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Siracusa Italy, on the island of Sicily, was not on my personal bucket list.  Since everyone else, my wife Carol and the Sans Souci’s, Ken and Roberta were excited about it, it was fine with me.  I was surprised at how much I loved it.

                                                                                           Map of Siracusa, Sicily

After we arrived from our overnight passage, we were all tired and decided to lay low for the day.  We were planning on staying for a few days before heading south to Malta, so we were in no hurry to get ashore.  We weren’t picking up my sister in law Tina in Palermo for a few days so we had plenty off time to wander about town.

Siracusa, like many big towns in Italy, had a fortress-like inner city that was built 2500 years ago by the Greeks.  Over the centuries it was taken over by various empires and invaders and it is amazing that it remains in tact, albeit with many upgrades and improvements since it’s inception.

 Siracusa, Sicily Walled City

Within walled city is a massive network of narrow streets and buildings housing restaurants, shops and apartments where thousands off inhabitants live.

Outside the walled complex is a beautiful city of 125,000 people.  We had heard about the famous Siracusa markets, but to experience it is really something else.  Italians are very expressive people anyway, but the marketeers take it to a new level!  As you walk by the booths filled with fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, cheese and pastries, not only are your sight and sense of smell overwhelmed, but your ears too! Imagine a hundred people presenting their products all at the same time, acting as if you would be a fool not to buy from them and their products are the freshest you will ever find at the best prices!  All in Italian.  Did we understand them?  Nope.  But with their loud, flowery speech, arms waving in the air and their hands touching their chests over their hearts, you got the idea!

At the end of the market there was a deli, of sorts.  Out front there was a team of women dishing out samples of cheeses, bruschetta and bread.  They were not quite as expressive as the others, but we ended up spending a fortune because everything was so good.

PALERMO

Carol’s sister Tina arrived in Palermo a few days after we arrived in Siracusa for her annual visit so we rented a car from Avis and drove to pick her up.  She was arriving at 6am so we decided to get a hotel room the night before in Palermo. After picking her up at the airport we wandered about town for a few hours and then headed back to Siracusa. Tina is a Special Ed teacher and school had just finished.  She was fried and looked forward to some relaxation on Seabird!  The only problem for me is that now I had two of them and they don’t like to sit around.  I was outvoted constantly for two weeks and had to participate in many, many excursions. On the plus side, Tina likes food as much as I do, so it was a Roman Feast nearly every day!

                                                               I lost the original photo, but this is what we saw from the boat at 2am!

I didn’t mention this in my previous blog, but while cruising overnight on June 16th from Crotone to Siracusa, Carol was on watch and noticed a bright orange light in the sky to the north of us.  She radio’d Ken on Sans Souci about it, and he thought it might be a reflection from the rising sun.  OK, Carol thought, but she looked at her watch and it showed 2am, which was 4 hours before sunrise.  She looked through the binoculars and discovered that it was red hot lava flowing down the side of a huge mountain!  She realized then that it had to be Mt Etna.  When I arrived for my shift at 3am, she showed it to me and we then decided that one of our trips in Sicily would be to visit Mt Etna close up. We were witnessing the last major eruption from the relative safety of the pilot house on Seabird!

After Tina arrived and she had her fill of Frozen Margaritas and a bit of rest, we planned our trip.  I have one of these little Garmin navigation systems that we bring with us.  It saves us tons of time trying to find places.  It did not work so well in Sicily, at least around the Mt Etna area.  We had a lot of false starts and hit a lot of dead ends before finally arriving at the main tourist base.  On the way there, it was like traveling on the moon.  The lava fields extended 10 or 15 miles from the volcano and roads had to be carved out from the cooled rock. 

