Patras

With Don & Peta Pickering in stern of Envoy in Fiskhardo harbour

Envoy at Port Spigha

Well the great news is today we got our internet access back again. Since 9th May we have only been able to receive gmails (on my mobile phone) but not reply to them which has been very frustrating. Also we rely heavily on the internet for weather forecasts and are glad to have those again. Today we got a PCMCI card for my laptop which gives unlimited web access.
We tried to get this in Corfu but were told you had to have a Greek address to be able to buy this. However with Vodafone in Patras its no problem.
After leaving Vonitsa we went through the 4 mile long Levkas canal dredged through the shallow salt lakes separating mainland Greece from the island of Levkas. At the N end there is a well preserved castle guarding the approaches. On arrival you have to wait for the floating road bridge to be opened to let boat traffic through every hour. The first canal was dug there in the 7th century BC – that’s 2,700 years ago ! Mind you, labour was pretty cheap in those days.
We anchored in a very sheltered bay called Ormos Vlikho and Don joked that it was so calm you could have anchored with a brick on a string. Nevertheless we laid out our customary 40 metres or so of chain. A few hours later a sudden thunderstorm hit us and the wind went from 5 kots to 32 knots in the space of 5 mins, together with torrential rain. Boats started to drag and visibility was poor. We were OK though and didn’t move at all. The islands around there are beautiful and also very green and forested. One of the islands was the private residence of Aristotle and Jackie Onassis. From Levkas we cruised across to Cephalonia – the largest island of the Northern Ionians. This is the island where the events tookplace on which the great movie Captain Curulli’s Mandolin is based. If you haven’t seen this movie we do recommend it.
The Italians were occupying Greek Cephalonia during WW2 and when the Italians removed Mussolini and made peace with the allies, the Germans on Cephalonia demanded that the 9,000 Italian troops surrender their weapons to the Germans. The Italians refused and 56,000 were killed in the subsequent fighting lasting 7 days. Then 3,000 surrendered to the Germans but were lined up and shot in cold blood. Of the 9,000 troops, only 34 survived. A fantastic harbour was Fiskhardo where we went into the free marina lined with tavernas and cafes. The nearest restaurant table was literally one metre from our passarelle (boarding plank). Here once again we had a very strong blow and had to delay our departure by a day to wait for improving weather, even the ferries being cancelled. On Weds we arrived at Patras marina where Don & Peta Pickering left us today. We had a great time with Don & Peta and they are now off to see the Louis Vitton Cup finals in Valencia. They nearly didn't leave us as their passports etc were i our on board safe and last night it jammed and we couldn't open it. Fortunately through the marina we managed to get hold of a locksmith who came down within 30 mins and quickly was able to open it much to Don & Peta's relief. Kevin & Diane O’Sullivan will join us tomorrow night for some new adventures.
Patras is the 3rd largest city in Greece and on the island of Peloponnisos. From here we will explore the Gulf of Corinth and go Eastwards through the Corinth Canal towards Piraeus – the seaport of Athens. The last time I was there was in 1960 on my way to NZ.
Technical: our genset had an engine oil leak thru the sea water pump and this has been fixed today with a new oil seal. The hydraulic stabilizers are our main problem and we hope to get them repaired in Piraeus where a service agent is located and where we’ll have plenty of time. Also there we hope to get our gearbox oil leak fixed – apparently a 2 day job to replace leaking gasket. Apart from these issues there’s the usual array of minor jobs that need doing. Some varnishing is going to need doing soon – watch out visitors !

Greece (edited 31/5)

Well we have not been able to update the blog as moving from Italy to Greece we lost internet access. We can receive emails on my mobile but are unable to send any or to update the blog. So I'm doing this in an intenet cafe (another first !). We are really well and currently have Don & Peta Pickering with us. After leaving Ciro we went across to Santa Maria di Leuca, our last Italian port and spent 2 nights there. We used this opportunity to stock up on Italian wine which is said to be nicer than Greek wine (so far seems to be true although Greek wine not bad and very cheap). This was a great spot and from there we headed straight out to the islands NW of Corfu. We had about 25 knots of wind on the port quarter so fairly good for our approx 45 mile trip. We arrived at one island - Nissis Othoni - but it was bleak, windswept and a few reefs around so we set off about 5 miles for the next one - Erikoussa. We had only gone a mile or so when we both smelt something burning. I switched on the engine room closed circuit tv and could see a lot of smoke (but no flames). Envoy has a temperature activated auto fire suppression system in the engine room so I figured it was only very hot rubber and opened an engine room hatch to clear the smoke. When it cleared I went in to see what was up and found the smell coming from very hot grease which had come out of a failed bearing which drives our hydraulic motor which in turn powers the stabilisers. This motor is powered via a fanbelt connection to the main engine and it was still turning and spewing hot smoking grease. We started the Yanmar wing engine to give us some steerage and turned off the main engine to stop the problem getting worse. I then disconnected the two fan belts allowing us to restart the main engine without turning the hydraulic pump. It was only 4 miles to our anchorage but quite rough without stabilisers to assist. On arrival we anchored and an inflatable pulled alongside with some kiwis aboard, from Dunedin in fact. They were running a charter boat fleet called Sailing Holidays and invited us to join them for drinks and dinner ashore (which we certainly needed). From there we had an uneventful and pleasant cruise to Corfu the next day and spent a week at a great marina in Gouvia. This marina is very well equipped and we were able to repair a leaking sea water pump on our Genset, do an oil and filter change and various other maintenance. We attempted a repair on the stabilisers and thought it was all OK but on testing it is still overheating so we need to get specialist help from the dealer based in Piraeus.
Don & Peta joined us in Corfu and we moved from Gouvia to a small marina directly under the castle - very spectacular and had a gresat day asnd evening in the old Corfu town. We then moved to the beautiful island of Paxos with an anchorage off the village in clear, clean water and spent two nights there.
Generally we're heading SE at present and everything is great. Be in touch again soon.

