Greece and Italy Updates Aug 25 2011

Hi everyone.

I notice we are seriously remiss in keeping you up to date, although it would be nice if anyone actually inquired after such a lengthy sabattical from our letters.

Now, before I continue, I have received several unsympathetic replies to my last letter which, you will recall, explained all of our problems. A little compassion, please. This stuff is not funny!!!

So, in spite of the long hiatus, I will be brief. The news on the generator repair in Levkas wasn't all bad. We were able to avoid the use of the yard's crane and I negotiated a seriously reduced rate for the dockage due to no power or water. The repair, itself, while expensive, was done expeditiously and seemed to be okay. The repair guys even helped us avoid a bureaucratic nightmare regarding getting a boat repaired in Greece. Unfortunately, in Syracuse, where we are now, it developed a serious fuel leak on the side onto which it fell. Will be fixed on arrival in Ragusa as we have a Ukrainian hot to look at the boat and specifically wants a Voyage 500. Wish us luck. We've been cleaning like mad and also need to replace about 25 boards on the back deck which we lost crossing to Italy. B ring O ut A nother T housand!!!

Departing Levkas, we stopped about 20 miles short of Corfu at a small island called Paxos after a one night stay at Preveza since we didn't get out of Levkas 'til late. Paxos is a big charter boat stop and has a charming little town in the north called Lakka. It was like being in the BVI again with all the boats arriving about 4 and really jamming into the anchorage. Spent a couple of nights there and hopped north to Corfu.

Corfu is one of the big holiday destinations, and we were blessed with a reasonably sheltered and uncrowded anchorage almost under the old fort at the center of town. To make a long story short, we hung out for about 2 weeks there and our friends on Katanne arrived as well waiting to pick up a grandson. Had a nice birthday celebration, rented a car and drove around one day and generally laid back. Originally the Ukrainian was to meet us there so there was a frenzy of cleaning and fix ups long overdue. It was a nightmare to check out of Greece as the cabs were on strike and it involved a 10 km hike to the offices.

On the way to Italy, we stopped at some small islands just northwest of Corfu for the night and made a fairly rough--lost those boards--passage across to Italy--Santa Maria Di Leuca. This was a very small resort town at the tip of the heel, and we didn't stay long. We're not checking in to Italy until we reach Ragusa as once we're officially here we have 8 days to activate my visa and start the residency process. Technically since we're coming from another EU country it's not really necessary anyway. The Ukrainian was going to meet us somewhere around there, but has now changed his mind about sailing here to see the boat and then sailing back to the Black Sea, hence the current plan to meet in Ragusa. This works better for us as it gives us more time to prepare the boat and, most important, to get a storage locker to get all the extra crap off the boat, which will make it appear all the larger.

After a short stay in Leuca, we crossed the Gulf of Taranto (the instep) to Crotone, a real hole, but we were able to get internet and phones sorted out, although we had been given some bad advice and will switch from TIM (right, they've named the national telephone company after me!!!) to Vodaphone which is megabucks cheaper.

Further down was an almost free marina on the toe called Rocella Ionica where we died and went to heaven. REAL pizza. Turned out the marina in the middle of nowhere had the best resautant for miles around and every night had about 800 patrons. The town was a bit of a walk or an expensive cab ride, but there was a nicer town to the east and we discovered the marina or some service there had free bikes. Rose took the plung. After not having biked for half a century due to balance problems, she got a three wheeler and rode the 6 km there and 6 km back. She took a while to get used to it and didn't want to put her feet up on the pedals as she was sure she would fall off--difficult to do on a three wheel vehicle. The roadside workman cheered her on, and your intrepid captain fixed the thing when the chain came off. Rose strutted around like Rocky the rest of our stay there.