While the base was really a disappointing tourist trap, the tour up the mountain to the volcano was not.  It consisted of a long tram ride followed by a ride up in this strange looking vehicle that looked like a cross between a school bus and a Hummer.

 our transportation to the volcano

I was surprised at how cold it was up there. When you suddenly realized that your feet were warm, you knew you were in Volcano Country.  Although the air was a chilly 45 degrees F, the ground was warm, very warm to the touch, even though the main crater was still miles away.  Mt Etna encompasses 459 square miles.  I would not want to be around if there was a cataclysmic event there.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO MALTA……

We like to think of ourselves as “flexible”cruisers.  Weather patterns, change of heart, unexpected repairs, all of these play a part in what we end up doing on the boat. Our plan had always been for Seabird and Sans Souci to cruise directly to Malta from Siracusa.  The passage from Siracusa to Malta was 82 NMR, or about 10 hours.  Since we wanted to arrive to clear customs by 4pm, that meant leaving Siracusa at 6am.  If we had to, we would, but we started looking for alternatives and found a small town in southern Sicily called Marina Ragusa, which was only 59 miles, or 6 hours from Malta.  It was a nice new marina and it looked like a fun place to stop for a few days.

Carol and I have gotten pretty good at Med Mooring. An invaluable addition to this process was a set of two way headsets that we purchased.  When we Med Moor, I need Carol in the back of the boat to guide me in, i.e. “Go left”, “go right”. Or “STOP!!!”  Which means I am about to hit something.  Anyway, when I am backing in between two boats set apart by only the width of my boat and the entire area behind the boat is one big blind spot, these headphones help a lot!

Siracusa to Marina Ragusa – 59 miles

It was really a nice marina.  The people were friendly and it was a safe, calm harbor.

Carol, Tina and I took a bus to the town of Ragusa, which was about 10 miles from the boat.  The town was kind of a cross between a typical European city and something out of a fairy tale.  The oldest part of the city, which we viewed from above, looked like a painting.  Look at the photo below.  It pretty much sums up exactly what we saw.

While we were at the marina, I decided that it would be interesting to find out what it would cost to keep our boat there for the winter.  Both Ken and I had given several thousand dollars in deposits to Porto Di Imperia marina in northern Italy, but our emails to them were unanswered recently and we found out that they had financial problems.  In May, they declared bankruptcy.  We had also heard that the security there was suspect.  I hated to lose the deposit, but we were concerned about leaving our boats there under the current financial strain.

I was astounded by the quote! The cost for the entire winter was about the same as one month at Porto Di Imperia!  In addition, they had a great guy there, George, who spoke perfect English and looked after many of the boats there.  The weather is mild so there is no need to winterize the boat and Tunisia is only a day away for cheap fuel and meeting the EU requirements for avoidance of the dreaded Value Added Tax (VAT), which could be up to 20% of a vessel’s value! 

To me it was a no brainer.  I would save over $15,000 on storage and probably another $15,000 in fuel costs. 

Ken and Roberta hedged on the idea and decided that they did not want to backtrack to Sicily at the end of the summer, so, the plan was to part company in Elba and meet again in the springtime.  Call me cheap……..

After 3 days in Ragusa. It was off to Malta….

Start your own blog now! Free!

Siracusa Italy, on the island of Sicily, was not on my personal bucket list.  Since everyone else, my wife Carol and the Sans Souci’s, Ken and Roberta were excited about it, it was fine with me.  I was surprised at how much I loved it.

                                                                                           Map of Siracusa, Sicily

After we arrived from our overnight passage, we were all tired and decided to lay low for the day.  We were planning on staying for a few days before heading south to Malta, so we were in no hurry to get ashore.  We weren’t picking up my sister in law Tina in Palermo for a few days so we had plenty off time to wander about town.

Siracusa, like many big towns in Italy, had a fortress-like inner city that was built 2500 years ago by the Greeks.  Over the centuries it was taken over by various empires and invaders and it is amazing that it remains in tact, albeit with many upgrades and improvements since it’s inception.

 Siracusa, Sicily Walled City

Within walled city is a massive network of narrow streets and buildings housing restaurants, shops and apartments where thousands off inhabitants live.

Outside the walled complex is a beautiful city of 125,000 people.  We had heard about the famous Siracusa markets, but to experience it is really something else.  Italians are very expressive people anyway, but the marketeers take it to a new level!  As you walk by the booths filled with fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, cheese and pastries, not only are your sight and sense of smell overwhelmed, but your ears too! Imagine a hundred people presenting their products all at the same time, acting as if you would be a fool not to buy from them and their products are the freshest you will ever find at the best prices!  All in Italian.  Did we understand them?  Nope.  But with their loud, flowery speech, arms waving in the air and their hands touching their chests over their hearts, you got the idea!

