Sea Rose – Page 10 – Life Four Point Zero

July 25, 2020June 5, 2020

Toying With The Turkish Border, Ep. 126

Like a seasoned pit crew at the Indy 500, Karen and I worked as fast as lightning in Astipalea, bidding farewell to Dan, Shelly and Don at 7am and welcoming Connor and Andree on board just 2 hours later. In fact, Connor and Andree were getting off the same flight at Astipalea that Dan, Shelly and Don were boarding! Buckets of soap and sponges were flying around the cabin, linens were being picked up by the local laundry service, and provisions were hastily purchased and stowed. With only two flights a week, and no ferry service directly available, we had no choice but to ask our guests to deboard and board the same day.

Welcome, Connor and Andree, to Sea Rose in the Dodecanese!

July 11, 2020June 5, 2020

Sailing In And Out Of Civilization, Ep. 125

All I could remember about Ios, from our honeymoon 27 years ago, was its reputation as a party island. We had already held an awesome party in the form of an outdoor wedding reception in the wine country of California’s Sonoma Valley. When we had finally shed ourselves from all the strings of post-weddingness and boarded the flight to Greece, late-night parties were not high on my list. I wanted to be a regular tourist, with regular tourist ambitions in Greece, like touring the Parthenon and relaxing on the sands of a sun-bleached island. Mykonos, like Ios, hadn’t made the honeymoon cut, but after Karen and I spent three days there earlier this summer and appreciated the island’s charms, I felt bad that we had stereotyped it into a corner. For sure, it was no fun being anchored off the cacophony that is Paradise Cove, but we found the old town of Mykonos immensely stroll-able and oozing with striking bougainvillea at every turn. Now, as we sailed Sea Rose into the main harbor at Ios, I tried to keep more of an open mind. If nothing else, we greatly appreciated the protection of the harbor, nearly enclosed except from the Southwest, making the high winds from the North less threatening. We had heard that the public dock was a good option here, in fact, the only option. With the high frequency of big passenger ferries arriving constantly, they needed all of the navigable water in the harbor to turn and maneuver on to the ferry landing. If anchoring in the harbor was forbidden because of this ferry traffic, I was completely accepting; neither of us wanted to get rolled by the ferry’s wake, or worse.

May 23, 2020February 17, 2020

Crashing Through the Cyclades, Ep. 122

As we departed Poros in the pre-dawn light, we would be leaving the Saronic Gulf and entering the greater Aegean Sea region. This part of the Aegean is best known for the Cyclades islands, with popular destinations like Santorini, Mykonos and Naxos. And popular with our friends, of which we had four groups joining us over the next five weeks. Karen and I had one more week by ourselves; seven days to cross the 100 miles to Mykonos, where we would pickup our good friends Bob and Lisa. The excitement of having guests after several weeks of being by ourselves was tempered by the reality check of the mid-Summer wind conditions in this area. We had been casually watching the weather forecasts in the Aegean since we had arrived in Greece a month ago. Boy, was this going to be interesting! July and August here are renowned for the Meltemi, a very forceful wind that blows down from the Black Sea and fans out over the Cyclades islands. It can ebb and flow, but when it really blows, it can carry on for five or more days, pinning you down in the closest south-facing harbor, trying to avoid the fetch of waves that start several hundred miles to the north.

A typical Meltemi wind forecast for the Cyclades islands, with red meaning 25 knots or greater

April 25, 2020February 16, 2020

Backwards Is the New Forwards, Ep. 120

“Rion Bridge, Rion Bridge, this is the sailing vessel Sea Rose, over!”

“Sea Rose, go ahead.”

“Yes, Rion Bridge, we are a 13 meter sailing vessel with a height of 19 meters, approaching the bridge heading East. We request permission to pass.”

“Sea Rose, you are clear to transit the bridge. You must use the north channel. Call again when you are one mile away.”

Our VHF radio conversation with the Rion Bridge Traffic Control office marks the early morning start to our passage into the Gulf of Corinth. This short cut to the Saronic Gulf and Aegean Sea – the ‘real’ Greece if you believe the travel brochures – was very intentional. There was no way we could round the big bulge south of us comprised of the Peloponnese peninsula without a serious hit to our time line. Karen and I were eager to see the eastern portion of Greece and re-discover the Cyclades Islands that we so fondly remembered from our honeymoon. And a sailing trip through Greece wouldn’t be complete without exploring these classic blue and white washed islands.

March 28, 2020February 15, 2020

A Hol(e)y Experience, Ep. 118

After a long day of transatlantic travel, it felt great to be back onboard Sea Rose. During our trip back home to the States, she had managed just fine in her slip at the Gouvia Marina on Corfu. When your boat is your home and you put your blood, sweat, and tears into her care and feeding, it’s a little unnerving to leave her alone for ten days. In our favor, no sudden storms arose nor bumps from navigationally-challenged neighbors. She was just as we left her, plus a little growth on her waterline from the few days of idleness. It was time to get our pride and joy prepped and ready for more adventure. Our friends Steve and Julie would be arriving in two days and we had a full task list to complete before we started entertaining again.

