Tag: Malta

Hello, welcome, come aboard. Well, two months in and I’ve already broken my promise to put out a blog every month. In my defence, it’s been a big couple of months, and it’s been mostly about being with our friends. January saw us off to Edinburgh, Scotland, for the wedding of our dear friends Georgia and Tim. We tagged on to this a road trip down the east coast of the UK to visit one of my favouritest people in the world. On our return we ramped up our efforts to get Longo ready for the coming Summer. While this was happening our friends, Ray and Ali, were just beginning their grand retirement plan of buying a boat and sailing the Med. That’s right our mates decided that we were having such a blast that they decided to join us but on their own boat! Just as we were finishing up with our preparations for Summer, they found their new floating home in Malta. Since Ray and Ali are new to sailing and because we just couldn’t wait to see them again (they were at the wedding too!), we flew out to Malta to help with prep and move their boat to Cyprus.

Many of you will have heard about some of our adventures on FB, if so, feel free to put this blog up now and go about your day knowing you aren’t going to miss much here. For those of you that may not have had the benefit of Ian’s infrequent but lively updates on FB here are the highlights.

The Nuptials of Georgia and Tim Di Nardo. You know how sometimes you come across two people and think to yourself ‘these two are like G&T’s on a hot summer’s day’. Refreshing and a joy to be around in any situation. Well, that’s Georgia and Tim; the personification of G&Ts! We were genuinely chuffed to bits to receive our wedding invitation to what promised to be one of the best wedding events. Despite being true blue Aussie’s, the happy couple with the help of the incomparable Janie Rowe, Mother of the Bride, planned a very lavish affair at Carberry Towers Mansion House on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Scotland.

For three glorious days we helped Georgia and Tim celebrate with old and new friends. It was a wonderful time with loads of highlights, especially for me as I was asked to be back-up photographer to the extraordinarily talented Susie. It was an honour and a joy to help lay down memories for the happy couple and their families.

Road Trip and Visiting Coleen. The only downside to the wedding was that some of us came away with nasty colds. It was to be expected given that we had all flown in from across the world and planes are a hotbed of ickiness. Unfortunately, I was included in the inflicted and our UK adventures were curtailed as I needed a few days to recover. Thanks to the generosity of Ian and Janine of SV Deejay, we had a beautiful place in which to base ourselves in the lovely village of Seaton Delaval. So, when I was able to, we went exploring, with trips to Warkworth, Amble, Craster, a drive by of Bamburgh Castle of “the Last Kingdom” fame, Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, ST Mary’s Lighthouse (of the TV show “Vera” fame), Whitley Bay, Tynemouth, and Housestead Roman Fort. The rest of our time was spent with me cuddled up on the couch and Ian playing nurse. Thanks again to the crew from SV Deejay who provided invaluable advice on our itinerary.

Finally, our time in Northumberland came to an end and we drove our way down to York. York is one of my favourite UK places and I really wanted to show Ian this incredibly special town. Like most of the touristy places in the UK in January, York was quiet. This suited us perfectly. A highlight for me was the trip into the York Minster crypt. I hadn’t had time to do this before and it didn’t fail to amaze. The layers of history on this one spot are breathtaking, with Saxon and Norse ruins overlaying Roma ruins all surmounted with the years of York Minster history. We stayed only a day, but it was worth every minute.

Our next and final stop before heading back to Longo in Cyprus was to visit Coleen and her family. Ian and I first met Coleen almost twenty years ago in Saudi Arabia and despite the time between visits, Coleen will always remain one of my dearest friends. As Ian commented when Coleen and I sat down together we just picked up our last conversation like we’d only said goodbye the day before. In addition to seeing Coleen, we were lucky to meet her friend David, and to catch up with Annabelle, Coleen’s second born. We also caught up with Coleen’s folks, Madge and Peter. Along with Charlotte and Rory, Coleen’s other kids, these are people are very much part of our British family. Given my nomadic life*, Coleen’s life is breathtakingly alien and wonderful to me. Though she has travelled widely, Coleen lives in the same community she grew up in. During our day out in Robin Hoods Bay, Flylingdale and surrounds, Coleen regaled us of her youthful antics, including pointing out where she fell of her horse and dragged along the road. Surprisingly, Coleen still loves horses so much so that she teaches others to ride. No doubt saving many from her younger self’s fate. We walked the tiny lanes where Coleen, her siblings and friends played chasey. We passed by the many buildings and shops that her family had a connection to and we had lunch in the hotel where she was once a chamber maid. I even got my feet wet in the North Sea as stood watching the waves. Special thanks for the wonderful accommodation supplied by Alexander of Flylingdale School.

