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Madame Curie on a holiday cruise

This year Madame Curie is going on a holiday cruise. Click here to read all about her new adventures.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Nature

Last week I sailed onto an inland sea. It is a fairly large inland sea in the mainland of Greece, and it is famous for the various species, mainly birds, that live there. To enter this inland sea I had to pass through a narrow channel, approximately 50 meters wide, in between shoals. I was running a bit late so dusk met up with me. Only two of the eight lit bouys was actually working, and the leadinglights, visible on the charts were tather invisible in real life. Leading lights, are an navigational aid. When the two lights are viewed directly underneath each other, the vessel is steering exactly the right course. There was a current running, zo it became quite a difficult task to stay inside the channel!
Various rivers end in the inland sea, so the water is brackish.
If nature is going to be as beautiful en colorful as the skies were upon entering the inland sea, it is going to be a great experience.
Land fringing the channel.
Because it was already dark when I passed the channel I decided to berth in de Marina. Nice and easy. It was also possible to berth alongside the town quay (free of charge) but I could hear the loud music and saw the ferris wheel turn. I was in need of a quiet night, so the Marina, on the other side of the water, it was. One of the marineros in the helped me berth Madame Curie, and actually came on board to assist me in tightning the lines. What a great service. After enjoying a dessert in the marina restaurant I returned to my boat. I was nog completely sattified with the way she was berthed, so I decided to change this at eleven o'clock at night. I was very surprised that I could not pull Madame Curie forward!! After months of no tide or currents, there was a strong current in the Marina. In the Mediterrenean the difference between high and low water is neglectable, and as a result there are almost no currents. The only thing I could achieve in this strong current was berth Madame Curie a bit at an angle, but well of the pier. The next morning the friendly marinero helped me straighten de boat out again.
Now let's change the subject to nature. I left the Marina very early in the morning. The marinero told me that there would not be a strong current at that momen. It was still almost calm, misty and very mysterieus.
Inland sea.
Inmediately I saw a large school of dolphins. They were performing al sorts of acrobatic tricks for me. This is the first time I have actualy seen the dolphins jump in the mediterrenean!!! There was only a small downside, they were only visible through my binoculars. No chance of taking pictures.
As you can see in the chart, I crossed the inland sea in various ways. On the nothern end there are swap an wetland areas. These are really beautiful.
I saw various small fish jump out of the water.

A fair rowing distance to Madame Curie.

My faithful dinghy.
Afterward I was treated to two special encounters. The first one was with a large number of jelly fish. Everywhere I looked in the very calm water I could see the jelly fish. Apparantly they thrive in brackish water. There were so many I decided not to go for a swim.

Very clear water.


But the best exhibition of nature was saved till the last moment. As I retrieved my anchor I saw a large bird swimming in the distance. I decided to engine over, just to see what kind of bird it was. I had my camera and binoculars ready. Slowly I approached the animal. A pelican!!! I definetly need a picture of this. Success!!

Take off!!!

Airborn.
What else did I see? Well 3x a turtle, but boy they are fast! Many fish, accompanied by fishermen in small fishing boats. And many many mosquitos. I have never been stuck that many times in my life. Eventhough I had put on repellant, slept under a bednet, I still had to take medication not to go crazy from the itch.
Typical greek fishing boat.
Despite the mosquitos and the smell (unlike salt water, brackish water does smell) I would certainly recommend this inland sea! 

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Damaging Madame Curie.

This week I damaged Madame Curie for the first time. Madame Curie had a few scars from cruising in the Mediterrenean, but these were all caused by others, or just because she is being used. But this week I accidentally hit the quay with the bow, and there was absolutely nobody to blame. Arggggggggg. I was really upsad with myself.

I was berthing in Amflochia, and it was rather windy, but not more than windforce 5, so I felt I could berth. I arrived with adequate speed, and there were two French people on the quay to assist me. Just as everybody was handeling the lines, a wave caught the bow, and pushed Madame Curie on the quay. Ouch. Fortunately I have all sorts of paint on board, so I immediately patched her up. From a boat lenght away you can hardly notice.



Argggg bummer!!!

After the paint job.

Can't see a thing! Right?


