours later, and Euro 185 poorer we were cleared in. Now Envoy can stay fairly indefinitely in Turkey, but Di & I can only stay 90 days. That means in early December we’ll need to get a ferry from Marmaris to Rhodos for the day, then re-enter Turkey.
After the barren Greek islands, it was great to see the greenness of Turkey again.
We went to see Vodafone to buy more internet air-time for our USB. For some reason the USB stick wouldn’t work on Di’s laptop (although it was fine when we left Turkey), so we went to Turkcell, which is their equivalent of Telecom, and bought another USB stick, and that works fine. This now gives us the security of two sources of internet access. Although phones are fairly straight forward here, it seems to be a constant hassle getting internet access, and we need to do more research on this. Would be good to have a system where you could get economical internet access wherever you are without having to change USBs and SIM cards, and having to go to Vodafone, Turkcell etc to buy more time.
Since Bodrum we’ve cruised north covering some new territory. One interesting place is Kazili Iskelisi in the Gulf of Korfezi. This is an estuary, not unlike the Mahurangi; very calm and not many people around. In fact there was only one yacht there plus some fishing boats, then seven charter yachts came in, but all went together on one restaurant jetty. In the last couple of weeks we’ve only been in one bay where there was more than one other boat overnight. In some bays the local “gullets” come in with day-trippers, but they’re all gone by 1800 hours.
In this area there are many large fish farms. Some cruisers complain that the farms take up too many anchorages, but you’ve got to look at it from the Turks’ point of view; the fish farms provide food and lots of employment.
We have been surprised by the level of development of holiday resorts and hotels along the coast, and have seen dozens of them, many quite large and usually consisting of 100 or so identical villas set back from the beach. In many cases it seems that little thought was given to style, or to landscaping around the developments and some of them are ugly concrete boxes, and blots on the landscape. Considering the population of Turkey is 75m, with a growing standard of living, they’ve gotta holiday somewhere.
As I complete this we’re anchored off a new and very flash marina at Altinkum, and during the next four days we’re cruising about 60NM further north to Cigasik to meet Don & Kerrin, flying into Izmir on 18th.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 161
Engine hours and distance this trip: 220hrs, 1,060NM
Technical: Again I’m pleased to say no major issues.
In Bodrum the Vacuflush guest toilet was fixed by their local service agent. The pump needed rebuilding, but this took only a couple of hours, and it’s now working fine again, and holding vacuum. Toilets are a regular problem on boats, and I can remember many years ago when Frank Curulli was so enraged by constant toilet problems on his boat that he ripped it out, and threw it into the Motuihe Channel before replacing it with a more reliable unit.
A few days ago the temperature alarm on the Yanmar wing engine sounded. I stopped the engine, and found the sea water strainer had some weed in it, but I was not sure if there was sufficient weed to stop the water flow. After clearing this weed out, and restarting the engine there was still no water coming out of the exhaust. I thought the water pump impellor was probably damaged from running dry for the time it took for the engine to overheat and sound the alarm. The Yanmar’s water pump is very hard to access (because it’s low on the rear of the engine, and there’s not much space between the bulkhead and the engine), and the impellor has to be replaced by feel – a bit beyond me. Fortunately there are Yanmar service agents nearly everywhere, and we had it fixed by a guy, Savas, who does only Yanmar engines based at Didim Marina, Altinkum. Even he said the pump was difficult to access. It turned out the pump itself had worn out (nothing to do with any weed in the strainer). The pump’s vee-belt pulley is held on a keyway to the water pump drive shaft. It was the keyway which had failed, so the pulley was not driving the pump.
As often mentioned we have considerable spare parts aboard, wait for it - including a brand new complete Yanmar water pump. This was fitted and all fine, the failed pump is being rebuilt to become the new spare.
I changed the Lugger’s oil at 200 engine hours. This is quite easy on Envoy, as we have an oil-change pumping system connected to each engine via a manifold. You simply remove the old oil filter, open the valve on the manifold to connect with the engine you want to change, start the pump, and then pump the oil out into an empty drum. Normally the new oil is then pumped back out of a 20L drum, but this time I couldn’t buy a 20Ldrum, so had to pour in 20 x one litre packs manually. Then you fit the new oil filter, and all done.
We’ve now used the last of the diesel from 2007, and are running on new fuel bought in Rhodos in June. Because we’re not doing huge distances I’m not keeping the tanks full; firstly there’s no point in carrying the weight, and secondly it’s best to have fresh fuel. We have four tanks, each holding about 940L, for a total of 3,773L. I like to always have some fuel sloshing around in each tank to keep the inside of the iron tanks coated with diesel, but today we were down to about 1,000L, so bought another 1,200L to give us 2,200L -about 275 hours, or two months running. Cost here is TL 3.01 per litre – a little under NZ$3.00 litre.
This trip we’ve been more conscious of Envoy’s cosmetic care. Keeping on top of this requires only a little time, but regularity is the key. The most important thing is to always wash the salt off with fresh water. Salt soon puts rust stains on stainless steel, and on the topsides gelcoat the salt attracts dirt. It also deteriorates the varnish. A wash down sometimes needs doing daily if we’ve been through heavy spray, or sometimes every few days. There’s a great product called “Miracle Cloth” made by Seafit, USA. After removing salt from the stainless, we let it dry, and then use the Miracle Cloth to quickly bring up the stainless like new. It also leaves a slight trace of waxy coating which gives some protection - highly recommended!
We cleared out of Greek waters on 2 September at the island of Kalimnos. This involved first visiting the Coastguard to get our Transit Log stamped, then going by taxi to the Police Station to have our passports stamped, then back to the Coastguard to show our passports, then to the Port Office to pay 5 Euro, and finally back to the Coastguard to get our departure form. As you can imagine, you have to allow a little time for this. The Coastguard office and the Police Station looked like something out of an old movie set, being very dilapidated buildings with shabby paint, old furniture, and jumbled electrical wiring on the walls. No computers were to be seen, and everything was written down using carbon paper to make copies, but all the officials were friendly and helpful.
In Kalimnos we also got some more water using our 30 litre drums. We are always on the scrounge for water, and only need two drums per day. There’s plenty of water available if you go into a port, but that’s generally a hassle. You not only have to pay the port fees, but also for the water. So we take the drums in our dinghy, and find a free source. Sometimes there are grocery stores on the wharf, and we buy some supplies and ask for water from their hose – never a problem. The water here is mostly not suitable for drinking, and we go through about three 1.5L bottles per day for drinking, making tea (most important), and cooking.
Clearing in to Turkey requires an agent nowadays – a change since our last visit. So we cruised the short 20NM distance from Kalimnos to Bodrum, anchored off the marina beneath the Crusader’s castle, and went ashore to find an agent. This was no problem, and two hours later, and Euro 185 poorer we were cleared in. Now Envoy can stay fairly indefinitely in Turkey, but Di & I can only stay 90 days. That means in early December we’ll need to get a ferry from Marmaris to Rhodos for the day, then re-enter Turkey.
After the barren Greek islands, it was great to see the greenness of Turkey again.
We went to see Vodafone to buy more internet air-time for our USB. For some reason the USB stick wouldn’t work on Di’s laptop (although it was fine when we left Turkey), so we went to Turkcell, which is their equivalent of Telecom, and bought another USB stick, and that works fine. This now gives us the security of two sources of internet access. Although phones are fairly straight forward here, it seems to be a constant hassle getting internet access, and we need to do more research on this. Would be good to have a system where you could get economical internet access wherever you are without having to change USBs and SIM cards, and having to go to Vodafone, Turkcell etc to buy more time.
Since Bodrum we’ve cruised north covering some new territory. One interesting place is Kazili Iskelisi in the Gulf of Korfezi. This is an estuary, not unlike the Mahurangi; very calm and not many people around. In fact there was only one yacht there plus some fishing boats, then seven charter yachts came in, but all went together on one restaurant jetty. In the last couple of weeks we’ve only been in one bay where there was more than one other boat overnight. In some bays the local “gullets” come in with day-trippers, but they’re all gone by 1800 hours.
In this area there are many large fish farms. Some cruisers complain that the farms take up too many anchorages, but you’ve got to look at it from the Turks’ point of view; the fish farms provide food and lots of employment.
We have been surprised by the level of development of holiday resorts and hotels along the coast, and have seen dozens of them, many quite large and usually consisting of 100 or so identical villas set back from the beach. In many cases it seems that little thought was given to style, or to landscaping around the developments and some of them are ugly concrete boxes, and blots on the landscape. Considering the population of Turkey is 75m, with a growing standard of living, they’ve gotta holiday somewhere.
As I complete this we’re anchored off a new and very flash marina at Altinkum, and during the next four days we’re cruising about 60NM further north to Cigasik to meet Don & Kerrin, flying into Izmir on 18th.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 161
Engine hours and distance this trip: 220hrs, 1,060NM
Technical: Again I’m pleased to say no major issues.
In Bodrum the Vacuflush guest toilet was fixed by their local service agent. The pump needed rebuilding, but this took only a couple of hours, and it’s now working fine again, and holding vacuum. Toilets are a regular problem on boats, and I can remember many years ago when Frank Curulli was so enraged by constant toilet problems on his boat that he ripped it out, and threw it into the Motuihe Channel before replacing it with a more reliable unit.
A few days ago the temperature alarm on the Yanmar wing engine sounded. I stopped the engine, and found the sea water strainer had some weed in it, but I was not sure if there was sufficient weed to stop the water flow. After clearing this weed out, and restarting the engine there was still no water coming out of the exhaust. I thought the water pump impellor was probably damaged from running dry for the time it took for the engine to overheat and sound the alarm. The Yanmar’s water pump is very hard to access (because it’s low on the rear of the engine, and there’s not much space between the bulkhead and the engine), and the impellor has to be replaced by feel – a bit beyond me. Fortunately there are Yanmar service agents nearly everywhere, and we had it fixed by a guy, Savas, who does only Yanmar engines based at Didim Marina, Altinkum. Even he said the pump was difficult to access. It turned out the pump itself had worn out (nothing to do with any weed in the strainer). The pump’s vee-belt pulley is held on a keyway to the water pump drive shaft. It was the keyway which had failed, so the pulley was not driving the pump.
As often mentioned we have considerable spare parts aboard, wait for it - including a brand new complete Yanmar water pump. This was fitted and all fine, the failed pump is being rebuilt to become the new spare.
I changed the Lugger’s oil at 200 engine hours. This is quite easy on Envoy, as we have an oil-change pumping system connected to each engine via a manifold. You simply remove the old oil filter, open the valve on the manifold to connect with the engine you want to change, start the pump, and then pump the oil out into an empty drum. Normally the new oil is then pumped back out of a 20L drum, but this time I couldn’t buy a 20Ldrum, so had to pour in 20 x one litre packs manually. Then you fit the new oil filter, and all done.
We’ve now used the last of the diesel from 2007, and are running on new fuel bought in Rhodos in June. Because we’re not doing huge distances I’m not keeping the tanks full; firstly there’s no point in carrying the weight, and secondly it’s best to have fresh fuel. We have four tanks, each holding about 940L, for a total of 3,773L. I like to always have some fuel sloshing around in each tank to keep the inside of the iron tanks coated with diesel, but today we were down to about 1,000L, so bought another 1,200L to give us 2,200L -about 275 hours, or two months running. Cost here is TL 3.01 per litre – a little under NZ$3.00 litre.
