T and J Sail Away

For Charlie’s last night with us we hit downtown Athens – such a stunning City. We took to the rooftop bar at the ‘A for Athens’ hotel which was on the 6th floor. Trying to be healthy and get some much needed exercise we decided to walk up the stairs rather than take the lift, pushing past the rather ineffective and very small barrier in front of the stairs. We must have been pretty quick as we completely missed the Receptionist running after us and calling out something or other!

It was a hot climb, panting and now desperate for a drink you can imagine our dismay, accompanied by a few expletives, when we go to the top and opened the door not onto a beautiful sunlit bathed terrace but a small broom cupboard!!

As an aside this is not the first time this has happened to me on this trip! During the drive across Italy we stopped at services for a loo stop and to top up on cold drinks. I walked down a corridor towards the ladies and was conscious that the small shop was attached on the other side through a glass wall. I was on the phone chatting as I walked into the loos but from the corner of my eye registered a glass door opening and people moving! Great I thought, I won’t have to walk all the way around in the burning heat to get into the shop once I come out of the ladies! Out of the loo and still chatting on the phone (I actually hate using the phone whilst in the loo but needs must and signal had been terrible for ages beforehand) I stride up to the door – nothing happens – I walk backwards and forwards a few times trying different angles of approach and at last the door opened to reveal………..a cleaning cart, mops and brooms!! If anyone had been watching me………

Having returned to the ground floor and taken the lift like normal people we were rewarded with a fabulous table and an incredible view (and it was pretty packed so we were either lucky or we had given them such a laugh they felt sorry for us!)

After our rooftop drinks, we took a walk closer to the Acropolis and climbed a nearby vantage point – I didn’t take any photos as I was struggling with my balance and trying not to fall over the many ‘courting couples’ as my Mum would say! This is a photo of when we did the same visit last year.

And the view from the bottom of the hill back on flat ground!

The next morning we said ‘Goodbye’ to Charlie which was a little sad (for me anyway!) and set off to get the various items of shopping, food and non-food, that were readily available in Athens but would not be so easy to find out in the Islands. An example of this is Gin! Gordons seems to be the gin of choice everywhere but I do not like it – I found a supermarket with Tanqueray and bought their entire stock of 4 bottles!

We also had a quick visit to this little known store which was right opposite the Marina! No Percy Pigs but some new shorts for Jacques!

Finally, we bought bits and bobs for the boat including this magnificent new gangplank! This was needed as the one we had on the boat has caused us some issues before (see the blog on Tunisia!) and actually was quite ugly!

With all these practical endeavours now completed I felt it was time for some cultural inspired changes in the boat. Although I have my iPad full of fab digital books I also brought with me some ‘real’ books as felt it would be good to have these in case of electrical issues or for visitors to dip into. This is the analogue library so far!

We are now some 30 miles south of Athens, at the Southern tip before we head east to the islands. The bay is in Cape Sounion which is famous for being the location of the Temple of Posedion built in 440 BC.

Jacques had visited this area and the temple some 50 years ago with this brother and parents on one of their summer road trips. He never dreamed that one day he would be on his own boat in the splendid bay!

We head off to the island of Andros tomorrow, some 40 miles and 6 hours away which will be our longest journey so far.

More soon…….

Happy Saturday xx

After the DIY and maintenance fun and games in Zea Marina in Athens we at last headed off to sea and the beautiful islands, coves and bays. We could not go too far as we needed to be back in Athens in a week to drop Charlie off to fly home – we were determined to pack in as much fun and new experiences as possible!

After a couple of nights on the island of Aegina we headed an hour away to the tiny harbour of Vathy – this was another case of ‘how the devil did Jacques manage to get us in there!’ Beautiful place, lovely people, full of fishing boats and local characters!

Whilst in Vathy, Charlie decided he absolutely had to have a hair cut! Strangely enough there were not many professional barbers who knew how to ‘skin fade’ to choose from in Vathy village but the local harbour master, Cosmos, offered to drive us (in his slightly beaten up Greek version of a 2CV) to the ‘big town’ Methana, about 15 minutes away. What transpired was that on the way he had to pick up his wife and two sons so we all crammed into the car and when we got to the many steep inclines, instinctively we all leant forward! I really wasn’t sure the car would make it!