^{*Not including our adventures on Longo, I have lived in three countries, five Australian states (most of these more than once), well over eighteen towns/cities, and moved between twenty-five homes. My time on Longo is my increasing countries visited (and lived in) though my home now remains the same!}

Return to Longo and the Prep for Summer. All too soon our UK adventures were over, and we returned to Cyprus to prepare Longo for our next Summer of galivanting around the Mediterranean. As part of our contract with the marina we had the opportunity to haul Longo out. Due to a wonky rudder, we hauled out in May last year in Finike and while the boat was out, we discovered it needed a bit of work including new antifouling for her hull to stop barnacles, weed and other icky stuff sticking to her butt. So, we had this done then and didn’t really need to haul out this year. However, as we had already signed the Kapraz Gate contract and the haul out was included, we weren’t about to let that this opportunity to slide (haul outs can be extremely expensive). Besides, we are in marina surrounded by cow paddocks what else were we going to do for that week?

The hard (slang for a boat stored on hardstands in the yard) in Cyprus is big until you look at the size of the crane and realise its turning circle is really big! So, the hard can only accommodate around ten or fifteen boats consequently, there is a cue of people eager to get work done and only so much space available. We asked to be lifted mid-February but were told many projects were running overtime and a que was forming. So we were surprised when we got a call around 1100 to say that they had space and could haul us out at 1330 the same day! We scrambled to get prepared, it wasn’t pretty, our bed became a soft place for all the odds and sods, like the TV, that would normally go in a safe place when underway. While I was doing that, Ian was preparing the boat above. Unfortunately for him this included a quick dip in the chilly water to take of the plastic bag that protects our prop from unwanted barnacle growth over winter. Ian managed the job in one lung full of air, impressive (but given his adventures later Ray and Ali’s boat not really that impressive), however he also came up trailing blood. He had managed to slice open his finger in the process. It was nasty enough that it left a trail of blood through the cockpit and stole the words from his mouth for a while, just as well as he was shivering so much had he tried to swear he would have surely bitten his tongue.

Finally, the boat was ready, and we let loose the lines. Every sailor loves to lose the line but when you’re only going 500 metres under engine it takes the fun out of it. Still in such a small time I managed to slip down the companionway and jar my shoulder and hip. Between Ian’s finger and my shoulder not an auspicious start, especially as we knew there was plenty of work ahead.

It’s always a bit of a nervous moment when you give your boat-home over to someone to lift out of the water. However, the team here were very professional and their calm assuredness eased my worries a good deal. There was a little bit of tension on the sidelines when the boat owners ahead of us in the cue came by to query why we were being lifted before them; a perfectly reasonable question given they were before us in the cue. The marina staff explained that as we plan to do the work ourselves, with almost no practical assistance from the yard, it was, in the marina’s opinion, an easy solution to pull us out and let us crack on while their teams were working on other jobs. It pays to be nice to the gatekeeper!

Once the boat was out, the first job is to power wash the hull. This is the only job we can’t do ourselves. During the sailing season Ian maintains the hull by free diving down and scrapping the hull to remove any unwanted growth. The antifouling paint we had put on in May making this an easy job and sailing itself does a lot since a “sailing boat gathers no barnacles”. It would be nice if the antifoul and sailing stopped all the growth but unfortunately some barnacles and weed growth is inevitable especially over winter when Longo isn’t sailing. The power wash is brutal, and we stood by as the entire topcoat of antifoul sloughed away along with the weed and slime. Never mind we planned to repaint anyway.

Once she was clean the crane moved her into her new home for the next few days. The marina here is a little more professional than the last haul out we had. Before we had rough logs and wedges holding her up. This time we have sturdy adjustable steal stands that are tied together for added security. Just as well we had forecasts for a bit of wind and a storm coming our way.

Last time we stayed in an Airbnb while Longo was on the hard, this time we stayed on board. It has its challenges. We don’t have shore power; we could have but Ian has already installed our new kick ass inverter, so we still have coffee and toast. We don’t have water other than what is in our tanks, and we can’t just let that go down the drain since that would just be splashing on the concrete below. Still, we are standing only metres from the door to the marina facilities, so we took advantage by taking long hot showers.