The Aeolians to Calabria

On the summit of The Antechamber of Hell

Di and John at the summit of La Rocca, Cefalu overlooking our anchorage.

The Aeolian Islands are North of Sicily and we arrived at Vulcano on Thurs 26/4 for a delightful couple of days at anchor in a sheltered bay with the still active summit in the background, the last eruption occurring in 1890. Had a few swims, explored the immediate area in the dinghy and of course walked to the 391m high summit. Vulcano is quite new geologically rising from the seabed in 183 BC. The Ancients believed the crater was the entrance to the Underworld while in the Middle Ages, Christians regarded it as “The Antechamber of Hell”, a description which the Lonely Planet says is very apt on a hot summer weekend with thousands of tourists ! We were lucky though as its still the quiet season and there were only a few yachts at anchor here.

From there we moved about 5 miles to the Island of Lipari where we stayed in a marina as there are no suitable anchorages. Lipari has a long history being originally settled 6,000 years ago and was famous for obsidian & pumice, the latter being still mined. The township was regularly sacked by pirates including Barborossa or “Redbeard” who rampaged the town in 1544. The town was subsequently fortified and the impressive Citadel remains along with the Cathedral. We didn’t do too much rampaging but had a good explore around.
During our stay there we made a day trip to Stromboli, some 35 miles away. We decided to take the Hydrofoil as Stromboli is not on our way anywhere and there are no safe anchorages. Stromboli is an active volcano and a constant stream of lava “The Trail of Fire” flows down the Northern side into the sea. The last eruption was in 2003 when the town of Ginostra was showered with rocks. Our friend Frank Curulli’s father was born here and we made a “pilgrimage” to see his old family home and then had a great lunch of pasta and Stromboli wine.
We left this area on 2 May in very good conditions to leave the Tyrrhenian Sea (which we’ve been in since leaving Ostia) and head through the Straits of Messina, a journey of about 8 hours. The Straits are really interesting and is one of the very few places in the Med where there is much current. This current causes whirlpools and the cruising guide shows the position of four whirlpools which can be dangerous to small vessels. Needless to say we kept well clear of these !
We stayed that night at a very average marina called Reggio di Calabria and the next morning set off on a lengthy 30 hour cruise to Ciro in NE Calabria (area of mainland Southern Italy). After leaving the Straits of Messina you enter the Ionian Sea and we had to do an overnight cruise as there are no suitable marinas or places to anchor along this stretch of coast.

So we spent another night watching the radar screen and avoiding several ships.
Ciro where we are now is a very basic marina but its quite pleasant and best of all free !

It opens to the North which is good as we currently have a SE gale of Force 7 on the outside. This is forecast to continue another day so we’ll just sit here and wait it out before doing a 10 hour cruise NE to our last Italian stop – Santa Maria di Leuci from where we will head E to Corfu.

Technical. Everything mostly OK. The gearbox has leaked a quarter pint of oil in 55 running hours so its not of concern but I'm not sure how to fix it. The stabilizer water cooling pump needed its 2 fan belts replacing, the first fan belt I have replaced since I was about 18 years old on my Ford 10 !

Photos of Envoy

Envoy anchored off Cefalu with the Duomo in the background.