This trip we’ve been more conscious of Envoy’s cosmetic care. Keeping on top of this requires only a little time, but regularity is the key. The most important thing is to always wash the salt off with fresh water. Salt soon puts rust stains on stainless steel, and on the topsides gelcoat the salt attracts dirt. It also deteriorates the varnish. A wash down sometimes needs doing daily if we’ve been through heavy spray, or sometimes every few days. There’s a great product called “Miracle Cloth” made by Seafit, USA. After removing salt from the stainless, we let it dry, and then use the Miracle Cloth to quickly bring up the stainless like new. It also leaves a slight trace of waxy coating which gives some protection - highly recommended!
Friday, September 10, 2010
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Wednesday, September 01, 2010
Last days in Greek waters
We left our Dia Is anchorage, six NM north of Crete, at 0400hrs to make our 12 hour passage to Santorini with plenty of daylight left. This is always a good idea when arriving in an unfamiliar location, so that you have plenty of time to find a good anchorage or berth. The gale had only subsided two days previously, and the seas were about 1.5m, occasionally 2m, but short and steep giving quite a different ride to the waters of the Hauraki Gulf. I just about s..t myself when a larger wave rolled us more heavily to starboard, and our port stabilizer bird launched itself out of the water into the air, and flew like a delta-winged jet for a few metres until it plunged back into the sea (see Technical). During the trip we only saw one cruising vessel, although two huge catamaran ferries roared passed us.
Santorini is a romantic, mysterious and hugely impressive island. In 1440 BC it was the scene of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history, when the entire centre of the island, comprising some 30 cubic km blew into the sky, leaving a crater some 6NM long and 4NM wide, which filled with seawater to form the present cliff-lined Caldera. This eruption caused a series of Tsunamis estimated up to 100m high, which devastated Crete, 60NM away, and destroyed the Minoan civilization. Some postulate that Santorini is the lost island of Atlantis, and it is the island on which Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea is based.
Santorini has notoriously poor shelter for visiting yachts, and the Cruising Guide recommends leaving your boat in the marina at nearby Ios Is, and catching a ferry across. The Caldera is mostly too deep to anchor, and the marina on the south side of the island is too shallow for larger vessels. However an Australian friend told us that a Captain Yiannis had moorings available below the village of Oia, provided that you ate in his restaurant.
We cruised into the Caldera marveling at the size of an eruption that could cause such a crater, and headed to the bay below Oia. Nosing up to the jetty we couldn’t find Captain Yiannis, but asked some locals if we could use a mooring. One said yes and waved us in the direction of empty moorings; we thought he was indicating to take any one of those. So we picked one up, and were about to celebrate our arrival when a small boat roared towards us, and the occupant told us very rudely that we weren’t allowed to stay there. He ignored our question about which mooring was OK, so we headed away across the Caldera to O Ay Nikolau. Again we nosed up to a jetty, and a local pointed out a large mooring to us, and said we could use it. We had no sooner picked up its line when a 25m charter yacht’s skipper told us we’d have to move, but he was polite and helpful, and said he’d only be using it for 40 minutes, and then we could use it overnight. So an hour later we were finally attached with a long line to this 2m diameter, square-shaped, rusty mooring buoy. This would have been the happy ending, except that during the night the wind dropped totally, and Envoy drifted forward and scraped her gelcoat on both sides on the mooring buoy. These will be easily repaired out of the water in Marmaris, but is another lesson learned!
The next day Di rowed Doug & Mary ashore to Captain Yiannis’s wharf so they could walk up to visit Oia, and Di managed to find Captain Yiannis. He was very friendly, said New Zealanders are always welcome and directed us to a mooring. Half an hour later a yacht pulled up alongside, and its very p’d off Captain told us this was his mooring, and he wanted to use it. We told him Captain Yiannis had put us there, and this made him even more p’d off. He eventually calmed down and pointed out another mooring we could use, so we moved. Ten minutes later Captain Yiannis appeared in a small boat, and said we couldn’t stay on that mooring, then roared off. Di rowed ashore again (it was too deep to anchor) and found a very different Captain Yiannis, who now very rudely said there were no moorings available at all. What a saga! By now we’d had enough of moorings and decided to anchor off a beach on the south side of Santorini. We found a delightful bay called Akrotiri with clear water, and anchored in 7m. Ashore were some very picturesque tavernas, and a road with regular buses to Fira and Oia. We should have come here first..
We met Doug & Mary in Oia, and after a wander around the quaint cobblestone alleyways got a table in a restaurant overlooking the Caldera with a perfect view of the sunset. Oia is supposed to have one of the world’s greatest sunsets, and there were hundreds of tourists and backpackers selecting vantage points to see it. Our restaurant was a very comfortable spot with bubbly for Mary & Di, and beers for Doug & I. There is no doubt the Caldera is amazing and spectacular, and that the atmosphere of the whole sunset thing was great, but the sunset itself was a bit disappointing. There is so much haze that when the sun drops low you can’t actually see the horizon itself, and the sun disappears into the haze before it drops over the horizon. Auckland’s west coast is more spectacular for the actual sunset.
Around Santorini there was a noticeable increase in the number of cruising yachts as well as several superyachts.
The next day we explored Fira, had a farewell lunch, and then Doug & Mary flew to Athens after 18 days with us. Each and every visitor we have contributes to our enjoyment of this experience. Doug & Mary are a wonderful couple, and they’ve been an absolute pleasure to have as guests. We’re missing Mary’s infectious laughter, and their great sense of fun.
When you are cruising a couple of days in Santorini is sufficient. It’s quite crowded, and very much caters to the tourist with endless shops and restaurants – all very good, but not the “real Greece”. If you’re staying in a hotel for a holiday it would be a great place to chill out and enjoy.
We left Santorini on Saturday for an eight hour cruise to Astipalaia. During a relatively calm passage we saw only one yacht, and despite the fact Astipalia is one of the most sheltered anchorages in the Aegean there were only about six other cruisers in this island group similar in size to the Mercurys.
The weather has been amazing; the last rain we had was late April. Most days there are very few clouds, and the typical temperature has been 29-32dC. We’ve had the odd day as high as 37dC. The sea water temperature varies between 26-28dC. Most days there is little or no wind to start, then the wind builds to about 12-15 knots, and then dies in the evening. We have had some days with winds in the mid 20 knots.
We are now on the eastern side of Kalimnos Is, and can see Turkey in the distance.
In Greece they have the Schengen Treaty, under which New Zealanders are allowed to stay only for 90 days in any calendar year and then must leave. This does seem crazy when Greece is basically broke, and can use all the visitors’ spending money they can get. Our 90 days expires on 3 September so we’re “clearing out” of Kalimnos, and will then “clear in” to Turkey at Bodrum. Then we’re going to cruise up Turkey’s west coast towards Izmir to met Don & Kerrin Waterer on 18 September.
In late October we also meet Steve & Jane Wilson somewhere near Izmir, and then our last visitor Chris O’Brien meets us in Bodrum 1 November, and will cruise down to Marmaris with us, arriving 15 November.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 149
Engine hours and distance this trip: 192hrs, 937NM
Technical: No major issues. Improved charging system running very well – thanks Doug.
While in Bodrum I’m going to change the engine oil in the Lugger (required every 200hrs). We’ve also arranged to get our Vacuflush guest head serviced, as the vacuum pump keeps running all the time. Up to now we’ve solved this temporarily with a separate on/off switch on the toilet, so it’s only switched on when being used.
I had to climb up the mast to fix the anchor light. I’m not good on heights, but waited for a calm day. Turned out to be just a loose bulb, and easily fixed. For the few days we had no anchor light I removed the bulbs from the port and starboard navigation lights and used the masthead and stern lights as a temporary all round white anchor light.
The prop shaft sealings seem to have settled down and allow about the right amount of seawater through to cool the shaft. I check it regularly with my infra-red pyrometer and it’s running at about 32dC – about 6dC above the ambient seawater temp, so this is fine.
I have good quality shaft sealings on board now if any problems arise.
Our stabilizer “birds” – the steel plates which suspend 5m under water – have adjustments. At the front of the bird is a weighted section to make the bird want to dive deeper. A chain connects the bird to the stabilizer paravane. The further aft on the bird you connect the chain, the deeper the bird wants to dive, and the more effective it becomes, but the more it slows Envoy down. As a result of a bird flying out of the water I have adjusted the connections so the birds dive deeper.
Santorini is a romantic, mysterious and hugely impressive island. In 1440 BC it was the scene of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history, when the entire centre of the island, comprising some 30 cubic km blew into the sky, leaving a crater some 6NM long and 4NM wide, which filled with seawater to form the present cliff-lined Caldera. This eruption caused a series of Tsunamis estimated up to 100m high, which devastated Crete, 60NM away, and destroyed the Minoan civilization. Some postulate that Santorini is the lost island of Atlantis, and it is the island on which Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea is based.
Santorini has notoriously poor shelter for visiting yachts, and the Cruising Guide recommends leaving your boat in the marina at nearby Ios Is, and catching a ferry across. The Caldera is mostly too deep to anchor, and the marina on the south side of the island is too shallow for larger vessels. However an Australian friend told us that a Captain Yiannis had moorings available below the village of Oia, provided that you ate in his restaurant.
We cruised into the Caldera marveling at the size of an eruption that could cause such a crater, and headed to the bay below Oia. Nosing up to the jetty we couldn’t find Captain Yiannis, but asked some locals if we could use a mooring. One said yes and waved us in the direction of empty moorings; we thought he was indicating to take any one of those. So we picked one up, and were about to celebrate our arrival when a small boat roared towards us, and the occupant told us very rudely that we weren’t allowed to stay there. He ignored our question about which mooring was OK, so we headed away across the Caldera to O Ay Nikolau. Again we nosed up to a jetty, and a local pointed out a large mooring to us, and said we could use it. We had no sooner picked up its line when a 25m charter yacht’s skipper told us we’d have to move, but he was polite and helpful, and said he’d only be using it for 40 minutes, and then we could use it overnight. So an hour later we were finally attached with a long line to this 2m diameter, square-shaped, rusty mooring buoy. This would have been the happy ending, except that during the night the wind dropped totally, and Envoy drifted forward and scraped her gelcoat on both sides on the mooring buoy. These will be easily repaired out of the water in Marmaris, but is another lesson learned!
The next day Di rowed Doug & Mary ashore to Captain Yiannis’s wharf so they could walk up to visit Oia, and Di managed to find Captain Yiannis. He was very friendly, said New Zealanders are always welcome and directed us to a mooring. Half an hour later a yacht pulled up alongside, and its very p’d off Captain told us this was his mooring, and he wanted to use it. We told him Captain Yiannis had put us there, and this made him even more p’d off. He eventually calmed down and pointed out another mooring we could use, so we moved. Ten minutes later Captain Yiannis appeared in a small boat, and said we couldn’t stay on that mooring, then roared off. Di rowed ashore again (it was too deep to anchor) and found a very different Captain Yiannis, who now very rudely said there were no moorings available at all. What a saga! By now we’d had enough of moorings and decided to anchor off a beach on the south side of Santorini. We found a delightful bay called Akrotiri with clear water, and anchored in 7m. Ashore were some very picturesque tavernas, and a road with regular buses to Fira and Oia. We should have come here first..
We met Doug & Mary in Oia, and after a wander around the quaint cobblestone alleyways got a table in a restaurant overlooking the Caldera with a perfect view of the sunset. Oia is supposed to have one of the world’s greatest sunsets, and there were hundreds of tourists and backpackers selecting vantage points to see it. Our restaurant was a very comfortable spot with bubbly for Mary & Di, and beers for Doug & I. There is no doubt the Caldera is amazing and spectacular, and that the atmosphere of the whole sunset thing was great, but the sunset itself was a bit disappointing. There is so much haze that when the sun drops low you can’t actually see the horizon itself, and the sun disappears into the haze before it drops over the horizon. Auckland’s west coast is more spectacular for the actual sunset.