At the end of the market there was a deli, of sorts.  Out front there was a team of women dishing out samples of cheeses, bruschetta and bread.  They were not quite as expressive as the others, but we ended up spending a fortune because everything was so good.

PALERMO

Carol’s sister Tina arrived in Palermo a few days after we arrived in Siracusa for her annual visit so we rented a car from Avis and drove to pick her up.  She was arriving at 6am so we decided to get a hotel room the night before in Palermo. After picking her up at the airport we wandered about town for a few hours and then headed back to Siracusa. Tina is a Special Ed teacher and school had just finished.  She was fried and looked forward to some relaxation on Seabird!  The only problem for me is that now I had two of them and they don’t like to sit around.  I was outvoted constantly for two weeks and had to participate in many, many excursions. On the plus side, Tina likes food as much as I do, so it was a Roman Feast nearly every day!

                                                               I lost the original photo, but this is what we saw from the boat at 2am!

I didn’t mention this in my previous blog, but while cruising overnight on June 16th from Crotone to Siracusa, Carol was on watch and noticed a bright orange light in the sky to the north of us.  She radio’d Ken on Sans Souci about it, and he thought it might be a reflection from the rising sun.  OK, Carol thought, but she looked at her watch and it showed 2am, which was 4 hours before sunrise.  She looked through the binoculars and discovered that it was red hot lava flowing down the side of a huge mountain!  She realized then that it had to be Mt Etna.  When I arrived for my shift at 3am, she showed it to me and we then decided that one of our trips in Sicily would be to visit Mt Etna close up. We were witnessing the last major eruption from the relative safety of the pilot house on Seabird!

After Tina arrived and she had her fill of Frozen Margaritas and a bit of rest, we planned our trip.  I have one of these little Garmin navigation systems that we bring with us.  It saves us tons of time trying to find places.  It did not work so well in Sicily, at least around the Mt Etna area.  We had a lot of false starts and hit a lot of dead ends before finally arriving at the main tourist base.  On the way there, it was like traveling on the moon.  The lava fields extended 10 or 15 miles from the volcano and roads had to be carved out from the cooled rock. 

While the base was really a disappointing tourist trap, the tour up the mountain to the volcano was not.  It consisted of a long tram ride followed by a ride up in this strange looking vehicle that looked like a cross between a school bus and a Hummer.

 our transportation to the volcano

I was surprised at how cold it was up there. When you suddenly realized that your feet were warm, you knew you were in Volcano Country.  Although the air was a chilly 45 degrees F, the ground was warm, very warm to the touch, even though the main crater was still miles away.  Mt Etna encompasses 459 square miles.  I would not want to be around if there was a cataclysmic event there.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO MALTA……

We like to think of ourselves as “flexible”cruisers.  Weather patterns, change of heart, unexpected repairs, all of these play a part in what we end up doing on the boat. Our plan had always been for Seabird and Sans Souci to cruise directly to Malta from Siracusa.  The passage from Siracusa to Malta was 82 NMR, or about 10 hours.  Since we wanted to arrive to clear customs by 4pm, that meant leaving Siracusa at 6am.  If we had to, we would, but we started looking for alternatives and found a small town in southern Sicily called Marina Ragusa, which was only 59 miles, or 6 hours from Malta.  It was a nice new marina and it looked like a fun place to stop for a few days.

Carol and I have gotten pretty good at Med Mooring. An invaluable addition to this process was a set of two way headsets that we purchased.  When we Med Moor, I need Carol in the back of the boat to guide me in, i.e. “Go left”, “go right”. Or “STOP!!!”  Which means I am about to hit something.  Anyway, when I am backing in between two boats set apart by only the width of my boat and the entire area behind the boat is one big blind spot, these headphones help a lot!

Siracusa to Marina Ragusa – 59 miles

It was really a nice marina.  The people were friendly and it was a safe, calm harbor.

Carol, Tina and I took a bus to the town of Ragusa, which was about 10 miles from the boat.  The town was kind of a cross between a typical European city and something out of a fairy tale.  The oldest part of the city, which we viewed from above, looked like a painting.  Look at the photo below.  It pretty much sums up exactly what we saw.