We drove past a local archaeological site which Cosmos gestured towards and spoke the words ‘two hundred’ in broken English. I was absolutely bowled over when his teenage son turned to us and, in perfect and very fast English said ‘No Dad, those ruins are at least 2000 years old dating from the Ancient Egyptian dynasty’!! I asked him how come his English was so fabulous and he said he attended extra English lessons and that his neighbours were Scottish! Once he mentioned it I did think I could hear a faint hint of Glaswegian in his accent!

In the last week I have lost count of how many times I have said ‘oh it’s so hot’ and for us this just means getting in to the sea to cool off and at night sleeping on deck. For others this is now life threatening and I’ll come to this later. On a lighter note this is Charlie’s preferred sleep mode and technique for dodging the heat of the rising sun at 7am!

After 2 nights in Vathy we headed back in the direction of Athens and to an enchanting cove where we had the time to inflate and try out the Stand Up Paddle board – Charlie certainly got the paddle part and sometimes the actual stand up as well!!

The following day we headed to the beautiful island of Agistri, the harbour was not particularly scenic but the village was. We also found a wonderful small bar slightly up the hill with great views across the bay – forgot to take photo so you’ll have to trust me on this but this is one of the small tavernas in the village. So pretty.

Our last night at sea before heading back to Athens was spent in another small cove off the island of Agios Thomas – this is a map that shows the area we covered – the pin is Agios Thomas and you will also see marked the two huge wildfires that started on that day.

Overlap this with the satellite image and our photos of the surrounding area – truly sad, scary, eery and most of all so tragic for the people whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed. This will only get worse if the pace of climate change is allowed to continue year on year.

The sky was a huge ash cloud, the smell of acrid burning was heavy in the air and the boat was covered in a layer of ash. I was also included on the Greek text alert for emergency situations.

We headed back to Athens the next day, the sky still a thick orange fog which started to clear as we approached the city. We had a few lovely surprises on the way seeing turtles and dolphins – almost like nature re-asserting itself.

And for Charlie’s last night in Greece we decided to hit the town….more on this next time!

Night night and stay safe

Tracey

No, not a list of kinky torture accessories! Just some of the items on our list of things to fix, install or replace in our first few days back on the boat.

The anchor chain (all 250 Kilos of it) was waiting for us in storage when we arrived. When the delivery guy brought it to the quay he left the box on the pallet and scarpered! Jacques and Charlie pulled it out of the box and then into the dingy to be brought to the bow to install! I’m still not sure how Jacques did it but we now have a gleaming new chain attached to the anchor and it works! That took the best part of 1 day and hot and sticky work it was! Spot the old and new chain!

Next on the list were the new batteries and the fixing of the fridge! The plan had always been to eventually replace the boat batteries with Lithium ones which charge up quicker and last longer. The demise of the existing ones whilst Marc & Claudia had the boat made this exercise a more pressing need. The batteries were being supplied and fitted by a specialist company in Athens and the lovely Dimitri worked for 12 hours over the course of 2 afternoons and evenings going up and down from the (incredibly hot) engine room to take out the old batteries (weighing a ton!) and installing the new ones.

The 6 old batteries were placed on the quay whilst we decided how to dispose of them or until the Rag and Bone man came along! The following day, not exactly the Rag and Bone man with his cart but the Greek equivalent on a moped came along and asked if he could take them! It took him 3 journeys to collect all of them and although it was a funny sight we were pleased that someone would be able to re-use them!

Next job, and in my opinion the most critical, was having the fridge fixed! It has given up the day before we arrived and Marc had put out a call to our booking agent to find us a fridge engineer! We have a small outside fridge which works pretty well but once you have my bottle of Gin and a few tonics stacked up there is sadly not much room for any food!!

The lovely engineers fixed the fridge and by the morning it was sufficiently cold to store food and beer again! Hooray!

Next DIY challenge was installing the Satellite dish! Having successfully smuggled it in to Europe in one of our many suitcases now the task of where to situate it given the limited options on the boat. Up on deck next to the seating area seemed the best bet – not an area where anyone (should) be treading and with no obvious obstacles. Dishy is now in place but this may not be his permanent home as being so close to the seats does present an obstacle which means service gets interrupted, albeit just for a few seconds, every 7-10 minutes so not ideal.

