Thank you for the tips, Mambo42! We will certainly hope for better weather conditions!
We are booked in Athens/Piraeus for 17 days at D-Marin Zea. Made the booking back in January
That certainly helps, we passed by Athens back in the beginning of June, did not have a reservation since we did not know when we would be there exactly and the result was that all the marinas were full. They don't have a registration system where they keep track of who leaves the marina, so even if 50 boats leave, they will still report that they are full for the day. Was a pity, we had some technical problems with the engines and could not get them repaired. We were able to make an appointment with a mechanic, but without place to put the boat we had to just skip it.
For the winter dry storage, we chose Olympic Marine, which from my research appeared to be the largest, modern, most capable and professionally run operation in the area. Not cheap, but it appears it will offer me great peace-of-mind while we are away "enjoying" the Swedish winter.
I hope you will have a better experience with the mechanics and companies that work on boats. So far what we have encountered in Greece and Turkey is mostly companies that can talk very well, but have little to no formal training. They just make it up as they go, make mistake after mistake and we basically have to babysit them all the time. In the mean time of course they have the standard rip off fees, getting a bit tired of that. So we now have a firm approach with them. If they want Western fees then we expect Western quality and Western service, which means they have to clean the boat after they are finished and if something does not work or is not done correct they not only pay the repair, but also the extra stay in the marina and all the cost that come with it.
We went into the water on Monday afternoon, already 10 days late, then we found out the work on the depth meter had been done incorrectly, so had to be hauled out again and we will now spend 2 weeks on the dry again. Total cost excluding works around 2000 euro, I am not paying that. So my tip to you is be very strict with whoever is going to work on your boat and include penalties for being late. In marina Gouvia they were 2 months late and still did not finish the work they were hired to do. So I simply did not pay the last part of the bill, that compensated for the extra marina fees. But it did turn our trip to Turkey into some sort of a race and that was a pity.
For the return, it's not fully planned yet. Could be:
1) Run up the Adriatic and have the boat trucked to Genova and continue on to Toulon for the winter.
2) Reverse our Italy coastal run of last year back to Toulon for the winter
After that, it could be:
1) Canals through central France, which is how we first came to the Med in 2019.
2) Canal du Midi to Atlantic and then short coastal hops to Rotterdam and then back into the canal system. We want to do Canal du Midi, but I am not optimistic that the Atlantic to Rotterdam is realistic. No my preference with weather and whales and tides, etc. But, we are not looking forward 370 locks through France again, with the constant threat of being stuck a year in the middle due to lack of water and canal closures!
3) Put it on a ship from Greece to Rotterdam. This is only a remote option, but I know it's possible.
370 locks ?? I knew there were quite a few, but not that many ! Wow, that is an enormous amount and ending up in a river or canal where there is no water would not be my idea of fun either.
We are leaving Zakynthos this morning for Katakolon. Then Messalonghi after 3 nights in Katakolon.
The marina in Messalonghi is a bit run down, but it is a safe place and opposite the marina is a large bar / restaurant / beach club area. When we were there they were just opening up, but luckily no music until 4 AM. Don't know how it will be now. Right in front of the marina there is an anchorage, is also well protected so if you feel like anchoring out it is absolutely possible. We came in unexpectedly and had no idea how long we would stay (were hiding from the bad weather in the Gulf of Patras), so renting a car was not an option unfortunately. The rental car had to come from Patras and that would simply take too long. But in town there are a couple of taxi's, very friendly driver we had and we called him a couple of times to take us to the supermarket and back, show us around town, can recommend him. His number is +30 6977 229 833, name is Dimitris. If you want to rent a car you can try Avance at 00 30 26340 26250.
Where are you - and what are your travel plans? The "Curacao" location on your avatar is a bit misleading ;-)
Curacao is our home base, it is where we officially live. But this year is the first year that we are on the boat from end of March until mid to end November. Not sure yet if we will go back to Curacao for the winter, are thinking about going to Spain for the winter. Have some work on the deck that needs to be done in January or February and this time I am really going to be there when they do the job. Don't want nasty surprises anymore. So that would making back to Curacao a bit useless, it is a long travel and with 4 dogs it is a hassle.
At the moment we are in Didim, Turkey. Just finished the installation of stabilizers on the boat. Had some other work planned, but the prices here in Turkey are even more ridiculous than in Greece. Turkey used to be OK for boat works, that is no longer the case and quality is mediocre at best. Stabilizers were done by the official representative of the producer, so that was done in an acceptable manner.
Hopefully next week the leakage is repaired, then back in the water, have to do the sea trials for the stabilizers and after that off to Bodrum and Marmaris. There I will hopefully find an electrician who can finish the installation of our Lithium batteries. And only then can we basically start our summer. Spent almost 6 weeks on the dry now, really annoying, a completely wasted summer. Was supposed to last 14 days, turned into 6 weeks, but by the time we are finished it will be 8 to 9 weeks.
As you may know the Meltemi winds are raging at the moment in the Aegean (always between end of May and end of September) and trust me, you don't want to be caught in that. The forecasts are 90 % of the time completely off, it is more like: 'your guess is as good as mine' and a few times too many calm weather was forecasted, but we found ourselves in severe storms. Basically the whole passage from Athens to Kalymnos was hoping and praying the weather forecast would be correct, but that was not the case.
We had some very scary experiences where it was calm and as if someone flipped a switch the wind picked up to gale force in a matter of minutes. The sea is calm and all of a sudden you see a windfield in front of you arising out of nowhere, then the white caps show up and the fun begins.
The wind itself is not so much the problem, but the seas that go with it are. And as a result you may end up with a triple swell, which means whatever course you are trying to steer, you will always be beam on. The sea more or less starts boiling when that happens and that is when you need to find shelter. Not a problem if you can do 20 to 25 kts, but we do 6 to 7 kts maximum, we are in it for the ride.
When we were in Sifnos some super yachts came into the port, also trying to save themselves from the Meltemi. They told us some harrowing stories of their encounters and that makes you wonder why anyone would want to sail in the Aegean. It looks nice when the sea is calm, but now we understand the story of Odysseus where the crew opened the bag of wind and all of a sudden a storm arose. That was not based on imagination, that was simply bases on real life experiences of Homer.
So after experiencing that we have decided we will not go through the Aegean ever again, we will take the long way home, via the coast of Turkey to Thessaloniki and then South again. Since the channel of Corinth closes at the end of September we will have to cross the South point of Sparta, which also has a very bad reputation, but we have time, so can wait it out. If that still turns out to be impossible we will leave the boat somewhere along the route, just don't know where yet.
So until the end of September we will hang around in Turkey and the eastern Greek islands (Kos, Kalymnos, Rhodes). Everyone tells us it is beautiful there, so we are curious. Basically have no schedule, nor plans.
Next year we will move up to Croatia, spend the summer there, go to Venice for festa die Redentore. That is on our bucket list, so an absolute must go. Have seen it a few times from the shore side, now we will do it with our boat for the first time. Already made the reservation in the marina for next year.
And basically every year after we will hang around the Adriatic, we will do Spain, France and Italy by road in the winter.