Around Santorini there was a noticeable increase in the number of cruising yachts as well as several superyachts.
The next day we explored Fira, had a farewell lunch, and then Doug & Mary flew to Athens after 18 days with us. Each and every visitor we have contributes to our enjoyment of this experience. Doug & Mary are a wonderful couple, and they’ve been an absolute pleasure to have as guests. We’re missing Mary’s infectious laughter, and their great sense of fun.
When you are cruising a couple of days in Santorini is sufficient. It’s quite crowded, and very much caters to the tourist with endless shops and restaurants – all very good, but not the “real Greece”. If you’re staying in a hotel for a holiday it would be a great place to chill out and enjoy.
We left Santorini on Saturday for an eight hour cruise to Astipalaia. During a relatively calm passage we saw only one yacht, and despite the fact Astipalia is one of the most sheltered anchorages in the Aegean there were only about six other cruisers in this island group similar in size to the Mercurys.
The weather has been amazing; the last rain we had was late April. Most days there are very few clouds, and the typical temperature has been 29-32dC. We’ve had the odd day as high as 37dC. The sea water temperature varies between 26-28dC. Most days there is little or no wind to start, then the wind builds to about 12-15 knots, and then dies in the evening. We have had some days with winds in the mid 20 knots.
We are now on the eastern side of Kalimnos Is, and can see Turkey in the distance.
In Greece they have the Schengen Treaty, under which New Zealanders are allowed to stay only for 90 days in any calendar year and then must leave. This does seem crazy when Greece is basically broke, and can use all the visitors’ spending money they can get. Our 90 days expires on 3 September so we’re “clearing out” of Kalimnos, and will then “clear in” to Turkey at Bodrum. Then we’re going to cruise up Turkey’s west coast towards Izmir to met Don & Kerrin Waterer on 18 September.
In late October we also meet Steve & Jane Wilson somewhere near Izmir, and then our last visitor Chris O’Brien meets us in Bodrum 1 November, and will cruise down to Marmaris with us, arriving 15 November.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 149
Engine hours and distance this trip: 192hrs, 937NM
Technical: No major issues. Improved charging system running very well – thanks Doug.
While in Bodrum I’m going to change the engine oil in the Lugger (required every 200hrs). We’ve also arranged to get our Vacuflush guest head serviced, as the vacuum pump keeps running all the time. Up to now we’ve solved this temporarily with a separate on/off switch on the toilet, so it’s only switched on when being used.
I had to climb up the mast to fix the anchor light. I’m not good on heights, but waited for a calm day. Turned out to be just a loose bulb, and easily fixed. For the few days we had no anchor light I removed the bulbs from the port and starboard navigation lights and used the masthead and stern lights as a temporary all round white anchor light.
The prop shaft sealings seem to have settled down and allow about the right amount of seawater through to cool the shaft. I check it regularly with my infra-red pyrometer and it’s running at about 32dC – about 6dC above the ambient seawater temp, so this is fine.
I have good quality shaft sealings on board now if any problems arise.
Our stabilizer “birds” – the steel plates which suspend 5m under water – have adjustments. At the front of the bird is a weighted section to make the bird want to dive deeper. A chain connects the bird to the stabilizer paravane. The further aft on the bird you connect the chain, the deeper the bird wants to dive, and the more effective it becomes, but the more it slows Envoy down. As a result of a bird flying out of the water I have adjusted the connections so the birds dive deeper.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Cruising north to Santorini
We had two great nights back at Gramvousa (photos and details in previous postings) with Mary & Doug. We missed Brian & Carol when they left Agios Nikolaos, and after several weeks by ourselves it’s great to have company once again. Doug & I snorkeled around the shipwreck, and with the water temperature at 28d stayed in the water for ages, although the sea life is not as interesting as the Hauraki Gulf. From Gramvousa we went back to Soudha, and ran into Dave & Lindy from “Raconteur”, who we met in 2007, and in Marmaris earlier this year. They told us the manager of Maramaris marina has been shot dead during a dispute with a car park security guard, who pulled his gun and shot him five times. Must have been quite a heated argument!
Rethimno was great, not unlike Chania except they don’t have the noisy discos. Rethimno has an ancient harbour – filled with tour boats and local fishing boats, ringed with tavernas, and dominated by the 16th century Venetian Fortressa.
Here we left Envoy alongside the quay for a couple of days while we did some further touring in the mountains by rental car to give Doug & Mary a taste of “real Crete”.
In earlier blogs I mentioned the strong winds. Well they dropped from late July to mostly 8-15 knots from the north, and we had some glassy calm days. However while in Rethimno a gale warning was issued (the first one since we arrived), and we got three days of about 30 knots NW. Not really a gale, but it kicked up quite a sea, with waves crashing against the harbour breakwater throwing up plumes of spray. On the nearby beach there was quite a reasonable surf of about 1.5m, so Doug & I grabbed some fins and went bodysurfing. Not for long though – when we were about 50m offshore enjoying the waves the lifeguards blew their whistles, and signaled us to come to shore, where they gave us a telling-off, and said swimmers were not allowed to go out more than waist deep in “these rough conditions”. I wonder what they would make of Piha.
As I write this we’re half way through a 12 hour passage to Santorini. We have a 15-18kn NW wind with 1.5m seas on our port bow, and although there is some pitching, the “birds” stop most of the rolling. Several dolphins swam alongside us a few minutes ago to wish us good luck. Most of our cruising so far has been westwards, and now north, so mostly into the prevailing north westerlies. As we head back towards Turkish waters it will be good to be pointing east for the next few weeks, and have the wind and seas behind us.
Di & I have been doing some forward planning. We go back into Marmaris marina for the winter on 15 November, then on 19 December fly to London, where we’re going to spend Xmas with Amy. John & Alice may join us, but we’re not sure yet. During this time we’ll also catch up with my brother Charles, and Marie. We then fly back to Auckland on 2 January, and stay until mid-April, when we’ll return to Marmaris.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 142
Engine hours and distance this trip: 156hrs, 760NM
Technical: Currently no major issues, but I’m going into a bit of detail here for the benefit of people who’ve cruised aboard Envoy.
As mentioned in the last posting Doug is an electrician, and a very practical guy, and we’ve been doing a few jobs together – that means Doug doing the jobs, and me making cups of tea for him!
The forward facing loud-hailer on the Portuguese Bridge has been removed – I always considered this a nuisance, as most people have to duck below it when walking in front of the pilothouse.
The engine room lights have been improved so that the CCTV gives clearer pictures, and we can now see the two sets of Lugger vee-belts on our screen.
Doug considered that the charging voltage from the Lugger (main engine) alternator was too low as displayed on the digital voltmeter. It was showing about 12.8v with the engine running, and should be about 14v. Actually Frank told me the same thing in 2007 – I should have taken more notice Frank! So Doug did a series of tests on the Balmar alternator, wiring loom, and Balmar ARS 4 regulator, and discovered the regulator was faulty. This sounds easy, but took most of a day as you go through a logical step-by-step process. The wing engine has the same regulator, and that tested out OK so we interchanged the two regulators, and the Lugger’s charging voltage is now above 14v. In fact this doesn’t affect the charging performance of the wing engine, because the wing generates 110v AC, which in turn powers a battery charger. It’s not clear what the real purpose of the wing engine’s alternator is. I have now ordered a new regulator to be installed on the Lugger, and we’ll put the replaced one back on the wing engine.
We have a small issue that the Lugger and the Genset occasionally don’t start first turn of the starter. This has been the case for some time, even back in 2007. As they always start second or third try, it’s not a major issue, and if it becomes one, we can parallel the battery banks to start either engine. It doesn’t seem to be battery-related, and we have checked the battery connections and isolating switches. It may be a problem with wiring to the ignition or sticking solenoids. I’m going to resolve this one back in Marmaris.
Brian & Carol – you’ll be pleased to know we’ve improved the fridge door closure. Not only is it more secure, but 2-3d colder.
Rethimno was great, not unlike Chania except they don’t have the noisy discos. Rethimno has an ancient harbour – filled with tour boats and local fishing boats, ringed with tavernas, and dominated by the 16th century Venetian Fortressa.
Here we left Envoy alongside the quay for a couple of days while we did some further touring in the mountains by rental car to give Doug & Mary a taste of “real Crete”.
In earlier blogs I mentioned the strong winds. Well they dropped from late July to mostly 8-15 knots from the north, and we had some glassy calm days. However while in Rethimno a gale warning was issued (the first one since we arrived), and we got three days of about 30 knots NW. Not really a gale, but it kicked up quite a sea, with waves crashing against the harbour breakwater throwing up plumes of spray. On the nearby beach there was quite a reasonable surf of about 1.5m, so Doug & I grabbed some fins and went bodysurfing. Not for long though – when we were about 50m offshore enjoying the waves the lifeguards blew their whistles, and signaled us to come to shore, where they gave us a telling-off, and said swimmers were not allowed to go out more than waist deep in “these rough conditions”. I wonder what they would make of Piha.
As I write this we’re half way through a 12 hour passage to Santorini. We have a 15-18kn NW wind with 1.5m seas on our port bow, and although there is some pitching, the “birds” stop most of the rolling. Several dolphins swam alongside us a few minutes ago to wish us good luck. Most of our cruising so far has been westwards, and now north, so mostly into the prevailing north westerlies. As we head back towards Turkish waters it will be good to be pointing east for the next few weeks, and have the wind and seas behind us.
Di & I have been doing some forward planning. We go back into Marmaris marina for the winter on 15 November, then on 19 December fly to London, where we’re going to spend Xmas with Amy. John & Alice may join us, but we’re not sure yet. During this time we’ll also catch up with my brother Charles, and Marie. We then fly back to Auckland on 2 January, and stay until mid-April, when we’ll return to Marmaris.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 142
Engine hours and distance this trip: 156hrs, 760NM
Technical: Currently no major issues, but I’m going into a bit of detail here for the benefit of people who’ve cruised aboard Envoy.
As mentioned in the last posting Doug is an electrician, and a very practical guy, and we’ve been doing a few jobs together – that means Doug doing the jobs, and me making cups of tea for him!
The forward facing loud-hailer on the Portuguese Bridge has been removed – I always considered this a nuisance, as most people have to duck below it when walking in front of the pilothouse.
The engine room lights have been improved so that the CCTV gives clearer pictures, and we can now see the two sets of Lugger vee-belts on our screen.
Doug considered that the charging voltage from the Lugger (main engine) alternator was too low as displayed on the digital voltmeter. It was showing about 12.8v with the engine running, and should be about 14v. Actually Frank told me the same thing in 2007 – I should have taken more notice Frank! So Doug did a series of tests on the Balmar alternator, wiring loom, and Balmar ARS 4 regulator, and discovered the regulator was faulty. This sounds easy, but took most of a day as you go through a logical step-by-step process. The wing engine has the same regulator, and that tested out OK so we interchanged the two regulators, and the Lugger’s charging voltage is now above 14v. In fact this doesn’t affect the charging performance of the wing engine, because the wing generates 110v AC, which in turn powers a battery charger. It’s not clear what the real purpose of the wing engine’s alternator is. I have now ordered a new regulator to be installed on the Lugger, and we’ll put the replaced one back on the wing engine.
