Amaris Sails the Globe

8/28/2013

Position N 37.41.05 E 20.50.35

Town of Keri, Zakenthos

anchored 15 feet - sand in crystal clear water (one can honestly see down 60')

Land Ho!

After a delightful sail across the Ionian Sea we are anchored off the small village of Keri.  Because of something Shawn ate, we are flying our "Q" or "quarantine" flag where we should be flying our Greek courtesy flag, which of course has everyone looking funny at us.  In actuality, we have yet to clear customs into Greece and plan to accomplish that later today.  We have hopes that clearing into Greece is easier than Italy.  Knowing that we need to pay the equivalent of a "cruising tax," we expect to find the customs office with a bit of ease.  Then again, entering a new culture means guessing when the locals close for their afternoon naps and how late they stay open before going home to have a glass of wine or shot of ouzo.  

Crossing the Ionian was a bit of a breeze- excuse the pun.  Although the wind didn't pipe up to the predicted force 6 (25 knots) we did have some nice periods of winds in the mid-high teens on the beam - which made for a nice crossing.  It was our first overnight with just the two of us.  There was almost no shipping traffic - which was surprising.  Shawn of course was grateful for that (nothing to hit us in the middle of the night), I missed the challenge  of navigating with and commodore of other vessels.  We did however hear a British warship asking another boat for right of way.  

We missed having Cody aboard as he was able to stand a watch during the overnights (while i "slept" outside).  Cody usually had a few opinions that we needed to correct him on as well.  "Awake time overlap" during our big sails better allowed for dialog.  Alas, it is now up to his teachers to get that mind working now.

The town of Keri isn't really much to write about.  We were attacked the second we "may have gone ashore" by restaurant vendors and tour guide sales people.  (Recall we have not yet cleared customs - so if we did, this is what we would have found).  The guides were selling tours of the local natural stone arches and caves indented into the cliffs surrounding the area.  As were we leaving we made a point to sail by one of the small islands guarding the bay.  Of course it was crawling with dinghies, glass bottom boats, and hundreds of people looking for turtles through masks and snorkels  --  basically, enough people to motivate us not to spend another night and start our trek of finding the customs office.

Mud Bath anyone?

Amaris sails the globe

Island of Volcano, Sicily

Anchored - Porto de Pontente and Cala de Formaggio

8/23-8/24

First of all, any place that sounds like or has a name that has any resemblance of cheese-you know i am there!   "Bay of Formaggio" - count me in!  Alas - as beautiful as it was, we were really at Volcano to anchor in front of the Volcano-so after one night at "bay of cheese" we moved to Porto de Pontente - literally a 5 minute motor around a corner.  After trying to anchor there the previous evening (there was no room at the inn), we opted to re-approach the harbor around 11am - the usual time for people to "move on to the next place."  

It isn't always the case that we feel so confident in our anchor that we are willing to leave the boat for any length of time.  Porto de Pontente however was one of those places that (although packed with boats) seemed very sheltered with good holding in sand.  Not to worry-no story about dragging anchor (this time).  We left the boat with the adventure in mind of renting a quad and zipping to the top of the crater and buying a system with which to change the boats oil.  We were uber surprised to find that 1-the only way to the rim of the crater is by walking-mind you it is several thousand feet up and 90 degrees.  We opted out.  2-we were able to rent a funky little jeep and drive to the top of the "old crater" which provided an amazing view out over the island - it is about twice as high as the new active volcano rim.  3-we were able to stop in a small chandelier, have them order a bronze oil change pump, have it delivered within 12 hours from mainland Italy - all for 19.50 Euro.  The procrastination needed to come to the end and the oil was changed.

Having forgotten that there are mineral "mud" springs on the island (Shawn had not forgotten and was disappointed that i refused to go in them with my recently wounded toe - long story, but there was a bit of skin missing and I didn't think a shared pool of mud would be the best option for recovery.)  The mud springs are in the one "tourist area" of the island, sadly very close to where we anchored as well.  Our guide book of course made mention of these springs and i offer the following direct quote "One does eventually get used to seeing obese people with overall cracked mudpacks waddling down to the sea, but it takes a while."  

I will include a few photos taken during our our stay at Volcano.  One is taken with our mini jeep (quite fun to drive), one of the two of us having found a nice lookout over the bay.  I would say that we were the only ones that had found the spot, but this was obviously an area frequented by the "busy" Italians who did not wish to become with child as to say.  There was substantial evidence of shall we say-activity. The photos of course would not be complete without a few of the tourists bathing in the mud.

