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Welcome to Ken’s Blog!

Greetings all!

I mentioned in my last blog entry that I was going to try to do more frequent and shorter blog entries.

As I am typing this, Sans Souci has just departed the island of Ponza, about 100 miles off the mainland of Italy. We are now on a LONG 160nm run to the island of Sardinia. To check our current position, use this link:

http://www.kensblog.com/current_location

Journey Map

Vietri Sul Mare

Running past Positano and Capri

We had planned to stop at Positano, a waterfront town where Roberta and I stayed in a hotel over twenty years ago. However, the anchorage in front of town is completely exposed, and there was a strong swell running. We had to settle for nothing more than a picture, taken from over a mile offshore. In the picture you can see lots of megayachts anchored in front of Positano. If a boat is large enough you can anchor in places that smaller boats can’t get away with.

I notice that the large boats are able to keep their nose pointed into the swell, which mitigates the side-to-side rolling. I’m not sure how they do that. Do they leave their engines running? Do they use a stern anchor? I have no idea….

We also bypassed the island of Capri. Once again, we wanted to stop, but Capri really has no good place to anchor the boat, and the high-season moorage costs in the marina are outrageous. Can you believe 1,810 euros (around $2,500 USD) per night for a boat our size (7 meter beam.)

Ischia

Our goal was to arrive at Sardinia and we had mapped out a series of islands that would permit us to “island hop” our way to Sardinia. We had hoped to stop at Capri but the weather had other ideas, so we continued on, another 45nm (about a seven-hour run) to the island of Ischia.

We anchored on the south end of Ischia. Because the swell was coming from the west, we anchored on the east side of a small pennisula (Sant’Angelo). The town looked cute, but neither us nor Steven and Carol put the tenders down. We were as protected from the swell as we could be, but we were still rolling. The problem with these small islands is that there aren’t many bays and you are completely open to hundreds of miles of surrounding water. We have near-perfect conditions, no wind, settled conditions, and we’re still rocking.

Sans Souci is equipped with something called “flopper stoppers.” They are large butterfly-shaped plates that hang from giant “fishing” poles that extend from the sides of the boat. The idea is that by dangling these giant plates (called “fish”) in the water, the side to side rolling motion of the boat can be reduced. Putting them out isn’t difficult, but does take enough effort that during the last couple of years, in Turkey, Greece, Croatia and Montenegro, we never used them.

Roberta pointed out that we are accustomed to thinking about wind, and have never really had to focus on swell. This is a bit of a wake-up call for us. Out in open ocean you have giant swell, and even twenty or thirty foot waves are a non-issue, as long as they are far enough apart and not breaking. You just gently ride up one side and down the other. But here, we are seeing short-period (close together) three to six foot chop. It makes it uncomfortable to run, and impossible to sleep.

The reasons neither boat put the tenders down was that we weren’t sure we would be staying. On Sans Souci we hoped that the flopper stoppers would reduce the swell enough that we could sleep. And, as bad as it was, thanks to Sans Souci’s size and weight, and the flopper stoppers, we had it better than anyone else in the anchorage.

The doggies keep looking at us like, “Can’t you make the constant motion go away?”

We anchored for the night. Sleeping conditions on Sans Souci were uncomfortable, but not that bad. However, when I spoke with Seabird the next morning, they had a much worse evening, and had been unable to sleep. We didn’t know if it would be any more comfortable on our next island, Ponza, but we knew we couldn’t stay where we were.

Ponza – The party island

After our “failed” night on Ischia, we decided to run another 50 miles to the island of Ponza.

Ponza is a bizarre little island. It is perhaps 500 feet wide by four miles long, and runs roughly north to south. There are lots of bays where you can anchor, but none offer much protection from any weather coming from the south or north.

Based on its location (100 miles offshore) and shape I’d expect it to be an empty rock no one goes to — but, that would be the completely wrong idea.

Another Nordhavn owner who visited Ponza a year ago, Jennifer Ullman (Starlet, N46) warned me that this was a party island. She said that when she and Mark anchored they felt they might need fenders to hold off other boats. Jennifer was right! When we were a couple miles offshore I radioed to Seabird, “Steven. Get your binoculars! Look at the island. You won’t believe it!” I had never seen anything like it! A solid wall of anchored boats, several rows thick stretching for miles, the entire length of the island.

To drop our anchors we had to cut through a highway of tenders going back and forth from the anchored boats to town. And…it was a young crowd. Lots of bikinis, swimming and festive atmosphere!

We dropped anchor in 30 feet of crystal clear water, dropped the flopper stoppers, dropped the tender — and jumped in the water!

This radar image shows about two miles of the coast line and tells the story.

Here’s a short video showing the fun we had yesterday just cruising around exploring. Nothing can be less interesting than watching someone else’s home movies, but because I tend to always focus on the annoying bits of cruising I thought people might like to see that we also have fun from time to time.

The video starts with Toundra and Keeley getting swim lessons from the back of the boat, and then is followed by a fast tender ride at dusk. The best bit of the tender ride is Roberta shouting, “No! No! No!” when the camera starts to come her direction. When she is feeling grubby she doesn’t like getting her picture took. I’m always grubby, so it never matters. And, lastly there is a brief bit of fun going through a rock arch, and you can hear me calling out the depths. The water is so clear that 30 feet of depth, and 3 feet all look the same.

And in closing…

And, that’s it for this issue of KensBlog… My next report will be from the island of SARDINIA!

Thank you for following along on our big voyage!

If you missed my prior blog entries from this season, you may view them here:

• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/05/31/KensBlog-2014-01–Preparing-For-The-Season
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/06/14/KensBlog-2014-02–Welcome-to-Italy
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/06/24/KensBlog-2014-03–Rough-Seas-And-A-Visit-to-a-Historic-Town
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/07/07/KensBlog-2014-04–Southern-Sicily-and-Malta
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/07/22/KensBlog-2014-05–Malta–Winds-and-High-Seas
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/08/01/KensBlog-2014-Entry-6–We-re-having-a-SWELL-time

If you aren’t receiving my blog entries via email, click this link to register:

http://www.kensblog.com/register

I should also mention that this is one of two blogs that I do. My other blog is on Facebook, although you do not need to register with Facebook to view the blog. Just click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/kensblogdotcom

My other blog is very different than this blog. I post to it almost every day, and post whatever I happen to be thinking about, without editing or filtering. I also tend to respond instantly to any questions. Check it out!

Thank you!

Ken and Roberta Williams
ken(at)kensblog.com
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68
PS – In case you haven’t figured it out, clicking on any of the pictures above will give you a higher-resolution (bigger) version of the picture.

Welcome to Ken’s Blog! (top)

Greetings all!

First off, I would like to apologize for the length of this blog entry. We’ve been busy traveling and I haven’t found time to work on my blog. Going forward, I’ll try to produce shorter blog entries, and send them more frequently. That said, it never seems to work out that way. One tip for this issue of the blog: make sure you read the section on Scario. It describes a scary event!

As I am typing this, Sans Souci is on the west coast of mainland Italy, in Salerno (about 150 miles south of Rome)

Here’s an index to this issue of Ken’s Blog:

• Journey Map
• Taormina
• The Messina Strait
• The Aeolian Islands – Vulcano
• Lipari
• Stromboli
• Scario
• Salerno
• Boat Geek Report
• And, in closing

 

Journey Map (top)

 

Taormina (top)

At the end of my last blog entry Sans Souci and Seabird were working our way north along the east coast of Sicily. We had expected nice calm seas but were instead pushed around by lumpy seas. Our problem wasn’t as much the rough seas, as it was that we had no idea what would be waiting for us at arrival. The east coast of Sicily has only a few anchorages, and other than Siracusa none offer protection from rough seas or swell.

The major topic of discussion was, “What happens when we get there?” The cruising guides are quite explicit in saying that there is no anchorage at Taormina except in “settled conditions.” We could see on the chart that the anchorage was exposed to the sea and that there were no other anchorages. Nor were there any others anywhere close. We identified one that “might” work, right at the Messina Strait (the narrow channel between Sicily and Italy) but that would mean getting beat up for an additional two hours, only to arrive at a dubious anchorage.

Another Nordhavn owner had recommended we try the mooring buoys at Taormina, which were placed in the most protected possible location. We were aware of these, but had written them off as impractical. Generally, it is impossible to know what is under the water on these mooring buoys, or the condition of the line that attaches the buoy to the bottom. However, with a bit of googling I found a website that had this to say:

Interesting! I didn’t like the idea of being in what was effectively a “boat parking lot” but we were in no position to be picky. If the mooring buoys could hold us, we wanted them! The price looked outrageous – 120 euros (about $180 USD) to tie to a little orange ball for the night, but…what was our other option?

The seas stayed rough up to within a mile of the moorage, then suddenly flattened out. Just short of the mooring buoys we saw water flat enough to drop our anchors, and probably could have, but we were in the mood for a “sure thing” and the mooring buoys had captured the best possible (most protected) location.

About the time we finished tying up the wind dropped. Suddenly it was flat in every direction. Our moods brightened and we were instantaneously transported to paradise! A flood of other boats came in and we looked around and realized we were in a great place under a very cool, cliff-hugging town .

The best of all: Taormina is near the base of Mt Etna, an extremely active volcano. We were close enough to easily see the lava flow – at night. How many people can say they had dinner on the back of their boat while being entertained by an active volcano at the base of cliffs, holding a hillside city?

 

The Messina Strait (top)

After a few spectacular days at Taormina the time had come to head north. To do this we would be passing through the Messina Strait.

The Messina Strait is a narrow channel separating mainland Italy from Sicily. If you think of Italy as a leg with a boot at the bottom, then Sicily would be like the soccer ball that is about to be kicked by the “toe.” We’d be passing in the narrow gap between the toe and the ball.

I was nervous about the strait, and kept googling it on the internet, trying to figure out whether there would be heavy currents. The Messina Strait turned out to be anti-climactic. I had expected a narrow channel, like the Corinth Canal (Note: If you haven’t seen our video of going through the Corinth Canal, check it out by clicking this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6KjXNYiXfo), but whereas the Corinth Canal was only 75′ wide, the the Messina Strait is 1.5nm wide at the narrowest. There were currents, but with so much maneuvering room they were a non-factor.

There are a few interesting things worth noting:

• In the narrowest part of the channel, fishermen were everywhere in little (Approx. 4 meter) fishing boats. They were hard to see at times and I have to believe one gets hit from time to time. At one point I was dodging two ferries zig-zagging around them, while being passed by a cruise ship!
• The currents were strange. I had downloaded a program for my iphone which was a current table for the Messina Strait. It claimed the current would be 1 knot with us, but for most of the run it was three knots AGAINST us.
• Apparently the area is known as a place where swordfish boats hang out. Sadly, we weren’t able to see one.

  Here’s a fun article talking about why these boats are SO interesting:

  http://tinyurl.com/osk4jbx

  

  Swordfishing boat at the Messina Strait. Look at the length of the bowsprit!

 

The Aeolian Islands – Vulcano (top)

Anyway, the real excitement didn’t begin until we reached the Aeolian Islands (north of Sicily). They are a series of volcanic islands, and we wanted a spot to drop anchor for the night. Unfortunately, there aren’t many places, and on a nice Sunday afternoon in high season, room to anchor is rare.

The islands drop vertically into the sea. By the time you are 100 yards offshore the depth is easily 300 feet or more. At Porto Levante, on Vulcano Island, which was our first anchoring effort, the closest I could come to anchoring was a narrow shelf in 124 feet of water. We searched for an hour for a place to drop the anchors, and finally found a very nice place in 50 feet of water on the west side of Lipari Island.

After one calm night at anchor, we had no choice but to move around to the east side of Lipari and go into a marina at Lipari Town. There would be a strong west wind coming for the next 48 hours, and we needed to be somewhere safe.

 

Lipari (top)

As we were on route to the town of Lipari Roberta once again grabbed the video camera, and shot this video of us following Seabird around the island:

A marina had been recommended to us in Lipari Town (the main town on the island of Lipari.) We knew that Lipari was a small island, and weren’t expecting much for a marina, but the marina was even smaller than expected. It was just a large pontoon, with no breakwater, open to the sea. We knew bad weather was coming, but weren’t too worried. The wind would be coming from the west, and we were on the east side of the island inside a bay. We would be protected from the wind and swell by the island.

As Roberta and I were walking up our dock I noticed that many of the boats were charter sailboats (flying a banner that said “Yacht Week”). I mentioned to Roberta that I felt sorry for the people who rented the boats after flying many miles to enjoy a week in the sunshine, only to find themselves pinned down by weather for several days and being bounced around in the wind. Sans Souci is an extremely heavy boat. We were moving somewhat, but nothing like the little sailboats tied to the dock. They were moving so much that I could envision almost anyone getting seasick just sitting at the dock!

As the evening went on, the weather didn’t improve, but a “spring break” atmosphere took over the dock. No one looked like they were suffering too bad, making the best of it, although I bet there were some people who had headaches the next morning.

During the worst of the wave action I noticed a couple of young ladies swimming in the tight space between their sailboat and the dock. I was afraid that one of them was going to get badly hurt should the sailboat (or the dock) crash into them. I was probably overly sensitive because of an incident Steven and Carol witnessed in May while in Sibenik, Croatia, waiting for us to arrive. During a wild party at a nearby dock someone went overboard, only to be fished out of the water next to Seabird the next morning. A very sad, mortal event. Although I didn’t say anything to the girls I couldn’t stop myself from approaching the captain the next day to warn him to keep a closer eye on his passengers. He didn’t stop them swimming, but did move his boat farther off the dock creating a larger area behind the dock, so that his passengers could swim safely.

 

Panarea (top)

After three days hiding from weather at the dock on Lipari the weather improved and we were able to move the short distance to another island in the Aeolian group: Panarea.

Panarea is a tiny island with a huge anchorage in front of Panarea Town. The enormous size of the anchorage has made it popular with the megayacht and jetset crowd. There’s kind of a St Tropez ambiance on the island, with the nightlife to match.