While we were at the marina, I decided that it would be interesting to find out what it would cost to keep our boat there for the winter.  Both Ken and I had given several thousand dollars in deposits to Porto Di Imperia marina in northern Italy, but our emails to them were unanswered recently and we found out that they had financial problems.  In May, they declared bankruptcy.  We had also heard that the security there was suspect.  I hated to lose the deposit, but we were concerned about leaving our boats there under the current financial strain.

I was astounded by the quote! The cost for the entire winter was about the same as one month at Porto Di Imperia!  In addition, they had a great guy there, George, who spoke perfect English and looked after many of the boats there.  The weather is mild so there is no need to winterize the boat and Tunisia is only a day away for cheap fuel and meeting the EU requirements for avoidance of the dreaded Value Added Tax (VAT), which could be up to 20% of a vessel’s value! 

To me it was a no brainer.  I would save over $15,000 on storage and probably another $15,000 in fuel costs. 

Ken and Roberta hedged on the idea and decided that they did not want to backtrack to Sicily at the end of the summer, so, the plan was to part company in Elba and meet again in the springtime.  Call me cheap……..

After 3 days in Ragusa. It was off to Malta….

Montenegro to Brindisi

Our arrival in Montenegro was sort of a homecoming. First of all, our traveling companions, Ken and Roberta on their boat, Sans Souci, had arrived nearly a week ahead of us and were securely moored when we arrived. Ken, by his own admission, is internet-centric, and the first thing he did upon arrival was to assure that he had at least three different internet sources, each one faster than the other. He had his Satellite connection, several local 3G SIM cards, and a lightening fast fiber optic wired dock connection. Whew! I ended up taking one of his SIM cards, which was fine with me. Not super fast, but adequate.

We had been to Montenegro last season also, on the way up to Croatia. Other than being a fun stop, the fuel is 1/4 the price of nearby countries and it gets us out of the EU also. Non EU (European Union) persons are allowed 90 days out of every 180 days. What that means is that after we enter Italy in mid June, we have to exit the EU countries by Mid September. The boat is a different issue. We can keep it in the EU for 18 months straight without incurring the dreaded VAT (Value Added Tax), which can amount to 20% of the boat’s value!
The trick is to exit the EU before the 18 months is up, say, for a week or so and keep the evidence that you did it. By going to Montenegro, a non EU country, we met the requirement and we would then enter Italy with a clean slate.

Porto Montenegro is a beautiful Marina, but expensive. So far, it is the priciest place to stay, but worth it because the fuel is so cheap! The entire complex consists of the marina, 30 or 40 high end shops, a five star hotel and condominiums with prices well north of a million dollars, and a dozen or so restaurants, all on site.

I had an electric issue there. Seabird uses about 30 Euros per day in electricity at European prices, which range from 30 to 40 cents per Kilowatt Hour. For some reason, they must have mis wired my meter and we were using around 70 Euros per day. I tried to explain it to the marina but it fell on deaf ears. Fortunately it was cool outside and we did not need the air conditioning for the first seven days out of the ten we were there. I discovered the problem on the 8th day when we started using the A/C. No refunds!

Montenegro to Brindisi, Italy

Our last day in Montenegro consisted of getting the boat ready and preparing to take on fuel. There is a procedure here to follow. To take on fuel duty free, you must exit the marina and tie up at the adjacent fuel dock, which is purposely gated off from the rest of the marina. Once you have tied up, you can take on fuel, but not leave the area. When you are finished, they escort you over to Customs and Immigration, where you clear out of the country. After you have cleared out, you must leave Montenegro with the boat IMMEDIATELY. no going to another marina, no anchoring. They are very strict about this. The guys at the fuel dock told me about a guy on a yacht who, after taking on duty free fuel, checked out of the country and then left the harbor, only to be spotted by the authorities anchored in a bay 10 miles south, still in Montenegro territory. He was forced to then pay the difference between duty free and retail on the fuel, plus a HUGE fine amounting to many thousands of dollars!

We left soon after fueling and headed toward our next stop, Brindisi, Italy.