The weather being favorable, we headed across the Straits of Messina to Taormina Sicily. This is an historical and resort area and the town is nestled into the mountainside several hundred feet above the bay. Fortunately there are regular shuttle busses up to the town. Mount etna is also nearby and was somewhat active while we were there. I don't think my insurance covers volcanic eruptions!!! Food, once again, excellent. Unfortunately, the steering on the dinghy broke and I can't fix it--cable snapped inside the sleeve somewhere so I've rigged up one of the paddles as a steering arm--tenuous at best. In the meantime--you surely didn't think you'd escape any whynging in the letter, did you--Rose's head (her toilet) broke. No problem, I've got spare electric pumps. Of course, the screws to remove the thing are inaccessable. After a full day the master uncovered a means to remove the screws and replaced the pump. Same problem. Damn. Off with that one and another spare on. Same problem. Duh, I had reversed the wires after meticulously labelling them. So that worked for about a day and then (the original problem was no fresh water coming in to flush it) the opposite occurred, and the bowl wouldn't empty. I won't gross you out further but Hein knows what I'm talking about. Suffice it to say I had to pull the hose from the head to the Y valve as it was stopped up with calcium deposits. That worked for about a day and clogged again. Must have loosened up the stuff between the Y valve and overboard outlet as that clogged. Nasty, nasty nasty, but like new again now, AND,it didn't cost anything but the captain's blood, sweat and tears. Yippee.

We stayed in Taomina several days and headed 50 miles down the east coast of Sicily to Syracuse, once the most powerful city state in ancient Greece, and here we are until around the first when we'll move over to Ragusa. Freebird (also applying for residency) got the forms we need and today we tried to see the Patronata, a guy who helps people like us for free, but he's out 'til Monday. All the forms are in Italian and they're very picky so we want professional help. For instance, if you seal the envelop yourself, they won't accept it and you have to start all over again. While here, we ran into Sonrisa, one of the boats from our Pirate Alley convoy and Jimmy and Caroline from Blue Moon who we first met in Balck Wattle Bay, Sydney eons ago.

We are really enjoying Italy. The food is just incredible after Greece and Turkey, the people are friendly and it's not so expensive. Think we'll like it here. Just hoping the Ukranian comes through. What a relief that would be.

Cheers

Tim & Rose

At Last Aug 3 2011

Well folks, Rendezvous Cay has done it. After almost thirteen years, around 40,000 miles, the Panama and Suez canals, six continents, dozens of countries, three hurricanes, and Pirate Alley, we crossed our outbound line of longitude of degrees 25 minutes East just before we pulled into Santa Maria Di Leuca in the heel of Italy. Starting in October 1998 from the Cape Grace in Capetown, South Africa, we crossed the Atlantic, arriving in the Caribbean in early December. After spending 6 1/2 years there, beginning in May, 2005 and into 2008, we started the grand tour with the Panama Canal and the Pacific. In 2010, January to March, we crossed the Indian Ocean, braved Pirate Alley and went on through the Red Sea and the Suez. In the Med, we are now pretty much at the end of our journey.

We'll winter, or maybe more, in Ragusa, Sicily, remaining there until the boat sells.

Cheers
Tim and Rose
P.S.special thanks to Joey, able bodied seaman for three of the last six years. He's now some big shot captain!

Troubles in Greece July 13 2011

Hello everyone.

Well the excitement just continues, but first things first. Many of you know my ex, and it seems she’s gone missing, much to the chagrin of her family. Took off without a word from her apartment in Atlanta about 4 or 5 weeks ago. If she happens to contact any of you, please get in touch with her sister Kris at pixmill@aol.com or her son, Joe at josephTierney@hotmail.com.

In the meantime, we’ve had our own troubles, and, if there was any doubt in my mind that it was time to hang up my foul weather gear and get rid of the boat, this last month has cinched the deal. In truth, we’re finding Greece very nice with friendly people and not too expensive, but the boat @$#^&*#@#!!!

Starting at the beginning, we left Epidavros for Korfos, just a few miles north but enough closer to the canal for us to get there early and move on west. We were only there one night, but it was quite nice, and we took off about 7 for the 15 miles to the canal. Basically, you side tie, go do the paperwork and pay (it is claimed to be the most expensive 3 miles in yachting and cost over 200€ in tolls), then wait for the okay to go. They actually lower a bridge underwater to allow passage. We had a bit of excitement while processing the formalities. Rose tied off the bow, and, to be fair, asked me if it was okay. Looked good for the ½ hour wait so I went to the office only to hear a faint “Tim, Tim” coming from the boat. The bow line had come loose and the boat was perpendicular to the channel. Rose had gone below to do her nails or something and didn’t notice until it was too late. Anyway, making record time back to the boat, I was able to jump on the sugar scoop and save the day. What a captain!!!!