As much as I was looking forward to visiting Panarea, there was another reason to be there. We had been trying to cross paths with Nordhavn 76 owners, Laust and Monika Sondergaard, who had been cruising further north and were working their way south. We had never met, but had corresponded from time to time.

 

Stromboli – Dinner beneath an active volcano (top)

Seabird and Sans Souci share a common desire for short-distance cruising on flat, calm seas. We’re in a part of the world where the seas and winds can quickly turn nasty. The Aeolian Islands are beautiful, but they are very exposed to high wind and swell. It was time to move on.

Our next stop after Panarea would be the another of the Aeolian islands: Stromboli. Stromboli is an active volcano, and can apparently put out quite a fireworks show at night, viewed mostly from the NW of the island. The problem is that there is virtually no protection from the winds and waves at the one anchorage at the NE of the island. There also isn’t much space to anchor, and what little there is forces the boats to anchor much closer to each other than they normally would. As we were approaching the anchorage I noticed that I was still reading 350 feet of depth within 100 feet of a sailboat to which I’d be anchoring next to. But the bottom came up quickly and I was able to drop the anchor in 38 feet of water.

We never did get to see the fireworks; the crater points to the NW while we were anchored at the NE. Though we were anchored at the volcano, in order to see the show you need to wait until the early morning while it’s still dark, pull your anchor and drive around to the northwest side of the island. We felt lazy and decided to pass on that, figuring that we saw Mt. Etna in all of her glory from the wonderful viewpoint of our upper aft deck at Taormina! That doesn’t mean we didn’t have a magical time, though. From where we were sitting we could see constant smoke at the top of the volcano, and an endless stream of people hiking the switchback trail to the top of the volcano. Apparently tourists hike for hours to reach a viewing point at the edge of the crater, watch the fireworks, and then, after dark, hike back down, flashlights in hand. We were watching them through the binoculars, and, while sitting in the hot tub, we could see what looked like a lit-up snake crawling down the mountain. And to add to the surrealness, though we never personally viewed the eruptions, about every 30/40 minutes or so, we’d hear it: a loud sound like a huge jet engine!

 

Scario – Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you don’t (top)

Apologies, but I have no pictures for this section of the blog, and I have a REALLY good excuse. In fact, Steven (Seabird) and I were debating whether this was our worst cruising day ever, or second worst. We couldn’t decide, but are confident it ranks high on the “day from hell” scale.

Our journey from Stromboli to Scario (a village on the west coast of southern, mainland Italy) began at 5am, as we prepared the boats for departure. We had a perfect weather forecast for a 75nm (nine hour) trip to an anchorage we had heard good things about.

The trip was every bit as calm as predicted. Zero wind and dead-calm seas.

On arrival I noticed ten or so boats anchored below some cliffs just outside of town. We had planned to drop our anchors just outside of the town but were curious why all the boats had chosen a place a couple miles out of town to anchor. (It was a great place to swim!) As we approached we could see that it was a fairly tight location without much room to anchor, but incredibly beautiful. We could drop our hooks and feel like we were in the middle of nowhere, but be an easy tender ride into town. At around 5:00 pm all of the other boats pulled their anchors, leaving our two boats alone at the anchorage.

The anchorage turned out to be perfect. We floated in the calm water and had dinner on the upper back deck. The evening was predicted to be no more than five knots of wind, and we would be moving to a city (Salerno) 70nm farther north the next day, so Roberta and I put away our flopper stoppers (the giant poles that hang out the sides to help keep the boat from rolling side to side while at anchor).

Roberta and I turned in for the night at 10:30 pm. At 11:00 pm we felt the boat roll with a swell, and assumed some big boat had passed by and we were feeling its wake. But then, the boat rolled again, and then again, and again and…

The boat kept rolling side to side making sleep impossible. By 12:30 we were rolling so that I had to lay down chairs (so they wouldn’t fall) and move computers off table tops. At 1:00 am the swell was absolutely unacceptable. It was virtually impossible to move inside the boat without falling. The strangest thing was that there was no wind. The forecasters had been right about that. But there was a HUGE swell entering the bay; perhaps seven to eight feet of swell.

I used the radio to call over to Seabird. No answer. I tried the phone and woke Steven and Carol up. “Should we move?” I asked. Steven answered, “It’s bad, but we’re able to sleep. I think this is going to calm down.” Roberta and I tried to sleep.

The swell continued to worsen and was becoming frightening. At 1:30 am Steven called, “Let’s get out of here!” He then asked, “Are you sure we can get our anchors up in this?” Our bows were bobbing dramatically by this time.

It was a very good question. The bows were pitching through a five to ten foot arc every few seconds. As soon as the anchor cleared the water it could fly up like a missile.

My answer, “We really don’t have a choice, do we?” We were close to shore and I could hear waves crashing. Things were getting worse quickly. We knew we were in trouble where we were, and thought we might be in trouble out at sea. We had to pick between two bad solutions to our problem: stay, or go. We knew we couldn’t stay, so, in reality, it was an easy decision.

Pulling the anchor was not fun. It was pitch black and we didn’t want to mess up our night vision by turning on the deck lights. Roberta managed the helm as I went to the bow to try to retrieve the anchor.

The bow was pitching more than I had expected. Although I had no light, our anchor light was illuminating the waves around us, and I could finally see how much we were rising and falling. Raising the anchor went reasonably well until the end. We were apparently well stuck with the anchor buried. We had dropped the anchor in 70 feet of water. When I was on the last 70 feet of chain, the anchor stuck and wouldn’t pull up. I started pulling in chain as the bow descended, and then let the weight of Sans Souci’s upward momentum help unstick the anchor as the bow lurched up. I was worried the anchor would be trapped under some rock and that by lifting chain as the bow plummeted I’d be ripping off the bowsprit when the wave pushed the boat higher.

Suddenly, the anchor freed and went neatly into its position on the bow. I looked over at Seabird, and their anchor had come up backwards. He and Carol were on the bow using a boat hook to rotate the anchor into a proper position for lifting the last few feet onto the bowsprit. Steven mentioned later that he had been nervous hearing the waves crashing nearby. His worry was that the boat would be blown onto shore while he was away from the helm helping to spin the anchor. Once again, there were no other options. In situations like this you do what you have to do.

Finally…the boats were free! We assumed that as soon as we were moving, and got out into deeper water, the rolling would stop. Our first thought was that we had anchored in a bad location, but we quickly discovered that it wouldn’t have made a difference. I did a quick check of the weather and the report had been updated to reflect the swell being two meters (nearly seven feet) rather than the previously forecast calm.

But, now what? We were in heavy seas, with strangely no wind, and a seventy mile passage ahead of us — and, we hadn’t slept in almost 24 hours!

There was nowhere we could have anchored. It was just a surprise swell due to some unexpected weather event far away. It was what it was, and our boats are solid, so we just kept going. While underway, Roberta logged onto the internet to search for a marina further north, where we could go and safely dock.

It was a rough ride, but we’ve had rougher. The wind was only in the 5 to 15 knot range, it was the unexpected swell that was causing the problems. What made this run particularly bad was that it was pitch black out, and we had seen fish pots when we came in. Also, our exhaustion was complicating the situation. We decided that both Roberta and I would drive until the sun came out (three hours later) and then we’d take turns while one rested.

We decided to shift our route farther offshore. Originally we had routed ourselves fairly close to land, but now wanted to stay in the deep water (over 1,000 ft depth), to avoid any fish pots. We were also concerned there might be some poorly lit fishermen. We wanted as far from other traffic as we could get. The extra distance caused by rerouting turned our nine hour run into a twelve hour run.

The story does have a happy ending. The ride was miserable the whole way, and even entering the marina ( Marina D’Arechi, in Salerno) was tricky, but we were finally tied up, and ready for well-earned sleep.

And…that’s why there are no pictures! (Both Roberta and I were too busy and exhausted!)

 

Salerno – And a visit to an ancient city (top)

Our journey to Salerno was a challenge, but overall a good experience. Roberta made the comment at dinner that “It’s amazing what you can do when you have to.”

Roberta had her own personal battle bringing the boat into the marina. She had shoulder surgery a year ago and now doesn’t like to work the lines, fearing to hurt her shoulder again. These days, I’m the one who fenders the boat, handles the lines or lowers the anchor. As we approach marinas or anchorages, she drives while I work outside. Entering would normally be easy, but that big swell was relentlessly pushing us through the marina entrance with a tight turn just inside. There were a couple of boats exiting the marina at the same time and she had to dodge them just as the surge was pushing Sans Souci toward them. She isn’t accustomed to driving the boat in those conditions — but, she rose to the occasion and stayed calm. We entered the marina perfectly. When I took over, the Med-mooring went smooth. It’s always a bit of a struggle to convince the marina staff that I need someone on the boat to help work lines as this is a big, heavy boat and there is no way I can get it Med-moored without someone helping Roberta. Normally Roberta drives while I fender, but then I take over driving for the actual docking. Roberta is proving she can maneuver the boat more than she thinks she can, so…my next goal is to get her to drive while Med-mooring, so that I can assist the marina staff with lines while tying up.

Our primary reason for visiting Salerno was to see Herculaneum, a town which was destroyed by Mt. Vesuvius at the same time as its more famous counterpart, Pompeii (79 AD.)

Herculaneum had been a port town where the wealthy lived. Roberta and I toured Pompeii years ago, and had heard that Herculaneum, though much smaller than Pompeii, was much better preserved.

I’ve seen more than my fair share of historic sites (pyramids, many ancient walled cities, ancient temples, etc.). I’d say that I am tough to impress these days. That said, Herculaneum blew me away. The place is well enough preserved that you feel like you are really in a town, walking the streets. You can go into houses and actually feel like you’re in someone’s home, and know where the gardens were, where the fountains were, where the bathroom was, etc. You could also sense how the city was laid out; the streets are all there and very well made. For example, there was a “restaurant row,” and streets with shops and a couple of bakeries where the oven is still there…and probably still usable.

Click this link to see a 3d picture of just one room of one building:

http://photosynth.net/view/bff5e224-dfb4-4832-834e-caff9e9583ed

After a couple of hours of exploring Herculaneum we came across a particularly sad sight: At the front of the town are the boat storage areas (this was a waterfront town, now set back from the water by about a thousand feet due to all the tremendous ash fall.) Where boats or marine equipment would have been stored are a series of arched vaults. There, many of the town’s inhabitants went and huddled while waiting to be evacuated by boat or to hope that the large vaults would provide some protection from the eruption. They didn’t make it. Three hundred exceptionally preserved skeletons were found in those boat storages– mostly women and children. Quite a few men were found outside on the beach, not far from those boat storage vaults. It is theorized that the men had the women and children go into those large, protected storage areas, then went to the beach to….die????

 

And, something for the techies… (top)

This has been a fairly calm time for mechanical problems with the boat.

 

And in closing… (top)

And, that’s it for this issue of KensBlog… Thank you for following along on our big voyage!

If you missed my prior blog entries from this season, you may view them here:

• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/05/31/KensBlog-2014-01–Preparing-For-The-Season
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/06/14/KensBlog-2014-02–Welcome-to-Italy
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/06/24/KensBlog-2014-03–Rough-Seas-And-A-Visit-to-a-Historic-Town
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/07/07/KensBlog-2014-04–Southern-Sicily-and-Malta
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/07/22/KensBlog-2014-05–Malta–Winds-and-High-Seas

If you aren’t receiving my blog entries via email, click this link to register:

http://www.kensblog.com/register

I should also mention that this is one of two blogs that I do. My other blog is on Facebook, although you do not need to register with Facebook to view the blog. Just click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/kensblogdotcom

My other blog is very different than this blog. I post to it almost every day, and post whatever I happen to be thinking about, without editing or filtering. I also tend to respond instantly to any questions. Check it out!

Thank you!

Ken and Roberta Williams
ken(at)kensblog.com
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68
PS – In case you haven’t figured it out, clicking on any of the pictures above will give you a higher-resolution (bigger) version of the picture.

Welcome to Ken’s Blog! (top)

Greetings all!

Sans Souci is in Malta!

Here’s an index to this issue of Ken’s Blog:

• Journey Map
• St Julians Bay
• Valletta
• Back to St Julians Bay
• Back to Gozo
• The Trip To Siracusa
• Never trust a weather report – the run to Taormina
• Boat Geek Report
• And, in closing

 

Journey Map (top)

As you can see in this map, Malta is south of Italy, and centrally located in the Eastern Med. It’s location has been a mixed blessing. On one hand it’s a place with great natural beauty and warm weather, but limited natural resources. Malta’s problem has been that its central location makes it an attractive location for a naval base. Over the years Malta has been fought over, and captured, many times by a variety of countries.

It was even a battleground during World War II. During a two year period over 3,000 bombing raids were flown against Malta, earning this tiny country the dubious distinction of being one of the most heavily bombed locations during WWII. The Grand Harbor, where we moored Sans Souci received more bombs that all of London!

 

St Julian’s Bay, on the island of Malta (top)

In my last blog entry we were concentrating on Gozo and Comino, the northern-most of the three islands that form Malta. We enjoyed the remoteness and “small town” feel, but wanted to journey south to the capital: Valletta, on the island of Malta itself.

As we were working our way south, along the east coast of Malta, we saw a small bay, just north of Valletta called “St Julian’s Bay” that looked good. In Valletta, the main city and capital, we would be going into a marina (the Grand Harbor Marina) and wanted another night or two of relaxation before hitting the big city.

Anchoring at St Julian’s didn’t match up with Roberta’s and my “style” at all. It was like being anchored in front of a major city. We were surrounded by condos and restaurants, in a fairly small, and somewhat rolly, bay. Later, we decided that St Julian’s was probably a fun town, with lots of great restaurants, but at that moment it wasn’t what we were seeking, so we prepared dinner and stayed on the boat. Steven and Carol on Seabird, the Nordhavn 62 that we are traveling with, dropped their tender and went into town, where they had a terrific dinner.