We have a small issue that the Lugger and the Genset occasionally don’t start first turn of the starter. This has been the case for some time, even back in 2007. As they always start second or third try, it’s not a major issue, and if it becomes one, we can parallel the battery banks to start either engine. It doesn’t seem to be battery-related, and we have checked the battery connections and isolating switches. It may be a problem with wiring to the ignition or sticking solenoids. I’m going to resolve this one back in Marmaris.
Brian & Carol – you’ll be pleased to know we’ve improved the fridge door closure. Not only is it more secure, but 2-3d colder.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
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Monday, August 16, 2010
Chania area
Chania is a great town with very quaint narrow streets and the ever present reminders of the Venetian fortress which once protected the harbour. Much of the fortress walls remain, and many more recent buildings are built into them. We were moored Med-style (i.e. stern-to) at the town quay. It was cheap here – Euro 150 for eight days – but also very noisy, as we had two tavernas within 20m of our stern. These tavernas started playing loud music about 2300hrs, which didn’t stop until 0400hrs. We slept using our engine room ear muffs to keep out most of the noise. The pedestrian traffic was huge after about 1900hrs, and we felt like goldfish in a bowl as passers-by peered down into Envoy, cockpit and salon. We visited the extremely interesting Maritime Museum. They have a large photo of the harbour entrance taken during a storm in 2008 showing 5 metre breaking waves crashing across the entrance. The locals told us such conditions are rare, and only occur in winter (thank goodness).
We hired a rental car for two days and drove into the mountains, and to the south coast. To me the mountain villages are the “real Crete”, and many have changed hardly at all for decades. In many places the roads are too narrow for oncoming cars to pass, and one has to back up. At other times the roads are blocked by herds of goats, and you have to patiently let them pass. Fortunately the traffic is very light, as most people flock to the beaches on the coast.
We visited the German War Cemetry at Maleme. The cemetery is located at the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the Battle of Crete. This is Hill 107 overlooking the airport, and held by New Zealanders. They were decimating the German paratroopers on the airfield below until German aircraft arrived and wiped out most of the Kiwis. The cemetery is well designed and maintained, containing the remains of 4,460 young German men, disinterred from about 60 graveyards around Crete to be finally laid to rest in one location. It is typical of the generosity of the Cretans, that despite the appalling atrocities of the Germans to civilians during their occupation, they donated the land for the cemetery. The Cretans did of course fight very fiercely, and bravely against the German occupiers, eventually forcing them to retreat to the town of Canea, where they remained until the surrender.
Last Monday our friends Doug & Mary Gooch arrived. Doug & Mary are the parents of one of John’s closest friends – Bevin. We had two great nights in Chania and then left for some cruising. Doug is a bit prone to sea sickness, and was feeling a bit seedy on the first day. I’m not sure how much of that was due to the sea, and how much to the inevitable festivities on arriving aboard Envoy. Mary gave Doug a pill, but he wasn’t getting any better. She then discovered she had given him a pill for diarrhea, not sea sickness! At least our guest head will be getting a rest for a while.
As I type this we’re heading back to Gramvousa. With Doug & Mary we’ll cover several places we’ve already been to, then head to the picturesque harbour of Rethimno, before crossing 75NM north east to Santorini.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 129
Engine hours and distance this trip: 127hrs, 616NM
Technical: Pleased to say nothing much to report. With Doug being an electrician, boatie and excellent technically we’ve been doing some checks and small maintenance jobs. We’re also checking the Lugger’s charging system (Balmar alternator and regulator), as it seems a bit light on charge voltage – this is work in progress.
Our smaller 2.7m Arimar RIB was in a sad way. The wooden transom had parted from the vinyl, air leaked out of the tubes, and water leaked into the boat. It was going to cost Euro 800 to get repaired, so we decided to buy a new one. Availability is limited here, but we opted for a Portuguese-built Valiant 2.7m rigid hull inflatable. This is now on board and great. It’s useful to have a second, smaller RIB as our 3.7m Nautica RIB with a 25hp Yamaha, weighing about 350kg can only be launched and retrieved from the boat deck in very calm conditions using the boom winch; in the event of an emergency we might not be able to launch it.
We hired a rental car for two days and drove into the mountains, and to the south coast. To me the mountain villages are the “real Crete”, and many have changed hardly at all for decades. In many places the roads are too narrow for oncoming cars to pass, and one has to back up. At other times the roads are blocked by herds of goats, and you have to patiently let them pass. Fortunately the traffic is very light, as most people flock to the beaches on the coast.
We visited the German War Cemetry at Maleme. The cemetery is located at the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the Battle of Crete. This is Hill 107 overlooking the airport, and held by New Zealanders. They were decimating the German paratroopers on the airfield below until German aircraft arrived and wiped out most of the Kiwis. The cemetery is well designed and maintained, containing the remains of 4,460 young German men, disinterred from about 60 graveyards around Crete to be finally laid to rest in one location. It is typical of the generosity of the Cretans, that despite the appalling atrocities of the Germans to civilians during their occupation, they donated the land for the cemetery. The Cretans did of course fight very fiercely, and bravely against the German occupiers, eventually forcing them to retreat to the town of Canea, where they remained until the surrender.
Last Monday our friends Doug & Mary Gooch arrived. Doug & Mary are the parents of one of John’s closest friends – Bevin. We had two great nights in Chania and then left for some cruising. Doug is a bit prone to sea sickness, and was feeling a bit seedy on the first day. I’m not sure how much of that was due to the sea, and how much to the inevitable festivities on arriving aboard Envoy. Mary gave Doug a pill, but he wasn’t getting any better. She then discovered she had given him a pill for diarrhea, not sea sickness! At least our guest head will be getting a rest for a while.
As I type this we’re heading back to Gramvousa. With Doug & Mary we’ll cover several places we’ve already been to, then head to the picturesque harbour of Rethimno, before crossing 75NM north east to Santorini.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 129
Engine hours and distance this trip: 127hrs, 616NM
Technical: Pleased to say nothing much to report. With Doug being an electrician, boatie and excellent technically we’ve been doing some checks and small maintenance jobs. We’re also checking the Lugger’s charging system (Balmar alternator and regulator), as it seems a bit light on charge voltage – this is work in progress.
Our smaller 2.7m Arimar RIB was in a sad way. The wooden transom had parted from the vinyl, air leaked out of the tubes, and water leaked into the boat. It was going to cost Euro 800 to get repaired, so we decided to buy a new one. Availability is limited here, but we opted for a Portuguese-built Valiant 2.7m rigid hull inflatable. This is now on board and great. It’s useful to have a second, smaller RIB as our 3.7m Nautica RIB with a 25hp Yamaha, weighing about 350kg can only be launched and retrieved from the boat deck in very calm conditions using the boom winch; in the event of an emergency we might not be able to launch it.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
NW coast of Crete
Kissamos was a nice little town – not touristy, and we anchored inside the harbour wavebreak. I used the dinghy to top up our water supply from a free tap ashore using our 30 litre water containers. At 0400 the next morning we heard a very loud rumbling sound. I went up on deck and saw a huge ferry, about 90m long, berthing nearby. The loud rumbling was the ferry’s engines and thrusters. It’s amazing here how such large ferrys berth in quite small harbours.
We cruised around the most westerly point of Crete’s north coast to the island of Gramvousa. This is a spectacular area and the island has a couple of bays on its south side, making it reasonably sheltered from the prevailing NW-N winds. Crowning the island are the ruins of a huge Venetian fortress built in 1579. This fortress is triangular in shape, with each side 1km long. It was the last Cretan stronghold to fall to the Turks in 1692, having been held for three years by 3,000 Cretans. In the early 19th century the area became a haven for pirates until an Anglo/French expedition rooted them out in 1828. Why can’t we do the same to the Somalis today?
On rocks separating the two bays is the wreck of a steel ship, about 40m long. Most of the parts are still recognisable, and a sombre reminder of what can happen at sea.
We spent two nights there, and from mid-morning to late afternoon ferries brought day- trippers to the island, but after the last of the ferries left it was very peaceful, with only a fishing boat and runabout moored in the bay, and a few campers ashore.
Gramvousa is as far west as we’re heading this year, and the furthest distance from Marmaris. The whole time we’ve been heading west from Rhodes, and then along Crete’s north coast the wind has been NW or W. We thought from now on we’re going to have the wind behind us or on Envoy’s port quarter, which does make more pleasant cruising. Guess what! When we left Gramvousa to head east back to Kolimbari we had our first NE wind, albeit quite light.
When we’re cruising we mostly leave our paravane arms in the down position, and if we’re in the open sea we have the stabilizing fins deployed, as it’s much easier to launch these when it’s calm, using a block and tackle that Kevin O’Sullivan & I set up back in ’07. When we anchor we either leave the stabilizers in the water, or replace them with our flopper-stoppers, which are more effective at reducing roll when Envoy is stationary.
During this passage we watched the All Blacks play the Wallabies using our Vodafone USB plug-in for internet access, and a site Di found called www.watchliverugby.com. If this proves to be reliable it may save us having to invest in satellite TV to watch the World Cup next year.
We spent a further couple of nights around Kolimbari and then came into the delightful Chania harbour, which we’ll cover in our next posting.
I do harp on about how few boats we’ve seen. Since leaving Agios Nikolaos marina we spent 21 nights anchored at some of the most sheltered and beautiful locations in NE Crete. Out of those nights we had 17 with no other boats in the bay, or in sight. The most crowded was a night when we had a runabout, a yacht and a fishing boat in the same bay. As we sit in Chania harbour there is only one British yacht and two local motor yachts here. Where are all the cruisers?
This 21 nights gave us a good opportunity to monitor our water usage, averaging 44 litres/day. This means that with Di & I aboard we have about 34 days’ supply, while we expect to have about 15 day’s supply with guests aboard – but then we have more hands to help replenish water!
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 122
Engine hours and distance this trip: 120hrs, 584NM
Technical: No real issues. We now have from Piraeus the correct stuffing gasket material for our prop shaft. Our smaller Arimar RIB is away getting repaired, or may have to be replaced.
We cruised around the most westerly point of Crete’s north coast to the island of Gramvousa. This is a spectacular area and the island has a couple of bays on its south side, making it reasonably sheltered from the prevailing NW-N winds. Crowning the island are the ruins of a huge Venetian fortress built in 1579. This fortress is triangular in shape, with each side 1km long. It was the last Cretan stronghold to fall to the Turks in 1692, having been held for three years by 3,000 Cretans. In the early 19th century the area became a haven for pirates until an Anglo/French expedition rooted them out in 1828. Why can’t we do the same to the Somalis today?
On rocks separating the two bays is the wreck of a steel ship, about 40m long. Most of the parts are still recognisable, and a sombre reminder of what can happen at sea.
We spent two nights there, and from mid-morning to late afternoon ferries brought day- trippers to the island, but after the last of the ferries left it was very peaceful, with only a fishing boat and runabout moored in the bay, and a few campers ashore.
Gramvousa is as far west as we’re heading this year, and the furthest distance from Marmaris. The whole time we’ve been heading west from Rhodes, and then along Crete’s north coast the wind has been NW or W. We thought from now on we’re going to have the wind behind us or on Envoy’s port quarter, which does make more pleasant cruising. Guess what! When we left Gramvousa to head east back to Kolimbari we had our first NE wind, albeit quite light.
When we’re cruising we mostly leave our paravane arms in the down position, and if we’re in the open sea we have the stabilizing fins deployed, as it’s much easier to launch these when it’s calm, using a block and tackle that Kevin O’Sullivan & I set up back in ’07. When we anchor we either leave the stabilizers in the water, or replace them with our flopper-stoppers, which are more effective at reducing roll when Envoy is stationary.
