Went to find Shane and Mayuri to find out why they had ignored the blog for so long! Thought they may have been too busy.........and what did we find on our weeks stay in Greece (Lefkas)with them??
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Found them!
Went to find Shane and Mayuri to find out why they had ignored the blog for so long! Thought they may have been too busy.........and what did we find on our weeks stay in Greece (Lefkas)with them??
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
Arrived in Corfu
Sorry, still me (Shane's mum) doing the blog update. Shane and Mayuri have now arrived in Corfu. They only have telephone contact at the moment. One of their computers has been accidently wiped clean and only Mayuri's survives! Lots of photos and information lost but they remain unscathed and enjoying the sunshine. Hopefully they will get to an internet cafe and update you with lots of stuff very soon!!
Sunday, 29 June 2008
Update from Shane's mum
Just in case you were wondering where Shane and Mayuri have got to......................well, heading for Greece and the last contact was from Naples. They are out of email range for the time being but the stories and photos will be well worth waiting!
Watch this space!!
Watch this space!!
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
La Ciotat
Set off from Marseille this morning at 0815. Before leaving I took the lines for a French guy who arrived next to us. He had come from Frioul marina and said the wind had been at 55kts yesterday. The decision to leave that anchorage gets better & better. While I was doing some stuff to the boat I had noticed that it was 38kts in our port which is really sheltered.
I got up at 0600 to do some stuff & wash all the yellow mud that comes out of the rain off the boat. By 0800 the sun had gone in but it was nice as we went out of the harbour with the mega yacht, Zenji following us. After 5 miles of motoring South into a gentle wind in the lee of Marseille we came out into a really big swell left over from yesterday and headed east between some islands. Mayuri had gone back to bed feeling ill, but even my stomach was being churned by it.
After a few hours the wind veered just enough to make a starboard tack and it rained a little - covering the boat in the yellow mud again. The veiws were really nice and for a full hour I sailed through a shoal of thousands of jellyfish. They were that thick I thought they might block up the engine cooling water intake.
I intended to anchor tonight as the wind is light but as we came into the bay riding the huge swell, the anchorages at both sides had big crashing waves as the water shallowed. So at 1345 we headed for the marina. I hadn't looked at it in the book as I didn't intend to use it and so hadn't noticed that there aren't many (any) visitor berths, but after berthing four times in different spots, the guy was finally happy at 1435 and after photocopying every bit of paper & certificate I had & taking my telephone number he took our 28 euros :-(
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Always the bulb at the top that goes!
About 10 minutes after writing that last entry, I noticed the navtext had started working. It had only been able to tell the weather in Algeria up to now, but was now saying that where we were was expecting f8 winds with severe gusts - thanks Bruce & Caroline for giving us that!
Half an hour later we were motoring across the bay in really gentle conditions as the wind had died to 10kts, towards Marseille Vieux port - stuff the budget. We squeezed in into the outer breakwater as a massive cruise ship came out at the same time, Mayuri worrying when he pipped his horn 4 times - 5 would have mean't he wanted to know where we were going!
We berthed on the CTNL pontoon at 2120 - I even got to test out my new stern light! The Scott lookalike who had been anchored behind us in the bay (and who had to move when we nearly dragged onto him - he did park right behind us!) was already tied up and came out and in his broken English said "you will get better sleep here". He was a charter skipper and had been reseting his anchor single handed in the day, and taking his charter guests backward & forward in the dingy to the island, so if he thought it was a good idea then it was good enough for me.
I didn't think the exhaust leak had been too bad the other day as after 6 hours of motoring the water was still below the foorboards, although the space under the bed was full, but after the 1 hour motor across the bay there was the same amount again, so it really had been a good idea to come into port. Another 102 Euros and we have a new exhaust pipe that's cured it!
At 22 Euros a night I thought the wind better be bad now - and it is. Even the guy anchored to the steel pegs is on the same pontoon as us now. It is nice here though, right in the centre of town and with a 37 million euro mega yacht -Zenji - across the harbour from us, we're in good company!
Hoping to leave Wednesday but will only be another shortish hop before the next lot of wind comes through on Thursday.
