October 11, 2008

Ionian Regatta

The reason we were keen to get back to Greece before the 18th of Sept was because we had the opportunity to crew on a 52ft Dufour in the Regatta. The Regatta itself was over 3 or 4 days but we were only doing the last day, the longest race. From the top of the Meganissi channel, round Sparta Houri and across to Sivota. We got down to the start line, downwind start so we sailed across the channel a couple of times to decide where our best start place would be. Like all things to do with boats and especially racing it doesn’t always go to plan. The first group set off and we were on our 10 minute countdown. Within 5 minutes of the first group crossing the line the wind started to die and continued to die until there was none!! We sat in a windless hole for nearly ½ an hour on the wrong side of the channel while boats on the other side had some wind and slowly crept forward leaving us in nearly last position L. There were 130 boats in the race and when the wind finally did come back we had a lot of work to do. Did we do it. Course we did, from nearly last we managed to pull out all the stops and charge across the line a credible 8th. Of course on handicap we would have had to finish an hour before any other boat to get a place but we had a good day and a great evening to follow and an even greater hangover to recover from the next day.

More pictures of the Regatta here

Back to Greece by land and sea

We had the great idea of driving back to Greece and spending a week in Lake Guarda and Venice before catching the ferry from Ancona to Greece. Like lots of good ideas, that went to wall due to all sorts of problems which kept us in the UK (to lengthy to go into here) way beyond our original plans. It got to the point where we had to go by the quickest route because we wanted to get back for the Ionian regatta on September 18th.

Our first intended departure date was around the time of the Channel Tunnel fire (we were going to go that route); a few days later we were really ready to go and of course Dover and all the surrounding motorways were in chaos trying to deal with the backlog of the Tunnel closure. So we opted on our morning of departure to catch the Hull - Zeebrugger ferry. A good choice in that Hull is only 1½ hours from where we were and it’s an overnight so we could get a good night’s sleep before driving most of the way across Europe to Italy. Typically the weather was clear and sunny the day we left unlike the grey skies we’d had for most of the 8 weeks we were there. Departure from Hull is via a lock, leaving very little room either side of the Ferry and quite an experience. The journey was uneventful and we arrived in Zeebrugger at 10.30am local time to lovely sunshine.

That day we drove around 900 miles across Belgium, the top north east corner of France and the entire country of Switzerland! The weather in Switzerland was grey, raining and very little visibility which was a shame because it can be quite dramatic driving in that part of the world. Our route took us through the 17 kilometre tunnel through the Alps, a real experience!! We spent that night on the Swiss – Italian border near Lake Como. Next morning, still grey and showery we set off for another 4 hour drive to Ancona. Still grey and showery by the time we got there. Another overnight ferry to Igoumonitsa, arriving round 9ish on morning of the 16th. And guess what – IT WAS RAINING!!! We’re beginning to think we’re jinxing the weather it had followed us all the way across Europe. The Sunday before we got back it was 30 degrees and sunny. Still, it’s nice to be home.
More pictures of the trip home here