Annual Cruising Round-Up

The highlight of our season was undoubtedly sailing into the heart of Venice to the very jaws of the Grand Canal just a cable or so from Piazza San Marco. We had set our heart on doing this during our honeymoon there some fourteen years ago.

To this end we left our winter base at Monastir, Tunisia at the beginning of March and watched the weather very carefully as we sailed to Malta and Gozo, the east coast of Sicily and the toe and heel of Italy. We then cruised through the Dalmatian Islands via the Istrian peninsular to and from Venice, dropping into Montenegro and Corfu on our way to our 2008/2009 winter base of Lefkas in the Ionian Islands.

Our statistics for the season compared with the two previous years since we left the UK are as follows:

Distance logged - 2400NM
Ave speed - 5.22 Knots
Under canvas - 15%
Motoring/motor sailing - 85%
Days at sea making passage - 48%

We have enjoyed the season immensely visiting some beautiful and interesting cruising grounds and places. In hindsight, however, we found 2400 miles in a season of seven months on the water without a break a little ambitious. We think that next year will revert to having a summer break in the UK to avoid the heat, crowds and expense of high season and also the meltemi!

The percentage time spent under canvas this year was significantly reduced compared with previous years for two reasons. Sailing northwestward up the Adriatic one tends to motor in the morning calms to avoid the afternoon fresh to strong northwesterlies in the afternoon. Our southeastward travel down the Adriatic during the crowded high season dictated that we arrive at our destination, be it anchorage, town quay or marina, by the early afternoon to ensure getting a berth. The dilemma here is that the sea breeze does not kick in until after midday and so the calm or very light breeze of the morning again severely limited the possibility of good quality sailing.

A bonus this year has been the opportunity to anchor in beautiful sheltered bays and harbours on many more occasions than in the past. We lay to our hook on 98 of the 204 times that we moored. We were limited to about ten consecutive nights at anchor by the amount of water we carry. Our average daily usage for drinking (inc. Tea and coffee), cooking, washing up (we don’t use salt water) and cleaning teeth is around 30 litres. We use solar deck showers having filled the bags at the previous watering hole.

The principal difficulties that we have experienced during our travels this year have been:
Getting camping gaz refills in Italy and Croatia
Lack of internet access in Croatia particularly WiFi
Expensive marinas, quays and cost of living generally in Croatia
Overcrowded moorings during the July and August mania

The benefits and pleasure of sailing to Venice and cruising Maltese, Sicilian, Croatian and Montenegrin waters has far outweighed these difficulties and we have no regrets whatsoever about our choice of destination, fond memories of which will stay with us forever.

We are astounded at the number of national ensign we have seen this season now standing at 54 from countries as diverse as Cuba, Sierra Leone, Lithuania, The Marshall islands, Japan and the Yemen. The British are in the Adriatic but in small numbers and most them are based in Croatian marinas rather than transiting as we were. We felt we had little social contact during the year as a result of the dearth of likeminded cruising folk of all nationalities except, of course, when we sailed in company for a week in the Sibenik archipelago with our Lymington friends Ted and Iris Watts and later when other friends from Lymington, Peter and Karen Mills, joined us on board Bella for eight days in the Dubrovnik area.

The large number of super and mega yachts, both sail and power, and some a lot smaller fly the Red Ensign with not a soul on board capable of understanding let alone speaking English. We have never considered the red Ensign as a flag of convenience but apparently Europeans are buying their yachts in England and registering them there to take advantage of our comparatively low rate of VAT.

We are now settling in to our winter base of Lefkas on the mountainous but lush Ionian Island of the same name which is separated from the mainland by a 23 metre wide canal and has been separated by a narrow waterway in one form or another since the 7th century BC. Lefkas town is a clean working town which, because of the constant threat of earthquake the last major event being in 2004, has buildings that are built generally no more than two storeys with masonry walls in the ground storey and timber framed and timber or corrugated iron clad in the first storey. Many have lovely wooden balconies covered with vines or Mediterranean flowers. The churches, and there are many of them, are small and ornate internally with earthquake resistant freestanding iron framed rather than masonry bell towers. It has all the amenities and facilities we could wish for within a short walk or, at most, a five minute bicycle ride from the sheltered marina. We like Lefkas and its clean, friendly atmosphere. People smile a lot here.

We have bought second hand bikes and are cycling every day, weather permitting, for exercise and convenience. The wildlife on the salt lagoons around Lefkas town is amazing with Dalmatian pelicans, storks, flamingos, egret, coots, pintails, kingfishers and more.

There will be a social life for us here in the marina as there are over seventy liveaboards in around forty boats based here for the winter. Some live here permanently with houses ashore, some have made this marina their permanent base but still reside in UK and others like us are just passing through. The majority of people are British but there are three Swedish couples and a single Swedish chap, one Belgians couples (Yannes and Agni on ‘Dushi’ already known to us), two German couples, a French couple with two children and a Dutch couple. We have already met many of these people and a pontoon party helped break the ice. Our friends from Lymington, Peter and Ruth Austin are here as are friends we met in Spain two years ago, Martin and Linda. Miggy volunteered our services to host the radio net once a week.

The weather, with very few exceptions, has been excellent. We are still sitting in the cockpit for lunch most days in a temperature of 24°C. The thought of the cold weather in the UK sends shivers down our spines but we are looking forward tremendously to seeing family and friends over the Christmas period.

Until then, Yassas