The canal was pretty cool with sheer rock sides 70 feet high in the 100 meter wide channel. It only took about a ½ hour to transit, and a hawk followed along. After going through, we had about 30 miles to go to our anchorage and noticed the bilge alarm in the starboard engine room was going off with great regularity. A quick look didn’t show any overt leaks but the gasket between the outside and inside of the boat had water on it. We were tired on arrival and decided to check it out in the morning, and you could have kept time by the alarm every 10 minutes. Next morning, after checking out every alternative, I finally pulled a sensor from the base and sure enough, the seals were bad, and water was coming in from the hole in the hull the sail drive sits in. That means, for you neophytes, if the seals go altogether, the engine room will flood and ruin my newly rebuilt engine.

So we took off on a short hop to Itea where we could get decent internet and I poured over the books—Heikell”s guide stinks—and the internet to find a place that could haul my size boat. That is required to repair the seals. Fortunately, there is a new marina in Messolonghi which was only about 25 miles away.

Since their crane wasn’t scheduled until Tuesday and it was the weekend, we stuck around in Itea on the dock for almost free and took a bus up to Delphi—you know, where the famous Greek oracle used to reside. Lots of walking, let me tell you. The bus stops about 2 miles from the site, and then there is still a lot of uphill walking to see the place which was very interesting and huge, built on the side of a mountain. There was a really good museum with artifacts going all the way back to the time of the Trojan War in 1300 BC, and Rose found a charioteer’s statue with weird toes just like hers. Must be some Greek heritage there. The town of Itea was also quite nice with a waterfront promenade so our time was well spent. Monday we took the short trip to Messolonghi, coordinated the haulout for the next day and tied up for the night.

Tuesday was a real event. The marina uses a big crane for haulouts, in our case a 120 ton monster. So the first problem was they claimed my boat weighed 18 tons instead of the 14 I’d told them. Now the spec on the boat is 11 tons empty and I don’t think my stuff, even including sails, water and fuel could add 14,000 pounds but they swore the scale on the crane said 18 tons. Because of the angles involved that is getting to the limit of their lifting capacity. So they started to actually lift, and there was a big crack, a really big crack, bang, whatever. Seems they’d placed the straps too far forward—forward of where I’d told them—and broke about a foot off the back of the starboard keel. Back in the water. Now they claimed the boat miraculously had gained another 2 tons and were worried about hauling with that crane so we spent another hour getting the dinghy off and pumping out my water tanks. They, of course blamed me for the bad strap placement but we negotiated a split of the cost to repair. So, five days and $4,000 later we were back in the water planning to leave, but a couple of fittings on other stuff were leaking so we spent another night—this time for free!!! All in all they took great care of us and on short notice got an emergency repair done in a very short period of time so I can’t complain too much. Boat means “Bring Out Another Thousand”, after all. But, like they do on the infomercials—“Wait. There’s more!” Unfortunately, lots more. Piqued your interest yet?

So we finally left Messolonghi, which, by the way, was a very nice little town, if a long walk from the marina. There was a Marmaris boat or two that we knew and there were cocktails involved. Our next destination was about 30 miles away—Ithaca, home of Odysseus. It has inspired me to reread the Odyssey. On the way, the freezer compressor threw it’s engine belt, and try as I might, I was unable to muscle the bolts loose to install the spare I already had on hand. No problem for the time being as I have electric back up. We spent a nice couple of days there—not much touring to be done and the captain is “ruined out”. Of course, while there, my Blackberry died. Needs to go to Athens for repairs which is not a viable alternative. Are you feeling sorry for me yet?? Fortunately, Vodaphone actually sells a 10€ Nokia. Nothing smart about it; no camera or internet although it does work as a flashlight. New blackberry should catch up with me in Corfu and then I can get the other repaired and give it to Rose. Too many accessories to change brands, and I really like the phone.