Amy & Drew aboard Envoy off the Island of Ustica

Cefalu

Well our last entry mentioned our intention to cruise Westwards for a few days prior to John’s visit but like all good plans we changed it and went East about 30 miles to Cefalu arriving Monday 16th. Cefalu is a hugely interesting place with a large promontory called La Rocca, 278m high on which there is the remains of an old castle, originally built by Arabs and then conquered by the Normans in 1063. Di was also impressed by the 4th Century Temple of Diana half way up La Rocca. The medieval village is largely unspoiled and the narrow cobbled streets meander down to the old harbour. As well as the quite modern fishing trawlers which ply these waters there are still fisherman rowing 4 m brightly coloured clinker built dinghys to lay their nets. They have an unusual rowing style in that they row standing up. Although the streets are narrow it doesn’t stop the noisy motor scooters and cars which you have to watch out for (a One Way Street means nothing here !) The Cathedral (Duomo) was built in the 11th & 12th Century with wonderful mosaics dating from that time. The Duomo was built under orders from King Roger after his fleet survived a savage storm. During our stay the Coastguard pulled alongside to check our passports etc, a not uncommon thing here.
So we anchored there for 4 nights and then went back to Palermo to meet John who arrived from Fort Lauderdale via London (where he saw Amy) on Monday 23rd. It was great to see John again and he was keen to go somewhere on Envoy so we decided to head back to Cefalu. John was only here for 2 nights so we spent a 2 great days anchored off Cefalu, doing some walking around the Old Town and the Castle again, had a swim (my first) in the rather cool 17 d water and explored the coastline a bit using the RIB. We had bought a NZ leg of lamb in Ostia and Di prepared a great roast dinner which we washed down with Sicilian Chianti. Last night John took a taxi from Cefalu to Palermo airport – a 90 min drive for what had taken us about 5 hours. John shared with us some great news that he has been promoted to First Mate of the ship he works on “Imagin” on the E Coast USA.
During the last few days the weather has become noticeably warmer – now about 24d in the day and there is a little more tourist and pleasure boat activity. People have warned us about the general lack of competence of pleasure boaters here and we experienced that for the first time when a 9 metre sports style launch anchored and dragged close to us three times before moving off to annoy others. Cefalu is more or less on the way from Palermo to the Aeolian Islands where we are heading as I type this, our first stop being the Island of Vulcano (no prizes for guessing what’s there). After a few days in this area we’re planning to head to Syracuse and then in the direction of Corfu to meet our next visitors Don & Peta Pickering.
Photos: yes we do plan to put some more photos on the site – anyday now.
Technical: mostly going OK currently. Had a minor gearbox oil leak putting red tinted ATF into the bilges. Found a very slightly loose bolt which I tightened a quarter of a turn and this slowed the leak but has not stopped it yet. Also have found the Genset sea water pump intake has a slight leak and this will need some attention.

Palermo

Palermo
After arriving back in Palermo on Mon 16th, Amy & Drew flew back to London on evening of Tues 17th and we’ve stayed here since. Firstly we had a bit of shopping and re provisioning to do plus the inevitable few small jobs. But apart from that, Palermo is an amazing place and we’ve just enjoyed seeing some of the sights. Palermo has a very long history and there are many buildings still standing from about the 13-14 th Centuries, some of which we’ve been visiting. The weather has been fine but got very windy in the last couple of days – 20-25 knots – so we decided to see some more sights in Palermo rather than battle the elements. John arrives in Palermo on Mon 23rd so we now don’t want to travel too far but we plan to take off from here on Mon or Tues for as cruise Westwards for a few days. After John leaves we will head Eastwards to the Aolian Islands, the Straits of Messina, Syracuse, the SW coat of Italy and then across to Corfu to arrive by Mid May.
Equipment: Envoy is a superbly equipped vessel which was a major consideration in buying her – see our blog entry dated 5 Dec '06 . While in Palermo we have bought an additional 130 m of 20 mm anchor warp and some 10 mm chain to rig up a combi rope / chain anchor for use when we anchor in deep water. Sometimes you need to anchor in very deep (by our standards) water eg 30-40 m and we’re reluctant to use our main anchor and chain at that sort of depth.
Secondly we’ve bought an additional inflatable. Envoy has an excellent 3.6 m centre console RIB with 25 HP 4-stroke Yamaha, depth sounder, vhf, nav lights, bilge pump, integral fuel tank. But this weighs about 350 kg and can only be launched in very calm weather from the boat deck (on top of the saloon roof) using the boom and electric winches. This process takes about 30 mins to launch and the same to retrieve. Also the dinghy cannot really be launched except in an anchorage and cannot be rowed. All rather inconvenient if you just want to go 100 m to shore for a walk. So we bought an additional smaller inflatable – a 2.7 m with 2.2 HP 4-stroke Honda which in total weighs around 50 kg. This can be easily launched and retrieved by hand and can be rowed too.
Technical: the master loo is working fine again and the shower sump is too (some crud in the water strainer). There are always small jobs to do on a boat but “touch wood” at present things are working fine except for one vhf which has a power supply problem and a bilge water level alarm which does not work.