We had planned two nights at St Julian’s Bay, but after one night Roberta and I decided we would go on to Valletta, which was really just around the corner. Med-mooring (parking the boat stern-to the dock with nothing but other boats beside us) for the first time in a strange marina is always stressful for us. Roberta had shoulder surgery last year and is still fearful of putting too much load on her shoulder, so is not much help with handling lines and fenders (and we have some heavy lines and big fenders!). Although Roberta is good with driving and maneuvering Sans Souci – though not when coming into a Med-mooring situation in some tight areas – I am effectively single-handing the boat and need help with our lines and fenders. (We’re totally fine with side-tying anywhere, though.) Therefore, whenever we have something to do with which we’re uncomfortable the foremost thought on our minds is, “Well. Let’s just do it and get it behind us.” Thus, we made the decision to cut short our time at St Julian’s and head to the Grand Harbor Marina in Valletta the next day. Seabird, on the other hand, wanted one more relaxing day and night at anchor and headed back to Comino Island to a wonderful anchorage that they had discovered near the Blue Lagoon.

 

Valletta (top)

Upon entering the marina I radioed for assistance and asked if it would be possible to put a couple of guys on the boat to assist with working lines. The marina said, “No problem” and within five minutes we had two of the marina staff onboard, brought out to the boat by a tender. This made mooring the boat trivial, and in minutes we were tied up at the dock. We were happy campers!

As I stepped off the back of the boat the harbormaster was there to greet us. He mentioned that over the years many Nordhavns had been in the marina, but that ours was the first he had seen with a walkway on both sides of the boat. Nordhavn offers boats with an external walkway on one side, or both sides (called “symmetric” or “asymmetric.”) By eliminating one walkway running the length of the boat, the main salon and galley can be larger. However, as with everything on a boat, there are always trade-offs. It is convenient to have the walkway on both sides, especially with performing docking maneuvers, but it is also great to have more space in the salon and galley that would otherwise be taken up by the second walkway outside. In Europe the process of Med-mooring is often simpler by having the ability to quickly and easily move from the bow of the boat to the stern along either side. The dual walkway can also be an advantage when side-tied to a dock because you can thus exit the boat from either side, or dock on either side, whereas asymmetrical boats (single walkway boats) prefer being oriented to the one side with the external walkway. It’s one of those things where there is no one right answer; it’s a personal preference. The N68 has plenty of room in the salon, so we had no trouble giving up some internal space for the ‘option ability’ of docking and maneuvering.

Several times we took a water taxi into the city. Perhaps we just had a particularly colorful taxi driver, but we were always amused by our discussions with him. Over the days we were in Valetta we would meet his brother – also a water taxi driver — hear stories about his wife, trips to the doctor and even opinions on world politics. His English was far from perfect, and at times we would wonder if we had heard correctly, and at other times hope we hadn’t.

After four days in the Grand Harbor Marina we decided it was time to move on.

Sans Souci carries 3,000 gallons of fuel, although I probably only started the trip with about 2,800. The Montenegro fuel dock had made it clear that personal disembowelment was a distinct possibility if I let one drop of fuel touch their pristine water! Thus I left some room at the top of each tank and we departed Montenegro with approximately 2,800 gallons. In Malta, I was now at 1,700 gallons remaining. With well over half of my fuel remaining I could almost certainly squeak by for the balance of the trip. However, my philosophy is to take fuel whenever I need more than 500 gallons and see an easily accessible fuel dock.

The Grand Harbor Marina doesn’t really have a fuel dock. To take fuel, you look for empty space amongst their super-yacht moorings, side-tie to the wall and make an appointment with a fuel truck.

 

Back to St Julians Bay (top)

I am not someone who believes in backtracking, but sometimes you have no choice. From Malta, our next destination would be back to Siracusa (Syracuse). From there, we would leave Sicily, traveling north through the Messina Strait, and start working our way through the Aeolian Islands, the west coast of Italy, Sardinia and Corsica.

We had an uncomfortable ride when coming south to Malta, and wanted a smooth ride for the trip back north. We all wanted at least one more night at anchor before heading north and thought a return to St. Julian’s Bay might be a good idea. We were expecting some wind, but St. Julian’s bay is open only to the northeast and the wind would be coming from the northwest. Roberta and I felt that we hadn’t given St. Julian’s Bay a fair shake and wanted to spend a night there and eat at one of the great restaurants for dinner. Specifically, we had heard the nearby Hilton Hotel had a high-end Thai restaurant, the Blue Elephant, that we wanted to visit.

Just after dropping the hook we realized that we should have stayed another night at the Grand Harbor Marina. Whereas on our first trip to St. Julian’s we’d had a relatively smooth night, this time, we could see a swell coming into the bay. We had predicted the wind direction correctly, so…there shouldn’t have been “much” of a swell, but…there was, and it was a strong one. Not only would we NOT be going out for Thai food, sleep was looking unlikely as well.

When anchoring conditions are less than perfect I usually head for the pilot house. Roberta never understands why, if all is safe – as it really was. I really have no good explanation. I just feel more comfortable when I’m where I can keep track of our swing circle and see what the wind is. If I’m not going to be sleeping anyway – I reason — why not be where I can at least monitor the situation?

In the middle of the night, as we were being rolled from side to side in a beam swell, I started thinking about my blog and what adjectives I’d use to describe it. Would I say it was a “moderate swell,” a “heavy swell,” or … an “extreme swell.” Ultimately, none of these words mean much of anything. They are too ambiguous. I decided to search the internet for an app that would quantify the amount of roll, and found one: “myGyrosope” for the iPad. I am not endorsing that particular app, it was just the one I found in the middle of the night. I wanted to be able to say something like, “We were rolling 5 degrees in each direction.” These are the things we retired software guys think about at 4 a.m. Was there ever any doubt?

Anyway…I ran the software and produced the graph below. The answer: We were rolling +/- 7 degrees. I’ll be darned. It felt a lot more than that!

 

Return to Gozo (top)

With the weather not cooperating, all ideas of anchoring anywhere were off the table. We decided to make the short run back to Gozo, to position for the passage north, and just return to the Mgarr marina. It’s funny that a marina we had never planned to go into suddenly dominated our time in Malta, and that we went there on three separate occasions. Oh well…that’s boating for you. Ultimately, all cruising plans are “best written on sand — at low tide.”

 

Siracusa (top)

Our strategy of waiting in Malta until we had a nice clean weather window worked flawlessly. We were up at 4:30 a.m. for a departure at daybreak. The ride north was smooth, with us arriving back at Siracusa, Sicily by the afternoon.

Whereas on our first trip to Siracusa we wanted to explore the city and discover the sites and restaurants, this time we were just looking for a place to rest on our travels north. I was also hoping to get a mechanic on board to work on my watermakers, and I was also going to be effectively replacing my satellite internet system (more on these topics in my “boat geek” report).

 

Never trust a weather report – the journey to Taormina  (top)

I’ll finish off this edition of the blog (except for those who want to read the boat-techy report below) with a video showing what happened on our passage north from Siracusa to the cliff-hugging town of Toarmina, which would be our last stop in Sicily. It was supposed to have been a totally calm day. We would have 60 nautical miles of the best cruising we could want, with a nice calm anchorage waiting at the other end.

But, it didn’t work out that way….

Instead, we had a solid six hours of nothing but lumpy, choppy seas with 20 knots of wind in our face. The waves weren’t that high (at the worst eight to ten feet), and it was never dangerous, but because the waves were so close together it was just a miserable ride.

Here’s a video which is perhaps too long, but will give you a small sense of what we encountered. Unfortunately, though, video never really captures how it really feels. The waves in this video appear much smaller than they looked at the time. Our two boats did perfectly fine, but it was definitely a day when I was happy that I own a Nordhavn. Really, the worst of it was wondering, “If it is this rough here, what will our anchorage look like on arrival?” And, “If the weather forecasters blew it this bad on forecasting the weather today, what happens when we are headed out on much longer passages?”

And, actually, it wasn’t the wave height that was an issue. We’ve been out in much bigger seas. It was the distance between wave crests that made it uncomfortable, and of course, the fact that it was so unexpected.

Here’s the video. I hope you enjoy it. And, I hope you’ll look forward to my next blog entry when I’ll explain the surprise that awaited us in Taormina!

 

Boat Geek Report (top)

 

And, in closing… (top)

And, that’s it for this issue of KensBlog… Thank you for following along on our big voyage!

If you missed my prior blog entries from this season, you may view them here:

• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/05/31/KensBlog-2014-01–Preparing-For-The-Season
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/06/14/KensBlog-2014-02–Welcome-to-Italy
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/06/24/KensBlog-2014-03–Rough-Seas-And-A-Visit-to-a-Historic-Town
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/07/07/KensBlog-2014-04–Southern-Sicily-and-Malta

If you aren’t receiving my blog entries via email, click this link to register:

http://www.kensblog.com/register

I should also mention that this is one of two blogs that I do. My other blog is on Facebook, although you do not need to register with Facebook to view the blog. Just click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/kensblogdotcom

My other blog is very different than this blog. I post to it almost every day, and post whatever I happen to be thinking about, without editing or filtering. I also tend to respond instantly to any questions. Check it out!

Thank you!

Ken and Roberta Williams
ken(at)kensblog.com
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68
PS – In case you haven’t figured it out, clicking on any of the pictures above will give you a higher-resolution (bigger) version of the picture.

Welcome to Ken’s Blog! (top)

• Journey Map
• Marina Di Ragusa
• The Lumpy Road To Malta
• We’re Surrounded!
• Anchoring at Ramla
• Exploring Gozo
• Anchored at Gnejna
• Boat Geek Report
• Rescue at Sea!
• And, in closing

Journey Map (top)

Greetings all!

I am happy to report that two major milestones have been accomplished.

• First, we have just passed one THOUSAND miles of the twenty-five hundred miles we’ll run this summer
• And, more importantly, we have now reached the southern-most point of our journey. We have arrived in Malta.

Our next destination after Sicily would be the country of Malta; three tiny islands, south of Sicily, that form one of the smallest and most densely populated countries in the world.

Malta will be our last stop on our transit south. Once there, and with the exception of an overnight run to Sardinia or when the weather interferes, I hope to be sitting in beautiful anchorages, preferably admiring the view from Sans Souci’s rooftop hot tub.

But… I am skipping ahead. As of my last blog entry, we were in Siracusa, on the east coast of Sicily.

Marina Di Ragusa (top)

Another Nordhavn owner, whose path we crossed in Montenegro, mentioned that they had “wintered” their boat on the south end of Sicily at a marina called Marina Di Ragusa. They found it to be an inexpensive and great location to pass the winter. As I mentioned in a prior blog entry, we have already put deposits on moorage at the Imperia marina, near the French/Italian border. However, we have become nervous about Imperia after hearing they were in Bankrupcy and have been looking at other options.

My first reaction was that it would be impractical to winter at Ragusa. It is too far away from where we’ve planned to finish the season. Our plan has been to complete the season a thousand miles north of Sicily. That said, I’ve never let common sense come between me and satisfying my curiousity. So, we (Seabird and myself) wrote to Ragusa to find out what it would cost to moor our boats over the winter.

Back came the response. For Sans Souci it would cost only 2,760 euros (about $4,000 USD) to pass the winter at Marina Di Ragusa. By comparison, I’d be paying 21,000 euros (around $28,000) at Imperia. That’s a HUGE difference.

And, there are compelling reasons to winter at Ragusa….

• If we winter in southern Sicily we’d be close to Tunisia. There are two reasons for visting Tunisia: 1) Duty free fuel And, 2) We would reset our 18 month clock for having the boats in the EU.
• Marina Di Ragusa has a 160 ton lift. That’s large enough to lift my boat, and I’ll want fresh bottom paint to start the next season.
• Marina Di Ragusa has the option for haul-out (storing the boat on land) for not much more cost than storing the boat in the water. Storing the boat on land is great when you are on the other end of the world. It is much less stressful than worrying about how the boat is holding up every time there is a winter storm.
• Southern Sicily has reasonably good weather during the winter. We wouldn’t need to worry about the boat freezing.

The marina was only a short six hour run from Siracusa Sicily, and not too far out of our way for our run to Malta. So, we decided to drop in and check it out.

We were VERY impressed with the marina, and found some extra benefits we hadn’t expected. For instance, the marina seems to cater to the ex-pat community and prides itself on wintering boats for foreigners. Many of the restaurants stay open during the winter, and many of the ex-pats stay on their boats. It’s apparently a great place to be during the winter, with many owners staying on the boats and frequent events/parties.

Does all this mean Sans Souci and/or Seabird will be wintering at Ragusa this winter? I’m not sure. We would need to backtrack 500 miles or more, and I’m not so sure I want to do that. The current momentum is towards Seabird going to Ragusa and Sans Souci going north to France. That said, we’re keeping it loose and waiting to see where we finish the season. I liked Ragusa, and I certainly like saving money; but, there’s no part of me that ever believes in backtracking.

The Lumpy Road To Malta (top)

There was a storm in Malta which was delaying our departure. We would have 50 miles of open ocean to cross and whenever we have the choice, our preference is for flat seas. After a couple days of waiting we had an “ok” but far from perfect forecast. We would have three to six foot seas, with 15 knots of wind, coming from our right side (starboard beam) throughout the run.

We knew our run south would be uncomfortable. And, that’s exactly how it played out. Sans Souci’s stabilizers worked hard the entire trip. The waves weren’t that tall, perhaps in the six to eight foot range, but they were incredibly close together (four second intervals) and exactly on our beam. They weren’t breaking, but always looked like they wanted to. Every four seconds we’d ride up a wave, then down the other side. At times like that I always wonder what would happen if our stabilizers (the giant fins beneath the boat that fight to keep the boat level) were to fail. We’d be fine, but we’d need to alter our course and slow down. Plus .. keep a supply of barf bags close by.

We were assigned temporary moorage at the dock at Mgarr Marina, on the island of Gozo, for the purpose of clearing customs. To our surprise both Seabird and Sans Souci had excellent end-of-dock sideties. We were fatigued after the day at sea, so I asked the marina guy tying our boats, “If we wanted to stay the night here, could we?” He said, “Sure.” I radioed to Seabird who also saw the wisdom, and a decision was made.