For some reason, Ken was given the slow pump for the last 300 gallons or so. We ended up departing two hours late at 6pm for an all night 14 hour crossing. We could not have had a better crossing. The seas were flat calm and we had a nearly full moon so it never got completely dark. We just cherish passages like this. At night, Carol and I alternate at the helm every three hours. Over the years we have learned to leave the helm after the shift, fall asleep almost immediately and wake to the alarm three hours later. It takes a few minutes to shake the cobwebs out, but three hours seems to do the trick as far as rest. Carol normally likes to time it so that her last shift is at sunrise, but on a one night trip, it sometimes does not work. We were arriving at 8 am in Brindisi, so I got the early shift. The bad shift is normally midnight to 3 am, but because of the full moon and calm seas, it was a delight.

Entering a harbor for the first time is always a bit exciting and unnerving at the same time. We have electronic charts, GPS, AIS, Radar, depth finders and all the other toys, but it’s not the same as coming into a harbor that you have been to before. We have found that especially true when cruising outside the USA. first off all, buoys are rare, except in major ports. Somehow, you are just supposed to know where to go. Understanding that, we use a combination of all of the electronic stuff and instincts. Add to that the fact that you are tired, you need to be especially attentive. Brindisi was a pleasant surprise. The harbor was clearly marked and we had directions from our agent as to where we were to dock.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it looked to me like we were supposed to tie up against a rough ferry boat pier. We contacted our agent again, and he confirmed it: the beat up, crappy looking pier was our home for a few days. Finding a spot on the pier where we old fit was not easy. There were old black truck tires with steel cables sticking out and long bolts, which I presume held some kind of cleat at one time. Either way, I didn’t want to be rubbing against them so I found a space with less crap sticking out and we wedged ourselves in.

The whole area looked abandoned and kind of unsafe. At least we thought so until I saw the sign on the building “Stazione Di Polizia”. I don’t speak Italian, but I assume it meant Police Station, which made us feel A LOT safer.

Our agent arrived shortly after we did and assisted us with the clearing in process. After he finished with our paperwork, all the officials started arriving. Ken and I were still inside the boat when all of a sudden he blurted out “I think we have problems”. I looked out the window of his boat and smiled. I could see why he was worried. The agent and the officials we apparently yelling at each other, flailing their arms into the air and pointing at us. See, I come from an Italian family. It’s how they communicate. I grew up with it. There was nothing wrong, but Ken did not really believe me until the agent came back on to the boat and said “Everything is fine. You are all set”. We then asked the question of “How much per day for the berth”. His answer was good news. “It is free, no charge”. Well, we liked that, even though there was no electricity on the dock or water. We both have generators and large fresh water tanks, so we were all set.

Checking in with the authorities

Brindisi, contrary to what we had been expecting, was a nice town with a beautiful boardwalk, lots of stores and restaurants and friendly people. Carol and I like to walk and found the town very interesting. It had lots of small alley-like streets, unchanged for hundreds or even thousands of years, with shops which looked like they had been there forever. We even found the beginning of the Apian Way, a road that connected Brindisi to Rome, the construction beginning by the Romans in the year 312 BC. It was named after Appius Claudius Caecus, a Roman Censor. It was one of many that the Romans built from all over the near empire, all of which terminated in Rome, hence the expression, “All roads lead to Rome”.

Appian Way

Typical Street in Brindisi

Brindisi Waterfront

As much as we liked the people and the cruising in Croatia, we did not find the food all that tasteful. We would generally order salads or Pizza, to be safe. We expected much more from Italy and we were not disappointed. The four of us all love Italian food and we ended up eating out almost every night. Pizza, Pastas, Caprese Salads and wine. And then there was the Gelato. I could see the pounds adding to my waistline already!

After a week in Brindisi we headed south west toward Sicily. We made two quick stops along the way at Santa Maria de Leuca and Crotone, one being on the heel of the boot and the other on the toe.

Brindisi to Crotone

The pier that we were at in Crotone was a new low for us. The high pier made it difficult to get on and off of the boat and the town was old, kind of torn up and waiting to die. We really wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Crotone Dock

After one night, the weather window looked fair, so we departed for Sicily mid day.

