Crew - Ashley Holmes & Steve Cotton.

Sun 04 May 2003 - Fowey to Falmouth

Crew - Ashley Holmes & Steve Cotton.

Mon 05 May - Falmouth to Alonissos

Crew - Ashley Holmes & Mark Phillips.

Arrival date in Alonissos - Wed 04 Jun 2003

Total Number of days - 33 days travelling.

Total Number of nights at sea - 25

Total distance travelled - 2854.9 Nautical Miles

Total fuel used - Plymouth - 89.19L@.38p,l=£33.89-Full+1 gerry can

                           Bayona - 97L@€.74=€72.00-Full+1 gerry can

                           Gibraltar - 100L@€.43=€42.92-Full+2 gerry cans

                           Mazarron - 81.36L@€.68/L=€55.24-Full 2 gerry cans

                           Sabina - 55.18L@€.72/L=€39.73 + 2 gerry cans

                           Carloforte - 79.5L@€.88/L=€70+1 gerry can

                           Milazzo - 134.71L@€.9256=€124.61+ 2 gerry cans

                           Argostoli - 80L@.8/L=€64

                           Linaria - 40L@€.9/L=€36

                           Total litres 666.94

                           Total cost €555.85 (£366)

Countries traversed - UK, France, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Italy & Greece.

Ports visited - Fowey (UK), Falmouth (UK), L'Abervack (France), La Coruna (Spain), Bayona (Spain), Nazare (Portugal), Gibraltar, Mazarron (Spain), Formentera (Spain), Carloforte (Sardinia), Porto Teularda (Sardinia), Milazzo (Sicily), Argostoli (Cefalonia, Greece), Corinth (Greece), Linaria (Skyros, Greece), Patitiri (Alonissos, Greece).

Diary of passage -

03May03 - Passage Torpoint to Falmouth - Ash & Steve seasick decision to stop at Fowey.

04May03 - Passage Fowey to Falmouth - Steve leaves boat.

05May03 - Mark joins boat, passage Falmouth to La Coruna - Ash & I seasick, decision to stop at L'Abervack

07May03 - Passage L'Abervack to La Coruna.

08May03 - Continuing to La Coruna - spotted pod of Pilot whales, Navico Autopilot died (drive unit gearbox - not fixable). Will adopt watch system of 1 hour on helm, 1 hour off, 1 hour watch. Ash down with seasickness, Mark & I sharing helming. Spotted oil warning light on and engine temperature hard in the red. Stopped engine straight away as it cut out. Covers up and engine smoking. Waited 2 hours to cool then found raw water filter blocked. Re-started engine gently and all seems OK after giving it a thorough check over.

09May03 - Continuing to La Coruna - encountered several pods of dolphins. Buzzed by twin engined spotter plane.

10May03 - Arrived at La Coruna.

11May03 - Departed La Coruna for Gibraltar. Diverted to assist 45' Ketch, Azimuth with fishing net entangled around their prop. Passed over diving tank and gear. Net successfully cleared.

12May03 - Both forward Navigation lights failed, diverted to Bayona to repair. Departed after 7 hours for Gibraltar.

13May03 - Cut-up by fishing vessel, had to take evasive action to avoid collision. Hit by squall, 30kts+ down to storm jib only. Breaking seas making coarse dangerous. Motored into seas for a while, then decision to divert to Porto Nazare for shelter. Leapt on by customs as soon as we tied up at 23.15!

14May03 - Nazare marina very small and adjacent to fish quay, noisy until it shut at midnight. Very good marina staff, English couple, visited 4 years ago and stayed. Departed Nazare at 11.15. Passage to Gibraltar.

15May03 - Passage to Gibraltar. Wind up and down all day. One minute putting in reefs, the next motoring with no wind.

16May03 - Passage to Gibraltar - Another day of fickle winds.

17May03 - Passage to Gibraltar - very large following swell on starboard quarter making it difficult to hold our coarse. Once changed coarse for Tarifa point, even worse as swell now on beam.

10.16 log 5191.5 pos 36N00.1 05W46.1 depth 57m - whilst cleaning his teeth, Mark lost his false set over the side. Sailed into Gibraltar with strong following wind. Decided to round up in the lee of large tanker anchored off. Whilst stowing sails Ash pointed out the name of the tanker - Pleione - fate or small world!!. Checked through customs, refuelled boat and picked up fore & aft berth in the Marina Bay marina.

18May03 - Spent day touring Gibraltar, Ash got bit by monkey on the rock, visited St. Michael's caves and Defence tunnels before walking down. Departed Gibraltar 20.00 hrs bound for Formentera.