Clearing into the country was both easier and harder than expected. Technically, I wouldn’t have thought we needed to clear in. Malta is part of the EU, and I wouldn’t normally expect to need to clear in and out of different countries within the EU.

Gozo, the northern-most island of Malta is the boondocks. I had been told that Gozo is less formal and that clearing in would be simpler, and indeed it was. The customs agents were extremely friendly and very curious about our boats and where we had been. The entire process took only a few minutes.

As this was my first trip to Malta I had many questions, and thought I’d ask the customs guys the most basic of them, “So, what language do they speak here?” Back came the answer, “Everyone speaks English and Maltese.” To which I asked, “So, what is Maltese like?” Being so close to Italy I was assuming that Maltese was some variation on Italian. Nope. “Maltese is very close to Arabic, but written using a Western alphabet.” Over the next few days I’d find that he was right on both counts. Malta has TWO official languages; English and Maltese. Although Maltese is the dominant language, everyone speaks good English and the road signs are either in English or both languages.

Malta has only recently become its own country (1974.) Most recently it was a British territory, which explains the english, and why the drivers drive on the left side of the road. Prior to Britain Malta was the territory of many other countries, including the Phoenicians, Romans, Moorish, Normans, Aragonese, Habsburg Spain, Knights of St. John, and the French.

Within minutes of tying the boats up and clearing customs, Steven (from Seabird) and I sought out a taxi to take us to town. We had a critical mission to accomplish! We needed internet SIM cards. Whenever we change countries we need to start the process over to figure out internet. We had already done research and knew that we wanted SIM cards from Vodaphone, which would give us 3g data for our computers. We drove about 15 minutes into the center of the island, to a large shopping mall, complete with a McDonalds, and a Vodafone store. We quickly purchased 3g dongles with sim cards, at 25 euros for 10 gigabytes of data, and returned to the boats.

After a nice evening in Mgarr, with dinner next to the marina, we were eager to see more of the island than just a marina, and decided to head to an anchorage Roberta had identified, but that I wasn’t sure was going to work.

We’re Surrounded! (top)

Prior to our trip, Roberta had used the internet to identify potential anchorages. #1 on her list of places we needed to go was a small bay called Dwejra. It is only about 1,000 feet in width and surrounded by high rocks with the exception of a narrow entrance. To me it looked impossibly small. How could two Nordhavns possibly fit and have adequate room to swing at anchor?

After speaking with other Nordhavn owners I agreed that it was possible, and off we went.

As we approached the bay, I turned off the stabilizers. I always turn off the auto-pilot, stabilizers, and even take the throttles out of sync when approaching any type of maneuvering situation. I don’t want the boat doing anything creative. There was a bit of swell at the entrance, and Seabird was following close behind us. With the stabilizers off Sans Souci started rolling quite a bit. Seabird was immediately on the radio, “Is everything ok????” they wanted to know. I confirmed all was well, and pushed ahead.

Once into the bay I saw that there was plenty of room, and that it was incredibly beautiful. The bay was a perfect 25 feet deep, and given its small size, good protection, and the other boats around, I dropped only 100′ of chain. There were several other boats already in the bay, but we found room for both Sans Souci and Seabird with no problem.

And, a panaramic picture of our anchorage can be clicking on this link:
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=ded42bdd-052e-4fb4-ba30-684aa5eb07d0

As if the arch and Dwejra weren’t enough to make this one of the world’s great places to anchor, there was even more to see. From the Azure Window it is possible to tender back into many caves, one of which leads to an inland sea. Roberta and I tendered over with the puppies, but thought the passage looked too tight to do with so much swell. We decided to wait until the dead-calm of some early morning to give it a try. Steven and Carol (and their guest Tina) went for it one morning, and said that it was so tight that they barely fit, with craggy rocks on both sides of the narrow passage. We decided to pass, but if we go back to Dwejra, I hope to give it a try.

Anchoring at Ramla (top)

As great as it was at Dwejra, we wanted to see as much of Malta as possible, during our brief stay, and decided to move on. We had started circling Gozo clockwise, starting at the south end, and decided to keep going, to a beach we’d heard about on the north shore of Gozo. It was recommended to us by a waitress in response to my asking where the prettiest sand beach was.

Actually, the waitress recommended two beaches: Masalforn and Ramla. Normally we do a huge amount of planning when moving the boats, including identifying “bail outs” so that if we get somewhere, and don’t like it, we already have alternative destinations lined up. However, Malta is so small, and the distances so small, that we can get almost anywhere in a few hours. From Dwejra it was only about an hour’s run to Masalforn. On arrival it was a tiny bay, already filled with boats. The bay was lined with condos and restaurants, and looked fun, but .. it was just too tight. Thus, we ran another whole mile (I said the distances were tiny!) to the bay of Ramla.

We had arrived at Ramla on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and were not the only ones with the idea. There were probably 100 boats at anchor with kids swimming, jet skiing and having fun in every direction. There was more activity than we wanted, but it was a BEAUTIFUL location, and the bottom was a wonderful 16 foot depth. The shallower the water, the less chain we have to put out to have good holding in strong winds.

A panaramic view of Masalform Bay can be viewed by clicking on this link:
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=6915d0a8-7768-45c5-9d5f-404baaa8b015

We spent a nice day at Ramla, but in the afternoon the wind started rising. A windless day at the beach became a windstorm within minutes. Quickly, all the boats disappeared, and we were left alone. The forecast had been clean, but suddenly we were seeing 20-25 knots of wind. It was too much for the smaller boats, but not a problem for us. We had a nice night, and were ready to move on the next day.

Exploring Gozo (top)

We were having a great time anchoring around Gozo, but knew that we really should see all the standard “tourist stuff” before leaving. We called the Mgarr marina to ask if we could have our same parking places, and they welcomed us back.

To see the island, we hired a taxi cab for the day. He asked if we wanted the three hour or the four hour tour. We asked for the four hour, but told him to expect that we’d sidetrack him with many errands. I wanted to go back to Vodafone to purchase more SIM cards. Both Steven and I have routers (from Peplink) that will accept multiple sim cards, combining the bandwidth together. We wanted all the internet we could get! Roberta wanted some fresh vegetables, and we also wanted the driver to run us to a grocery store. In between the errands we also wanted to see anything the island had to offer.

Malta is a popular retirement destination for the British due to its warm climate, tax system (eg. no property tax), english language, safety, and responsive/reasonably priced medical system. It is also very popular as a tourist destination, with over three times as many visitors as residents.

Anchoring at Gnejna (top)

Our next stop in Malta would be the large island of Malta itself, which we knew would mean putting the boats into a marina and doing more “land touring” for a week. We were excited about seeing Valletta, the large city on Malta, but wanted a little more time at anchor first.

Seabird jumped ahead of us by one day wanting to drop anchor at the famous “Blue Lagoon.” I had used binoculars to look at the blue lagoon earlier and knew that it was likely to be disappointing. Unlike the picture below, the vision I saw resembled a crowded public swimming pool on a hot summer sunday afternoon. There were dozens of tour boats wedged into a small bay with hundreds of swimmers elbow to elbow. Seabird quickly realized that anchoring at the Blue Lagoon was impossible, but then discovered a place to drop anchor about 1/4 mile away that they said was the prettiest bay they had ever anchored in. We were jealous.

And, something for the boat geeks… (top)

Overall, there isn’t much to talk about on the technical side. This has been a VERY trouble-free trip so far. The boat has taken us over 1,000 nm and I’ve barely entered the engine room.

That said, I have a water maker problem that has been a major headache. Following is a video I sent back to my mechanics in Seattle showing the problems I was having.

After viewing the video the decision was made that I needed a new salinity probe as well as a new solenoid for the valve that decides if water should be routed overboard or into the fresh water tank on Sans Souci.

Unfortunately, after this video was made the watermaker died completely. I hired a local technician in Malta who spent hours with the watermaker and finally decided that the high pressure pump was the culprit. Getting a new pump is difficult, and getting it installed is probably more difficult. I have a rebuild kit onboard for the pump, but I don’t feel qualified to take apart a pump and rebuild it. I’ve been assured it is easy .. so, maybe. This is one of two watermakers, and my other one is also acting up, so learning to rebuild pumps may be in my future. We’ll see.

One way or the other, these watermakers have served me very well. I have never put dock water into Sans Souci’s fresh water tanks and we’ve kept the watermakers busy for over 30,000 miles of world travel. This is likely to be the year they retire from service.

My only other technical issue is that Sans Souci has a KVH Vsat satellite internet unit. When it works, it works very well. However, a couple of times during this trip it has lost internet and then taken days to reacquire the satellite. After discussions with KVH we have decided that my “firmware” is out of date and I have a local technician from Malta coming to the boat to assist me in installing new firmware. This is a project that is within my core competency, so I could easily upgrade the firmware. However, the upgrade requires a computer with a serial connector, and I don’t have one onboard. There are USB to Serial adapters that can be found in some computer stores, and I “might” be able to find one, and had there not been a local KVH dealer here in Malta, I’d be spending the day out hunting for an adapter.

And, something not related to us… (top)

And, in closing… (top)

And, that’s it for this issue of KensBlog… Thank you for following along on our big voyage!

If you missed my prior blog entries from this season, you may view them here:

• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/05/31/KensBlog-2014-01–Preparing-For-The-Season
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/06/14/KensBlog-2014-02–Welcome-to-Italy
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/06/24/KensBlog-2014-03–Rough-Seas-And-A-Visit-to-a-Historic-Town

If you aren’t receiving my blog entries via email, click this link to register:

http://www.kensblog.com/register

I should also mention that this is one of two blogs that I do. My other blog is on Facebook, although you do not need to register with Facebook to view the blog. Just click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/kensblogdotcom

My other blog is very different than this blog. I post to it almost every day, and post whatever I happen to be thinking about, without editing or filtering. I also tend to respond instantly to any questions. Check it out!

Thank you!

Ken and Roberta Williams
ken(at)kensblog.com
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68
PS – In case you haven’t figured it out, clicking on any of the pictures above will give you a higher-resolution (bigger) version of the picture.

Welcome to Ken’s Blog! (top)

• Trip overview
• Sta. Maria Di Leuca
• Crotone
• A long dark passage
• Siracusa
• And, in closing

Trip overview (top)

Greetings all!

Roberta just mentioned to me that we have now been on the boat for over a month, and have only anchored one night. The first half of our trip has been about readying the boat, provisioning the boat, cruising around the southern part of Italy and then heading south to Malta. The second half will be working our way north towards the western border of Italy with France, and Sardinia and Corsica.

A better way to phrase that might be that we’ve been working on moving the boat a thousand miles south, along the south coast of Italy so that we can get to the good stuff, and then spend the next two months working our way up the west side of Italy, mostly moving short distances, picking our way slowly from anchorage to anchorage.

I am not complaining, because we have found plenty of entertainment along the way, but this is not the part of the journey that explains why we own a boat.

That part is coming. We’re really looking forward to Malta!

Malta will be our last stop on our transit south. Once there, and with the exception of an overnight run to Sardinia or when the weather interferes, I hope to be sitting in beautiful anchorages, preferably admiring the view from Sans Souci’s rooftop hot tub.

Sta Maria Di Leuca (top)

Our next stop, after Brindisi, Italy, would be Santa Maria Di Leuca, a small town that if one thinks of Italy as a boot, forms the tip of the heel.

The run from Brindisi to Sta Maria Di Leuca was as unremarkable as they get. A short ride on flat seas. Our plan had been to anchor, but then as we read the various blogs talking about anchoring at Sta Maria Di Leuca we didn’t like what we were reading. Several bloggers indicated that the anchorage had a rocky bottom and that there could be problems with the anchor getting caught on the bottom in rocks.

On arrival we made a tour of the bay, and couldn’t find a place to drop anchor where there weren’t obvious rocks just beneath the surface. Plus, it looked rolly. This left us with no choice but to enter the marina. We called the marina staff who said they had a place for us, and that they would help us get the boats into the marina. All went smoothly.

We were shocked by the cost of this marina! My boat was 158 euros for the night (over $200 USD.) I joked to the marina guy that I only wanted to rent the slip, not buy it. He didn’t get the joke and whipped out a pricing sheet and pointed at the words “High Season.”

Roberta and I and the pups hiked into town looking for a place to have dinner, but it was only 6:30pm. In Italy, the restaurants don’t open until 7:30pm and they don’t really expect anyone to appear until at least 8pm or later. We didn’t want to wait that late and finally found a pub that also served pizza. We sat outside under a large, shady tree. While we were eating the pub set up a huge outdoor projection screen, a projector and many tables and chairs around us. We asked if they’d be screening a movie, and received a look clearly intended to indicate that we were idiots. An hour later when they turned on the projector and people started arriving, we realized what it was: The World Cup was starting!

Crotone – A good place to stop (and, then go) (top)

Sta Maria Di Leuca was a cool little town and even though expensive, I think we could have happily stayed longer. However, at this point, we’d had nothing but great weather and wanted to keep moving while the weather was good. Our next stop would be a somewhat larger town called Crotone, a very convenient location with a very well protected marina, but according to the cruising guides not much else going for it. It would be a twelve-hour run getting there from Sta Marina di Leuca, so we wanted a place to stop and rest, and not much more.

Twelve hours to Crotone! A long day, but once again an easy ride. The seas were flat. During the ride we phoned our agent from Brindisi and asked if he could phone ahead to Crotone to get us into the “commercial port” on a side-tie. Crotone has two harbors: a tourist harbor where most tourist boats go, and a commercial harbor for freighter traffic. We needed into the commercial harbor because the tourist harbor shows in the guide as being only 2 to 2.5 meters deep; the same depth as Sans Souci. Theoretically, we would skim by, but when it is close I worry about scooping mud from the marina bottom into the raw water intakes on my engines. Crotone would just be a place to rest for the night, so nothing mattered except being able to get in and out easily, and protection from any winds.