Ustica for Easter

Amy and her friend & flatmate Andrew (“Drew”) arrived from London Thursday night and we sampled the chianti big time to celebrate. Fortunately they also brought stable fine weather so we got our first real taste of this when we headed out about 30 miles to the Island of Ustica.
This is a small island, just a little larger than Rakino in the Hauraki Gulf. It was first inhabited around 2000 BC and 6,000 mutinous Carthaginian soldiers were abandoned there to die of hunger leading to the Island becoming known by the Greeks as the Osteodes (island of bones). In the 18th century it was colonised by Bourbons but they were massacred by pirates with only two escaping to tell the tale. We had a much less dramatic time and arrived on Friday. The harbour is very small at about 150 m square and with most of that taken up by moorings, fishing boats and a hydrofoil but with some help from someone ashore we anchored off a jetty and tied stern to as dark set in. Shortly afterwards a port official turned up and was not happy. He said we were “blocking the harbour” and the hydrofoil would not be able to get out. I couldn’t see his point but we agreed to leave the following morning before 0630 to allow the hydrofoil to leave by 0645.
For the next two nights we anchored with a spare all rope anchor in about 80 feet at a beautiful bay on the Southern side of the island. The wind was mostly 3-6 knots, the sea smooth and the water beautifully clear – you can see down to about 50 ft (this is a far cry from Palermo harbour where the water is filthy and everything imaginable is floating around the marina). The “bay” did not really afford much protection but in the conditions was fine. The seawater is still cold at about 15.5 dC but Amy ventured in for several swims and so did Di briefly take a plunge. I’m awaiting warmer temps ! We also got the chance to put the RIB to use for the first time and Amy enjoyed exploring around the island using it.
As I write this we’re cruising at 6.5 knots in perfect conditions back to Palermo for the night. We’ll go out for dinner tonight and spend tomorrow sight seeing around Palermo before Amy & Drew depart on Tuesday night. After their departure we’ll stay in the general area, hopefully going to the Aolian Islands before John arrives in Palermo on 23 April.

Sicilia

We left Vibo Valentia on Monday afternoon after restocking and fuelling for the first time. We decided to just keep going rather than stop for the night and arrived in Palermo 24 hours later, this being our first ever through the night cruise. All went smoothly and there was little “traffic”.
In Envoy you don’t have the time flexibility we are used to from our previous faster boats. You’re only doing about 7 knots so that’s about 50 miles in a comfortable day’s cruising and you have to plan carefully where you’re going to stop next. Its mostly not safe or practical to arrive in an anchorage or marina after dark but it is practical to keep going through the night.
The reason you can’t arrive in a marina after dark is because you need their help to dock and need to know where to dock and they’re not there after about 1800.
You’re well offshore in very deep (1500 ft) water with no reefs, rocks, shoals. There’s only other boats to worry about and that’s only ships – we’ve hardly seen any other pleasure boats away from the marinas. You track them on radar from about 12 miles out because they’re going damn quick compared with us.
On arrival in Palermo we firstly went to a marina called Villia Igiea. It’s well set up but about 45 mins walk from Palermo and also very expensive at Euro 93 per night. So the next day we walked into Palermo and found the Yacht Club del Mediterraneo which has berths just outside “La Cala” – the old port. We met the President of the yacht club and organised to move Envoy here where the cost is Euro 28 per night and where we can walk to the town centre in about 5 mins.
Palermo has tonnes of character. It’s quite run down with virtually no recent development and a lot of derelict buildings but also very historical. Amy arrives to see us today so we’ll see some of the surrounding coastline and some of the sights of Palermo with her.
Sealife
So far we’ve seen porpoises on three occasions, a whale and some sharks. Also more bird life than we expected so the Med is not so desolate as we expected. You often see people fishing from the shore, jetties etc but they seem to catch mostly what we call sprats and they keep them.