Friday, June 24, 2011

Plan B

For quite some time I have been debating (with myself) if I should sail through the channel of Korinthie, or just remain on the western side. Well I have finally decided; I'm staying west. Why? Well after worrying about the Bora winds (mallicious wind from the north) all the time I was sailing in Croatia and Montenegro it has been so relaxed in the Ionian, were there are no such evil winds. Every morning there is almost no wind, around lunchtime it is averaging windforce 3-4, increasing to 5-6 at the end of the afternoon. At night there is no wind again. On the other side of the channel of Kortinthie there is the Meltemi during summer months. An other anoying local mediterrenean wind, averaging 7-8 beaufort. So I'm staying here!!! You can see the updated version of my plan under the tab "planned route".

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Holiday feeling


Since my arrival in Greece I am 100% in the holiday spirit. It’s warm, sunny and there are lots of tourists. Just about around every corner there is a good anchorage, so actually there is not a lot of reason to enter a harbour. In Croatia the bottom was very rocky and deep, so I was never sure the anchor would hold. So I never felt I could leave Madame Curie safely behind. In Greece, the bottom is mainly sand or mud, and usually an anchor will hold well. And in addition many bays are very well protected, so sudden gusts of wind are very unlikely. So since I’ve been in Greece, I have anchored a lot.
Anchoring is free, so if you wake up in the morning with this view, you kan understand it is very tempting, to stay an other day. Just to hang around, snorkel and read a book. So, I just do.

No, the colors have not been photoshop-ed!
There is one thing I have not quite gotten used to as a Northern European. The sun. It is about 24-34 degrees here, but the sunrays are very fierce. It is essential to have adequate protection against the sun. Since about a week I have modified a windscreen into an awning. Year ago I read about this in a Dutch sailing magazine, and I must say it is really working great!


Am I bound to the boat now that I’m anchoring? No, certainly not. I have a rubber dinghy, just like many cruisers, and can just row to shore. The actually have small jetties just build for the dinghies. And for me it is always easy to recognize my dinghy when I get back, mine is the one without an outboard engine. I don’t mind, usually it is only a 5 minute row.

I am now spending a couple of days in Gaios, a very picturesque town on Paxos. The harbour master has not felt like collecting harbourfees for weeks now, so I am berthed for free. The fact that berthing and anchoring are free (or very cheap) really helps for the holiday spirit. Staying a day extra doesn’t cost me anything, so just hanging around doing nothing once in a while is very relaxing.
Gaios.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Trilogy

A little late, but an other post on former Yugoslavia. Many people, and also the tourist guides state that there are three peninsula villages that used to star on postcards. After the war, two are in Croatia, and one is in Montenegro. I visited all three villages. I have completed the trilogy.
Rovinj.
Primosten.
Sveti Stefan.


Monday, June 13, 2011

Day trip to Albania

Because I sailled passed Albania with Madame Curie,  I decided to book a day trip to Albania to get the Albanian feeling. The distance between Albania and Corfu is just 1.2 nautical miles at the nearest point. I visited two sites in Albania, the historical site of Butrint, and the coastal city of Saranda. The first thing I noticed in Albania was that it is really green. There are trees all over the place, and meadows, swamplands, and I even so some grazing cows! This is a huge difference compared to Croatia and Montenegro, these countries were rather dry, and did not have the lovely large green trees.
The ruines of Butrint were surrounded by the lush green. I was happy there were so many trees, because it was 35 degrees, very sunny, so I welcomed the shade the trees provided. Butrint is a city that was started somewere 200 BC, and has had several major refits during history. The last major changes were around the 14th century, while under Venetian rule. The construction methods for the walls changed over time, and these differences are still very well visible.
Various styles of wall building.
The entire site of Butrint is surrounded by a fresh water irrigation system. There was a lot of life in this water, insects, bugs, but also turtles.
I don't want to know how many mosquitos they are cultivating here.
And of course there were the traditional buildings, fortifications, churches and roman baths.
Basilica
Fort on the hill top.
Afterward we travelld by bus to Saranda. The road is not completely finished, and they have just started constructing it last year. Nor completely finished means there are still patches of gravel road inbetween the asphalt. Saranda is a very depressing coastal city. The Albanese people want to turn it into a florishing tourist area, and because of this they have started constructing the road to there main tourist site Butrint. To have a place to keep these tourists, they have started to build many hotels. They are lacking resources, so there are only skeletons of hotels at the moment. They are all going to be 3 star hotels, without swimming pools. The beach near Saranda is very petite, so were these thousands of tourist should go is unclear to me. Apparantly there is some sort of bigger plan, and all buildings that don't fit into this plan are being demolished by the gouvernment. So while driving through Saranda, you only see collapsed buildings and hotels in every (early) fase of construction. Depressing.
The collapsed building is destroyed on purpose.
Very depressing, I don't see how they will be able to attract many tourists here, even though the prices are very cheap.
Hotels along the shoreside of Saranda.
But what I really liked is that the Albanians are proud to be Albanian. There were many Albanian flags on various buildings. And when  I asked an owner of a pastery shop why he came back to Albania after working in Greece for 8 years (where he made a lot more money), all he could answer was: " but look around, this is my country".