The next stop was a short hop to the north to Levkas. We opted to pull into the south end which has a very large protected bay, but hundreds of charter boats. Judging from what we’ve seen in what is supposed to be the peak of the season, the Greeks are having a tough time tourism-wise as most were on the dock. Way down in the south end was a boatyard and good old Heikell had no number, and Noonsite had the wrong number so I dinghied in to get someone to fix the freezer belt. This was probably a highlight as the owner’s son took me over to this old barge to talk to his father, the master mechanic. As we arrived, I was offered, and accepted, a beer. No charge. You don’t see that too often. Anyway, the guy dinghied out and fixed it within a few minutes. Pays to have the right tools!!! So that was good, and we found the Vlahki Yacht club which caters to pommies. Great menu, cheap beer. We were feeling good. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much else to do there and we are running out of time on my visa, so we headed north again to Lefkada on the same island which is at the north end of a canal they dredged out of the salt marshes to make Levkas a true island. It’s about 3 or 4 kilometers long and narrow. Some yahoo trying to show off for his girlfriend was sailing down and for the first time since another yahoo cut me off racing in the BVI, I had to sound the danger signal with the air horn.

The town of Lefkada has a marina and a town quay, but we elected to anchor between the two. Guess what? Lost the gear shift on the port engine. Now this is a place you are technically not supposed to anchor, but the guy already there said he’d been there three days with no problems, so we finally got the hook down and set. I had feared the gear problem might be the cone clutch which is notoriously bad and very expensive to replace, but Dave from Freebird came over, and we discovered it was just a loose bracket holding the cable so the wire couldn’t move inside the sleeve. Of course, it was almost totally inaccessible, but good old Dave had the right tools!!! Next day we rented a car and toured the island with Freebird which I paid for as a stipend for helping me out. It was a beautiful drive around the island and we had a good lunch. Hit the larger chain grocery stores,too. Unfortunately, as I was putting two tables together at lunch, the plate glass covers hit and one shattered. They were nice about it as if that happens all the time.

In the meantime, the dinghy engine has been giving us all sorts of problems. Sometimes it has power to start and others, the battery is dead. The final straw was yesterday when Rose and I had to charge it to go the 100 feet to the dock to hit town for a wander and lunch. It is hot as hell here, and I didn’t appreciate paddling back when, once again, the battery appeared dead. In Ashkelon, as I’m sure you’ll recall, the guy finally discovered a bad cable and replaced it, solving, we thought, our problems. But, he did warn us that the battery switch was pretty bad and to just leave it on all the time. Aha!!! This, I thought, must be the problem and proceeded to bypass it. Nope. Finally, I pulled the battery all the way out of its most inconvenient location in a box too wide for the opening, and discovered a loose cable—just barely loose but enough to cause a voltage drop. Problem solved, and we’re feeling pretty good with all the shit finally sorted out.

Freebird had left that morning—yesterday--for Paxos, just south of Corfu, and we were meant to follow today, Wednesday. You need to go through a bascule bridge which opens on the hour and it’s about 6 hours to Paxos. You need to leave early as it really is crowded there. So, last night we’re all ready with the dinghy up, and I started the generator to top off the batteries. Huge crash. All four mounts on the generator had broken and it was laying on its side on top of the engine. For once Heikell had a phone number for a repair service, but they were already closed. About that time, the Port police pulled up and said I had to move as we were anchored in a restricted area. When I informed them I had a breakdown, they asked for our boat docs, and I found out today this is worst thing to do in Greece, and they may require a surveyor—not free-- to recertify that we are seaworthy. The repair guys returned my panic stricken message first thing this morning which was really nice, and they’re working on the thing right now. Definitely needs new mounts and they are checking to see if anything broke when it fell. Unfortunately, they wanted me to pull alongside in the marina to do the work. What a rip off. We need to use their crane to lift the generator—at 100€ per half hour—and the charge overnight is about 140€. If we don’t they said to go elsewhere to get the work done. We’re not even on a regular dock but across one of their haulout wells.

I’m on valium and Prozac. As for the Rose report, she is doing great. We have actually been pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the people and really good food. Will keep you in suspense on the generator, as I am right now, until next time.

Cheers

Tim & Rose