Lessons learned

We forgot to mention in our last posting that on the way from Ponza we saw two “flying inflatables” – and we hadn’t even had a rum ! These were conventional RIBs about 8ft long but instead of outboards they had high powered pusher prop type aero engines and a kind of hang glider wing mounted above. Well these things just took off and flew up a few hundred feet and then one buzzed us and the “pilot” waved to us. We were most impressed !
We had planned to anchor off Capri but that was not possible. Although the sea was calm – the depth was about 60m even about 30m off the island. There were also a lot of “no anchoring” signs around. We were running out of daylight so elected to head for Marina Grande.
The usual procedure at these marinas is you back up to a wall, you throw stern lines to a marinara, he throws you a light line which is attached to quite a heavy bow line, you pull up the bow line and make it fast (then you attach your heavy stern lines, water hose, power cable). Anyway we did all this and then the bow line snapped. Envoy is about 30 tonnes and there was a bit of surge caused by huge ferries coming and going. The boat started to veer off to leeward and come in towards the sea wall. Although panic was setting in we re started the engine and used the engine and the bow thruster to keep us off the wall. Di managed to find an alternate bow line and all was OK. The marina was very atmospheric and we had a nice meal ashore.
We didn’t have time this trip to go up the hillside to Capri township. On Thursday we made about 65 miles down the coast and anchored inside the seawall at Palinuro about 1730.
We planned to have dinner, get as few hours sleep and leave at 0300 to make Tropea the next day. We did leave on Friday at 0300 and it was fun doing our first night passage under radar and plotter and atching the night turn to dawn and seeing the sunrise. However by mid morning a gale warning was being broadcast and we still had about 8 hours to run.
The gale was forecast to be on our beam so we decided to turn to shelter at Cetraro, about 2 hours away. We duly arrived there and the marina was very primitive.
A guy (Franco) wandered down and directed us to berth alongside a wall. We were not happy about this but he assured us “no problemo” and asked us to pay him 40 Euros. By early evening the gale started to set in, the seas built and a surge started to build inside the marina.
We had fenders out of course but Envoy started to pound against the seawall. The seawall was concrete but very rough and we had real concerns the fenders would burst and lead to the hull grinding on the seawall. I went up to see the Coastguard to see if they could help.
They were friendly but little help – this is a “free marina”. I explained we had paid Franco 40 Euro and that got their attention. The wanted me to make some kind of statement about this but I advise I was only concerned about the safety of our vessel and not about recovering 40 Euros. To cut a long story short they were no help at all. Di meanwhile found some old tyres on the wharf so we borrowed 6 of those and made some makeshift additional fenders as an outer layer of protection, wooden planks between the tyres and the fenders and finally our fenders. This was all completed by 2300 and then we had some dinner and tried to get a little sleep. Sleep was difficult due to the noise of the tyres pounding and scraping the wall. We got up at 0400 and prepared for a departure at dawn as this was probably the worst and most worrying night we have ever spent on a boat (and all in a marina). Even thought there was still a gale warning in force, the wind was going to be on our starboard quarter and we liked our chances better at sea than pounding against a roughcast concrete wall. So by 0700 we were on our way heading South and covered about 60 miles to Vibo Valentia. The “gale” did not really happen – we only had about 20 knots of wind and 2-3 metre seas. In these conditions Envoy performed well with the stabilizers absorbing most of the roll and although there was more movement than we had seen to date we were still able to put our cups of tea safely on the table !
The lesson here was not to agree to lie against a jetty or seawall unless you are absolutely certain there’s not going to be any surge in the harbour. You are much better off with a bowline holding you off the wall and stern lines to the wall. The tyres were invaluable and without them we would have suffered damage, so we now have our own supply of 4 tyres. We are also going to source some heavy duty planks of wood.
The marina here at Vibo Valentia is great – very secure and well organized and we stayed two nights here getting reorganised. Tomorrow Monday 2 April we are going to refuel for the first time and head out towards Lipari, en route for Palermo.
Technical
For those interested in boat technicalities you all know that there’s always things needing fixing on boats ! Currently we have a toilet which will flush into the holding tank but not directly overboard – a blockage somewhere, a vhf radio which won’t power up, a bilge water high level alarm not working and a shower sump pump not pumping – all things to keep me amused !

Approaching Capri

As I type this we’re in sunshine, smooth seas 5 knots of breeze and 18d. The island of Capri is ahead about 18 miles where we will anchor for the night. We left Ostia on Monday and went directly to Nettuna and stayed in the marina. This was more “typical” than Ostia which is all quite new. On Tuesday shortly after leaving at 0700, we were stopped in quick succession by three different navy patrol vessels. To the South of Nettuna is a military firing zone and we were told to steam 6 miles West to avoid it. We decided to comply rather than risk being target practice. Tuesday night saw us at the island of Ponza and our first anchorage which all went smoothly. Three police came out to us in a dinghy to inspect our papers. Felt amazing sitting at anchor in a harbour first used several hundred years BC. The small harbour was full of colourful fishing boats and looked like a pitate’s lair of old (which it is). We were the only boat at anchor but apparently in the summer its virtually impossible to get in there.
There’s very few boats around and so far in 3 days we’ve only seen one pleasure boat. Apart from that a number of commercial fishing vessels which has Diane excited thinking there must be some fish to be caught.
Our current priority is to get to Palermo, Sicily a day or two before Easter. This meant that we cut short our plans to visit Rome and will do that another time. Currently the weather is good and having seen a gale here we do want to make some progress while the weather is good. The problem is not only the potentially rough seas but the fact you can’t get into or out of a lot of marinas in adverse conditions. We could have done a direct, non stop route from Ponza to Palermo of about 165 miles or about 24 hours continuous cruising but elected to take the longer but more reassuring coast hopping route as the direct route would have placed us up to 80 miles from the closest land.
Cruising at about 7 knots is quite different to what we’re used to, but great. The main difference is that on a vessel like Envoy you do things while going along, for example typing this or preparing and eating meals. Then there’s the usual “household” chores to do plus particular boat tasks such as making water using the watermaker, doing regular checks on equipment etc. Another difference is the fuel economy of under 10 litres per hour. We have on board internet access interfacing our laptop with a Vodafone mobile with an Italian prepaid sim card. Using this we dial direct to the internet and can send our gmails which is a very cheap and effective system.