We had dead-calm seas all the way to Crotone. I knew our luck would be running out sooner or later and checked the weather forecast. All looked good, but I was still nervous and got on the radio to say to the group as we were approaching Crotone, “What do you guys think? Should we consider to just keep going and head south to Siracusa?” But we were just completing a long ride and everyone was tired. The question came back, “What’s the forecast like?” “Fine,” I responded. “Why would we give up a night of comfortable sleep then?” came the reply. And, into Crotone’s commercial harbor we went.

Few commercial ports anywhere are charming, and Crotone’s commercial port is no exception. We side-tied to a concrete wall that rose over ten feet off the water. The worst part of it is that I had opened a side gate in Sans Souci’s lower deck in anticipation of using it to step onto the dock. When the gate encountered a giant black rubber bumper intended for cruise ships, the gate lost the competition. Its hinges were slightly bent and the gate could only be closed forcefully. It will be a winter repair. Crap!

When cruising in Italy you are issued a “Constitution” a document that must be stamped by every port you enter. At Crotone we could see the Coast Guard office where our document needed stamped only a hundred yards from the boats, on the other side of a tall fence. Tired, after our long cruise, we were not in the mood to walk over to the Coast Guard office, particularly after we realized that even though we were close, we would have to hike over a mile, in the heat, around the fence, exit the port, to get to the office that we could see — but not directly hike to.

Clearing into the port at the Coast Guard office took longer than expected. Crotone is a naval academy and we were being cleared in by a student who wasn’t 100% sure of the process. Several other people were called in to check that all was done correctly, and then we began the long hike back to the boats.

The overnight passage to Siracusa (top)

That night Roberta prepared a salad and hamburger fixings while I barbecued the patties on the grill. So even though we were berthed in an ugly port, we had a pleasant dinner! Before going to sleep we all planned our next passage, which would be a long one. It would be a twenty-hour journey to reach Siracusa on the eastern side of the island of Sicily. We wanted to arrive after daylight which would require leaving at noon for an 8am arrival.

As soon as I woke the next morning I checked the weather forecast. Double-crap! Our luck with calm weather had ended. There was a storm brewing over Malta, far to the south, that was working its way north. Winds were already rising and were projected to be in the 20-30 knot range around Siracusa by 2pm the next day. If we were to depart Crotone we would need to buck 15-20 knot headwinds for 20 hours, and if the storm moved faster the final hours before arrival would be absolutely miserable at a time when we would be fatigued from the passage.

Steven and Carol, from Seabird, had gone for a walk into town. Roberta and I discussed what to do, and Roberta said, “Perhaps we should just stay here.”

My read of the weather was that we needed to either go immediately or be stuck for several days.

Nordhavn boats are made to handle rough seas. There is no other production boat in this size range that is safer or more comfortable in bad weather. And truthfully, 15-20 knots of wind is not really considered bad weather by Nordhavn standards. That said, predicting the comfort and safety of a ride is not as simple as looking at how strong the wind is.

I remember a trip in 55 knot winds a few years back. That’s enough wind that trees can come unrooted, and yet Sans Souci was moving along just fine with a very comfortable ride. Why? The reason is that we were close to shore and the wind wasn’t able to stir up waves. There wasn’t much “fetch” (the distance that wind travels over open water). When the wind travels across water it forms waves. Generally speaking it isn’t really the wind that can wreck your day, it is the waves that are generated by the wind. In evaluating a prospective cruise, you need to look at a lot of different factors including: the strength of the wind, the direction of the wind, the height of the swell (waves), how close together the waves are, and the direction of the waves.

In this case, we would be going straight into the wind, and the wind was coming from offshore, so there would be no way to use the land to minimize fetch. Plus, there was the added risk-factor that the storm could arrive faster than planned. And the worst of all was that there were no “bail-outs.” If we didn’t like the seas there’d be no marinas or anchorages along our path. Whatever the weather would be, it would be, and we’d be in it.

When Steven and Carol returned from their walk around 10am, we discussed the upcoming trip. If we departed immediately we would arrive at 6am. That was plenty of margin for error. Steven and Carol were not impressed with Crotone after having walked there. They said the town had not much more charm than the port and if there was a weather window to leave, we should jump on it.

Within minutes we cast off.

Siracusa (top)

I’ve never been good at sleeping on a moving boat, meaning, when it’s traveling. When things are calm, I do ok. But, if there’s a lot of traffic around, or the seas are rough, I just can’t sleep, even when I’m supposed to on overnighters and Roberta is on watch. And it’s NOT because she doesn’t do a good job at the wheel; she does. And she does get annoyed at me for that, too! Thus, even though our trip to Siracusa during the night was calmer, it was far from perfect, and by the time we arrived there at six in the morning, I was physically exhausted. Roberta was in better shape, but also beat. As we entered the large bay there were quite a few boats at anchor. Rather than hunt for the “perfect” place to anchor we just took the first location we saw with ample room and dropped the hook, wanting to hit the sack as quickly as possible for a daytime nap.

Our laziness in dropping the anchor came back to haunt us. The anticipated storm came right on schedule. It never struck Siracusa directly, but was close enough that it generated a large swell into the bay. Anyone anchored close to the entrance (like us) were rolled around from side to side. We should have immediately re-anchored deeper into the bay, but that would have required energy, something neither of us had. Instead, I had the headache from hell, and slept sporadically for the next 24 hours.

Seabird had anchored near us, and was also being pushed around by the swell. They also suffered through a rough night, though, the following morning the bay was much calmer. Thus, whereas Roberta and I had been looking forward to being at anchor, it was an easy decision to move into the marina along with Seabird.

Wikipedia describes Siracusa (Syracuse) thusly:

“…[Siracusa] is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes.[3] This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world. Syracuse is located in the southeast corner of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Syracuse next to the Ionian Sea.

The city was founded by Ancient Greek Corinthians and Teneans and became a very powerful city-state. Syracuse was allied with Sparta and Corinth and exerted influence over the entirety of Magna Graecia, of which it was the most important city. Described by Cicero as “the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all”, it equaled Athens in size during the fifth century BC.[6] It later became part of the Roman Republic and Byzantine Empire. After this Palermo overtook it in importance, as the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily. Eventually the kingdom would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.

In the modern day, the city is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the Necropolis of Pantalica. In the central area, the city itself has a population of around 125,000 people. The inhabitants are known as Siracusans. Syracuse is mentioned in the Bible in the Acts of the Apostles book at 28:12 as Paul stayed there….”

After seeing Mt. Etna from a distance at sea, we were curious to see it “up close.” Thus, we rented a car and drove a couple hours to the volcano itself.

That’s it for this issue of the blog. As I type this, we have departed Siracusa and are en route for Malta!!!!! (Although, we think we’ll stop for a night or two at Marina de Ragusa at the southern tip of Sicily; we’re expecting a storm tomorrow!)

And, in closing… (top)

If you missed my prior blog entries from this season, you may view them here:

• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/05/31/KensBlog-2014-01–Preparing-For-The-Season
• http://www.kensblog.com/2014/06/14/KensBlog-2014-02–Welcome-to-Italy

I should also mention that Roberta and I were interviewed for another Nordhavn-owner’s blog (http://www.pendanablog.com/Guest-Interviews ) Additionally, he interviewed James and Jennifer Hamilton, who are currently in New Zealand as part of their own circumnavigation, and Jim Leishman, co-owner of Nordhavn, who recently brought the Nordhavn 120 across the Bering Sea. Check it out!

If you aren’t receiving my blog entries via email, click this link to register:

http://www.kensblog.com/register

I should also mention that this is one of two blogs that I do. My other blog is on Facebook, although you do not need to register with Facebook to view the blog. Just click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/kensblogdotcom

My other blog is very different than this blog. I post to it almost every day, and post whatever I happen to be thinking about, without editing or filtering. I also tend to respond instantly to any questions. Check it out!

Thank you!

Ken and Roberta Williams
ken(at)kensblog.com
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68

Greetings all!

• Restrictions on Cruising in Europe
• Montenegro
• Departure from Montenegro
• Our first over-nighter of the season
• Welcome to Italy!
• And, something for the boat geeks
• And, in closing

Greetings all!

This summer’s cruising season is now officially underway, and our journey has begun. The last month was spent readying the boats for departure, and mostly just “waiting.” During our final week in Montenegro we were like racehorses before the start of a race, nervously pacing, impatient for the action to begin.

Schengen Rules

(top)

For immigration reasons we didn’t want to enter the European Union (EU) until around June the 15th. However, a few days ago we saw a weather window (a period of excellent weather) and decided to jump on it. There is a rule, called Schengen, that restricts non-EU residents to only 90 days inside the EU out of any rolling 180 day period. There are workarounds to this rule, but none that are easy. The usual workaround is to apply for residency in a Schengen country, but the application process is virtually impossible in some countries. Most cruisers find it easier to simply exit the EU within the 90 day period.

Because we have now entered the EU, our 90-day clock has started ticking. It’s really sad, because it adds a sense of time pressure, forcing us to constantly be thinking about the clock instead of leisurely cruising. There are rumors that rule-changes are coming which make it easier for world cruisers to spend time in Europe, but we are a tiny group and have little influence.

Montenegro

(top)

Our two boats (Seabird and Sans Souci) spent the winter moored in Croatia. As soon as the maintenance had been done on the boats we ran miles south to Montenegro for several reasons.

First, we deliberately tucked the boats away for the winter with empty fuel tanks. Montenegro offers fuel to visiting yachts tax-free as an incentive to bring the larger yachts into Montenegro. It’s an incentive that works! Instead of paying an equivalent $9 USD / gallon we would be able to take on fuel for under $4 USD per gallon. Sans Souci takes 3,000 gallons of fuel, so there was a powerful incentive to wait for Montenegro to take on fuel.

Second, Montenegro is outside the EU. I mentioned that there is a 90-day clock ticking on when Roberta and I need to leave the EU. There is another clock, which has an 18-month duration, that is ticking on our boat. Non-EU boats are permitted only 18 months for cruising within the EU before they are subject to VAT tax, which can represent 20% of the value of the boat. Our visit to Montenegro reset that 18-month clock as well. Sometime next year we’ll need to be thinking about where our next non-EU destination can be. My best guess is that we’ll be heading to Morocco.

And, another reason for going to Montenegro: We wanted to! It’s a spectacular place, with a wonderful marina.

Other marinas should study the Porto Montenegro Marina and learn from it. They do things right, and that is attracting the big boats to Montenegro. I know how much money we spent while there, and when you add moorage, electricity, provisioning, meals and hiring of local technicians, it adds to a significant number. And we were a relatively small boat on our dock; there are docks with a lot bigger boats than ours! On a bigger scale, some percentage of the visitors are buying slips and the fancy condos that line the marina.

It isn’t just the cheap fuel that is drawing people to Porto Montenegro. The marina is world-class.

• Fiber optic internet plumbed directly to the boat slips. I had a true 20mb download, and upload, speed that worked flawlessly throughout the two weeks we were there
• There are five restaurants within the marina, including a sushi restaurant, an Italian restaurant and a wonderful gelato shop
• A market, with high-end specialty items
• The electricity was solid, and worked reliably
• The marina team was exceptionally friendly and helpful
• There are customs/immigration/police agents ALL based right at the marina. The marina staff stayed with us through clearing in and out of the country
• Each slip is plumbed for black water pump-out
• You can park your car right at your boat slip!
• There’s an incredible swimming pool adjacent to the marina, which welcomes marina guests
• A wide variety of upscale specialty stores in the marina: Wine, Ice Cream, Fashion, Realty
• An easy walk into town, if you want “more.”

Leaving Montenegro

(top)

Finally! After what seemed an eternity of waiting, the time had come to depart Montenegro and start the summer’s cruising. Our first leg would be a 15-hour run across the Adriatic Sea to Brindisi, Italy. If you think of Italy as a leg, with a foot facing west at the bottom — we would be arriving at the ankle, on the east side.

The procedure on departing Montenegro is to take fuel and clear out of the country simultaneously. Once you have fuel you need to get out of the country immediately, and are not allowed to go to anchor. It is imperative to leave or hefty fines could be coming your way. One of the things that concerned me in the days prior to departure was that we needed to make our fuel reservation days in advance, and couldn’t easily bail on the trip if the weather turned bad. We heard stories of one boat that decided to drop their anchor, to hide from weather, and was caught doing so. They had to pay a large fine, PLUS pay the taxes on the fuel they had taken (an extra $5 per gallon.)

Luckily, the weather just got better and better, so there was no issue when departure time came.

After fueling we had to clear out of the country. On entry each person is given a little white card; kind of a tourist card. Mine somehow got lost. This created some last minute confusion as everyone scrambled trying to think what to do. Luckily, the customs people didn’t make a big deal of it, and waved me through. We were free to go.

Our passage from Montenegro to Brindisi

(top)

We targeted leaving Montenegro for a departure at 5pm, knowing that with a 15-hour run this would put us into Brindisi around 7am. We were late getting to the fuel dock (stuck behind a megayacht that was very thirsty) but were able to get underway before 7pm.

The seas could not have been calmer. Roberta and I took three-hour turns at the wheel for what was a totally uneventful passage.

Our biggest challenge was staying awake during the overnight run. There are custom devices that are aids to keeping crew awake on long passages, such as the Watch Commander. It is a simple device which allows you to dial in a time interval, like 15 minutes, and unless the helmsman presses a button within the designated time a truly annoying alarm sounds. It’s a simple system, but works. On Sans Souci I just use my iphone and the alarm function. I dial in 15 minutes and press START. 15 minutes later an alarm sounds that I must clear. I clear it and start the process over. I’ve never fallen asleep while on watch, but I know people who have, sometimes with disastrous results.

Welcome to Italy!

(top)

As we approached Brindisi we called on the radio for “Brindisi Traffic Control.” I wasn’t sure exactly who to call, but could see on the chart that there were designated travel lanes for arriving and departing traffic, and figured the safe thing to do was to alert Italy to our presence. The person who answered welcomed us to Italy in a thick accent, and gave us a different person to contact on another channel as soon as we reached a certain point.