Siracusa, Sicily

Crotone, Italy to Siracusa, Sicily

The trip started out just fine. It was an overnighter and we had a good forecast. In reality, it did not turn out so good. By nightfall, it started to get very choppy. I don’t mind rough weather and I don’t mind cruising at night, but I HATE cruising at night in crappy weather. First of all, being that it is dark, the visibility is poor and you rely more on your instruments like GPS, AIS and Radar. The radar just does not perform as well in rough weather. Plus, you cannot see the really big waves that hit you periodically. It was getting steadily worse with the seas slamming into us nearly head on every few seconds. I was not worried about our safety as we have a great boat under us. We have been in far worse conditions. I just knew it would be a long night with no sleep possible. I talked to Ken on the radio and we decided that with the direction of the wind, it was possible that if we headed toward shore and hugged the coast, we might get some protection from the seas. We changed our course to steer about 30 degrees to the starboard and held that course for about 45 minutes. What a relief to see that the rough conditions were lessening slightly! We continued toward land until the conditions improved considerably and then headed back toward our course. We had added about three hours to our trip, but it was well worth it. Eventually, the seas had dropped from 10-12 ft to less than 2 feet, making our passage enjoyable.

We arrived in Siracusa, Sicily in early morning in calm seas. It was a big, well protected harbor and we dropped anchor immediately. The first order of business was to get some sleep! And we did………
Start your own blog now! Free!

The 2014 cruising season has finally begun. I will be the first to admit my negligence in not blogging our trip to Croatia toward the end of last season after Greece, but I think I was having such a good time I just never got around to doing it. I will get around to the details of it sooner or later, but for now I will be fast forwarding to this year!

Last season ended with a cruise on a cruise ship across the Atlantic. Why you say? First of all, a two week cruise is cheaper than a business class air ticket, if you can believe that. Secondly, it is very relaxing and lastly, the time zones change only once every few days and by the time you arrive in Florida, our home, you suffer no jet lag. We liked it so much that we decided to do the same trip coming back to Croatia this spring, via London. Oh, one more BIG advantage. There are no limitations on luggage on a ship so we brought 8 suitcases, two of which were filled with clothes and the other six with spare boat parts! See what that costs you on a transatlantic flight!

                                                                                     The smaller 2 of the 8 had clothes in them

We ended up wintering at Mandalina Marina in Sibenik, Croatia, which turned out to be a wonderful place. They are in the process of building a 5 Star resort and it looks to me like it will be finished in about a year or two. Both Ken on Sans Souci and I employed a great guy named Ante Muic to look after our boats and he did a great job. In the past we have had both decent and absolutely HORRID experiences from our “winter watchers”. Many times the boats were neglected and in one instance the watcher was so negligent that we had damage to our boats. We generally are only there for one season and they know it. Ante was a different Breed. He really cared about the boats and did his best job. I highly recommend him.

I had three projects that were to be done over the winter. Two of them came out spectacular and the other, the varnish, just never got done, which was disappointing. It really looks horrible and will have to wait until the end of the season to get it done. My hope is that it gets really bad and just completely flakes off. I have zero patience for doing it myself and it would probably end up looking worse than it does now!

We had a new canvas cover made for the upper aft deck and it came out really nice. The only problem was that the guy who made it put a HUGE advertising sign attached to the canvas and I had to wait until we left to clip the stitches off and remove it. I did not want to hurt his feelings.

                                                                                                    New canvas aft top

A BIG PROBLEM FINALLY SOLVED

One day, about ten years ago, not long after we had purchased Seabird, we were docked at our marina in St Augustine, FL and the guy who was waxing our hull asked us to turn the boat around in the slip so that he could wax the other side. I backed out of the slip into shallow water and got stuck in the mud. I revved up the engine to free us and went back into the slip. Shortly after that, an angry, red faced little guy came charging down the dock, waving his arms, screaming and yelling at us. Evidently, when I revved the engine, a plume of greasy black soot came out of the exhaust pipe and landed on his wife, who was wearing a pure white cocktail dress, now covered with the innards of Seabird’s main beast of an engine. I looked over only to see this poor woman in tears, covered in black spots, looking sort of like a white Leopard. I apologized profusely and offered to pay for the cleaning or a new dress. Her husband was very gracious and did not want any payment. Since that day, we have periodically “dusted” other boats from Connecticut to Thailand, and maybe a few people too! All of these apologies in different languages were getting kind of old. Here is the story……

We have had this nagging exhaust problem on Seabird since we owned purchased the boat 11 years ago. Many, if not most Nordhavns have what is called a “dry exhaust”. Most pleasure boats have a seawater pump that sends water to a heat exchanger on the engine, cooling it and then sending the water, mixed with the exhaust, overboard. Most Nordhavns have my system which is similar to a diesel truck system that sheds the exhaust, without mixing in any seawater, high above the boat thorough a long pipe. The engine is cooled by a network of pipes that are attached to the outside of the hull on the bottom. The seawater cools the pipes with coolant running through them, which subsequently cools the engine by circulating it in a closed loop. It is a VERY reliable system with a negligible failure rate because there is no seawater coming into the boat for cooling.