After 3 weeks

The gale subsided by Weds night, the seas subsided by Thurs morning and we’re in a light breeze but very cold, about 8-12 dC.
We have been here 3 weeks today and on Envoy 2 weeks. Today is the first day we feel we are pretty organized, ready to go and the list of “urgent” things to do is dwindling.
Wayne & Pat left 2 weeks ago but have continued to provide much advice via text, phone & email as we simply ran out of time to go through things before they departed and our only voyage with them was from the travel lift to our berth.
So we’re now fully provisioned, all checks completed and on Monday or Tuesday plan to leave Ostia and coast hop South towards Sicily. The weather is still very unsettled in the region so we’ll be watching this pretty carefully in fact I’ve spent several hours today researching the various ways to get good forecasting – there are plenty of these including vhf (continuous), ssb, navtex and various internet sites not to mention the Mark 1 eyeball.
The marina chandlery has been extremely helpful and helped us to sort out our gas bottle situation and marina power cables among other things.
Di & I have been well and very busy, pretty much going from 0700 to 2000 hrs before relaxing with a chianti and pasta !
Will post more news on leaving Ostia.

Our First Gale

Well in our last update we were saying the wind had not exceeded 10 knots and now we’re in a gale. Its Tuesday at 1300 and the wind log is showing 40 knots. We were out in great conditions on Saturday but by Sunday there was a gale warning of Force 7 winds. Although we are in the marina we are within 50m of the marina entrance which faces the open sea. By Monday morning there were approx 2-3 m waves breaking all the way across the entrance and sending a surge into the marina. The surge is the problem rather than the wind as the boat lifts and drops putting pressure on all of the lines and causing them to jerk. We picked up a spare bow heavy line, doubling our protection on the bow and put out extra stern lines including a heavy spring running two thirds the length of the boat (secured by pilot house to take the jerkiness out). Despite this, there is still a of movement and we have to be very careful going ashore as the Passarelle (boarding plank) goes up and down by a metre or so. Yesterday I had to put additional stern lines on an unattended 44 ft planing vessel on our starboard side. She had totally unsuitable stern lines which were already half frayed through. At 0300 today I got up to check around and found the 42 ft planing vessel which had been our port side had gone ! She had broken her stern lines and gone adrift dragging her power line and hose off the dock. I could see her up against yachts on the lee side of the marina but could do nothing myself and there was nobody around listening to the marina radio. At daylight the “marinaras” came and sorted it out and there seemed to be minimal damage.
About now is the time we were planning to do some sight seeing in Rome but we’re not going to leave Envoy unattended in these conditions. Of course there’s plenty to do to keep us occupied. Together with a great guy called we are making up some power cable adaptors so that we can source power from different types of power outlets. Wayne used to make his up as he went along but he’s more practical than me in that regard. We also need to sort out our gas bottle refilling as the bottles we have on Envoy are suitable for Spain and Turkey but not for Italy.
So in addition to that we are well and enjoying but now looking forward to some balmy weather again which, if permitting we intend to leave Ostia for Capri, the Amalfi Coast and then Sicily on the weekend.

A voyage at last

Well there’s been a fair bit happening since our last update. After Wayne & Pat (the previous owners) departed on the evening of Sat 10th we spent an enormous amount of time finding things on Envoy, re-stowing to suit our needs and unpacking and stowing our gear. Envoy is like a floating “Sailor’s Corner” chandlery shop with an enormous amount of equipment, spare parts, tools, etc. For example we discovered a water blaster that we didn’t even know was there. There are so many very practical features like walkie talkie headsets so that Di & I can talk to each other when we are berthing (you can’t really see anything from the Pilothouse when reversing into a berth so I rely on instructions from Di in the cockpit).
So Envoy settled another 50 mm or so into the water when we loaded our groceries, provisions and the odd bottle of wine !
Because Envoy has been out of the water for 5 months we have also needed to check all systems are working and this has been time consuming but fun and educational as we find our way around the boat.
Soon after buying Envoy, we retained the services of an Italian maritime lawyer – Andrea Petragnani Ciancarelli who was recommended by Wayne & Pat. His help & advice has been great and for example he liased between us and the Italian boatyard – Rizzardi – who worked on Envoy during the time she was out of the water. So with Andrea last Tuesday we went to the head office of the Coastguard to sort out our Italian and EC entry documentation. This was quite different to Coastguard as we know it. There was heavy security there with guards wearing sidearms, everybody in uniform (even the receptionist I noticed) and quite formal. Italy is quite bureaucratic and to do what we in NZ might consider simple takes a while. For example Di & I went to the Post Office to buy some stamps and post some cards. Well we might have been asking for tickets for lunar travel ! As Frank had warned us these things take much time, much conversation and gesticulation by all involved including everybody in the place.
That afternoon we completed our shopping and went to a frozen foods shop where we bought some NZ lamb. We couldn’t resist it but it was NZ$40 for a leg. Again much fun with the sales lady and we left there with Di and her giving each other a big cuddle
(I missed out !).
On Thursday we went to the airport to collect our unaccompanied luggage that we’d sent from NZ. Fortunately we got on well with Riccardo the taxi van driver who took us to our hotel on our arrival in Rome on 1 March. Riccardo is the Italian equivalent of a Corporate Cab owner. So we phoned him and he picked us up and took us to the airport. What a performance ! Without Riccardo we’d have had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting our luggage. The bureaucracy was incredible and even Riccardo couldn’t understand the system and what needed to be done. He shrugged his shoulders and said “This is Italy …. and we have to wait ..” Anyway 3 hours later we were on our way and then spent the rest of the day finding room for the contents of 5 suitcases on a very full boat. What has been amazing here is the weather. Bearing in mind this is early Spring the weather is day after day sunny and very still ! The wind has never been over 10 knots and mostly much less. Nothing like the Hauraki Gulf where it seems there’s a wind warning every other day. Anyway next week there’s a cold front coming down from Northern Europe so we’ll see.
Today we finally did our first voyage ! Left Ostia for a 5 hour round trip and everything ran fine. The sensation is very different to what we are used to. It’s a very “solid” feeling and of course slow. Unlike a planing vessel you don’t need to move things because Envoy just sits there, aided of course by stabilizers. So today was an exciting day and we’re pleased to have a first trip under our belt. Coming back into the marina we were a little apprehensive but it was fine. Envoy is very heavy at about 30 tonne, doesn’t move much with the wind and with the bow thruster is quite manoeverable so no real problem.
Up to now we’ve not had time to do any sight seeing in Rome itself but hope to do some this coming week. We plan to leave here in about a week for Sicily but are pretty well organized now so should have some time.
If you’re reading this please make a comment.