Italy! Arriving in a new country is a very cool experience, and we were all thinking the same thought: Dinner was going to be excellent! We had visions of plates piled high with pasta and thick slices of mozzarella and tomatoes for caprese salad!

As we travel from country to country, we usually use ship’s agents to handle the customs formalities. It is possible to do it yourself, and when we have been to a place before, and know the procedure, it is worth it. But generally, for the $100 to $300 that an agent typically charges it can make the process much easier. It also gives you someone who knows the local lay of the land, and speaks the language, who you can talk to. In this case we wanted moorage, and preferably wanted to be able to side-tie our boats instead of Med-mooring…never our favorite thing!

Normally in Europe most boats over about 50 feet in length have crew. Our two boats are unusual in that each is run by a couple, with NO crew. Med-mooring (parking the boat with the stern to a low concrete wall, using your anchor or a bow line extended to the bottom of the marina) is simple with three or four people but can be a challenge for two people alone, particularly in the off-the-beaten track marinas which do not offer people to help work lines (typically kids you throw a few dollars to after they help with your lines.) Seabird is at the grey-limit size for two people to Med-moor alone, and Sans Souci is well into the “it ain’t happening” category. We can do it when pushed, but .. it is best avoided.

I normally find agents just by googling on the internet. In this case I found this company:

Poseidone
Ph: +39 0831 524872 – Fax: +39 0831 564025
Branch Office: 70100 BARI (Italy)
E-mail: poseidone@poseidone.it
www.poseidone.com
Skype: Poseidone – Adriano Guadalupi

I phoned to ask if they would handle the clearing in and out of our boats. They said absolutely, and I asked about moorage – especially side-tie moorage — and he said he would find something for us. He informed us that a sailboat rally would be leaving as we were arriving, and that the public dock would be taken but that he could probably find us a place to park the boats for a fee of $100 euro a night. We agreed. Later he sent an email saying he had found us space on the public dock, but with no electricity or water. I said we might prefer the private dock, but he said there was no electricity or water there either.

Clearing into Italy went smoothly until the agent asked for our green cards. We had no idea what he needed and he left frustrated by our inability to produce them. This led to a serious of confused emails between myself and the Poseidone main office. In the United States there is something called a green card, which is a form of a Visa that foreigners wanting to work in the US must obtain. We were confused about why we needed one. Then for a while we thought the agents were requesting that we have health insurance. Finally we figured out that all they needed was a summary of our insurance policy in Italian. Apparently it is common in Europe to carry a card, often printed by the insurance companies on green card-stock, summarizing the policy highlights. We could not clear into Italy until we had this.

I was nervous because this would need to be issued by my insurance company, Lloyds of London, who I think of as a large conglomerate. I couldn’t imagine them immediately issuing the document I needed. I sent an emergency email to my insurance agent, who contacted Lloyds. They knew exactly what to do, and mentioned a Hollywood celebrity who had also been caught in the same trap entering somewhere in Italy on their yacht. Within 24 hours we had the document in hand, and our agents were greatly relieved.

Boat Geek Report

(top)

With our smooth arrival into Brindisi I should have known things were going too well.

The day started with a hike into town to find the vegetable/fruit market. I then had to find an ATM machine to get some euros (EU money) to pay the boat-agent.

Finally, back on the boat I noticed the odor of diesel. Ouch! This sent me scurrying to the engine room where I lifted the floorboards.

Oh [censored]! There was several gallons of diesel fuel sitting in the bilge. I immediately killed the bilge pumps and looked overboard to see if any fuel had gone over the side. Thankfully, none did. Whew!

I then returned to the engine room to find the leak and didn’t have to look too hard. There is a sight-glass on the side of one of my fuel tanks. Fuel was streaming from it. I’ve never trusted those sight glasses and keep the valves shut, but one had been opened by someone unknown and not re-closed. It hadn’t been an issue while the tanks were dry, but we topped them off before leaving Montenegro.

I called Steven for advice on how to proceed. My first reaction was to get out the wet/dry vacuum. Steven thought that was a bad idea and brought over a hand-pump he uses for these jobs. Unfortunately, the fuel was everywhere, and clean-up became a much bigger job than either of us expected.

Ultimately, we filled three five-gallon buckets with diesel fuel, grabbed from various pockets in the bilge. Anyone who has ever laid on their belly for over three hours, on the floor of a tight engine room, trying to vacuum fuel from tiny crevices, will tell you that it isn’t a pleasent experience. Diesel fuel does not smell pretty.

On completion I had three 5-gallon containers of diesel fuel. We had poured cleaning solution into the bilge, so it couldn’t be poured back into the tanks. I then called our ship’s agent and said, “Where can I dump three five-gallon buckets of diesel?” The agent was awesome. He had an environmental truck on site within minutes of the phone call. They took the diesel giving me back my empty buckets (I need them for oil changes.) The cost: $140 euro — just over $200 USD. I was happy to pay it.

Steven lost an entire afternoon helping me, and I now owe him a big favor… With my luck it will be his black water system that springs a leak. And that said, I almost think I’d rather spend a day shoveling black water than EVER spend another day in an engine room cleaning diesel fuel. It’s really nasty stuff…

And, finally…

(top)

Our next few days will be challenging ones. We were spoiled in Greece, Montenegro and Croatia where 99% of our passages were short day-trips. Over these next few days we will be venturing to Malta, which is another country. We’ll get to clear in and out all over again. We’ll also have a couple of overnight passages, and potentially some wind in our faces to deal with.

That said, as I am typing this, we have been at sea for several hours, and I’ve been in rougher swimming pools. We’re underway, and life is good on Sans Souci!

If you aren’t receiving my blog entries via email, click this link to register:

http://www.kensblog.com/register

I should also mention that this is one of two blogs that I do. My other blog is on Facebook, although you do not need to register with Facebook to view the blog. Just click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/kensblogdotcom

My other blog is very different than this blog. I post to it almost every day, and post whatever I happen to be thinking about, without editing or filtering. I also tend to respond instantly to any questions. Check it out!

IMPORTANT:  If you received this blog entry via email and wish to respond, remove the blog entry itself from the email. Delete everything in the email before you start typing.

Thank you!

Ken and Roberta Williams
ken(at)kensblog.com
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68 

Greetings all!

• Restrictions on Cruising in Europe
• Montenegro
• Departure from Montenegro
• Our first over-nighter of the season
• Welcome to Italy!
• And, something for the boat geeks
• And, in closing

Greetings all!

This summer’s cruising season is now officially underway, and our journey has begun. The last month was spent readying the boats for departure, and mostly just “waiting.” During our final week in Montenegro we were like racehorses before the start of a race, nervously pacing, impatient for the action to begin.

Schengen Rules

(top)

For immigration reasons we didn’t want to enter the European Union (EU) until around June the 15th. However, a few days ago we saw a weather window (a period of excellent weather) and decided to jump on it. There is a rule, called Schengen, that restricts non-EU residents to only 90 days inside the EU out of any rolling 180 day period. There are workarounds to this rule, but none that are easy. The usual workaround is to apply for residency in a Schengen country, but the application process is virtually impossible in some countries. Most cruisers find it easier to simply exit the EU within the 90 day period.

Because we have now entered the EU, our 90-day clock has started ticking. It’s really sad, because it adds a sense of time pressure, forcing us to constantly be thinking about the clock instead of leisurely cruising. There are rumors that rule-changes are coming which make it easier for world cruisers to spend time in Europe, but we are a tiny group and have little influence.

Montenegro

(top)

Our two boats (Seabird and Sans Souci) spent the winter moored in Croatia. As soon as the maintenance had been done on the boats we ran miles south to Montenegro for several reasons.

First, we deliberately tucked the boats away for the winter with empty fuel tanks. Montenegro offers fuel to visiting yachts tax-free as an incentive to bring the larger yachts into Montenegro. It’s an incentive that works! Instead of paying an equivalent $9 USD / gallon we would be able to take on fuel for under $4 USD per gallon. Sans Souci takes 3,000 gallons of fuel, so there was a powerful incentive to wait for Montenegro to take on fuel.

Second, Montenegro is outside the EU. I mentioned that there is a 90-day clock ticking on when Roberta and I need to leave the EU. There is another clock, which has an 18-month duration, that is ticking on our boat. Non-EU boats are permitted only 18 months for cruising within the EU before they are subject to VAT tax, which can represent 20% of the value of the boat. Our visit to Montenegro reset that 18-month clock as well. Sometime next year we’ll need to be thinking about where our next non-EU destination can be. My best guess is that we’ll be heading to Morocco.

And, another reason for going to Montenegro: We wanted to! It’s a spectacular place, with a wonderful marina.

Other marinas should study the Porto Montenegro Marina and learn from it. They do things right, and that is attracting the big boats to Montenegro. I know how much money we spent while there, and when you add moorage, electricity, provisioning, meals and hiring of local technicians, it adds to a significant number. And we were a relatively small boat on our dock; there are docks with a lot bigger boats than ours! On a bigger scale, some percentage of the visitors are buying slips and the fancy condos that line the marina.

It isn’t just the cheap fuel that is drawing people to Porto Montenegro. The marina is world-class.

• Fiber optic internet plumbed directly to the boat slips. I had a true 20mb download, and upload, speed that worked flawlessly throughout the two weeks we were there
• There are five restaurants within the marina, including a sushi restaurant, an Italian restaurant and a wonderful gelato shop
• A market, with high-end specialty items
• The electricity was solid, and worked reliably
• The marina team was exceptionally friendly and helpful
• There are customs/immigration/police agents ALL based right at the marina. The marina staff stayed with us through clearing in and out of the country
• Each slip is plumbed for black water pump-out
• You can park your car right at your boat slip!
• There’s an incredible swimming pool adjacent to the marina, which welcomes marina guests
• A wide variety of upscale specialty stores in the marina: Wine, Ice Cream, Fashion, Realty
• An easy walk into town, if you want “more.”

Leaving Montenegro

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Finally! After what seemed an eternity of waiting, the time had come to depart Montenegro and start the summer’s cruising. Our first leg would be a 15-hour run across the Adriatic Sea to Brindisi, Italy. If you think of Italy as a leg, with a foot facing west at the bottom — we would be arriving at the ankle, on the east side.

The procedure on departing Montenegro is to take fuel and clear out of the country simultaneously. Once you have fuel you need to get out of the country immediately, and are not allowed to go to anchor. It is imperative to leave or hefty fines could be coming your way. One of the things that concerned me in the days prior to departure was that we needed to make our fuel reservation days in advance, and couldn’t easily bail on the trip if the weather turned bad. We heard stories of one boat that decided to drop their anchor, to hide from weather, and was caught doing so. They had to pay a large fine, PLUS pay the taxes on the fuel they had taken (an extra $5 per gallon.)

Luckily, the weather just got better and better, so there was no issue when departure time came.

After fueling we had to clear out of the country. On entry each person is given a little white card; kind of a tourist card. Mine somehow got lost. This created some last minute confusion as everyone scrambled trying to think what to do. Luckily, the customs people didn’t make a big deal of it, and waved me through. We were free to go.

Our passage from Montenegro to Brindisi

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We targeted leaving Montenegro for a departure at 5pm, knowing that with a 15-hour run this would put us into Brindisi around 7am. We were late getting to the fuel dock (stuck behind a megayacht that was very thirsty) but were able to get underway before 7pm.

The seas could not have been calmer. Roberta and I took three-hour turns at the wheel for what was a totally uneventful passage.

Our biggest challenge was staying awake during the overnight run. There are custom devices that are aids to keeping crew awake on long passages, such as the Watch Commander. It is a simple device which allows you to dial in a time interval, like 15 minutes, and unless the helmsman presses a button within the designated time a truly annoying alarm sounds. It’s a simple system, but works. On Sans Souci I just use my iphone and the alarm function. I dial in 15 minutes and press START. 15 minutes later an alarm sounds that I must clear. I clear it and start the process over. I’ve never fallen asleep while on watch, but I know people who have, sometimes with disastrous results.

Welcome to Italy!

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As we approached Brindisi we called on the radio for “Brindisi Traffic Control.” I wasn’t sure exactly who to call, but could see on the chart that there were designated travel lanes for arriving and departing traffic, and figured the safe thing to do was to alert Italy to our presence. The person who answered welcomed us to Italy in a thick accent, and gave us a different person to contact on another channel as soon as we reached a certain point.

Italy! Arriving in a new country is a very cool experience, and we were all thinking the same thought: Dinner was going to be excellent! We had visions of plates piled high with pasta and thick slices of mozzarella and tomatoes for caprese salad!

As we travel from country to country, we usually use ship’s agents to handle the customs formalities. It is possible to do it yourself, and when we have been to a place before, and know the procedure, it is worth it. But generally, for the $100 to $300 that an agent typically charges it can make the process much easier. It also gives you someone who knows the local lay of the land, and speaks the language, who you can talk to. In this case we wanted moorage, and preferably wanted to be able to side-tie our boats instead of Med-mooring…never our favorite thing!

Normally in Europe most boats over about 50 feet in length have crew. Our two boats are unusual in that each is run by a couple, with NO crew. Med-mooring (parking the boat with the stern to a low concrete wall, using your anchor or a bow line extended to the bottom of the marina) is simple with three or four people but can be a challenge for two people alone, particularly in the off-the-beaten track marinas which do not offer people to help work lines (typically kids you throw a few dollars to after they help with your lines.) Seabird is at the grey-limit size for two people to Med-moor alone, and Sans Souci is well into the “it ain’t happening” category. We can do it when pushed, but .. it is best avoided.

