“I held my glass up to the light…”. There were leetle frogs. ! “ ( lost in translation, he meant tadpoles ). “The water was from the green hose pipe behind you on the quay, “ added Georgiou, on his yacht out of Nice called Red Star. Parrot reminded me of that schooldays joke, “Waiter, […]

The thick planked heavy monastery door sheltered at the threshold a  snake,  about 4ft long. Lucky for Sarah that I was a boy sea scout, trained to be observant. She would have stood on it and jumped so high as to fall off the terrace. Snake lifted his large head to stare me out, not […]

Skopelos port had all the services  we needed, such as the saucy Evelina *, the laundry lady on her motor bike. About 40 yachts were lined up stern to the quay, the harbour  dues were only about 12 euros for 3 nights. A visit from the port police in his car was made to check […]

GREECE SPORADES July  2019 – WEEK 3-4 – Butterflies, Swordfish, Dolphin Our very special first two weeks really was sailing… not like previous trips here, when this yacht was being a motor boat most days. This trip we sail slow or fast, or wait or tack. It is the kind of  holiday this year when […]

    Although it was a rolling sea outside, exposed to the north, Skopelos port was calm as usual. Sarah berthed us perfectly stern to the quay facing the ferries. We noticed the next door yachts had not quite laid their anchors out straight, and yet successfully dropped ours between theirs, no crossing.  By the […]

  Arriving on a Monday, it has been a full week of preparations. This is partly because Dimitrios at his Dimsteff yard was rather late in getting our jobs done. He decided to call in subcontractors to shot blast the keel then resin fill, then grind again, then prime. It is now like an aircraft […]

We motor-sailed to Procida in light winds and anchored in 5m at  the south bay using my photos of old charts. The pilot book said no overnight stops but there were about a dozen yachts doing the same. Facing us above were  houses in staggered levels – there were bright colours in warm shades of […]