We had a little jump for joy as that concluded the list of things to get done before we left the marina and set sail! Just one more item to replace, a large camping cart on wheels useful for when we go get very heavy shopping, which had been blown into the sea off the quay a few weeks ago.

One of the wonderful delights of being in Athens is having the chance to see our old friends Georges and Christine. Christine is away but Georges came to see us on the boat, took us to a fabulous place for dinner and offered us any assistance we needed whilst in Athens. We took him up on that offer to help us source a new cart and lo and behold 2 hours later he arrived with one! On his motorbike!!!

We said Goodbye to Georges and at last we were ready to head off to the Islands and hopefully some slightly cooler weather, a breeze and clear waters to swim in!

We headed to Aegina, a small island 10 miles south west of Athens, just over 1 hour journey. On the way, Charlie had a particularly juicy nectarine and when he then went to wash his hands no water came out of the tap. Horror!!!

You would think after all these jobs having been finished in 4 very hot days in the marina that we (well mostly Jacques!) would get a break! How could we not have water? We had filled the 600 litre tank just before we left! And the water gauge (like a petrol gauge on a car) was saying we were full! It had to be the water pump we thought – another 2 hours for Jacques down in the engine room (by now over 40 degrees in there) and me at the electrics dashboard trying every combination of plugging and unplugging scenarios.

We have had a similar situation before when we ran out of water without using any and that was because a tap had been left on somewhere on the boat without anyone seeing it. Conscious of this, I checked all the taps including the outside deck shower (often the culprit) but it seemed fine! Had I pulled the whole hose out of it’s compartment I would have seen the hole in it and the 600 litres of water in the locker below!!!!!!!! We then had hours of fun bailing the water out of the locker – again, not at all a boiling hot endeavour!

After all the drama, Aegina was beautiful and we anchored just outside the harbour and had some fun in the water!

That’s all for now – hopefully that is our entire share of Boat DIY used up for a while – although still no sign of the winch!

Bye for now!

What a first week this has been – Road Trip, Soaring Temperatures, The Godfather Homage, Boat DIY Marathon and Old Friends!

As a reminder, on 2nd May we left Mossy Joe in the capable hands of the previous owners, Marc & Claudia, in Capo d’Orlando in Sicily agreeing that we would meet on 8th July in Athens. Part of the agreement is that we would take Marc’s car, which he had left in Sicily, to him in Athens so that he could drive home to Switzerland. Hence our Road Trip!

After an overnight stay in Palermo, in a fab B&B opposite the station (very important as we had 5 suitcases to manage!) we took the train early the next morning to Capo d’Orlando. Italian trains are incredible – air con, USB ports, comfy seats, special area for bikes and luggage, clear information on the screens in carriages and all for 10 Euros per person for a 2 hour trip!

After picking up Marc’s fabulous car/van we loaded it up with the many parcels containing ‘things for the boat’ that Jacques had organised to be delivered to Capo d’Orlando marina. I was amazed that this endeavour had worked so well, 7 parcels including 24 litres of Ricard, had been sent from various suppliers in Europe and all successfully delivered and held by the Security team at the marina! All except one – the new winch which has been following us around Europe and we hope catches us with us soon!

From the marina we headed straight off to Savoca, about a 2 hour drive away. Savoca is a stunning village, famous for having been the location where some scenes from The Godfather were filmed. In the film, the Bar is owned by a man named Vitelli, and it is where Michael Corleone (played by Al Pacino) meets and falls in love with Vitelli’s daughter, Apollonia. The Church is where the scenes of their subsequent marriage were filmed!

After a pleasant 18 hours in Savoca, the next morning we hit the road to head north to Bari in mainland Italy and to our ferry that would take us to the west coast of Greece. We had booked an overnight ferry so that we would arrive at a reasonable hour ahead of the 5 hour drive to Athens.

I love ferries, this one was great fun and our cabin was exceptional! Not everyone on board though had the luxury of a cabin!

