We solt during spring our ex charter/school sail boat, a First 47.7..Now First 47.7 is sailing arround the world.
After 6 great charter season with Ultra in Croatia, ''Stončica'' is now a private boat wich is sailing to New Zealand. Started from Trogir last June, now near Sardaigne, via Greece etc..
Please find a little resume of the road below from the log book, and few pictures of our star ''Stončica'' arround the world:
"Hi All
Been a while since we been in touch so a quick update on where we are and whats been happening.
Last time I wrote we were in Greece just south of Athens in the Agean (Saronic Sea). Emma and her boyfriend James were on board for a couple of weeks and we all toured around the islands. We dropped them in Hydra and unfortunately Emma didn't get to see her dream island of Santorini due to the fact it came off the go to list due to timing. We could have done with two years in the Med minimum to take everything in properly (good excuse to come back and do it all again). So it was back through the Corinth Canal which is 3 miles long and the most expensive canal per mile in the world to travel through.... (160 NZD per mile). That put us back into the Gulf of Patras and a 60 mile trek back to the Ionian. We made our way to the Greek Island of Levkas where Jane was admitted to hospital for a week what the doctors suspected was appendicitis but having been down this road before we were pretty sure it was diverticulitis. Hospital on a Greek island does not come highly recommended, with the basic requirements (eg loo paper, water, soap and edible food) not available. Having said that Jane survived and she has a story to tell.
Needing to start heading west we sailed for Crotone in Italy which was a pretty easy 160 odd mile sail. The wind kicked in for most of it which was a pleasant change from all the motoring we had done to date. I think in the previous 2 - 3 months we had sailed a total of 2 - 3 days! Arriving in Crotone it became apparent the we needed to haul the boat to have rudder bearing problem sorted so we stayed there a week to complete the job and antifouled at the same time. Hopefully that will get us home. Since we have been in Italy we have everybody to be extremely obliging and helpful but they don't sell cube ice anywhere ! Doesn't do much for your rum and cokes :-)
We left Crotone with of crew of 3 as Allan, Karla and Bryony left the boat and are travelling overland. Sicily was the next destination and how things changed. The day trips to anchorages thinned out and the mileage hops became greater. We made our way down to Catania whose claim to fame has to be MT Etna. Ive attached photo of the mountain which is usually not visible from the sea as you approach the island but we were lucky enough to catch a glimps. We planned on doing a day trip up there but the mountain which is still active was spewing lava whilst we were there so we didn't get to do the trip. Catania itself is a run down town which has some interesting history but as has been written.... the community doesn't seem to care on the basis that Etna has destroyed the place before and its only a matter of time before it happens again.
From there it was a trip down the east coast to Siracusa which we loved. The world power boat championships were on and although I prefer the sailing lifestyle its hard to forget I was once a petrol head and we had front row seats on the dock. Josh was into it big time and got the grand tour of the pits. It was a Velcro spot which locked us in for 10 days before making our way south and across the southern coast of Sicily. Four out of five people said take the southern coast as opposed to the northern which has flash marinas and even flasher gin palace boats. The southern coast line is about
160 miles long and wind wise it is on the nose. Without exception we would arrive in a new port and say what the hell have we got here. Then we would trek up to the town which invariably involved an uphill trek of a k or so and we were stunned by what we found. Awesome towns, history, architecture and people.... not to mention the 70% off sales on womens Italian clothing.
Jane was in her element.
Back to reality we needed to make tracks for Sardinia which as it pans out also has Italian womens cloths shops with everything on sale ! We arrived on the South coast last week and the anchorages are some of the best we have seen We will be making our way up the west coast in the coming 2 weeks before heading to the Balearics Spain where Jane and Josh will get off and rejoin me in the Caribbean at the end of the year. In the mean time if anybody wants to go sailing, Spain to the Caribbean feel free to give me a call....
That's it
Cheers
"