The ONLY problem I have had with it is this horrible sooting periodically. When it rains, some water comes into the stack, washing any exhaust residue inside the 20 foot long pipe, collecting at the bottom. Once it dries and you start up the engine, your neighbors start to hate you as the black greasy dust bunnies blast out of the top of the exhaust pipe and settles on their boats. It only lasts for 10 seconds or so, but if you owned a white boat next to me, that was enough!

I decided to solve the problem once and for all over the winter and Ante said he had the right guy for the job. The result was what you see below. A custom made cover that is controlled by a line and pulleys. Before I start the engine, I pull on the rope from the aft deck and it opens for cruising. I have small velcro’d places over the start keys to remind me to uncover the stack before starting. It works absolutely great and I have not had a single speck of soot since then.

So, to whomever that poor woman was in St Augustine, know that my experience with you prompted a ten year search resulting in a solution and no one again will suffer your fate.

                                                                                 You can see the line in the center of the stack cover

                                                                                   We pull on the line and the stack cover opens

                                                                                It actually opens another 20 degrees from this.  So far 
                                                                                so good this summer!

As I get older and more forgetful…..I have this

HAULOUT

We decided to do a haulout while in Croatia to tend to some bottom issues and get some paint repairs done. We had a few dings and gouges on the hull and swim platform from previous seasons. We had also applied a special copper coating on the bottom called “CopperCoat” which is supposed to last 15 years. Unfortunately, we shipped the boat from Thailand and did not have the time or opportunity to “reactivate” the paint, which means a quick sanding if it has been out of the water for more than a few days. During this haulout, we would have that opportunity.

Kremik Service turned out to be a great service company. They did a good job for us repairing the swim platform, touching up the paint and cleaning our underwater hardware. I tried a new prop antifouling coating this year called Velox. It is a fraction of the price of Propspeed, a coating that I have used in the past with great disappointment.

A SAD MOMENT

We had a sad occurrence after we arrived in Sibenik. There was a wild party on the dock next to us with a family of charterers. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, the father tripped and fell overboard, drowning. They searched for the body all of the next day and in late afternoon, it surfaced in back of our boat! it was heartbreaking to see the grief of his family. We learned many years ago that boats can be dangerous places and partying needs to be done responsibly.

With all of the work completed, the boat was in good shape and ready to to our summer cruising. All that was missing was Sans Souci and her crew of four (Ken, Roberta and the two dogs, who arrived a few days after we returned from the shipyard.

Ken, Roberta, Keely and Toundra

                                                                              Sans Souci

The plan this year was to slowly work our way down to Montenegro, which is a fun stop with cheap fuel to boot. Ken and Roberta decided that they had seen enough of Croatia and would make a beeline to Montenegro, only stopping in Dubrovnik to clear out of the country. We continued with our plan and took a week to get there, stopping in Trogir, Hvar, Mjet and Cavtat, where we cleared out of Croatia.

Seabird from way up top in Hvar, Croatia

Trogir was one of our favorite stops in Croatia                 The main pier is against a huge walled city

We arrived in Montenegro about a week and a half behind Sans Souci. This was to be our launching point for the summer cruise to Italy, Malta, Sardinia and Corsica, with a plan to winter the boats in Imperia, Italy. 

                                                                                 This is our “projected” path this summer

At least, that was the plan……

Next up: Cruise to Italy. 

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My Sister In Law Tina was sitting on the upper aft deck the other day with me on a particularly gorgeous Croatian morning while anchored in a quiet, pristine harbor with clear blue water, no wind and calm seas. She suddenly said, “This is unbelievable”…

My Sister In Law Tina was sitting on the upper aft deck the other day with me on a particularly gorgeous Croatian morning while anchored in a quiet, pristine harbor with clear blue water, no wind and calm seas. She suddenly said, “This is unbelievable”…