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Approaching Corfu

After 54 hours of sailing, I was looking forward to the moment I could shout: "land in sight!!!". Not that I hadn't seen land during my crossing, I sailed rather close to the Albanian coast, so I saw land during most of my crossing. But it is always a special moment when you see your destination island for the first time. So I was very disappointed, when I had approached Corfu till 10 km I saw this:
Corfu
Let me take a second look, a third look. No, Corfu is still not visible!!! The number of cruise ships, and ferries was a good indication that I was very near. And of course the GPS. I just missed the euforia moment of "land in sight".

The big advantage of clouds is that I was treated to the most romantic sunset ever.
This sky compensates everything!
I thought that entering Europe woud be easy. I am European, the boat is European, should be easy. No more former Eastern European bureaucratie, just plain Europe. I was terribly wrong. When I arrived in the main port of Corfu at 22:00 I was sent away. "The customs is closed" someone shouted to me, "go to the Marina". The Marina was a little further, so by the time I was berthed, it was just after midnight. First a hot shower, and than a long sleep. During my crossing I had woken up every 15 minutes, just to check I was heading in the right direction, and that there was no dangerous shipping in the area. So I was really looking forward to a long not interrupted sleep. The next morning I woke up at 7 o'clock, so apparantly I was not very exhausted. At 9 I went to the harbour office to clear customs. There I could not clear customs, they were only capable of clearing boats that had arrived from an other EU country. Well to cut a long story short, I went back to the Customs in the main port by bus, there the refused a stamp because the boat was not there. In the end Madame Curie cleard customs 3 days after I had cleared. When the port police asked when I had actually arrived I stated that there had been a misunderstanding. No problem, the 3 days were excepted. The "value' of a stamp is a lot less in Greece than it is in Croatia.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Montenegro in a flash

First I had to exit Croatia and enter Montenegro with all the formalities of customs, stamps, and of course, how can I forget, buying the appropriate cruising permit.
Cavtat, here I cleared customs in Croatia.

In Zelenika I officially entered Montenegro.
After these mandatory formalities, the fun could start.
 View from the"blood smeared" fort in Herceg Novi.
From the blood smeared fort, last modified by the Turks, the entenence of the Bay of Kotor can be seen. Everybody entering the bay is visable, enemy or friend. The fort was giving it's name because of all the people that were killed from the fort. They for example had the habit of throwing burning oil down upon there enemies.

An island with a monastary, and an island with a church.

The church on the left side of the picture is man-made. This island, and the church were build after some local fishermen found a painting of Mary and baby Jesus on a few rocks of the coast. Since many sailors have come to pay there gratitute to Mary after they had survided an ordeal at sea.
Madame Curie moored right next to the church.
Just a picture I like.

Ruine of a church about 900 feet above Kotor.

View from the fortress overlooking Kotor.

No longer drinking cappuccino, but switched to iced coffee.

In Montenegro twice I encountered a thunderstorm. But these were
very well visable from far away!!!

After this thunderstorm at least it is very obvious were to
sail in order to find luck.

Budva.

Ghosttowm Stari Bar


Freshwater spring which supplied Stari Bar with water.