Just photos

Photo's taken by Cody

 

 

 

 

Pictures of the locks of gold

golden locks

Amaris Sails the Globe

40.51 N 13.11 E

Making 6.8 Knots under motor

Heading 103 Degrees True

Wind 1.5 knots variable

HOT HOT HOT

It will come to no surprise to those of you who know our 16 year old nephew Cody that his hours are a bit different than ours.  He usually rises around noon, makes a sandwich, stares at a wall for a few hours, takes a nap, and finally in the early afternoon he tells us about his previous evening hanging out with the locals until 2 in the morning.  At first, we would wake up like good little uncles when the zodiac came roaring back to the boat in the middle of the night - or on a few occasions in the early hours of the morning (I supposed we could have had him start the coffee for us?).  We had a few discussions about how we should put a kabosh to this type of behavior and mandate a more reasonable curfew - but we secretly were a bit envious of his ability to hang out with locals, build relationships and learn about the cultures of other kids his age.  Not surprising to us, most of the kids his age speak great English having studied years of it in school.  Cody takes after his uncles however with our knowledge of either French or Italian.

Nonetheless- I didn't decide to post an article about Cody's nocturnal habits - I am simply amazed at his HAIR.  Shawn's hair has of course turned from bleach blonde to super bleach blond with red undertones (that would be from his burnt scalp).  Mine of course looks the same, just a few fewer hairs each day...  and the occasional "distinguished silver."  Cody however has gone from dark brown to layered level of browns and blondes with amazing highlights.  Either one of two things has happened - natural sun, or he attended some fashion institute hair salon in the middle of the night on one of his recent escapades!  I suppose what little sun he gets during the day is doing him some good.

We just spent an amazing couple of days in Ponza - an Island off the coast of Western Italy.  As we are now sadly leaving as we need to continue our trek to Sicily.  I think we all could have stayed a week in Ponza enjoying the food, scenery, and shopping.  Who would imagine store after store all 400 sf with racks of fresh fruit, local (amazing) wines, and cases full of salumi/cured meats.  Unfortunately, we missed the fish monger-Fortunately the store we grabbed last minute provisions at sold "freshly made pesto" along with freshly stuffed sausages.  

Ponza, similar to the more well know Greek island of Santorini, is formed from the crest of a volcanic crater.  The cliffs of several of the sides of the island rise directly from the sea to 200-300 meters and have the appearance of soft white soapstone (I am sure it is likely sandstone).  We anchored near "inferno" bay where the evening sunset turns the white walls various shades of red.  I think the true stunning part of the anchorage was anchoring in 9 feet of water above glorious white sand seafloor.  The boat appeared to hover above the beach in the crystal clear water...  well it rippled a little after i did my cannonball!  

 

Hey Hey, what do you say... Let's go the other way!

Amaris sailing the Planet

41.59 north 011.38 East

Sailing 15 Knots in 25 knots of wind

Course over Ground 150 deg true

Shawn and I had a bright idea - Sail back to France and grab our new washing machine.  It is honestly a pain to find a laundromat ever other week or so.  Besides we didn't want to stop in France when our friend Sherrie comes out for a visit.  So, we left a message with the Outremer crew and headed north.  After a few days of heading north in decent winds, we learned that Outremer closes down for the month of August (with the rest of France so it turns out).  Not to worry, we had some great adventures heading north (including almost dying hiking up to that "not so exciting" castle that you may have read about in my earlier blog).  

As one of my more attractive traits, I seem to push a bit hard in most things in life.  On our way north, one of these pushes was running for nearly 20 hours and arriving just before dawn at Isle de Giglio.  Just before dawn meant we were approaching and anchoring in an unfamiliar harbor in the darkness (which i will also include that the Med has their aids to navigation exactly opposite to those of the US.  Suddenly it is Green to the right when returning...  This added stress of doing something in the dark that you know isn't a mistake, but seems to be putting the boat in jeopardy.)  As we were approaching the harbor, the harbor was surrounded by blinking lights that were not on the chart.  I confirmed our location and checked the mental note-"Don't worry Steven, all the light houses are correct, you confirmed your location with radar etc.  These are obviously beacons marking areas of the park/marina."  

I was further alarmed when i saw a red light about 100 meters in front of us - that was definitely not on the chart.  I slowed down, asked if i was seeing things and further questioned the surroundings.  Alarms started going off as either a red or green light at the entrance of a marina mark either a boat - or a beacon marking an entrance (and the other side of the light very much not an entrance - usually something bad, like a rock/rocks/beach).  Shawn and I were discussing the red light, which we then watched sink into the water from 5 feet to zero and below.  "Shawn", I said "let's get out of here - something isn't right."  As the words left my lips a large ping noise echoed through the hulls of the boat...  followed by 5-6 more.  Sonar.  Submarine?  What?  Leave-quickly.  And we did.  As the sun rose on the horizon we were safely around the corner in a pleasant anchorage where we spent the day (and hiked to that castle-obtaining a few blisters i may add along the way).

Now as we headed south we decided to give a relatively safe, but yet curious look at that same harbor in the daylight.  The entire entrance was blocked off with cranes, barges, and a wrecked cruise liner.  That was obviously not on the chart either.  Wonder who left that there?