The “Launching”
Well the bow thruster job turned out (as most boat related jobs do) to be quite a mission but thanks to Wayne’s knowledge & experience we completed it by Thursday and launched on Friday. The sealant which stops seawater coming up through the bow thruster “tunnel” has all been replaced using 3M 5200 which Wayne says is far superior to any other product for this type of job. For one thing, although it takes about a week to fully cure, we were able to launch the boat about 6 hours after application as 5200 cures under water. Its tough to work with and sticks like the proverbial s..t to a blanket but that’s what makes it good. Wayne & Pat had originally been due to leave us on Friday but very kindly changed their own vacation plans to spend 2 more days with us, due to the bow thruster issue. This was certainly highly appreciated. So we launched for the second time late Friday afternoon and once again did our checks prior to leaving the safety of the travel lift. To my horror I saw traces of water in the bilge adjacent to the bow thruster. On closer inspection (by Wayne) this water was seeping out of a sea water strainer for the deck wash down and had nothing to do with the bow thruster – a classic case of 1 + 1 = 3. We turned off the seacock and all was OK – I’ll just have to replace the strainer before we turn it back on.
So on Friday night we spent our first night aboard.
All day Saturday was spent with Wayne & Pat showing us all about the operation of Envoy and there was a lot to learn, for example re commissioning the watermaker took about 3 hours and its pretty complex stuff. Once the watermaker is in use it must be used about every 3 days or problems arise.
Wayne & Pat departed on late Saturday afternoon after what I can only describe as a fantastic effort by them to assist us and Diane & I were on our own. That night we drank a bottle of sparkling wine left for us by Wayne & Pat and poured a glass over the bow of Envoy in recognition of her new owners and re flagging as a NZ vessel.
Since then we’ve been very, very busy ! We have a rental car and have been ferrying back and forth to the shops to fully provision the boat. So far 3 complete car loads of groceries with of course a bottle or three of vino.
But the shops are very interesting with the different food to what we are used to.
Also we have started going through Envoy from stem to stern to see what is on board and where it is. I can only describe this as being like “kids in a toyshop”! Envoy truly has so much equipment, spare parts etc that it’s a lot of fun just opening every locker to discover what is there.
Today the re stocking is mostly complete and we need a couple more days to familiarize ourselves with operating Envoy before we venture forth out of the harbour for the first time. This will probably be on Wednesday and we'll go out for the day and come back. By the way the weather here is like early Spring in Auckland – mild and pleasant in the day and coolish at night. Have not seen any rain so far, apart from a brief light shower. This is a beautiful marina and we're enjoying the atmosphere.
Ciao