During this passage we watched the All Blacks play the Wallabies using our Vodafone USB plug-in for internet access, and a site Di found called www.watchliverugby.com. If this proves to be reliable it may save us having to invest in satellite TV to watch the World Cup next year.
We spent a further couple of nights around Kolimbari and then came into the delightful Chania harbour, which we’ll cover in our next posting.
I do harp on about how few boats we’ve seen. Since leaving Agios Nikolaos marina we spent 21 nights anchored at some of the most sheltered and beautiful locations in NE Crete. Out of those nights we had 17 with no other boats in the bay, or in sight. The most crowded was a night when we had a runabout, a yacht and a fishing boat in the same bay. As we sit in Chania harbour there is only one British yacht and two local motor yachts here. Where are all the cruisers?
This 21 nights gave us a good opportunity to monitor our water usage, averaging 44 litres/day. This means that with Di & I aboard we have about 34 days’ supply, while we expect to have about 15 day’s supply with guests aboard – but then we have more hands to help replenish water!
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 122
Engine hours and distance this trip: 120hrs, 584NM
Technical: No real issues. We now have from Piraeus the correct stuffing gasket material for our prop shaft. Our smaller Arimar RIB is away getting repaired, or may have to be replaced.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Envoy nearly at western end of Crete
It was so great at Ormos Milati that we stayed there for seven nights - I think this is the longest we’ve ever left the anchor down anywhere. We always wanted to arrive at some nice place, and stay there without feeling we had to rack up the miles and move on; well Ormos Milati was just one of those places. We anchored in eight metres and could see the anchor. It was very sheltered, although we mostly had a wind of 15-25 knots that kicked up a bit of chop, so we kept the flopper stoppers on. Actually the breeze is good, as it keeps us a bit cool in the 30-34d temp. We’ve had no rain at all since leaving Marmaris on 1 June, but the wind is always with us. Incredibly there were no other boats anchored there the whole time we were there, in fact that’s been the case pretty much everywhere, and surprising considering this is now mid-season. Imagine going to Kawau or Waiheke in Dec/Jan, and finding no boats there. Consequently we haven’t met any other cruisers at all. There was water on a jetty, where we filled up on average 60l/day, and tavernas ashore. We spent one night in Soudha bay itself. This is a deep and beautiful harbour, and a NATO base. There were about 13 warships berthed there. In WW2 many allied ships were sunk here by German aircraft. Here also where 446 Kiwis, who were killed during the battle of Crete, are buried – see photo. It was very sad reading the gravestones of the mostly 20-30 year olds, although we did see a Private J A Jamieson, aged 44. We found this significant, as one of late closest family friends – Trevor Jamieson fought very bravely in Crete, was captured and escaped several times. Annette – is J.A.J. any relation to you? It was nice to see the cemetery maintained to a very high standard by the Allied War Graves Commission.
In the last posting I mentioned we would be meeting Kostis. Well we did and he had very interesting stories about the war years, together with cruising information for heading further west. He also insisted on buying the drinks.
We anchored off a village called Kolimvari for a couple of nights. There it was only 4m deep, again very clear with a beautiful sandy bottom. At these villages we always go ashore to have a look around, buy some fresh bread and yoghurt, and sometimes have a drink in a taverna.
As I write this we en route to Kissamos for a couple of nights. The visibility has now improved, and we can see about 25NM.
We’re going to spend until next Monday cruising around this area, then go into Chania marina. Chania is supposedly the most beautiful town in Crete, and we’re going to have a good look around, and rent a car to see more of Crete’s interior. There we meet Doug and Mary Gooch on 9/8, who are staying with us for a couple of weeks until we drop them at Santorini, about 75NM to the NE. As we can only remain in Greek waters for 90 days, at that point we’ll be heading east towards the Turkish coast again.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 114
Engine hours and distance this trip: 106hrs, 520NM
Technical: We’ve now done about 40 hours on the repaired gearbox and all’s fine. Envoy’s prop shaft has a traditional stuffing box to prevent sea water entering the boat through the shaft. You are supposed to have a little water coming in – about 1 drop per 10 seconds – to keep the shaft lubricated. In the stuffing box are seals impregnated with Teflon to keep the water out. I’ve been finding the Teflon is exuding out of the seal down the shaft, and it’s difficult to get the pressure in the stuffing box adjusted correctly to regulate the drip. Panagiotis suggested replacing the Teflon with silicone impregnated seals, and I think I’ll do that in Chania.
Our smaller RIB has developed an air leak, and deflates within a day, so we’ll try to get that repaired in Chania too.
In the last posting I mentioned we would be meeting Kostis. Well we did and he had very interesting stories about the war years, together with cruising information for heading further west. He also insisted on buying the drinks.
We anchored off a village called Kolimvari for a couple of nights. There it was only 4m deep, again very clear with a beautiful sandy bottom. At these villages we always go ashore to have a look around, buy some fresh bread and yoghurt, and sometimes have a drink in a taverna.
As I write this we en route to Kissamos for a couple of nights. The visibility has now improved, and we can see about 25NM.
We’re going to spend until next Monday cruising around this area, then go into Chania marina. Chania is supposedly the most beautiful town in Crete, and we’re going to have a good look around, and rent a car to see more of Crete’s interior. There we meet Doug and Mary Gooch on 9/8, who are staying with us for a couple of weeks until we drop them at Santorini, about 75NM to the NE. As we can only remain in Greek waters for 90 days, at that point we’ll be heading east towards the Turkish coast again.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 114
Engine hours and distance this trip: 106hrs, 520NM
Technical: We’ve now done about 40 hours on the repaired gearbox and all’s fine. Envoy’s prop shaft has a traditional stuffing box to prevent sea water entering the boat through the shaft. You are supposed to have a little water coming in – about 1 drop per 10 seconds – to keep the shaft lubricated. In the stuffing box are seals impregnated with Teflon to keep the water out. I’ve been finding the Teflon is exuding out of the seal down the shaft, and it’s difficult to get the pressure in the stuffing box adjusted correctly to regulate the drip. Panagiotis suggested replacing the Teflon with silicone impregnated seals, and I think I’ll do that in Chania.
Our smaller RIB has developed an air leak, and deflates within a day, so we’ll try to get that repaired in Chania too.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Cruising west
When cruising, or in fact doing any traveling, you meet some great and interesting people. Since our return to the Med we’ve met a number of people from our 2007 trip and still keep in touch with others. In Agios Nikolaos we met a charming Scottish couple; Alan and Ann McIlravie who live on their boat “Sula Mac”. Alan and Ann have the temporary use of a friend’s car and kindly took us sight-seeing around some of the inland Cretan villages (some of the photos on the last posting were taken there). Coincidentally they are coming to New Zealand for a holiday in February, and we’ve arranged to catch up.
We left Agios Nikolaos as planned on Tuesday 13, and spent the night anchored in the lagoon beneath the fortress at Spinalonga. Once the last of the day-tripper boats departed we had the place all to ourselves. In fact there are hardly any cruising boats around, we only see the occasional fishing boat. It was amazing to sit at anchor only 50m from the fortress and think of its violent past – both the 16th century battleground of Christians and Muslims and later, the forced settlement of Greek lepers.
The next day was an eight hour trip to the island of Nisis Dhia. The visibility here in Crete is very hazy (maybe some ash from the Iceland eruption?). As I was writing this we were only three miles offshore, but any detail was difficult to pick out through the haze using binoculars. Although N Dhia is several hundred feet high, it only emerged through the haze when we were 13NM away – nothing like our Hauraki Gulf where we see Great Barrier Island from over 50NM. N Dhia is correctly described as “bleak”. There are four bays on the south side, sheltered from the predominant NW wind. We cruised through the first three with our paravanes still out, and saw several fishing boats moored before anchoring in the nicer fourth bay, and soon afterwards a Coastguard launch roared towards us. It came close and stopped while the crew studied us for a while, and then roared off again. We think one of the fishing boats thought we were towing fishing nets, and reported us to the Coastguard.
Our next stop was a small town of Ormos Bali. The Cruising Guide says there’s “a bit of a roll here”, and it’s not wrong. Although there was little wind we had about a 1m swell coming into the bay, so to be comfortable we put out our “flopper stoppers”, and used a stern anchor to keep us lined up with the swell.
There are very few areas to anchor on Crete’s north coast offering good shelter, because the “Meltemi” wind is consistently from the NW or N generating a 1-2m swell. It’s a bit like anchoring off Waiheke in 20kn of northerly. Only in the winter does the wind turn south, opening up dozens of additional coves where a boat could safely anchor. The coast is roughly 140NM from east to west, but there are only about six marinas and five good anchorages along its entire length. There are many more very small, shallow sheltered areas suitable for use by small craft, but not for visiting cruising boats.
On Saturday we arrived in a beautiful bay called Ormos Milati, protected from all except easterlies, and although this is one of the best anchorages on the coast we’re the only boat anchored here, and plan to stay here for a few days. Ashore are excellent clear, sandy beaches although in typical Greek and Turkish style they are covered completely with deck chairs. Some of the tavernas have loud music playing, spoiling the tranquility, which is one of the nice aspects of going to the beach.
As usual Envoy is attracting a lot of attention with her distinct and unusual appearance, paravanes out, and flopper-stoppers gently rising and falling. Many people in small craft, and even people swimming come up to us to talk and ask questions. Yesterday we met Constantine, Costas for short, who was intrigued by the boat, so we invited him aboard for a look around. He has a beach house ashore and has invited us for drinks tonight. This is one of the areas where very heavy fighting took place during WW2, and Costas’s father was a well-known partisan leader. I hope we’ll hear more about that tonight.
Ormos Milati is on the NE side of a four-mile long inlet running east-west. Further up the inlet is a NATO naval base and the town of Soudha – probably our next destination. There is also a military airfield nearby, and we get jet fighters roaring over our heads.
One of the very nice things about the Med is being able to dine outside in the very atmospheric tavernas. Unlike New Zealand there is no rain during the summer, and the temperature is still warm enough after dark to enjoy eating in the open. After they close for the night all the furniture is just left out, without the need for security – we imagine in New Zealand it would soon disappear.
Water management without the water maker is working fine, and with just the two of us aboard we only use about 50L/day, including use of the washing machine about every 3-4 days.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 105
Engine hours and distance this trip: 93Hrs / 448NM
Technical: All OK (for once!) The paravane stabilizers have been working well, and even in 2m beam seas our tea doesn’t spill.
When we came back aboard Envoy the four diesel tanks contained a total of about 1,380L – about 36% full. All of the fuel had conditioner added when we left in early 2008. In Rhodes we bought a further 1,000L (at Euro 1.348/L or about NZ$2.40/L) bringing us up to about 60% capacity. We’re using the old fuel first, and still have about 600L to go. For the distance we’re likely to cover this year (of maybe 1,200NM?) there’s no point in carrying a full load.
We left Agios Nikolaos as planned on Tuesday 13, and spent the night anchored in the lagoon beneath the fortress at Spinalonga. Once the last of the day-tripper boats departed we had the place all to ourselves. In fact there are hardly any cruising boats around, we only see the occasional fishing boat. It was amazing to sit at anchor only 50m from the fortress and think of its violent past – both the 16th century battleground of Christians and Muslims and later, the forced settlement of Greek lepers.