By the end of the haul out day, Ian had polished one side of the hull (above the water line), and I had made a start on cleaning the pesky waterline where the antifoul ends and the water laps against the white gel coat. The next day, we were up early and began the boring task of sanding the hull ready for the new coat of antifoul. We had to do this by hand as machine sanders are too aggressive. We also had to scrape of any barnacles that the power wash missed, for example in the bow thruster tunnel. As we had been expecting to do this job for some time we had already bought throw away overalls. These are a great invention and I thoroughly recommend them. I also recommend you wear them … which we did not! And we looked like a pair of 6’ blue smurfs. Working together we knocked over the sanding quickly and moved straight on to painting.

It took us two hours to paint one coat of the hull. The good thing about this kind of painting is that it needs to be even but otherwise it doesn’t really need to be pretty. Just as well, I’ve been told I lack the skills required to do a spiffy paint job. (I’m not heartbroken by this at all! It just means I don’t help if it needs to be pretty). Ian did the high line, and I took care of the underneath. Having over 13 tons of boat over my head gave me pause for a moment and then I just cracked on and did the job. I was surprised that it only takes just over one can of paint to do one coat of the boat. Throughout the day the marina painters would pop over to offer advice and let us know we are doing an excellent job. Ian was a little surprised with the ease of the work so naturally decided that instead of the two coats we had planned we might as well do three. Yay!

A few days later we had finished all our jobs, and it was time for Longo to go back into the water and back to her Winter berth. Just as well because Ali and Ray were hot on the heals of their perfect floating home and we had just enough time to finish up most of our summer season prep before we got the call to say they were heading to Malta to look at a very promising boat called “Chill”.

The beginning of Ray and Ali’s Big adventures on Chill. It turned out Chill, a 45’ Benetaeu Oceanis, was exactly what they wanted and as they signed a contract, we made plans to go to Malta to help them prepare the boat and then sail it closer to where we had Longo as we plan to buddy boating through Turkey, Greece, Albania, Croatia and then on to Montenegro for Winter.

Before we could leave Malta, Ray and Ali had to provision and equip the boat for the season. Ian had loads of fun in the chandlery spending Ray’s money, quipping every few minutes ‘you’ll need this and three of those and…My friend will pay!’ whenever the staff walked by. Funnily enough the chandlery gave them shopping-beer and invited them back. Now if I can only find a friend with an open wallet and a dress shop that serves champagne.

We didn’t get much time to explore Malta, but we loved what we saw and have plans to go back at some point in the future. However, we did manage to catch up with friends from Finike, Kerry and Stephen of SV Sailing with Thankfulness. They’ve been in Malta at anchor for some months undertaking repairs and preparation in readiness for their Atlantic crossing. It was an unexpected delight and their joy and enthusiasm for Ray and Ali’s burgeoning adventures was infectious.

The next morning, we threw the lines and headed for Milos, Greece. With plans to travel on to Rhodes before crossing to Cyprus. A multi-night passage is a wonderful way to get to know your boat and gain your sea legs (poor Ali had a nasty case of sea sickness to battle through) and this trip brought back memories of our first trip from France to Sardinia.

Our first stop was Milos in Greece. An island that Ian and I have ambivalent memories of, as we sheltered in one of its bays for five days during our first Meltemi (strong northerly winds). This time we would be stopping at the town quay, and everything was going smoothly until it became a bit blowy. That’s when the harbor master offered to move us into the small, sheltered fishing harbour alongside the quay. He assured us there was sufficient depth to cater for Chill’s 2.3 metre depth. On arrival Ray and Ian were cautious and backed in slowly despite the Harbor Master and his cronies making twits of themselves hollering for us to ‘come back more, no problem’. However, there was a problem and the bottom of the rudder hit the harbour floor. At this point, the Harbor Master and his mates all melted away and left us (or more correctly Ray) to survey the damage. Thankfully, Ray and Ian’s conservative approach meant there was nothing more than a cosmetic scratch.

Milos continued to deliver, with the guys and the Harbour Master playing a game of Uno with shore power (a box on the town quay or pontoon that delivers AC power to the boat while in port).