I normally find agents just by googling on the internet. In this case I found this company:

Poseidone
Ph: +39 0831 524872 – Fax: +39 0831 564025
Branch Office: 70100 BARI (Italy)
E-mail: poseidone@poseidone.it
www.poseidone.com
Skype: Poseidone – Adriano Guadalupi

I phoned to ask if they would handle the clearing in and out of our boats. They said absolutely, and I asked about moorage – especially side-tie moorage — and he said he would find something for us. He informed us that a sailboat rally would be leaving as we were arriving, and that the public dock would be taken but that he could probably find us a place to park the boats for a fee of $100 euro a night. We agreed. Later he sent an email saying he had found us space on the public dock, but with no electricity or water. I said we might prefer the private dock, but he said there was no electricity or water there either.

Clearing into Italy went smoothly until the agent asked for our green cards. We had no idea what he needed and he left frustrated by our inability to produce them. This led to a serious of confused emails between myself and the Poseidone main office. In the United States there is something called a green card, which is a form of a Visa that foreigners wanting to work in the US must obtain. We were confused about why we needed one. Then for a while we thought the agents were requesting that we have health insurance. Finally we figured out that all they needed was a summary of our insurance policy in Italian. Apparently it is common in Europe to carry a card, often printed by the insurance companies on green card-stock, summarizing the policy highlights. We could not clear into Italy until we had this.

I was nervous because this would need to be issued by my insurance company, Lloyds of London, who I think of as a large conglomerate. I couldn’t imagine them immediately issuing the document I needed. I sent an emergency email to my insurance agent, who contacted Lloyds. They knew exactly what to do, and mentioned a Hollywood celebrity who had also been caught in the same trap entering somewhere in Italy on their yacht. Within 24 hours we had the document in hand, and our agents were greatly relieved.

Boat Geek Report

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With our smooth arrival into Brindisi I should have known things were going too well.

The day started with a hike into town to find the vegetable/fruit market. I then had to find an ATM machine to get some euros (EU money) to pay the boat-agent.

Finally, back on the boat I noticed the odor of diesel. Ouch! This sent me scurrying to the engine room where I lifted the floorboards.

Oh [censored]! There was several gallons of diesel fuel sitting in the bilge. I immediately killed the bilge pumps and looked overboard to see if any fuel had gone over the side. Thankfully, none did. Whew!

I then returned to the engine room to find the leak and didn’t have to look too hard. There is a sight-glass on the side of one of my fuel tanks. Fuel was streaming from it. I’ve never trusted those sight glasses and keep the valves shut, but one had been opened by someone unknown and not re-closed. It hadn’t been an issue while the tanks were dry, but we topped them off before leaving Montenegro.

I called Steven for advice on how to proceed. My first reaction was to get out the wet/dry vacuum. Steven thought that was a bad idea and brought over a hand-pump he uses for these jobs. Unfortunately, the fuel was everywhere, and clean-up became a much bigger job than either of us expected.

Ultimately, we filled three five-gallon buckets with diesel fuel, grabbed from various pockets in the bilge. Anyone who has ever laid on their belly for over three hours, on the floor of a tight engine room, trying to vacuum fuel from tiny crevices, will tell you that it isn’t a pleasent experience. Diesel fuel does not smell pretty.

On completion I had three 5-gallon containers of diesel fuel. We had poured cleaning solution into the bilge, so it couldn’t be poured back into the tanks. I then called our ship’s agent and said, “Where can I dump three five-gallon buckets of diesel?” The agent was awesome. He had an environmental truck on site within minutes of the phone call. They took the diesel giving me back my empty buckets (I need them for oil changes.) The cost: $140 euro — just over $200 USD. I was happy to pay it.

Steven lost an entire afternoon helping me, and I now owe him a big favor… With my luck it will be his black water system that springs a leak. And that said, I almost think I’d rather spend a day shoveling black water than EVER spend another day in an engine room cleaning diesel fuel. It’s really nasty stuff…

And, finally…

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Our next few days will be challenging ones. We were spoiled in Greece, Montenegro and Croatia where 99% of our passages were short day-trips. Over these next few days we will be venturing to Malta, which is another country. We’ll get to clear in and out all over again. We’ll also have a couple of overnight passages, and potentially some wind in our faces to deal with.

That said, as I am typing this, we have been at sea for several hours, and I’ve been in rougher swimming pools. We’re underway, and life is good on Sans Souci!

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Thank you!

Ken and Roberta Williams
ken(at)kensblog.com
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68 

Greetings all!

It’s almost cruising season! Within a couple weeks Roberta and I, our puppies (Toundra and Keeley,) and our Nordhavn 68 yacht, Sans Souci, will begin this year’s journey. Roberta and I are on the boat now, in the country of Montenegro, preparing to get underway. We will be cruising alongside another couple, Steven and Carol Argosy, on their Nordhavn 62, Seabird, as we have done for the last five years.

Once we start cruising in mid-June the regular blog entries will begin. For now, I hope you will enjoy this look-back at our preparations for the season. If you are new to the blog, I should advise you that this is not a typical blog entry. Preparing for a long journey involves lots of work to get the boat ready to go. This blog entry primarily focuses on mechanical things. Once we leave the dock for Italy the blog will become a bit more “travelogue-ish” and fun!

Here’s what is covered in this pre-blog blog entry:

• Who we are and what we’re doing
• Where we’ll be cruising this year
• Life in Customs Hell
• Boat-Geek Report
• A marina with problems?
• And, in closing, some logistical details

Introduction

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We have lots of new subscribers to the blog who registered during the off-season, so I’ll give a quick 30 second background on who we are and what we’re doing. Regular readers of the blog will want to skip this part…

Roberta and I were early computer pioneers. We started a computer game company that did very well, Sierra On-Line (Kings Quest, Leisure-Suit Larry, Nascar, Red Baron, Space Quest, Half-Life, Frogger and many dozens of other titles.) In fact, so well that we were able to retire fairly young. This left us with the question of what to do with the rest of our lives. It didn’t take us long to ponder over that question. We’ve always loved boats, and within months of retirement we bought a 62’ Nordhavn trawler, a boat capable of crossing oceans.

At the time, we never really contemplated crossing oceans. We just wanted a boat that would be safe enough to handle the rough seas we would encounter in the Pacific NW.

We took delivery of our Nordhavn 62 in 1996, and enjoyed cruising around the San Juan Islands (near Seattle) for a few years, and then had the boat transported to France (a combination of a delivery crew and a freighter.) Once there we had a slip just outside Monaco and spent a couple summers, before receiving an email from Nordhavn that was to change our lives.

In 2004 Nordhavn announced a rally across the Atlantic. A group of boats would be crossing the Atlantic together, and we were invited to participate. Whereas we would never do something so adventurous alone, running alongside a group of other boats sounded both safe and fun! The only problem was that we were already in France. So, we loaded the boat on a freighter to Florida, and then drove it right back to its own slip in France!

After the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally we started thinking about remodeling the boat, just to make it a bit nicer. And, as sometimes happens, once we started looking at a remodel, somehow we convinced ourselves that we wanted a whole new boat. And, that’s how our Nordhavn 68 came to be.

Roberta, I, and the dogs now divide our lives three ways: a condo in Seattle, a home in Mexico, and the boat, in roughly equal proportions. Our goal is to circumnavigate, but taking our time doing so. We tend to go two to six thousand miles a season, and have cruised to Costa Rica, San Salvador, Guatemala, Alaska, the Bering Sea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Turkey, Greece, Croatia and Montenegro.

As to us personally: I’m an extreme computer geek, and don’t really consider myself a great boat man, despite the 40,000+ miles we have run. Whereas many people do much of the work on their boats themselves, I tend to cheat. I work with a Seattle-based company (Pacific Yacht Mangement) who puts the boat into tip-top condition during each off-season. Because of the places we cruise I need to be able to repair the boat if it breaks, so I do spend a lot of time studying things like electrical manuals and diesel manuals. I’m much better with a keyboard than a wrench, but .. so far the boat is still floating.

Behind the scenes, it is Roberta who is the adventurous one. Roberta used to design computer games and spent her childhood wishing she could grow up to be Walt Disney or maybe Indiana Jones. She reads thick history books for fun, is unbeatable at trivia, and is always optimistic. Whereas I’d be happiest sitting in a dark room staring at a computer monitor, Roberta isn’t happy unless we’re pioneering in some way. They say opposites attract, and it must be true because we’ve somehow stayed married for FOUR decades! (Note: Married young – a year out of high school.)

As to the blog itself, it started during our Atlantic crossing as a way of communicating with family and friends. Somehow the universe of friends grew, and just kept growing. My best guesstimate of readership is now well into the 10s of thousands. People read the blog for different reasons. Some to prepare themselves for their own adventures, some just to daydream of faraway places, and others just to see what will happen next.

Welcome aboard!

And, with that said, let’s look at this year’s plan…

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We will again be traveling this year alongside our good friends, Steven and Carol Argosy, with their Nordhavn 62 named Seabird. Not only are they awesome people, it adds immensely to the experience to have another couple along. I also consider them our boat’s #1 safety feature. If we, or they, ever get in serious trouble the other boat will be a short swim away.

This year we’ll pick up where we left off last year, starting in Sibenik, Croatia. We departed from Sibenik last week, within 36 hours of our arrival from Seattle, and cruised south for two days to the country of Montenegro — which is where we are located as I type this blog entry. Last year, we were in Montenegro and were eager to return for several reasons.

1. Cheap fuel! – The price per gallon for fuel in Montenegro, if you buy your fuel immediately after clearing out of the country, is half what you’d pay elsewhere. There’s a lot to be said for saving several dollars a gallon when you are buying 3,000 gallons!
2. An amazing marina! – Someone in Montenegro understands marketing. If you make the fuel price attractive enough the big boats will paddle your direction as fast as they can. And, of course, once they arrive, they start spending money. It’s a win-win for everyone. The Porto Montenegro marina is incredible, and we want to spoil ourselves before crossing over to Italy.
3. It’s outside the EU! There are rules in the EU (European Union) that limit how long we can be there, and also limit how long the boat can be there as well. Croatia is now in the EU, and the boat needs to leave it within 18 months, or a huge import tax (VAT) would be payable. Roberta and I, also, have a problem with EU immigration. We are only allowed 90 days there at a time. Montenegro – not part of the European Union — gives us a chance to spend time on the boat without our immigration clock ticking.
4. It’s not Croatia! Croatia is a wonderful place to cruise, and highly recommended. That said, I confess that I was angry at Croatia and “just wanted the heck out of there.” I’ll talk more about why in the next section.

From Montenegro we will cross over to Italy’s east coast, which is not a very good cruising ground. Maybe we’ll be favorably surprised, but I am expecting that we’ll move quickly to get to Sicily (southwest of Italy.) I know nothing about any of these places, and honestly, I haven’t even looked at the travel books. From what I’ve gathered, we are going to like Sicily and love Malta. We’re planning to cruise for two or three weeks in Malta. From there we’ll start working our way north along the west coast of Italy, detouring to Sardinia, Corsica, and any small islands that catch our attention – like Capri. Finally, we’ll finish around Italy’s border with France by mid-September.

There are some customs I’ll never get used to

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When I mention to people that we are circumnavigating a small boat, their first question is usually, “But aren’t you scared out there in the middle of the ocean?” Maybe we’ve just been lucky, but even with crossing the Atlantic and the Pacific there have only been a few hours where things got exciting. The bigger problems always seem to be land-based.

The biggest challenge with our kind of cruising is to maintain the boat in a seaworthy condition in faraway places. Even the simplest of things can be incredibly hard at times. For instance, in Hong Kong we needed motor oil. This meant a lost day trying to hunt it down. Finding things like oil filters is perhaps easy if you speak the language and know where to go, but for us our easiest option is usually to ship in parts and supplies.

It is now five years since Sans Souci departed Seattle. We’ve done some maintenance each year, but I felt it was time for the boat to have a major “going over.” There were several reasons why this was a good year to get a lot of work done, but the biggest one was that I perceived that we were in a good place for it. Our marina in Croatia (Mandalina Marina) had a full shipyard onsite, and I found a good Croatian guy (Ante Muic, http://www.bosun.hr) who could be our liason in Croatia to arrange work. Also a factor was the recognition that our 20kw generator (we depend on it to generate electricity when we are at sea) was showing signs that it wouldn’t live much longer. Our generator only had about 7,000 hours on it, which made it fairly young in terms of a normal generator lifespan, but we’ve worked it hard. Plus, there’s a good argument that it was a lemon from when it was new. It has been a non-stop source of problems with oil leaks, an inability to generate its rated electric capacity, and constant breakdowns. We depend on the generator 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and I was tired of dealing with the problems. I made the decision to swap it for a new one.

Once I decided I was going to ship a new generator and a team of mechanics to Croatia, I figured that I might as well get everything I could think of fixed. What started as a fairly small number of boat-parts being shipped over started growing, and then it grew some more, and then Steven, our traveling companion, said, “As long as you have a shipment going to Croatia, perhaps I can send a few things along…”

The shipment left Seattle in December 2013, and Jeff Sanson and his team (my mechanics, from Pacific Yacht Management) bought plane tickets to be in Croatia at the end of February 2014.

Europe has a VAT tax. It’s like a national sales tax on items being imported into the country. I knew that the tax would need to be paid on the shipment, and was fine with this. It would be expensive. We were shipping a lot of stuff, including the new generator. Mentally, I was prepared to write a large check to import all of the items into Croatia. However, the truth is that I wouldn’t be importing the parts into the country. They were for my boat which is just passing through Croatia. The parts would not be “consumed” or resold in Croatia. Most countries allow free import of parts that are going to a boat transiting the country. In this particular case I was expecting trouble, in that this was a shipment much too large to fly under the radar.

The shipyard at the marina offered to assist (for a fee). They were already known to the Croatian customs people as a shipyard and would be able to get the parts into the country duty-free. I fought using them, mostly because I wanted to use my own people to do the work on the boat. My plan was to explain to customs that I should be allowed to bring in the parts duty free, and in the worst case, I’d pay the duty.

On January 31st, I received this email:

Steven Argosy and I also made plans to go to Croatia. I had a lot of work I wanted to do on the boat’s electronics. I was in Cabo San Lucas (Mexico) at the time, but arranged it so I could meet Steven in Florida and travel over together.