All Roads Lead To Rome

All Roads Lead To Rome
Well we left Auckland on Friday 2 March to fly all the way through to Rome.
We had decided to go via USA as the luggage allowance is much more generous at 46 kg each or 92 kg in total. Nevertheless we had more and had to pay excess. Although the total travelling time was over 30 hours we arrive in Ostia on Friday afternoon due to the time difference.
Ostia is at the mouth of the Tiber and is the ancient port of Rome founded in about 600 BC.
On Saturday we picked up a rental car and went down to check out Envoy and all seemed to be OK.
That night the car was broken into while parked outside the hotel. Nothing taken but the car is now unable to be locked. The rental company was unconcerned but didn’t have another car – “these things happen in Italy ….don’t worry.”
On Sunday we went to see the ruins of the ancient port City – Ostia Antica.
These are phenomenal and not only date back to BC but cover an area about the size of downtown Auckland taking several hours to walk around.
On Monday we met up with Wayne & Patricia Davis the previous owners of Envoy and the boat was due to be launched in the afternoon. Not so ! For one thing the jobs being done were not quite finished but more importantly the road connecting the boatyard to the launching area was closed due to road works. This was not a major issue as it gave us time to spend with Wayne & Pat going over the huge learning curve we are faced with Envoy. Dealing with the boatyard was an experience. They always say they will be there in 10 minutes but hours later nobody has been seen so it ended up being a last minute rush to finish jobs. The work done is OK but not to the quality we would expect at home.
On Wednesday afternoon the boat was finally launched using a huge travel lift.
Envoy is quite huge out of the water and it was a bit nerve wracking seeing her on the trailer being taken to the lift. The launching took place but this was short lived. When in the water and during inspections we found that some seawater was leaking into the boat from the bow thruster and there was no option but to pull the boat out again.
Wayne & I spent the remainder of Wednesday and today Thursday pulling out the bow thruster to expose the problem which is old sealant having broken down and letting water leak in.
This is not an easy job as the component parts are heavy and very difficult to access, however all done now and on Friday we will reassemble everything and re-launch. On Wednesday the boatyard people said they would be down first thing on Thursday to fix the problem.
Knowing their timing routines Wayne & I decided to press on and do it ourselves and when the yard people turned up about 11 am (first thing !) they were surprised to find most of the components removed and we told them we would finish the job ourselves.
So the next stage is to launch the boat, complete the handover process and get settled in aboard Envoy.
We have email access OK via gmail and have a new Italian mobile number which we are now monitoring: +34 93828712.

Description of Envoy
Envoy is a "Nordhavn 46" - see www.nordhavn.com - ocean going heavy displacement pilot house motor vessel.
Four of these vessels have completed World circumnavigations and one is currently en route from the Med to NZ. Envoy crossed the Atlantic to the Med with her previous owners.
Other vital statistics are beam 15ft 5in, draft 5ft, displacement 62,000 lb, diesel capacity 1000 gal, fuel range about 3,000 NM, cruising speed around 7.5 kn.
Envoy was built in 1990 and underwent an extensive refit 2002 to 2004 when much equipment was renewed.
She is powered with a naturally aspirated, keel cooled, dry exhaust Lugger 143 hp diesel engine with a Yanmar 35 hp as spare wing engine. She has an 8 kw Northern Lights Genset and HRO Seafari 36 gph watermaker.
Stabilisation against rolling is achieved either using hydraulic stabilisers or by extending the paravanes and deploying the "birds" in the water. Stabilisation at anchor is achieved by deploying "flopper stoppers" from the paravanes.
Navigation equipment is very extensive including 2 x radars, 2 x independent auto pilots, several gps / plotter options, 2 x depth sounders including forward scanning, several VHF radios, SSB radio, Satphone, weatherfax.
Additional safety equipment includes life raft, sea anchor, EPIRB, night sights, closed circuit TV monitoring of engine room.
A 12 ft centre console RIB with 25 hp, 4-stroke Yamaha is stored on the boat deck.
The galley has a gas stove and oven, microwave, trash compactor and fridge/freezer.
Comfortable accomodation is found in 2 double staterooms each with its own head and shower while there is also a skippers berth in the pilot house.
There are 3 x aircon systems and customised insect screens throughout.
The Saloon has flat screen TV and a home entertainment system.
Other features are cockpit BBQ, clothes washer/dryer.
Envoy is also extensively equipped with misc equipment, tools, spares etc for safe long range cruising.

We leave NZ on 1/3/07 and Envoy (currently on the hard) will be re launched about 5/3.
Envoy will have been given a new epoxy gelcoat and antifoul.
We will have a few days of familiarisation from the previous owners Wayne & Pat and then spend a further couple of weeks getting used to Envoy, provisioning and seeing some of the sights of Rome before heading SE towards Sicily. We plan to spend a couple of weeks or so there during which time Amy will join us for Easter. Then we will head N along the Italian coast of the Ionian Sea and across to the W shores of Greece. In July some time we will head further E to Turkey for a few months of cruising the Turkish coast and adjacent Greek Islands.

Here is photo of "Envoy" in Ostia, Rome. The two poles are paravane arms for stabilisation

Envoy In The Med

Envoy In The Med
After leaving London with Amy we visited Wayne & Patricia Davis on board the Nordhavn 46 "Envoy" berthed at Ostia marina, Rome.
"Envoy" proved to be everything we could have wished for and then some and at time of writing we are in the purchase process.
Photo follows and we now have a start date set for our adventure of 5/3/07.

The Beginning

Di & I first had this idea to spend some time cruising in the Med in Oct 2004 while aboard "Acrobat", the yacht belonging to my brother Charlie and his wife Marie while cruising in Turkey's Kokova Roads. We both thought "we can do this" and one thing led to another ...........
Firstly we did much research with vessel selection and narrowed our choice down to a Nordhavn 46, then we worked on locating some for sale.
Well, after two years in the planning we're finally in London on our boat-buying trip! Has been great to spend some time with our two fabulous kids, first John in the south of France and now Amy. Within the next few days, we hope to decide on the ocean-going vessel which may end up being our home for a while. We can blame Charlie et Marie for this!
Cheers!