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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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