At last we arrived in Athens and back with Mossy Joe – we were both so excited to be reunited with the boat! The downside is that there were many jobs to do before we could head off and life in a marina with temperatures of 35+ is no fun! More on this in the next post – it will read like porn for DIYers!!

We had all day Sunday with Marc, Claudia and Galileo on the boat and Monday morning we helped our lovely friends pack up and with some emotion waved them off – we have high hopes of meeting them again somewhere in the World when they get their new Neel 52 next year!

More soon to include the arrival of Charlie, DIY heaven and reunion with another wonderful old friend!

The last few days in Cap d’Orlando were spent getting the boat ready to hand over to Marc & Claudia for 10 weeks.

The sun was shining beautifully whilst we cleaned the boat, hung out washing and enjoyed our last full day before our friends joined us on Sunday afternoon.

As if the weather knew that we were leaving, the rain came down and the clouds hung low over the mountains!

We still managed a celebration welcome drink and we were thrilled to see Galileo, the Sailing Dog, again.

And so by train to our hotel close to Palermo airport, a quick hot sandwich dinner in the train station and an early night.

We did have out last beautiful Sicilian sunset to cheer us up and on!

We will meet with our friends and Mossy Joe again on 8th July in Athens so watch out for more adventures from T and J Sail Away!

In the meantime, we are happy to be home!

Thank you for following this blog, your interest and support as well as your many fabulous comments. They have been truly appreciated.

Keep well, sail safe, have fun!

Leaving Palermo was much less dramatic than the arrival! We waved goodbye to the Pirates and the very helpful Marina guys and set off for Cefalu 30 miles and 4 hours away. Hardly any wind so after a few attempts to set the sails and enjoy a peaceful journey we gave up and it was engine all the way.

As ever, the landscape was spectacular!

We walked the 20 minutes into the main town and Cefalu was much more wonderful than I had expected!

I love the lady eating her pizza out of a box in front of the Cathedral!

As if Cefalu wasn’t magical enough we took seats at a bar overlooking the beach at Sunset and imagine someone’s excitement at finding Ricard on the menu!! Yes!! Accompanied by possible the best ‘nibbles’ we have had so far!

We really enjoyed this small but lively place, a smattering of tourists, beautiful craft shops and exquisitely presented winding streets and alleyways.

Food was top notch too! My gnocchi was very light and Jacques’ pizza ranked in his top 5 of this trip!

We had just one night in Cefalu as we wanted to get to our final port with time to relax, clean the boat, make some repairs and pack ready to hand over to Marc and Claudia.

Capo d’Orlando has a huge, modern Marina and we moored up easily only to once again realise that the quay was to high for us to be able to get off the boat! It would also make it near impossible for Marc, Claudia, Gallileo and their luggage to board the boat!

Our second spot was perfect and slightly further away from the bars and restaurants that have a fondness for playing loud music! God I sound old!

We ventured into the Town, a 15 minute taxi ride away to sort out some ‘new’ wifi but after the magnificence of the other towns, Capo d’Orlando was a disappointment except for the views out to the Aeolian Islands including the active volcanic island of Stromboli which last erupted in 2019.

We headed back to the Marina, planning to have dinner there when we bumped into some ‘old’ friends! Rewinding slightly, when we were in Trapani, we were thrilled to see another Neel Trimaran. It is still not that common to see another Neel so we planned to go say ‘Hi’ to the crew of Anna II the next morning but they beat us to it! Wolfgang and Corinna came to visit us and explained that they were with their friends Walter and Anna (the boat owners) on their trip that started in Barcelona and would end somewhere in Greece!

We had a long chat over a coffee and it seemed that we were all heading to the same stops in the following days and hoped that we would see each other again. Capo d’Orlando gave us that opportunity and we had a wonderful evening sharing stories of sailing and after a few Aperol’s stories of life in general! Fabulous company. lots of laughs and as it turned out not much dinner!

We were able to wave them off the next morning but it was only after the waving that I thought to take photos!

Our last meal in a Marina – Pizza for me and Calzone for Jacques – both excellent!

We’re nearly at the end of this first Mossy Joe adventure, heading back to Palermo tomorrow afternoon to fly to Luscious Luton on Tuesday!

I’ll wrap up before we head home…….