A week later, here comes the news…

Arrgghhhh! Freshly made hotel reservations, car rental reservations, flights — all to cancel. Worse yet, my schedule was swamped. It had taken some work to block out time to travel there. This would mean “no trip to Croatia.” Anything that I had planned to do personally would need to wait until Roberta and I arrived for the season.

As March approached I started worrying whether the shipment was going to be delivered to the boat in time for work to commence. Jeff and his team had pushed back their trip by three weeks.

I started corresponding with the shipment company directly to ask, “Where is my shipment?” I was getting a series of conflicting emails, some of which indicated my shipment had been delivered to Germany. People who know me think of me as “Mr. Laid-back.” I disagree that I am laid back, but it is certainly true that I am level-headed in 99% of situations. However the lack of information was starting to drive me crazy, and I finally started losing control of my emotions.

On March 10th I sent this very un-Ken-like email to the shipping company in response to their writing me to advise that there was “no reason to panic.” Reading between the lines you can see that I had lost my temper (something I can’t remember doing more than a couple times in my life!).

On March 17th I received word that the shipment was in Sibenik, Croatia, but there was confusion about how the shipment would be cleared. As hard as I worked to avoid having the shipyard involved, no one was willing to ship directly to the boat, or allow me to pay. I do not wish to imply the shipyard was doing anything they shouldn’t be doing. In fact, they were trying to help me. Croatia is new to the EU, and, although I don’t know what was happening behind the scenes, my sense is that everyone was thinking “Who is this crazy American who wants to pay the tax when there are ways to work around it?” Of course I am not a fan of paying taxes, but … I didn’t want to do anything that could endanger getting my shipment on time. The money lost on paying an import tax wasn’t as important as knowing for certain that I would get my parts. I would insert some of the correspondence into this blog entry, but none of it made sense. No one could give me a straight answer as to where EXACTLY my shipment was, or who would clear it into the country. Incomprehensibly, questions like “Are you my customs agent?” were virtually impossible to get answered.

The good news is that the shipment was in Croatia, and would be there when my guys arrived. We had time to work all this out.

Jeff and his team arrived in Croatia on March 24th.

As you can imagine, I was pulling my hair out. I now had three Seattle mechanics in Croatia and the equipment that they were there to install was “somewhere.”

Finally! The wait was over!

Jeff naturally assumed he could now clear in our shipment. Customs said “no.” They wanted to know what parts were needed to get the boat operational, and that the rest would have to be delivered to us OUTSIDE the country of Croatia. Huh? Jeff argued, but had no cards to play, and lost the battle. They released to him the generator, and a couple other bits and pieces, but that was it.

On April 4th things moved a bit closer…. Customs was going to deliver the containers to the boat, where we would need to take them 12 miles off shore in order to officially “receive them.”

You aren’t going to believe this, Dear Reader, but — Jeff headed 12 miles out to sea with the shipment, and returned to port at 4am, only to be told, “You cut the corner. You didn’t quite make it the full 12 miles. Go do it again.” Jeff was exhausted, and wisely refused. He and the team needed to sleep.

The next day, April 11th, Jeff headed offshore again, this time making sure that he had run PLENTY far enough, and customs was happy. We had our stuff.

As I look back at what I just typed, I see how long it is, and realize that I’ve actually only told a fraction of the story. There were other horrors in dealing with customs that I chose not to write about, as I always worry about my blog getting overly long, and boring. But, there were battles raging up to the day I left the country. For example, one of the things shipped to the boat were some new cameras I wanted to install in the engine room. These new cameras are “digital” (called IP cams) and I wanted to replace older analog cameras. It’s a long story, but I wanted the new cameras installed while I’m onboard, because I don’t know if they will be better than what I had. In particular I worry about data overload on the boat’s network. Believe it or not, customs insisted the new cameras be installed. I refused to let the cameras be installed until I was onboard, which upset them. They not only wanted the new cameras installed immediately, they also wanted the old cameras back, and wanted us to pay for their disposal. Emails were flying about the cameras up to the date of my departure. I’m out of the country now, so … Yay!

The bottom line on all of this is that it can be difficult to get spare parts into foreign countries. This may be one of the reasons that most cruisers who circumnavigate do so in a fairly tight time period. Our local guy in Croatia (who I highly recommend) Ante Muic, said that he believes the problem was Croatia’s entry into the European Union during 2013, and all of the added regulation that comes with being part of the EU. My opinion is similar but not quite the same. I blame the problems on Croatia being new to the EU, and Croatia’s customs people adjusting to a new set of rules and ways of doing things. My prediction is that things will calm over the next few years and shipping parts into Croatia will become more normal – ‘normal’ being “not that easy, but can be done” that we regularly experience around the world.

The Boat Geek Report!

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I am always amused when I see messages posted on boat message boards saying, “What does it cost to own a boat?” It’s an important question and I don’t want to talk about the subject lightly, because it is the core question in many prospective cruiser’s lives. There are a lot of people who spend their working career saving money, hoping to someday retire and live on a boat. It is absolutely critical to them to know what size boat they can afford, and what the total cost of operation will be.

Unfortunately, it is not an easy question. There is a rule of thumb that a boat will cost 10% of the purchase cost per year to operate, and it’s not a bad way to think of it. It kind of gets you in the ballpark. According to this rule if you buy a million dollar boat you should expect $100,000 per year to operate and maintain it.

In reality the costs to operate a boat are far more complex, and vary according to dozens of different factors.

• Where will you be cruising?
• How much maintenance will you do yourself?
• How well do you want the boat maintained?
• Will you be hiring crew?
• As you travel the world, will you be flying in mechanics when in out-of-the-way places?
• Where will the boat be moored?
• What “extra” equipment will you be putting onto the boat?
• How many miles a year do you plan on cruising?
• How big a boat will you have?
• How badly do you need things like Internet and TV?
• Will you be dining aboard, catching your food, or eating out?
• Will you transport the boat around the world? Or, move it on its own bottom?
• How many times a year will you want to fly home?
• How much time will you be spending on the boat?
• Is it in your personality to constantly be upgrading the boat?
• Will you be using agents as you cross borders?
• And.. more!

In other words, without knowing the answer to all of these questions, no one can tell you what the annual cost can be. And, unfortunately, one of the biggest costs on a boat is the one called “surprise expenses.” Boats operate in salt water, and sometimes in hard conditions. It’s not always a friendly environment, and things can be known to break. Just when you’ve carefully planned out your budget, the air conditioning will quit, or the satellite television will die — or lightning will strike. The one sure thing on a boat is that things will break.

My guidance when asked this question is always “Pick the smallest, least complicated boat that meets your needs, unless you have VERY deep pockets.” I have seen a few people over the years buy boats and then sell them a few years later after being blasted by negative surprises. I am constantly reminding people that there is no real correlation between the size of someone’s boat and the fun that they are having. I have been anchored in bays alongside $50 million dollar megayachts and $15,000 sailboats, and it isn’t at all clear who is having the most fun. There’s a good argument that the couple on the sailboat is winning the competition. Life on a megayacht is really not that much different than staying at a fancy hotel (although, in truth…we’ve never actually EXPERIENCED life on a megayacht, so what do we really know!). The basic point, though: we all anchor in the same bays, and marvel at the same sunsets.

Scott Flanders, a world-cruising Nordhavn owner posted this message to an online discussion group recently:

I am probably on the high end of spending, in that on my laundry list of questions above, I have the “wrong” (costly) answer for virtually every question. Our boat is large enough that if I were to do all the maintenance myself there’d be no time left for fun. Roberta and I are circumnavigating, but we have fallen into a rhythm of flying in mechanics each year, who spend weeks on the boat tweaking everything to be “perfect” before our arrival. We have busy lives and only get about four months a year on the boat. I want as many of those days as possible having fun, not working on the boat. Of course, this is much more expensive than if we did all the work ourselves. (Roberta’s comment: In reading – and editing – this blog entry, I feel that I have to jump in here and say that Ken is very much understating the actual work that both he and I do in running and maintaining Sans Souci! Whereas, on Ken’s part, he may not actually get ‘too greasy’ – unless he’s changing the oil in the generator; done quite regularly during the summer! – there is a LOT of planning, inventorying, purchasing parts and even household-type items, shipping or schlepping them to wherever the boat is, and on and on. Besides the planning, shipping and schlepping, it’s necessary to have a great understanding of your boat and its needs, down to very minute levels — even if you’re not the one actually down on your hands and knees doing much of the grunt work yourself. As to ‘labor participation,’ my part is somewhat equal to Ken in that I, too, have to plan, though for the more ‘personal, everyday-living-type of circumstances and make sure that those needs are met so that we can have as comfortable and as normal of living arrangements as possible. That planning includes inventorying food items (that can be carried with us), drug store items, clothing that is worn out or needs replaced, books, magazines, DVD’s, music, dishware, sheets, pillows….the list goes on and on. Those things wear out and have to be replaced. And then there is the endless cleaning! I am the housekeeper, provision person, fry cook, dishwasher, server, laundress, dog pooper-picker-upper, seamstress – you know, ALL those things that we do in our normal lives, though exaggerated on a boat. Then there is cleaning the tender when it’s filthy, washing off the boat when it’s salty or dirty (often), sitting at anchor watch during windy nights, sharing drive time on the boat, handling lines, fenders…whatever needs to be done. Bottom line: Even though Ken downplays the work that we actually do…it’s a lot!) Back to Ken! —

Interestingly, our costs haven’t been that far off the 10% estimate. In fact, I’m fairly certain that we are under this budget, although I have never really detailed the costs.

Anyway, this was a very unusual year. This was the first year in a while where I’ve felt we were in a good place to get work done on the boat. It has been five years since the boat has had a serious “going over.” At the time I arranged all of this I didn’t know that customs was going to be a nightmare, so I arranged to ship over a full team of mechanics, and a huge number of replacement parts. My directive to the mechanics was clear: “I want a new boat!” If something looked like it might wear out in the next few years, I wanted a new one!

Surprisingly, this is a foreign message to many mechanics. I expected to be reigning them in from time to time, but instead I had to remind them occasionally that I was serious. They’d say things like “I’m sure you can get another year or two out of that hose.” And, I’d say… “Nah. Replace it.”

I have had five years of relatively trouble-free operation of Sans Souci, and I’d like to keep it that way. There have certainly been some maintenance issues, but when you consider where we’ve been, and what we’ve done, I am delighted with how the boat has performed. I mentioned to Jeff that it did seem like we had a lot of maintenance this year, and he thought for a moment and said, “You know what it is Ken, you and Roberta really USE your boat.”

Anyway, with that long rambling preamble, here are a string of pictures which give a very tiny taste of the work that went on over the past month. It’s a lot of work, but I have an amazing “dream team” assembled by Jeff Sanson at Pacific Yacht Management (http://www.pacificyachtmanagement.com)

Where will we winter this year?

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Each year, as the season begins, we plan ahead to where we’ll park the boats at the end of the season. This is a bigger problem than it sounds. We need to find a place that is secure, preferably reasonably priced, preferably near a lift capable of raising our boats, near a major airport, well protected from winter storms, and where we believe we can find someone to watch over the boats. The other criteria, and the one that tends to be the most challenging of all is that the marina needs to have availability for our boats. Slips the size of our two boats are rarely sitting empty in the winter months.

Prior to the start of each season we think about where we’d like to finish the season’s cruising and start emailing marinas. For this coming winter the search began last summer, with Steven Argosy and myself emailing marinas which spanned about 1,000 miles of coastline. I emailed marinas in Spain, France, Italy and Sardinia.

After a long search we settled on a marina called “Porto D’Imperia” (http://www.portodimperia.it) in Italy, near the Italian border with France. The marina came highly recommended from several sources. And, best of all, they had two slips available at a semi-reasonable cost. I immediately sent a deposit of around $6,000 USD to hold my slip, and Steven did the same a few weeks later.

Then, a couple of months ago, while I was doing some trip planning I tried to bring up the website for Porto D’Imperia. It wasn’t there! I assumed it was just an internet outage and didn’t worry about it. However when the site hadn’t reappeared the next day, I started Googling. Articles started appearing in Italian. I used automated translation to translate the articles, and whereas they were still unintelligible, I could easily see words that appeared to be “bankrupcy” and “litigation.”

I immediately telephoned Steven, who immediately sent an email to the marina. I did the same.

No response. Goodbye money?

Days later, the website reappeared on the internet, and rather than over-react I decided to call the marina. The front desk sounded normal, and the receptionist I spoke with (or, tried to speak with given our language barrier) said that all was well, and that my slip reservation was fine.

This relaxed me, until a few days ago when I spoke with a technician from France who occasionally works on boats at the Imperia marina. He said that the marina is struggling, and that when he was last there, there was no security on the docks. [Expletive deleted]! Now I’m not sure what to do. Do I forget the money? Do I wait until I am there and form an opinion? Do I restart the process and tee up a new marina?

A not so hidden agenda in writing this is that amongst the readers of my blog are many ship captains who regularly cruise the Med. My guess is that this section of my blog will trigger emails with real information, rather than the rumors and speculation I’ve been dealing with. It is very possible that the marina is fine, with zero problems, and I’m worrying too much (which is not uncommon.) I do not want to tarnish the reputation of what might be a great marina. That said.. I am worried.

And, in closing…

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That’s it! I hope that you enjoyed this pre-blog blog entry.

Remember: If you have friends who you think would enjoy the blog, this is a very good time to encourage them to register. All they need to do is to go to the following website address (or, click on the link:

http://www.kensblog.com/register

Lasty, I should mention that this is one of two blogs that I do. My other blog is on Facebook, although you do not need to register with Facebook to view the blog. Just click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/kensblogdotcom

My other blog is very different than this blog. I post to it almost every day, and post whatever I happen to be thinking about, without editing or filtering. Check it out!

Thank you!

Ken and Roberta Williams
MV Sans Souci
Nordhavn 68

PS My next blog entry will probably not be for a week or two.. We are just getting started!