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Kate and Andy wandering - Andrew and Kate Thorley

Andrew and Kate Thorley We left our "real" jobs in 1999 to run a ski chalet in the French alps. We left that behind in 2006 and since then have become a bit nomadic. We have had our sailing yacht - Freedom - in the Mediterranean since 2000 and in 2008 we bought our house - Mango Lodge - in the Commonwealth of Dominica. This blog is to keep our family and friends up-to-date with what we are up to...

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Joined on: January 28th 2007
Last Login: November 22nd 2009

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Blogs & Travel Journals

by Kate and Andy wandering, order by Date newest first.

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Freedom at anchor
Freedom at anchor
A lovely picture by Derek at anchor in the early morning light
After several emails and phone calls, the rendez-vous with Derek and Jane (aboard Stroller) was set for Knidos in Turkey. Only 2 things to do before then, fix the blocked toilet pipe and make our formal entrance into Turkey. Neither was easy but both were completed successfully (one significantly less smelly than the other). Bodrum was our port of entry and we enjoyed our day there, we will go back to explore more next year. The formalities were long-winded as expected but we kept our sense of humour and had everything done in four and a half hours. During the process [View Full Entry]

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299 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 15 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: November 15th 2009 | 36 Views | [diary=453335]

Somewhere in there...
Knidos - the amphitheatre overlooking our anchorage
Knidos - Derek and Kate take up statuesque poses

Wash day in Skopelos
Wash day in Skopelos
The calm before the storm
Whatever next? After Anne and Joe left, we started comedy of errors - or was it a tragedy. First there was the visit to the doctor when Kate’s eye swelled up. After 15 minutes she had some cream, tablets and a 150 euro bill. After a little disagreement, Kate calmly said “what I am going to do is say thank you, give you 50 euros and leave now”. And she did - she was spectacular! Then after a couple of nice days we planned our passage east across the Aegean, but by then the weather was against us so we had [View Full Entry]

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782 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 12 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 2nd 2009 | 46 Views | [diary=441475]

Would you like salt with that?
Greek islands or North sea coast?
Pot-holing?

Skiathos - Skopelos - Alonnisos - Peristeri - Skantzoura We had just a few days to potter about before our sailing guests - Anne and Joe - arrived. So, having just fixed the electric motor on the anchor windlass, all was ready for them to join us. We set off from Skiathos to Loutraki on Skopelos in strong winds and with both sails reefed. This was when the stitching along the back edge and the bottom edge of the foresail decided to disintegrate. Nine summers of UV and it had had enough. Displaying our flapping bits of sail fabric we arrived [View Full Entry]

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360 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 17 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 22nd 2009 | 54 Views | [diary=438443]

Their flight comes in to land
Amarandos - location for the filming of "Happy Birthday Richard and Jill"
This is what I call cruising!

We are now in lovely breezy sailing conditions - so much more pleasant. We crossed through the opened bridge at Khalidi (tidal currents of up to 7 knots) at midnight amongst all the other boats milling around waiting for the radio call from the coastguard. You can imagine the chaos. Stopped off at quite a few cute little places on route but nothing spectacular. Although we do get very excited about big supermarkets and lightweight bread (rather than the doorstop variety) Andy has started making flat bread on board for times when we have run out - very tasty. The Bobster [View Full Entry]

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328 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 7 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 10th 2009 | 38 Views | [diary=435424]

Arko sunset
Flat bread
Skiathos is not quiet

Oreoi sunset
Oreoi sunset
on the northern coast of Evia
Good Planning After a week of gale force winds on Paros and a forecast of the same for another week, we decided to travel the 200 plus miles north to the Sporades where the Meltemi wind doesn’t blow as strong. We set out at 7am on 19th July knowing the wind was forecast to return on the afternoon of the 20th. There are 2 harbours on the island of Andros that would be safe and if we were lucky, we may make it across the Doro strait between Andros and Evia into the gulf which is much more protected. The weather [View Full Entry]

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779 Words | 3 Comment(s) | 16 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: August 15th 2009 | 78 Views | [diary=428336]

Batsi
Straining on the lines in Batsi
Drying the laundry in a force 9

In our third and fourth weeks we went from Kythnos to Siros, Mykonos, Rinia, Delos and Paros. There were some fabulous sailing days with good winds, calm seas and clear skies. We saw dolphins a couple of times (Common Dolphin we think) moving along with young ones - we took time out to drift and watch. In Mykonos we moored in the “marina”. This is much like most marinas in Greece - built with 13 million euros of European money ten years ago and still incomplete and unmanaged (and in this case built on the richest island in Greece - just [View Full Entry]

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665 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 14 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: July 23rd 2009 | 119 Views | [diary=421438]

Kithnos - Off to the office
Mykonos - bike maintenance
Somewhere around Mykonos

Here we back on Freedom bobbing around the Mediterranean again. We arrived in a heat-wave and spent the first 2 days doing jobs to make the boat seaworthy and then craned into the water on day 3. We were so relieved to be on the water - it’s just so much cooler. We bought all our heavy supplies whilst we had the hire car for 3 days and filled up with wine, water, milk, beer and the essential gin and tonic!! Most of our early excitement was over the new dinghy and recently over-hauled outboard - goes like a rocket, new [View Full Entry]

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311 Words | 4 Comment(s) | 6 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: July 5th 2009 | 63 Views | [diary=414455]

Pumping up the new dinghy for the first time
Hello, it's just us
Kate at the temple of Poseidon - we want to keep him on our side!

Sunday This morning it is so lovely to wake up with the sound of the sea washing on the shore and the birds singing in the trees. No sounds of drills or hammers and no tools or paint pots in sight. In the next few days we can enjoy Carnival and maybe do a bit of reading and painting (arty type stuff), and snorkel and hang out on the beach. We are now officially finished on the house for this year and really really pleased with the results. All the rooms have had a full on Thorley tart up treatment. The [View Full Entry]

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396 Words | 3 Comment(s) | 30 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: February 22nd 2009 | 173 Views | [diary=375936]

Lounge detail
The new sign
Lounge before

The family Douglas
The family Douglas
4 generations live next door in 3 houses. There are more who now live in St Martin
Every single morning we glory in just being here. Yes we have spent too much time indoors working, but when we sit down for lunch on the deck - or stand with a cocktail in he evening or drive along the coast road or so many things - we just look around us and love what we see. Kate keeps saying she can’t believe we own this beautiful house. It is all just too wonderful. The table The table with hardly any carbon footprint. The wood came from a tree in the garden which was chain sawed into planks and legs. [View Full Entry]

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549 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 25 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: February 22nd 2009 | 171 Views | [diary=375873]

Baby zandoli
Waiting for sunset with a cocktail
Carrying down the last sheet of ply

The top half of the falls
The top half of the falls
It's just impossible to get a photo\pf just how high these falls are
With time running out, we promised ourselves we would do one of the tourist headline trips before we leave, We chose one of the many waterfalls and Middleham falls because it is 40 minutes each way (not too long but long enough to keep the cruise ship passengers away) and we read it is one of the most spectacular. The start was slow as we combined the day with taking Son to see the eye specialist in Roseau which also involved a drive to the hospital for his prescription. We also took the opportunity to pick up a picnic - a [View Full Entry]

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473 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 10 Photo(s) | 1 Video(s)
Published: February 22nd 2009 | 77 Views | [diary=375550]

Spray forms a rainbow
Driving in to the interior
The intrepid explorer



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