The 30 mile, 4 hour sail from Castellammare Del Golfo to Sicily’s capital, Palermo was warm, sunny and uneventful. The same cannot be said for the experience of mooring once we arrived!

Typically, there having been very little wind whilst at sea, it picked up to gusts of 20 knots as soon as we arrived in the harbour. When we saw a couple of marina guys waving at us from the quay, we dismissed them as surely the space they indicated was not for us as it would be just about big enough:

a) even if there was no wind

b) even if there were not a cluster of rowing boats along the small jetty to our port side and

c) even if there was not an enormous Pirate ship to our Starboard!!

We made a number of attempts to moor but the chances of hitting something were fairly high and Jacques eventually said ‘No it won’t work’ and it is VERY unusual for Jacques to give up! We asked for another spot and the base said that was all they had so we took a deep breath, waited for a moments lull in the wind, threw a line to the Pirates to hold us whilst we reversed, got the rowboats to move out of the way and although quite a squeeze Hey Presto! Jacques did it!!

Well that was enough adventure for 1 day, so a night on board left us refreshed and ready to hit the town the next day. After Trapani I doubted anywhere else could be as enchanting and as we were now in a City I wondered if some of the Sicilian magic might be lost. It turned out to be a different type of magic but magical it was! It has a unique mixture of Norman, Moorish, and Baroque architecture – all equally as stunning and some buildings a mixture of all styles added on over a number of centuries.

First ‘Wow’ moment was the Theatre Massimo which at only 200 years old is very modern compared to the other historic buildings.

There are a number of UNESCO sites in Palermo but none as breathtaking as the Cathedral. I make no apologies for the amount of photos, some taken from the climb (100 slippery marbles steps!) up to and some from the actual roof!

Short stop on our way to the top!

And then ‘Up on the Roof……’

And to prove I was there – one of my special badly taken selfies!

The bells rang for quarter to the hour! Wow they were loud and pleased we made a move down before the hourly chimes started.

We had dinner and drinks, my now customary Aperol Spritz (which I have to say I hated the first time I had it but perhaps because that was in the Cotswolds in February!) and Jacques taking a shine to the local Messina beer.

Our walk back to the Marina took us past other incredible sights….

And lastly, not quite historic just happily quirky, a multi coloured ribboned and bowed caravan!

We only have one more stop before reaching Capo d’Orlando where we say ‘Arrivederci’ to Mossy Joe for 10 weeks. Jacques decided to cheer us both up with this screen shot……

My final couple of posts will be in next few days.

Enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend and here’s hoping for a glimmer of Sun where ever in the world you are! xxxx

I was absolutely entranced by Segesta – a town inland from Trapani from Roman times but not actually Roman! The story goes that the locals began to build the Roman temple (420 BC) that you can see in the photos but it was never finished, mostly because as long as it wasn’t finished the town could continue to get funds from Rome to complete it. The Roman version of your extension project ‘sorry we just need a few more parts and tools – I’ll just pop to Jewsons, be back in an hour, can I have a £500 advance for payments I need to make’ and then you don’t see the builder for 3 weeks!

A hour hike up the hill from the temple, the remains of the town can be seen including an incredibly well preserved amphitheatre which used to seat 3000 people. I also really loved the colourful display of the wild flowers on the way up – kept me going and minimised the ‘oh god I’m knackered’ comments!

I could write a love letter to Segesta and the surrounding area, I know these photos only give a glimpse of its magnificence and it just confirmed for me how awesome Sicily is.

I was concerned that the next stop would be a disappointment but Castellammare del Golfo, although very different was equally as enchanting!

Spot Mossy Joe!

We had a great day and evening here, it seems to be the ‘hip’ place for youngsters and tourists at the weekend due to the wide range of bars and restaurants both along the harbour and in the charming labyrinth of back streets.

We went to a nice looking but informal restaurant, fairly early with many families and couples eating. We ordered our food and lucky Jacques ended up with double pizza as the waiter delivering 5 pizzas on a tray to our neighbouring table managed to tilt just enough for a ‘Pizza quattro stagioni ‘ to land on his lap!!

The staff were half apologetic, half mortified but we did get a free beer and glass of wine.

This is Jacques’ actual pizza delivered on a plate on the table!