The next day was an eight hour trip to the island of Nisis Dhia. The visibility here in Crete is very hazy (maybe some ash from the Iceland eruption?). As I was writing this we were only three miles offshore, but any detail was difficult to pick out through the haze using binoculars. Although N Dhia is several hundred feet high, it only emerged through the haze when we were 13NM away – nothing like our Hauraki Gulf where we see Great Barrier Island from over 50NM. N Dhia is correctly described as “bleak”. There are four bays on the south side, sheltered from the predominant NW wind. We cruised through the first three with our paravanes still out, and saw several fishing boats moored before anchoring in the nicer fourth bay, and soon afterwards a Coastguard launch roared towards us. It came close and stopped while the crew studied us for a while, and then roared off again. We think one of the fishing boats thought we were towing fishing nets, and reported us to the Coastguard.
Our next stop was a small town of Ormos Bali. The Cruising Guide says there’s “a bit of a roll here”, and it’s not wrong. Although there was little wind we had about a 1m swell coming into the bay, so to be comfortable we put out our “flopper stoppers”, and used a stern anchor to keep us lined up with the swell.
There are very few areas to anchor on Crete’s north coast offering good shelter, because the “Meltemi” wind is consistently from the NW or N generating a 1-2m swell. It’s a bit like anchoring off Waiheke in 20kn of northerly. Only in the winter does the wind turn south, opening up dozens of additional coves where a boat could safely anchor. The coast is roughly 140NM from east to west, but there are only about six marinas and five good anchorages along its entire length. There are many more very small, shallow sheltered areas suitable for use by small craft, but not for visiting cruising boats.
On Saturday we arrived in a beautiful bay called Ormos Milati, protected from all except easterlies, and although this is one of the best anchorages on the coast we’re the only boat anchored here, and plan to stay here for a few days. Ashore are excellent clear, sandy beaches although in typical Greek and Turkish style they are covered completely with deck chairs. Some of the tavernas have loud music playing, spoiling the tranquility, which is one of the nice aspects of going to the beach.
As usual Envoy is attracting a lot of attention with her distinct and unusual appearance, paravanes out, and flopper-stoppers gently rising and falling. Many people in small craft, and even people swimming come up to us to talk and ask questions. Yesterday we met Constantine, Costas for short, who was intrigued by the boat, so we invited him aboard for a look around. He has a beach house ashore and has invited us for drinks tonight. This is one of the areas where very heavy fighting took place during WW2, and Costas’s father was a well-known partisan leader. I hope we’ll hear more about that tonight.
Ormos Milati is on the NE side of a four-mile long inlet running east-west. Further up the inlet is a NATO naval base and the town of Soudha – probably our next destination. There is also a military airfield nearby, and we get jet fighters roaring over our heads.
One of the very nice things about the Med is being able to dine outside in the very atmospheric tavernas. Unlike New Zealand there is no rain during the summer, and the temperature is still warm enough after dark to enjoy eating in the open. After they close for the night all the furniture is just left out, without the need for security – we imagine in New Zealand it would soon disappear.
Water management without the water maker is working fine, and with just the two of us aboard we only use about 50L/day, including use of the washing machine about every 3-4 days.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 105
Engine hours and distance this trip: 93Hrs / 448NM
Technical: All OK (for once!) The paravane stabilizers have been working well, and even in 2m beam seas our tea doesn’t spill.
When we came back aboard Envoy the four diesel tanks contained a total of about 1,380L – about 36% full. All of the fuel had conditioner added when we left in early 2008. In Rhodes we bought a further 1,000L (at Euro 1.348/L or about NZ$2.40/L) bringing us up to about 60% capacity. We’re using the old fuel first, and still have about 600L to go. For the distance we’re likely to cover this year (of maybe 1,200NM?) there’s no point in carrying a full load.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
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Further impressions of Crete
Crete is a large island measuring some 260km from west to east and 50km from north to south, with three mountain ranges rising over 2,000m. The topography is extremely rugged, and there are very few major inland roads. With the many rocky ravines and caves it’s easy to see how in WW2 the Cretan partisans were able to resist the Germans so effectively. On every spare piece of land there are olive trees – over 21 million of them in fact. It’s hard to imagine how all of these trees are harvested due to their sheer number, and in many cases poor accessibility. We were told that large nets are placed under the trees, and then the branches are mechanically shaken to bring the olives down. This provides employment during the harvesting time of October to February, when the tourist numbers are down. Crete is very windy, and windmills are still used extensively to pump water from bores. There are many remains of ancient stone windmills. A modern variation of this is windfarms to generate electricity – there are many hundreds of these tall, silent wind towers around the island. The Cretan villages are exactly as you picture them – narrow winding streets, where a car has to pull over to let an oncoming car through, ancient, rustic buildings, mostly in a poor state of repair and some derelict, peeling paint in white and blue, old men with waistcoats and moustaches sitting outside small tavernas, elderly hunched-over women dressed totally in black.
There are very few tourists here Рa matter of great concern to the many taverna and caf̩ owners who still hope that August will bring the numbers to fill the arrays of empty caf̩ seats. It appears to us there are far too many tavernas, car & bike renters, and tour operators for the numbers of people.
There is not much traffic on the roads outside the main towns, but the driving is atrocious – much like Turkey. It seems that nobody is content to sit behind you, and drivers overtake on blind corners, double white lines or anywhere, forcing oncoming traffic to move over to the verge. Speed limit signs are a waste of space and there seems to be no traffic law enforcement.
They have small supermarkets and we’ve been able to buy everything we need. We found a good quaffing dry white wine called Kpaei Aeyko which is sold in bulk for Euro
1.80/litre. Better quality white and red wines cost about Euro 5-9 per 750ml bottle.
Here they have VAT, like our GST bt the level varies according to the product. Due to the tough economic times the top rate has just been increased to 23%.
We’ve now been in Agios Nikolaos since 22 June and plan to leave next Tuesday 13 July and head west along the northern coast. Sorry to hear of the bleak weather back home – must say the weather here is great; sunny, not humid, temps in high 20s to low 30s, sea is 26d. Yesterday there were a few clouds about, which we thought was a bit poor! It is windy here though – every day about 15-25kn from the NW kicking up a 1.5-2m sea in open waters – but the wind and sea should reduce as we head west.
Log
Days aboard this trip: 97
Engine hours and distance this trip: 70 hrs / 345 nm
Technical
Last Tuesday Panagiotis, the engineer from Piraeus, came back with the reconditioned pressure plate. Quite amazing that within 4 days, including a weekend, it had been sent to Piraeus (an overnight ferry trip), reconditioned and returned here. Panagiotis is a really knowledgeable guy – he was an engineer in the Royal Greek Navy for 29 years, and he’s also a real toiler. The gearbox weighs about 60kg, and when the local engineer Steve and I removed it we struggled together to carry it off Envoy to the shore. Panagiotis picked it up and carried it back on board by himself! After installation he spent some time aligning the prop shaft with the gearbox (which is attached to the engine) and found that the rear of the engine needed to drop down on it mounts quite a bit. He says this was the cause of the gearbox problem. Also three out of the four engine mounting bolts were loose. On Wednesday Di & I went for a cruise of a few hours duration and all seems OK – there is no vibration, no oil leaks and no other challenges (until the next one, but that’s boating!)
There are very few tourists here Рa matter of great concern to the many taverna and caf̩ owners who still hope that August will bring the numbers to fill the arrays of empty caf̩ seats. It appears to us there are far too many tavernas, car & bike renters, and tour operators for the numbers of people.
There is not much traffic on the roads outside the main towns, but the driving is atrocious – much like Turkey. It seems that nobody is content to sit behind you, and drivers overtake on blind corners, double white lines or anywhere, forcing oncoming traffic to move over to the verge. Speed limit signs are a waste of space and there seems to be no traffic law enforcement.
They have small supermarkets and we’ve been able to buy everything we need. We found a good quaffing dry white wine called Kpaei Aeyko which is sold in bulk for Euro
1.80/litre. Better quality white and red wines cost about Euro 5-9 per 750ml bottle.
Here they have VAT, like our GST bt the level varies according to the product. Due to the tough economic times the top rate has just been increased to 23%.
We’ve now been in Agios Nikolaos since 22 June and plan to leave next Tuesday 13 July and head west along the northern coast. Sorry to hear of the bleak weather back home – must say the weather here is great; sunny, not humid, temps in high 20s to low 30s, sea is 26d. Yesterday there were a few clouds about, which we thought was a bit poor! It is windy here though – every day about 15-25kn from the NW kicking up a 1.5-2m sea in open waters – but the wind and sea should reduce as we head west.
Log
Days aboard this trip: 97
Engine hours and distance this trip: 70 hrs / 345 nm
Technical
Last Tuesday Panagiotis, the engineer from Piraeus, came back with the reconditioned pressure plate. Quite amazing that within 4 days, including a weekend, it had been sent to Piraeus (an overnight ferry trip), reconditioned and returned here. Panagiotis is a really knowledgeable guy – he was an engineer in the Royal Greek Navy for 29 years, and he’s also a real toiler. The gearbox weighs about 60kg, and when the local engineer Steve and I removed it we struggled together to carry it off Envoy to the shore. Panagiotis picked it up and carried it back on board by himself! After installation he spent some time aligning the prop shaft with the gearbox (which is attached to the engine) and found that the rear of the engine needed to drop down on it mounts quite a bit. He says this was the cause of the gearbox problem. Also three out of the four engine mounting bolts were loose. On Wednesday Di & I went for a cruise of a few hours duration and all seems OK – there is no vibration, no oil leaks and no other challenges (until the next one, but that’s boating!)
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Agios Nikolaos
We’ve now been in this really nice marina for 12 days. The cost structure is such that after 12 days you go on to the monthly rate, so our next 18 days would be free if we stayed that long. We can’t leave yet anyway, as our gearbox is not back in (see below). We’re going to use this time to do some further inland exploration of Crete by rental car. We’ve also been enjoying the beaches and watching World Cup Soccer at the tavernas. We’re likely to resume our cruise westwards along the north coast of Crete in about a week.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 89
Engine hours and distance covered this trip: 66hrs / 329NM
Technical
The gearbox has been fixed; the oil leak was due to the prop shaft coupling and gearbox not being correctly aligned after we had a new prop shaft made and installed in Marmaris. This has caused some vibration (which I must say we didn’t notice at all) and subsequent internal problems. Today an engineer came from Piraeus to re-install the gearbox, and found that the pressure plate – goes between the gearbox and the back of the engine – is a bit rattly (the inner plate is loose against the outer plate). He said the pressure plate might only last for a few months and suggested getting this fixed or replaced while it’s readily accessible. That’s going to take another few days. Then he’s going to put everything back and ensure it’s all correctly aligned.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 89
Engine hours and distance covered this trip: 66hrs / 329NM
Technical
The gearbox has been fixed; the oil leak was due to the prop shaft coupling and gearbox not being correctly aligned after we had a new prop shaft made and installed in Marmaris. This has caused some vibration (which I must say we didn’t notice at all) and subsequent internal problems. Today an engineer came from Piraeus to re-install the gearbox, and found that the pressure plate – goes between the gearbox and the back of the engine – is a bit rattly (the inner plate is loose against the outer plate). He said the pressure plate might only last for a few months and suggested getting this fixed or replaced while it’s readily accessible. That’s going to take another few days. Then he’s going to put everything back and ensure it’s all correctly aligned.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Link to Map
Don't forget that on the bottom right hand side of this page is a link to a map showing where we've been and where we are.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
First week in Crete
We had heard Cretans are friendly, and this has proven correct. We first went ashore at the tiny village of Kato Zakros on the east coast. While Brian & I downed a Mythos beer or two in a taverna, Carol & Diane went off to buy some vegetables.
