Lat: 36:53.8. N : Long: 025:06.7 E. - Saturday, 16th August, amongst the Cyclades Islands, Agean
Sulana's Voyage
Alan and Sue Brook
Sat 16 Aug 2014 12:58
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Lat: 36:53.8. N : Long: 025:06.7 E. Saturday,
16th
August, amongst the Cyclades Islands, Agean Sea, en route to Didim,
Turkey.
Dear All,
Well it is certainly HOT!! out here in the Med
in mid-August....
The bays and beaches all around the central
Med. are full of burning flesh....Malta, Sardinia and Greece being no exceptions
to this.
Swimming in the Cyclades Islands, in crystal
clear water at 31.1 C. is just so lovely at the end of a long day's hot
passaging.
Having sweltered in Manoel Marina, in lovely
Marsamxett Harbour, Malta for a few days, to refuel and rest up a bit,
Sulana and her crew are baking as we slowly
motor our way across Eastwards, towards Didim Marina, in Turkey. There was a
good choice of several different chandleries, most of which were very
well-stocked, with, between them, pretty much everything one might want.
Marina staff were friendly and very helpful, even driving us to Customs around
the town. Supermarkets delivered direct to your yacht, too, if you so
desired!
So, generally, facilities in Malta were
excellent. Even re-fuelling was a simple joy, with no hassle and no need even to
leave our stern-to marina mooring. The fuel bowser just drove right up to
the end of our pontoon dock and the driver unrolled a huge, long hose right to
our stern - Easy-Peasy!
We are motoring now most of the
time, because there is hardly ever any wind where we want to go. We don't
want to sail at night around here as we have been warned about small unlit
fishing boats and nets between the islands. Also, although we do have fuel
enough to go the whole way, we want to avoid paying for extra when we
can sail, so we do sail whenever we can, but it is slow going and
uncommon.
There's plenty of wind astern, to the West and
South of us, and along the Western shore of Crete, with more forecast to come,
but we're the wrong side of that huge island to get any real benefit. Maybe
tomorrow we'll get a taste of our first Meltemi (strong Northerly wind blowing
past the Greek Sporades Islands, coming out of the Dardanelles).
We are island-hopping for now, seeking out the
best lonely little anchorages in the Cyclades, not going ashore anywhere, to
keep our noses clean with the authorities. Currently we are en route
to Nisos Paxos, Middle Cyclades, where
we will anchor up again in a little sheltered bay for tonight and await the new
breeze forecast for later on Sunday, before heading on towards Kos, where
we hope to collect our new hot water calorifier, somehow or other, on the
20th.
We are still seeing the odd dolphin, with a
lovely, friendly visit from an exuberant pair of Striped Dolphins yesterday. But
the number of visits has dropped right off
since leaving the Alboran Sea and approaching Sardinia.There were a few more
around a fishing zone just off Malta, but it is only an occasional sighting
now.
We are starting to run down the contents of
our freezer now, too, so the choice of food will soon drop off from its previous
highs. We want to be able to give Sulana's interior a deep clean before the trip
is over and also it is high time to eat our way through the spare stocks
from the Round The World Rally, that will otherwise go time-expired on us!
We'll start afresh once Sue rejoins me.
Can't wait!
Just a few more days to go to reach
Turkey. |