Saturday, 24 May 2008
Frioul
Our second day of the Med.
Set off yesterday just after 0900. The wind was forcast to be Southerly becoming Southeasterly by tea time, but was already SE when we set off - a mistake?
We sailed across the gulf de Fos for an hour or so and then started the engine to make some progress South toward the exit of the bay - 10 miles away from Navy service. The wind had aleady increased from 13kts to 20ish and as we passed the entrance to Etang de Bouc I was having thoughts about going back as we struggled to make 2kts under engines into the chop. Mayuri wanted to carry on so we did and after another few hours, we made it to the sea.
We turned East, cutting behind the two Westerly cardinals to save some distance & time which took us across the shallow areas that created some quite big waves. We hoped to be able to make a starboard tack as we turned East, but as usual the wind swung around keeping 0 & 30 degrees which is not enough for us (or any cat?) to sail.
Mayuri had helmed for quite a while but decided to go to bed after she started feeling queasy. I carried on plodding East for another few hours, sometimes unfurling the genoa when the wind veered a little, but always with the main reefed & the staysail pulled tight down the centre to the mast. The reef was tied in by hand as when I came to do it, the line had been pulled through the boom. The dingy also had to be re-tied as it started to blow off in the wind which had increased to a steady 22kts, gusting 26. Luckily the auto pilot was behaving which made things easier.
The waves seemed oversized for the wind, and boyunced us around a lot as they seemed to comes from all angles (forward!). I was quite enjoying it when Mayuri came up and said it was wild, got thrown to the floor and then went back to bed. I looked in on her a little later but her head was under the pillow as the spray was coming in through the bedroom door.
The wind eased as we came into the lee of Frioul and we headed into the anchorage. After dropping the anchor in 10m and letting out what seemed like loads of warp we went in & looked at the key and found we only had 30m out - which isn't really enough, but after setting off tired from the last few days of finishing the boat and then 8 hours of sailing to cover 20 odd miles I decided it would be ok as the wind was only 8kts in the good shelter (joke!)
After a hot shower and tea I slept until 0330 when the wind picked up and there were lots of strange twanging noises coming from the warps. I had to keep sitting up to see another boat near us to check we weren't dragging. I went back to sleep at around 6ish and only quickly got up at 0900 to turn off the anchor light - noticing that either we had dragged or the boat next to us had moved forward while I was asleep.
I got back out of bed slightly more quickly at 1030 when I rolled over and noticed a big jagged rock out of the window that shouldn't have been there. As I burst through the doors still pulling on my shorts the wind was at 30kts and we were very lucky.
A few other boats came and anchored for the day, usually straight in front of us - now that I had 40m of warp out. The wind stayed at 20-30kts all day causing a few other boats to drag - and nearly hit the same rock as us.
I just wanted to sleep, but a problem that we had found when we arrived was bugging me - the port bilge was full of seawater - so I had a look and found the exhaust pipe had split. It was already looking a bit tired but the pressure of the waves between the hulls the day before had maybe finished it off. Water had been shooting up through the cockpit drains which I've never seen before and while Mayuri was in the bathroom jets of water were squirting out of the sink plughole - one of them causing janix to sick up a big hairball just like a real cat - which has saved me a job in a few weeks when it would have blocked!
At 1500 we dragged again and in total have reset about 5 times. We motored around to the next bay to see if we could find any more shelter, but there wasn't and with the wind at 36kts we struggled to even get back into the old bay.
We've reset again now & it seems to be holding, although it's going to be a long night - sleeping in the saloon for a better view of the rock transits! Just one other boat here and he's been knocking steel pegs into the rock all day and is securely tied up to them.
Set off yesterday just after 0900. The wind was forcast to be Southerly becoming Southeasterly by tea time, but was already SE when we set off - a mistake?
We sailed across the gulf de Fos for an hour or so and then started the engine to make some progress South toward the exit of the bay - 10 miles away from Navy service. The wind had aleady increased from 13kts to 20ish and as we passed the entrance to Etang de Bouc I was having thoughts about going back as we struggled to make 2kts under engines into the chop. Mayuri wanted to carry on so we did and after another few hours, we made it to the sea.
