Blog entries:

Sailing at last:

15 jul 2025  23:34

And we're off!! The list of broken things continues (but this is a boat, so I can say with utter confidence that the list will never finish) nevertheless, the remaining jobs are lesser and so we left Lefkas marina on Friday and headed to Paleros, known to us as "sandy bay", in Greece the topography is very rocky and steeply shelving, which naturally continues into the water, this is not ideal at all for anchoring and posses several problems, the ideal sea bed is sand and the ideal depth, about 5 metres. Sandy bay on the other hand is exactly the ideal place to anchor and so we often visit here as our safe hold with easy anchoring, we have weathered several storms here. Anchoring is where I can claim particular expertise. I pride myself on spotting the perfect patch of seabed, deploying our anchor at precisely the right moment, and being able to tell the position it has landed in simply by placing my foot on the chain and feeling it's vibrations as well as watching the pattern of water around where the chain reaches the surface. It's not exactly a technique you'll find in a skippers manual but I've been lucky enough to spend time with many experienced sailors and picked this up from a guy we met on our last Atlantic crossing after we had just finished quarantine in St. Vincent and had just moved to the island of Bequia.

Anyway, I digress. We spent a couple of days up in sandy bay, swimming and stargazing, which has to be two of my favourite parts of living on a boat. The freedom to be in the water almost whenever you want and the incredible array of celestial bodies on display when away from the lights of towns, it's amazing how many satellites and shooting stars are visible and honestly quite humbling to see just a glimpse of the enormity of things beyond our tiny world. It's a beautiful contrast to sit on the back of the boat and look at the vastness above and then the intricacies of the emotions and technology around our table as we sing and laugh the evening away. 

After, we sailed down to a favourite harbour of ours, Sivota. We have our little routines here, staying on the same pontoon (Sivota pontoons) with our friend Nikos, a fantastic guy who really knows his stuff but is often amusingly irritated by the mad flapping and uncontrolled use of bow-thrusters on many of the boats that dock on the pontoon, it's quite comical really and provides the best entertainment on a boat. We also eat at the same place most of the time, Sivota bakery, which serves the best food and fabulous drinks (it's rather dangerous how good their cocktails are) and Christos is just the best, making everyone laugh, balancing glasses on three fingers, and causing mischief, he also happens to look like a young version of Tom Cruise which has been pointed out to him and so we do frequently call him Tom.

Tomorrow we head up to Nydri, here we will pick up Mike, a skipper who is coming across the Atlantic with us and will stay with us now until the end. We are hoping to leave Greece perhaps on Thursday for Sicily, obviously weather dependent but for now that looks like the best weather window. I'll keep you as current as possible during this crossing which will take 2-3 days.

I apologise for my rambling, there is no-one to shut me up on here and I appear to have free reign to talk as much as I like, and as I'm sure you've noticed by now I can talk a lot! So prepare for more updates and probably extra anecdotes that come along with it! In fact there are so many little stories I may add a few extra posts that explain some of the adventures and comedies we've had previously, I'm quite sure our lives would make a fantastic TV show one day.

See you soon,

Rachel 

The beginning...

6 jul 2025 18:00

On Monday the 30th of June we flew out to Preveza, Greece. We are joined by my friend Phoebe who is a fellow water enthusiast and is hoping to work in the industry soon. We landed and were greated by the familiar wave of heat as the plane doors opened, the smell of warm air encouraging our sense of excitement. We were staying in a hotel the first few nights while Blown Away (affectionately referred to as BA or "the good ship") was still on the hard. Dad, Phoebe and I spent the following two days in the blistering heat of the boat yard performing some glamorous jobs that primarily involved cleaning. Now, I won't label them problems because there is no such thing, only opportunities to learn (note I'm saying this post said "opportunities") but we found the boat in a sorry state after her winter on land, all her hallyards (ropes that run up the mast) were layed on the table along with reefing lines etc...so firstly we fitted these. So far so good. Next we wanted to add rope cutters to the props, day 1 we took them apart and began vigorously scrubbing layers of algae untill they could be mistaken for the crown jewels. We then had to fit them back together with the role cutters, but helpfully we had been sold the wrong ones and they didn't fit so we now have exactly the same props as before, just shinier. I'm hoping the fish appreciate our efforts. On Thursday BA was lifted back into the water. We had all bundled into the taxi with our many bags, wheelchair and walking frame, mum and Tash watched eagerly as the rest of us boarded and began adjusting lines. Dad went to start the engines as the yard lads began removing the hoist straps. This is where the fun begins. The starboard engine would start but no water was cycling through, the port engine wouldn't even start. Welcome to boat life! Dad was immediately sentenced to the delightfully sweaty engine bays and eventually a technician joined him. The starboard engine was less of a problem and just needed a bit of encouragement, the port engine was more difficult, we used the emergency switch to get power from the other battery and were able to move round to a suitable dock where we could figure it all out. We bought a new battery, which proved to be faulty! So we went back for another and then discovered our generator wasn't working. Our generator has always been a little temperamental, often overheating but this was something new. The generator is really important when we're not connected to shore power as we run our AC unit off it and in 40° + heat it gets quite stuffy at night, this is extra important because Tash finds it harder to regulate her temperature. Me and Phoebe spent this time cleaning thick layers of Saharan dust, that had settled over the winter, out of every nook and cranny across the decks. It is incredible how much dirt a white boat can collect (ps. If the desert is looking a little empty, I know where you can find it.) to add insult to injury an alarm started going off relating to a current issue and Dad discovered his toilet was broken.

As of today we have moved from Cleopatra marina, Preveza, to Lefkas marina via the Lefkas canal, which was abnormally quiet today (I will explain all about our adventures in the canal another day!) we are hoping to be up and running in the next couple of days and out sailing in our Ionian playground!

Rachel