March 14, 2020February 15, 2020

Second Helpings, Ep. 117

The day and the hour had arrived. It was time to exit Croatia once and for all. Six weeks ago, we had cleared into a country that we knew only through travel books and friend’s stories. This morning, we would trek back to the harbourmaster’s office to clear out, with a plethora of diverse experiences tucked away in heads, enough to fill a few storytelling sessions around a winter’s fireplace.

Our kids and Andrew were on their way to the airport, and we wasted no time shoving off from the Q dock to make progress south along the isolated last few miles of the Croatian coast before entering Montenegrin waters. This time around, we weren’t groggy from an overnight passage from Italy. We had slept well, and knew exactly where to go and how to clear in to Montenegro.

The well fortified entrance to the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro

February 15, 2020January 12, 2020

High Winds and Poor VIS-ability, Ep. 115

For the next week, we planned to slow down and take a break from hosting mode, as we made our way by ourselves south to Cavtat to pickup our kids. In the last few weeks in Croatia, we had been forced to skip several interesting islands due to the weather or schedule challenges. We now finally had a chance to check these places out before we said goodbye completely to this country of countless islands.

Bidding adieu to Emmy, Graham and Sarah, we set off from Murter with the eagerness of seeing new places, while re-visiting some of our favorites. As we entered our fifth week in Croatia, we were starting to gain the comfort and confidence that comes with prior knowledge of these waters. No longer were we shuffling through pages in a cruising guide on a cold wintry night; we had zig-zagged our way through these long, skinny islands on our own craft, faced a fair balance of adventure and adversity, and were still married happily enough to want to spend another week alone together!

February 1, 2020January 12, 2020

Go North, Go Now, Ep. 114

Moving to the East Coast of the U.S. many years ago, we had to accept the difficulty of staying in touch with our West Coast family roots. Not only did both of our brothers live in California, but much of my extended family was in British Columbia. And despite best intentions, it simply is hard to keep close ties. So I was pleasantly surprised, after reconnecting during a winter ski trip to Western Canada, that my second cousin Graham and his wife Sarah accepted our open invitation to join us for sailing in the Med. Perhaps because of our casual nature, I think they thought they better take us up on our offer before we changed our mind! Both Graham and Sarah sail their own boat on Okanagan Lake, and we always welcome experienced hands onboard Sea Rose. After planning our summer cruising calendar, we reached out to our friend Emmy to see if she could join us for the same week. Emmy took up the challenge last summer, helping us sail overnight from the French Riviera to the rugged island of Corsica, and we knew her friendly demeanor would fit in well with my Canadian family.

November 30, 2019January 12, 2020

The Pearl Of The Adriatic, Ep. 110

If you had asked me a year ago where Croatia was, I’d have a hard time locating it on a map. Now, we were about to become intimately familiar with this mysterious country and its coastline. But first, we needed to be welcomed into the country by Mr. Customs and Mrs. Immigration. From fellow boaters and books we had read, I was prepared for a little more bureaucracy and a few more bucks to have the pleasure of sailing these waters. We were told that Croatia was more expensive than other Mediterranean countries. And back in Montenegro, one official warned us to be very careful to check in at the first available port. He told me the tale of two boats that had taken liberties with entering Croatian waters unofficially, one to seek safety during a storm, only to end up being fined over a thousand euros. That got my attention. As did the sleek sailboat docked behind him that had been confiscated by Montenegrin authorities for reasons that might get me killed if I asked. OK, maybe not that severe, but it is fair to say that the message had been delivered and we would be stopping at the town of Cavtat, just across the Croatian border, pronto.

October 5, 2019January 12, 2020

We Need a Time Out, Ep. 109

With two adult children, our days of ‘time-outs’ are behind us … or so we thought! Right now, we most definitely need a time out … of the Schengen. ‘What’s Schengen’, you ask? Schengen is an immigration agreement among many (but not all) of the countries of the European Union (and some non-EU countries, just to confuse things). It is the rule of law that governs, among other things, how much time a person NOT from one of these countries (like us, being from the US) can remain in the countries which are part of this agreement. We, as US citizens with US passports, are only allowed to be in the Schengen area for 90 days out of the last 180 days. Last summer, we got extended-stay tourist visas from France and this allowed us to spend almost five contiguous months in France and other Schengen countries. Montenegro and Croatia are not part of Schengen (though Croatia is part of the EU and Montenegro is hoping to be part of the EU soon). Because we wanted to visit both of these countries this summer, we decided to count our days carefully and stay under the 90 day Schengen limit. Getting visas is a lot of work that we hoped to avoid for this summer! The second half of our summer plans have us spending two months in Greece (a member of Schengen). Add to that the three weeks we have already been in Italy and we’re needing to be careful with each day! Therefore, we NEED this ‘time out’ and it needs to start soon!

With the strong winds having abated, it was time to leave the comfort of the marina at Santa Maria di Leuca and round the heel of Italy. This turn took us from the Ionian Sea into the Adriatic Sea and helped articulate how much distance we will have covered upon arriving in Montenegro! Just two weeks earlier, we departed on Sea Rose from where she wintered in the Tyrrhenian Sea (center, west coast of Italy). But I’m getting ahead of myself – first we need to cover the 169 miles from the bottom of Italy’s boot to the Gulf of Kotor and the Montenegrin customs and immigration dock!