We turned East, cutting behind the two Westerly cardinals to save some distance & time which took us across the shallow areas that created some quite big waves. We hoped to be able to make a starboard tack as we turned East, but as usual the wind swung around keeping 0 & 30 degrees which is not enough for us (or any cat?) to sail.
Mayuri had helmed for quite a while but decided to go to bed after she started feeling queasy. I carried on plodding East for another few hours, sometimes unfurling the genoa when the wind veered a little, but always with the main reefed & the staysail pulled tight down the centre to the mast. The reef was tied in by hand as when I came to do it, the line had been pulled through the boom. The dingy also had to be re-tied as it started to blow off in the wind which had increased to a steady 22kts, gusting 26. Luckily the auto pilot was behaving which made things easier.
The waves seemed oversized for the wind, and boyunced us around a lot as they seemed to comes from all angles (forward!). I was quite enjoying it when Mayuri came up and said it was wild, got thrown to the floor and then went back to bed. I looked in on her a little later but her head was under the pillow as the spray was coming in through the bedroom door.
The wind eased as we came into the lee of Frioul and we headed into the anchorage. After dropping the anchor in 10m and letting out what seemed like loads of warp we went in & looked at the key and found we only had 30m out - which isn't really enough, but after setting off tired from the last few days of finishing the boat and then 8 hours of sailing to cover 20 odd miles I decided it would be ok as the wind was only 8kts in the good shelter (joke!)
After a hot shower and tea I slept until 0330 when the wind picked up and there were lots of strange twanging noises coming from the warps. I had to keep sitting up to see another boat near us to check we weren't dragging. I went back to sleep at around 6ish and only quickly got up at 0900 to turn off the anchor light - noticing that either we had dragged or the boat next to us had moved forward while I was asleep.
I got back out of bed slightly more quickly at 1030 when I rolled over and noticed a big jagged rock out of the window that shouldn't have been there. As I burst through the doors still pulling on my shorts the wind was at 30kts and we were very lucky.
A few other boats came and anchored for the day, usually straight in front of us - now that I had 40m of warp out. The wind stayed at 20-30kts all day causing a few other boats to drag - and nearly hit the same rock as us.
I just wanted to sleep, but a problem that we had found when we arrived was bugging me - the port bilge was full of seawater - so I had a look and found the exhaust pipe had split. It was already looking a bit tired but the pressure of the waves between the hulls the day before had maybe finished it off. Water had been shooting up through the cockpit drains which I've never seen before and while Mayuri was in the bathroom jets of water were squirting out of the sink plughole - one of them causing janix to sick up a big hairball just like a real cat - which has saved me a job in a few weeks when it would have blocked!
At 1500 we dragged again and in total have reset about 5 times. We motored around to the next bay to see if we could find any more shelter, but there wasn't and with the wind at 36kts we struggled to even get back into the old bay.
We've reset again now & it seems to be holding, although it's going to be a long night - sleeping in the saloon for a better view of the rock transits! Just one other boat here and he's been knocking steel pegs into the rock all day and is securely tied up to them.
Friday, 23 May 2008
Cast Off
All went well yesterday and she's floating just like she should be!
It feels so good to be on the water again. Beautiful views and gentle rocking to put us to sleep last night. (Although we crashed out anyway as it was a over a 12hour day of non-stop activity to get everything ready for today. We were both shattered when we crawled into bed.)
We're headed towards a small island called Frioul today which is about 20 miles away and should take us about 5-7 hours, Porquerolles the day after (same kind of distance I think).
All is well. Weather lovely. We're about to have some toast, and lines are due to be cast at 9am sharp.
It feels so good to be on the water again. Beautiful views and gentle rocking to put us to sleep last night. (Although we crashed out anyway as it was a over a 12hour day of non-stop activity to get everything ready for today. We were both shattered when we crawled into bed.)
We're headed towards a small island called Frioul today which is about 20 miles away and should take us about 5-7 hours, Porquerolles the day after (same kind of distance I think).
All is well. Weather lovely. We're about to have some toast, and lines are due to be cast at 9am sharp.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)