They returned with a large bag full of tomatoes, aubergines, beetroot, parsley, onions, capsicum, eggplant and carrots. They had gone to a restaurant, and asked Carmen, the waitress, where they could buy vegetables. Carmen said there was no shop in the village, but they would be happy to give us whatever vegetables we needed. Later we had dinner at this restaurant and the owner, Costas, told us that his father grew all the vegetables, tending the garden from 5am. Before the night was out they gave us an additional beer crate of vegetables and two bottles of red wine –all for free.
Costas told us that in the 1950s his father was ploughing some of his land and came across some stone slabs and ruins. This turned out to be the Minoan palace of Zakros. The Government confiscated that piece of land, and now charge the public admission to see the ruins.
Like his father, Costas was born in this tiny village, and is now raising his three children there.
We cruised NW to Sitia, where we laid alongside a rough concrete jetty.
The skipper of a neighboring British yacht told us to be careful, as the previous night someone had stolen some expensive mooring lines from his deck, including some in-use mooring lines. Local fisherman were extremely upset over this and were convinced the thieves were not from Sitia, making it very clear what they would do to any thieves they caught. We still understand that instances of theft like this are very rare and we had no problems.
There was no electrical power on the wharf, and the closest water tap was about 150m away, well beyond the reach of our hoses (although we could have lugged it using our 30L jerry cans). Brian and I found a closer tap, half submerged in muddy water, and with a broken handle. We managed to make a temporary tap handle and get our water OK.
From Sitia we went further west to the Spinalonga Lagoon, a large inlet only about 3m deep, with the entrance protected by a Venetian fortress built in 1579. When it was eventually taken by the Turks the Venetian and Genoese defenders were allowed to leave, while the local Cretan defenders were all enslaved. This island fortress later became the infamous Greek leper colony, where lepers lived and died in appalling conditions, the last one dying in 1953. Today the locals still call it “the island of the living dead”.
At anchor during dusk we noticed a snake swimming towards the boat. At first I thought I’d had one rum too many, but we all saw it approach within about 10m. There are several varieties of snake on land in this area, but we were not aware of any sea snakes. The internet advises there are no sea snakes in the Med, as it’s too salty, and that the “snake-eel” is commonly mistaken for a snake. We’re going to believe that, but it certainly damn-well looked like a snake, with its head well up out of the water.We also saw a large turtle swimming around.
The weather has been hot – in the mid to high 20s, but the wind has been exceptionally strong – most days reaching over 20 knots. As the wind is always from the NW, it puts up quite a choppy sea outside of sheltered areas.
We had decided to spend our last few days with Brian & Carol touring some of inland Crete by rental car so went to Agios Nikolaos marina where we are now. This is a good marina, with power and water, in a very picturesque location with swimming beaches nearby, along with lots of tavernas.
We spent two days driving through some of the mountain villages to the southern coast, and spent the night at a great fishing-village-turned-tourist-spot called Aghia Galini. We also visited the famous ruins of King Minos’s palace at Knossos, dating from 1700 BC. This is where the (mythical?) half man, half bull Minotaur lurked in the labyrinth, until a warrior killed it, finding his way out of the labyrinth with a ball of string. The palace, and indeed Minoan civilization, ended with the huge volcanic eruption at Santorini and the ensuing tsunami.
Times are more than a bit tough in Greece. The official unemployment rate is 12%, but probably closer to 20%. Tourist numbers are down, so tavernas, restaurants and shops are quiet. Taxes are going up and all pensions have been reduced by Euro 200 per month (about 30%). Nonetheless, the Greek people are stoic, largely cheerful and seem to think everything will be OK.
We had a wonderful time with Brian & Carol, who left on Friday. We’re now in Agios Nikolaos for the next week (see below), and will then head further west along the northern coast of Crete.
Technical
On the last day of Brian & Carol’s cruise I noticed some oil in the bilge and then found an oil leak from the Borg Warner gearbox. Fortunately it was only a short distance to our destination at Agios Nikolaos marina, and on arrival here an engineer from A1 came aboard and saw the leak. Thanks to my friend Brooke Archbold for arranging a Borg Warner gearbox expert in NZ for me to speak with – James Mobberly of Moon Engines. James was able to give us some useful advice about repairing the leak, which is being done currently while we're in such a nice place to stay. Should be under way again late next week.
They returned with a large bag full of tomatoes, aubergines, beetroot, parsley, onions, capsicum, eggplant and carrots. They had gone to a restaurant, and asked Carmen, the waitress, where they could buy vegetables. Carmen said there was no shop in the village, but they would be happy to give us whatever vegetables we needed. Later we had dinner at this restaurant and the owner, Costas, told us that his father grew all the vegetables, tending the garden from 5am. Before the night was out they gave us an additional beer crate of vegetables and two bottles of red wine –all for free.
Costas told us that in the 1950s his father was ploughing some of his land and came across some stone slabs and ruins. This turned out to be the Minoan palace of Zakros. The Government confiscated that piece of land, and now charge the public admission to see the ruins.
Like his father, Costas was born in this tiny village, and is now raising his three children there.
We cruised NW to Sitia, where we laid alongside a rough concrete jetty.
The skipper of a neighboring British yacht told us to be careful, as the previous night someone had stolen some expensive mooring lines from his deck, including some in-use mooring lines. Local fisherman were extremely upset over this and were convinced the thieves were not from Sitia, making it very clear what they would do to any thieves they caught. We still understand that instances of theft like this are very rare and we had no problems.
There was no electrical power on the wharf, and the closest water tap was about 150m away, well beyond the reach of our hoses (although we could have lugged it using our 30L jerry cans). Brian and I found a closer tap, half submerged in muddy water, and with a broken handle. We managed to make a temporary tap handle and get our water OK.
From Sitia we went further west to the Spinalonga Lagoon, a large inlet only about 3m deep, with the entrance protected by a Venetian fortress built in 1579. When it was eventually taken by the Turks the Venetian and Genoese defenders were allowed to leave, while the local Cretan defenders were all enslaved. This island fortress later became the infamous Greek leper colony, where lepers lived and died in appalling conditions, the last one dying in 1953. Today the locals still call it “the island of the living dead”.
At anchor during dusk we noticed a snake swimming towards the boat. At first I thought I’d had one rum too many, but we all saw it approach within about 10m. There are several varieties of snake on land in this area, but we were not aware of any sea snakes. The internet advises there are no sea snakes in the Med, as it’s too salty, and that the “snake-eel” is commonly mistaken for a snake. We’re going to believe that, but it certainly damn-well looked like a snake, with its head well up out of the water.We also saw a large turtle swimming around.
The weather has been hot – in the mid to high 20s, but the wind has been exceptionally strong – most days reaching over 20 knots. As the wind is always from the NW, it puts up quite a choppy sea outside of sheltered areas.
We had decided to spend our last few days with Brian & Carol touring some of inland Crete by rental car so went to Agios Nikolaos marina where we are now. This is a good marina, with power and water, in a very picturesque location with swimming beaches nearby, along with lots of tavernas.
We spent two days driving through some of the mountain villages to the southern coast, and spent the night at a great fishing-village-turned-tourist-spot called Aghia Galini. We also visited the famous ruins of King Minos’s palace at Knossos, dating from 1700 BC. This is where the (mythical?) half man, half bull Minotaur lurked in the labyrinth, until a warrior killed it, finding his way out of the labyrinth with a ball of string. The palace, and indeed Minoan civilization, ended with the huge volcanic eruption at Santorini and the ensuing tsunami.
Times are more than a bit tough in Greece. The official unemployment rate is 12%, but probably closer to 20%. Tourist numbers are down, so tavernas, restaurants and shops are quiet. Taxes are going up and all pensions have been reduced by Euro 200 per month (about 30%). Nonetheless, the Greek people are stoic, largely cheerful and seem to think everything will be OK.
We had a wonderful time with Brian & Carol, who left on Friday. We’re now in Agios Nikolaos for the next week (see below), and will then head further west along the northern coast of Crete.
Technical
On the last day of Brian & Carol’s cruise I noticed some oil in the bilge and then found an oil leak from the Borg Warner gearbox. Fortunately it was only a short distance to our destination at Agios Nikolaos marina, and on arrival here an engineer from A1 came aboard and saw the leak. Thanks to my friend Brooke Archbold for arranging a Borg Warner gearbox expert in NZ for me to speak with – James Mobberly of Moon Engines. James was able to give us some useful advice about repairing the leak, which is being done currently while we're in such a nice place to stay. Should be under way again late next week.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
RHODES TO CRETE
Thanks for various comments about the blog. We don’t intend the blog to be a travelogue, but more about our experiences and impressions. The content has been very technical, because our main focus has been getting Envoy ready to cruise, but now that we are cruising the balance will change ("phew!" says Trish).
We arrived in Rhodes on Mon 7 June and went into ancient Mandraki Harbour, once lined with war galleys, and where the 35m high, bronze Colossus of Rhodes had one leg astride each side of the harbour entrance. Built in 290 BC, the Colossus was destroyed by an earthquake about 60 years later. We booked a space using an agent,
A1, who operate throughout Greece and we’ve used previously, as we wanted to ensure we would be in the harbour to meet our first guests, Brian & Carol. A1 do charge a fee, but it’s worth it for the advice and help they give. Other cruisers without bookings were turned away to roll outside at anchor in the wakes of numerous ferries. The water and power supply were not working (due to waves washing over the breakwater in a storm!), and A1 were able to organize an alternative for us. As with most harbours of this type the procedure is to drop your anchor in the middle of the harbour and reverse to the quay, where you secure with stern lines. The watching skippers of the adjacent vessels were pleased to see that we managed this without any problems.
Greece has passed a law introducing a new cruising tax for visiting boats. Under this law boats are only allowed to visit for a period of 60 days in any one calendar year; then they have to pay a tax – supposedly several thousand Euros. Obviously very few cruisers would pay this much, so if the new law does take effect cruisers would be leaving Greek waters in droves. A1 are close to developments and tell us the law is unlikely to proceed for the above reason. In any case, under the Schengen Treaty we can only stay 90 days in Greece, and then have to leave and re-enter.
Rhodes is a wonderful, interesting town, blending the historical aspects of the well-preserved fortress and Old Town, good eateries, excellent shopping and availability of most things you need, eg our two favourite brands of rum – Mt Gay and Lambs Navy! The supermarkets are well stocked up and the four of us spent a couple of hours doing a big shop for the supplies needed during Brian & Carol’s visit. The standard of shops was excellent and Carol and Di spent a very happy day checking them all out. All the major European brands are represented, and even during siesta time, when the shops were closed, they managed to come back with the odd parcel or two. We found an excellent wine shop, and as well as buying some good Greek & Italian wines bought a 10L cask of Tsambi quaffing dry white for Euro 17 – this has turned out to be quite reasonable drinking. As we’d moved from Turkey to Greece we also had to get a new Greek SIM card for the phone and Vodafone USB for internet access (costs 2 Euro/day for unlimited access).
All around Rhodes are piles of large round stones, and these were hurled by catapult into Rhodes during a siege by Demetrius around 300 BC. Much later in 1522 the vast fortress was held by about 1,850 Crusaders against 100,000 Turks for five months, until the Crusaders surrendered and were allowed to leave.
We spent five days in Mandraki and one of the days hired a car to tour the whole island, easily done in a day. Plenty to see including ruins from various periods in history, great beaches, villages and wineries.
Leaving Rhodes on Saturday 12th, we cruised about 20NM down the coast to spend two nights in Lindos. Inhabited since 2000BC, Lindos has a blend of architecture from then until now, including the usual hill-top fortress. Lindos has a maze of narrow alleyways lined with shops and restaurants, and cars are not allowed to enter; instead they have donkey taxis which patiently transport you around the town.