There’ll be no tingly dancing on our boat!

They say bad things come in threes, and this was definitely the case In Milos! The day before leaving we arranged to refuel the boat. Without going into too much detail, let’s just say Ray ended up paying for 209 litres of diesel despite the tank only being able to hold 180 litres and being quarter to a third full. Our advice: always watch the operator zero the gauge, get a receipt and don’t be worried about calling the port police in to help.

The next leg of the journey, Milos to Rhodes, was reasonably uneventful except for Ray catching a mammoth tuna. It was big enough to feed an army and took both Ray and Ian to successfully land it on the boat. Ian is particularly chagrined as he’s been trying to catch a fish in the Med since we arrived, and Ray caught a massive Tuna on his first day out. I was simply happy to be eating sashimi tuna as it was being sliced off the bone.

Rhodes was a pitstop and not much more. Ali and I reprovisioned at the local Lidl laughing at our sea legs on land which made walking and reading Greek challenging. The next day we set off for the longest leg of the trip with the proposed destination being Cyprus. Unfortunately, the sea got a little wobbly with a confused following swell. At the same time Ray and I were suffering from a nasty head cold and Ali’s seasickness returned. Ian as always, the bestest captain and crewmate, managed to keep us on course, fed, watered and took on all the galley duties. Then, when about three quarters of the way to Cyprus we suffered a couple of electrical problems which caused us to divert to Alanya (Turkey). Notwithstanding our issues the Harbour Master wouldn’t allow us to check in to Turkey through his port as Chill’ was travelling on a provisional Polish registration (the official registration is due to arrive in Turkey in a week or so). Instead, the Harbour Master allowed us to take on fuel and told we could anchor for a brief time to rest before moving on. Our electrical issues included a fault with our depth gauge, so anchoring in an unknown bay was not a viable option. Consequently, we had to turn around as the weather window to Cyprus was closing. We hoped to check in at Finike (the next town along) where Ian and I had a contact who we thought could help us. However, the same Harbour Master manages Finike so we had to continue for another night further north to Kas where they would allow entry on the provisional registration for a “small administrative fee”.

By now the crew were all tired and looking forward to an easier passage with the destination that included a stable berth, hot showers that didn’t wobble, help with the electrical issues, a chance to do a load of washing and walk on solid ground for more than an afternoon. Of course, that was still away off and our final difficulty is best described by the hero of the moment, Ian:

Snuggled in the cockpit wearing three layers of clothing under our full foul weather gear to keep warm we started to feel the unmistakable vibration of a fouled prop. It turned out to be a large piece of tightly wrapped plastic. Of course, this only happens when it’s a dark night, cold and in the middle to the ocean. It took a few deep breaths before committing to going over the side. Thanks Janine and Craig of SV Inelsamo for the great tip to tie a rope under the boat to hold onto. It would have been a bit untidy to drift from the boat at night wearing a dark wetsuit.

Here’s what it looked like alone in the dark with faithful Mr Stabby hacking into plastic while the boat was banging up and down on my head. (Ian made an artistic representation of his view while under Chill, however, you can achieve the same thing if you turn the lights out and close your eyes!

Ian came up with two dark patches of antifoul on his head where he met underside of the boat and an overwhelming tiredness. Thankfully Ali is a doctor, and, on her advice, we fed him up like you would a recovering marathon runner (I will always keep lollies on my boat for emergencies) and put him to bed. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was easier and when we finally docked in Kas after clearing customs, we all breathed a sigh of relief.

This trip in total was a lazy 1024nm first sail of the season for us and first ever sail for Ali and Ray. Ian and I are grateful that Ray and Ali have not taken this eventful first sail too much to heart and are still looking forward to a wonderful summer sailing with us.

Not long after arriving at Kas, Ian and I hopped on a bus to Antalya where we caught a plane back to Cyprus. Three days later he and I set out in Longo for Turkey. We’re currently on day four of this adventure holed up in an anchorage waiting for some nasty wind to die down so we can finish our trip Fethiye, where we will meet up with Ray and Ali on SV Chill. Fethiye will mark the true beginning of our season with the arrival of Ned, who is stopping by for ten days or so on his way to Copenhagen for a conference.

We hope the last few months have been kind to you and the next holds fairs winds (surely, we are due for some?) and a dearth of sea monsters (unless they are monster tunas).