En route now to our final destination (at least for this tour) next port would be Palermo the capital of Sicily. Here’s a preview of its splendour…

And whilst I look very relaxed in this photos, next time I’ll describe the experience of mooring up in Palermo the previous day in 20 knots of side wind into a relatively small space between a rowing club on one side and a Pirate ship on the other!!

Amore dalla Sicily xxx

On our 3rd night in Trapani we headed off to hit the town – I am completely captivated. It reminds me of Rome in that there are treasures to behold at every turn but the architecture is not really ‘Roman’ it’s more Baroque in style. This update is mostly visual as I have been so taken with everything I have seen (and eaten!)

The previous afternoon on our food shopping trip we went to see the Cathedral but could not go in as a funeral was about to take place. It was a very moving sight, the hearse followed by mourners walking behind it through the opulent narrow streets.

We managed to get some pictures of it on our night out – so hard to capture such a vast building only being able to step back 10 feet!

We had a superb dinner and able to sit outside on the restaurant terrace, albeit with our jackets on! We both had the local pasta Busiata, mine with aubergine and ricotta and Jacques with mussels!

Meal was finished with possibly the biggest cannoli I have ever seen! Delicious!

Although it was early in the Season, the streets were still quite busy so the local law and order were out in strength! This seriously made us both laugh. Very funny but I suppose very practical for this terrain!

One more walk around town after dinner and we stumbled upon this treasure

That was quite enough excitement for one day especially as the following day we were hiring a car and being real tourists going to see the Temple at Segeste – stunning!

More on this next time!

Ciao Bella xxx

Saying ‘Goodbye’ to Tunisia was with mixed feelings. We had met many people that were so kind and helpful, the places we had visited were beautiful or impressive and the weather (if not the wind!) had been spectacular.

What I felt Tunisia lacked, at least for the 2 marinas we were in, was the vibe and energy that you get in European harbours or marinas where so much life exists. No shop, bar, restaurant, ship chandler, launderette or any of the establishments normally associated with moored vessels were to be found and this gave an air of isolation and almost an overhanging sadness.

The day we left Tunisia (Tuesday 18th April) we were up at 6am to await Kais and representatives from the various organisations required to check us out of the country i.e. Police and Customs. They were very efficient and provided us with all the papers we needed to prove that Mossy Joe had left European waters for Tax and Immigration purposes. We set off at 7.50 to head to Pantelleria, an Italian island almost half way between Tunisia and Sicily, a trip of 80 miles taking 10 hours.

Although it was a long day we were blessed with a display from 3 large dolphins en route who wanted to play around the boat! Fabulous!

As we approached Panterellia, the light was starting to fade which made the landscape even more beautiful.

Having announced our arrival to the Harbour staff and them knowing by some magical power that our previous port was in Tunis we were again greeted by Police, Immigration and Coastguards. I filled in various badly photocopied forms and handed over the boat papers (which is the most important document on the boat) and our passports. I am travelling on my Irish passport so that there are no restrictions on my length of stay in Europe but it appears there is some EU treaty that Ireland has not signed up to which the Police explained meant that Jacques and I would be treated differently i.e. he could go ashore immediately and I could not!! In theory I would need a ‘shore pass’ from the office that would open some time tomorrow. As we planned to leave early the next day this was not very helpful! However, the officials, having established we were not smugglers of any sort and that we were leaving first thing and that we were hungry decided to turn a blind eye!!

We were shattered, so still in our sailing gear (and not completely sure I had a shower that day at all!) we headed out to the nearest Pizzeria, where I had the island speciality involving a great deal of capers with a small beer and straight back to bed!

The following day would be another early start with another long haul of 10 hours to Sicily. I am so excited about Sicily – it conjures up visions of rolling hills and romance and the odd Mafia shoot out!

This route is another very busy shipping lane with boats heading to/from the East Med and the Suez Canal. This is some idea of the traffic! The small black boat is Mossy Joe having dodged the tankers and cargo ships in the fast lane!

We arrived in Trapani just before 6pm …..

And the following day set out to explore – what a superb place!

Lots more on Trapani and the surrounding area to come next time but I’ll leave you with what must be the most glamorous B&B in Sicily and possible the World!

Ciao per ora amori miel!