Like Rhodes, Lindos was surprisingly un-crowded – there seems to be not that many tourists yet and very few cruisers.
We then did quite a long cruise of 10 hours to the island of Karpathos. This was a good test of Envoy’s systems and all is working well. Most of the 10 hours was in a 25kn wind on the starboard bow with 2m seas and the paravane stabilizers were excellent. As we approached the lee of Karpathos we expected some shelter from the wind. Instead, due to the very high hills, the wind increased to 35knots kicking up a short, sharp, offshore chop. The wind overturned our smaller RIB, which had been under tow, fortunately without the outboard; another lesson learned. Carol noticed this, otherwise er might have lost it altogether. We had hoped to spend a night in the main harbour, Pigadhia, but in the strong wind I preferred to anchor in better shelter. We did go ashore in Pigadhia, and while Brian & I found a water hose and filled eight 30 litre containers Di and Carol went shopping for supplies. Surprisingly they found in the local supermarket frozen NZ green-lipped mussels and NZ legs of lamb. A small dog fell in love with Di, and when we set off in the dinghy back to Envoy, the dog jumped off the quay into the water and tried to follow us. I had to fish the dog out of the water and we had a very quick debate about whether we wanted a dog on board. Di tied it up ashore (with much heart-wrenching) so it wouldn’t follow us again, after arranging for it to be released after we’d left the harbour.
Karpathos has some great beaches and we spent a couple of days chilling out, anchored off one of them. We have to call in at Karpathos on the way back to Turkey, as I promised to visit a particular Taverna there.
As I write this we are cruising from Karpathos to the eastern end of Crete, a journey of about 9 hours and all OK. Conditions 6 knots on the nose and half metre sea.
Technical
We took on 1,000L of diesel at Euro 1.348L, bringing our total fuel up to about
2,000L or 50% of capacity. There’s no reason to carry more than about this level with the comparatively short distances we’re cruising this year. The diesel is carried in four different tanks, so we’ll be careful to use our three-year old fuel (which is stabilized) first, before going on to the new supply. The Groco 12V pump that drives our fuel transfer and filtering system failed, so we mounted the spare and all OK.
Since leaving Rhodes I’ve been monitoring our water usage and it’s about 75L/day, including use of the washing machine, and without making any real sacrifices; so that means we’re carrying over 2 weeks supply. We were contemplating a quick trip back to Marmaris in July to fix our water maker and Naiad stabilizers, but more than likely we’ll leave that until we return to Marmaris in November.
We arrived in Rhodes on Mon 7 June and went into ancient Mandraki Harbour, once lined with war galleys, and where the 35m high, bronze Colossus of Rhodes had one leg astride each side of the harbour entrance. Built in 290 BC, the Colossus was destroyed by an earthquake about 60 years later. We booked a space using an agent,
A1, who operate throughout Greece and we’ve used previously, as we wanted to ensure we would be in the harbour to meet our first guests, Brian & Carol. A1 do charge a fee, but it’s worth it for the advice and help they give. Other cruisers without bookings were turned away to roll outside at anchor in the wakes of numerous ferries. The water and power supply were not working (due to waves washing over the breakwater in a storm!), and A1 were able to organize an alternative for us. As with most harbours of this type the procedure is to drop your anchor in the middle of the harbour and reverse to the quay, where you secure with stern lines. The watching skippers of the adjacent vessels were pleased to see that we managed this without any problems.
Greece has passed a law introducing a new cruising tax for visiting boats. Under this law boats are only allowed to visit for a period of 60 days in any one calendar year; then they have to pay a tax – supposedly several thousand Euros. Obviously very few cruisers would pay this much, so if the new law does take effect cruisers would be leaving Greek waters in droves. A1 are close to developments and tell us the law is unlikely to proceed for the above reason. In any case, under the Schengen Treaty we can only stay 90 days in Greece, and then have to leave and re-enter.
Rhodes is a wonderful, interesting town, blending the historical aspects of the well-preserved fortress and Old Town, good eateries, excellent shopping and availability of most things you need, eg our two favourite brands of rum – Mt Gay and Lambs Navy! The supermarkets are well stocked up and the four of us spent a couple of hours doing a big shop for the supplies needed during Brian & Carol’s visit. The standard of shops was excellent and Carol and Di spent a very happy day checking them all out. All the major European brands are represented, and even during siesta time, when the shops were closed, they managed to come back with the odd parcel or two. We found an excellent wine shop, and as well as buying some good Greek & Italian wines bought a 10L cask of Tsambi quaffing dry white for Euro 17 – this has turned out to be quite reasonable drinking. As we’d moved from Turkey to Greece we also had to get a new Greek SIM card for the phone and Vodafone USB for internet access (costs 2 Euro/day for unlimited access).
All around Rhodes are piles of large round stones, and these were hurled by catapult into Rhodes during a siege by Demetrius around 300 BC. Much later in 1522 the vast fortress was held by about 1,850 Crusaders against 100,000 Turks for five months, until the Crusaders surrendered and were allowed to leave.
We spent five days in Mandraki and one of the days hired a car to tour the whole island, easily done in a day. Plenty to see including ruins from various periods in history, great beaches, villages and wineries.
Leaving Rhodes on Saturday 12th, we cruised about 20NM down the coast to spend two nights in Lindos. Inhabited since 2000BC, Lindos has a blend of architecture from then until now, including the usual hill-top fortress. Lindos has a maze of narrow alleyways lined with shops and restaurants, and cars are not allowed to enter; instead they have donkey taxis which patiently transport you around the town.
Like Rhodes, Lindos was surprisingly un-crowded – there seems to be not that many tourists yet and very few cruisers.
We then did quite a long cruise of 10 hours to the island of Karpathos. This was a good test of Envoy’s systems and all is working well. Most of the 10 hours was in a 25kn wind on the starboard bow with 2m seas and the paravane stabilizers were excellent. As we approached the lee of Karpathos we expected some shelter from the wind. Instead, due to the very high hills, the wind increased to 35knots kicking up a short, sharp, offshore chop. The wind overturned our smaller RIB, which had been under tow, fortunately without the outboard; another lesson learned. Carol noticed this, otherwise er might have lost it altogether. We had hoped to spend a night in the main harbour, Pigadhia, but in the strong wind I preferred to anchor in better shelter. We did go ashore in Pigadhia, and while Brian & I found a water hose and filled eight 30 litre containers Di and Carol went shopping for supplies. Surprisingly they found in the local supermarket frozen NZ green-lipped mussels and NZ legs of lamb. A small dog fell in love with Di, and when we set off in the dinghy back to Envoy, the dog jumped off the quay into the water and tried to follow us. I had to fish the dog out of the water and we had a very quick debate about whether we wanted a dog on board. Di tied it up ashore (with much heart-wrenching) so it wouldn’t follow us again, after arranging for it to be released after we’d left the harbour.
Karpathos has some great beaches and we spent a couple of days chilling out, anchored off one of them. We have to call in at Karpathos on the way back to Turkey, as I promised to visit a particular Taverna there.
As I write this we are cruising from Karpathos to the eastern end of Crete, a journey of about 9 hours and all OK. Conditions 6 knots on the nose and half metre sea.
Technical
We took on 1,000L of diesel at Euro 1.348L, bringing our total fuel up to about
2,000L or 50% of capacity. There’s no reason to carry more than about this level with the comparatively short distances we’re cruising this year. The diesel is carried in four different tanks, so we’ll be careful to use our three-year old fuel (which is stabilized) first, before going on to the new supply. The Groco 12V pump that drives our fuel transfer and filtering system failed, so we mounted the spare and all OK.
Since leaving Rhodes I’ve been monitoring our water usage and it’s about 75L/day, including use of the washing machine, and without making any real sacrifices; so that means we’re carrying over 2 weeks supply. We were contemplating a quick trip back to Marmaris in July to fix our water maker and Naiad stabilizers, but more than likely we’ll leave that until we return to Marmaris in November.
Monday, June 14, 2010
READER'S COMMENTS
Several friends have told us they have made comments on the blog, but they didn't appear. I changed th settings concerning comments a few days OK and see that a comment from Deidre has been published. I guess this means comments will be OK from now on. Today we're leaving Lindos, Rhodes, for the Karpathos Islands - about half way from Marmaris to Crete. This is about a 7 hour run. All OK.
Monday, June 07, 2010
FIRST DAYS OF CRUISING
Our first six days of cruising were spent in Turkey, between Marmaris & Bozburun. Today in Bozburun we completed the exit formalities to leave Turkey tomorrow and cruise over to Rhodes in Greece – only about 20NM. Since we left Marmaris everything has gone perfectly well and according to plan….almost. We anchored in a beautiful bay near Bozburun and switched off the engine for a swim and relaxing afternoon. When I went to start the engine later it wouldn’t start. The engine was slowly turning over so I figured it wasn’t the starter motor. I went to the start battery bank and put the multi-meter probes on the battery connections; the readings were very inconsistent, eg 7.5 to 13.5v. Then I put the probes on the battery terminals themselves and got a consistent 13.5v. The connections didn’t look bad, but one was slightly loose. I cleaned and sprayed them all with contact cleaner, tightened them up and hey presto – all OK and the engine started with sighs of relief all round. The only thing I don’t understand is having done that, the volt readings were still inconsistent on the connections, however problem solved, and when our friend Doug Gooch (electrician) joins us in August, he’ll be able to explain that.
In 2007 we towed the dinghy around most of the time and paid the price – growth on the hull and general deterioration. We’ve now had the dinghy’s hull sanded back and repainted so we want to keep it in good shape. This means lifting it aboard, at least after a few days towing – not a real major, but takes about 20 minutes and can only be done in calm conditions. For the sake of safety we replaced the lifting lines with 12mm spectra (Kevin’s suggestion). Apparently 12mm spectra can lift over a tonne, so more than adequate for our 300kg RIB, and we feel happier about that. We’ve also noticed an increase in our cruising speed by about half a knot when not towing the RIB – not important in a planing boat, but when you’re averaging about 6 knots, it makes a difference.
So for we’ve been covering old ground – as I post this we're 8NM from Rhodes and new territory.
In 2007 we towed the dinghy around most of the time and paid the price – growth on the hull and general deterioration. We’ve now had the dinghy’s hull sanded back and repainted so we want to keep it in good shape. This means lifting it aboard, at least after a few days towing – not a real major, but takes about 20 minutes and can only be done in calm conditions. For the sake of safety we replaced the lifting lines with 12mm spectra (Kevin’s suggestion). Apparently 12mm spectra can lift over a tonne, so more than adequate for our 300kg RIB, and we feel happier about that. We’ve also noticed an increase in our cruising speed by about half a knot when not towing the RIB – not important in a planing boat, but when you’re averaging about 6 knots, it makes a difference.
So for we’ve been covering old ground – as I post this we're 8NM from Rhodes and new territory.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Leaving Marmaris Tues 1 June
Yesterday the carpenters finished putting the Guest Cabin back together. Diane & I just have to varnish the cabin sole. The watermaker is not going to be fixed any time soon as parts need to come ex USA (ouch!) Very few boats have watermakers and they all manage just fine, as you can get water for little cost at most ports and villages. We've bought 8x30L jerry cans giving us an extra 240L of water capacity plus the ability to move large volumes of water by dinghy, so we'll cruise without making water for a few weeks. We're going to leave the marina on Tues and put a few hours on the engine cruising in the immediate vicinity for a few days. We plan to arrive Rhodos next weekend (in fact its only about 25miles from here)to meet our first guests - Brian & Carol on Mon 7 June.
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