19May03 - Passage to Formentera - recovered lifebuoy with light from sea - no markings. Motorsailing in light airs, clear blue sky, turquoise sea, Nevada snow capped mountains to port - no swell, looking a little better. Visited by pod of 20 - 30 juvenile common dolphins, they continued west after bow-riding for  20mins.

20May03 - Passage to Formentera - wind steadily increasing along with sea. Motorsailing into very steep seas slowing our progress. Headed for Mazarron marina for shelter but no berths available. Refuelled and waited on fuel berth until early evening for wind to abate.

21May03 - Passage to Formentera - Strange vibration from engine or propshaft, no sign of anything around prop, continued at lower engine RPM. Wind very light and fickle again.

22May03 - Arrived in Sabina harbour, Formentera 01.30. Man on quay to help us with our lines - impressive. Later that morning, showered, stored boat at local mini-market, refuelled and departed 12.00 for Sardinia. Sailing through slick of By-The-Wind-Sailor jellyfish, approx 2-3cm long with blue tentacles.

23May03 - Passage to Sardinia - B-T-W-S Jellyfish everywhere. 24 hour run - 131.4NM.

24May03 - Alongside pontoon in Carloforte harbour on Isola Di Pedro off the Sardinian mainland. Had to refuel using the gerry cans, 5 minute walk to garage and many trips. Departed Carloforte 00.00 after topping water tanks and having dinner

25May03 - Passage to Sicily - Heading into Easterly F7 with big seas, progress painfully slow and boat taking a pounding from waves. Found small new and unfinished marina at Porto Teulada, on the South Sardinian coastline. Good shelter, with few boats, marina almost empty but with no facilities, still, good night sleep.

26May03 - Weather better so continued passage to Sicily. 12.15 - It's raining, that's not allowed! Three large common dolphins bow-riding for 30mins, what a show!

27May03 - Passage to Sicily - had to transfer fuel from gerry cans into main tank. Light wind on the nose means lots of motoring.

28May03 - Passage to Sicily, Isola Di Uistica of port beam. Fuel getting low, may not reach Messina in one.

29May03 - 02.15hrs arrived at Milazzo harbour, Sicily for fuel. 40NM to the Messina Strait. After topping up with water, food and fuel (very expensive in Sicily-€0.93/l), departed for the Strait under sail. Messina strait very impressive, but not busy, only three large ships seen.  Saw four swordfish fishing boats, each with 2 lookout up the top of the mast, and with a bowsprit twice the length of the boat. Apparently, swordfish lie and sunbathe on the surface. The long bowsprit allows the man with the harpoon to strike the fish before the swordfish is disturbed by the hull of the boat. Transiting Messina there are up to 7 or 8 ferries at any one time coming and going, necessitating great care. Good wind from starboard quarter, yacht speed 6.2 to 6.7kts. 40 mins later down to storm jib with 30+kts of wind. 30 mins later under engine with no wind!

30May03 - Passage to Cefalonia to clear into Greece - glorious weather but not enough wind to make passage speed. Midnight, Ash noted smell of diesel in boat - discovered copper pipe from main tank had fractured spilling 30L of diesel into the bilge. Manage to repair pipe joint using plastic tubing and jubilee clips. At daylight pumped contents of bilge into gerry cans and any other bottles/containers we could find. We slowly decanted the diesel, separated it and filtered it back into the tank over the next 24 hours and lost only approx 1 litre of diesel.

31May03 - 17..30 moored stern to (1st time) in Argostoli harbour, Cefalonia. Checking into Greece took over one hour of paperwork the girl needing written evidence for every detail, plus €203 for various documents. Once again topped up with fuel. Had first Greek meal ashore.

01Jun03 - 07.30 departed Argostoli for the Corinth canal.  Sailing down south side of Cefalonia, bimini up for first time, sun really hot. 21.45 - passed through south passage of new bridge construction that will join Ak Rion to Ak Andirion (1 mile span).

02Jun03 - Transited Corinth canal in company with 40m motor yacht Bluebell and 12m British yacht. Very impressive structure but in poor repair. Canal is closed each Tuesday for repairs and dredging. Cost of transit €87 making it one of the most expensive stretches of water to navigate. Now on passage to Alonissos.

03Jun03 - Notice steaming light not working. 00.35 approached by Gardia Patrol boat, wanted information on our port of origin, destination, people on board etc. Did not see him coming on radar, bit of a surprise when searchlight hit us with them just 10m from our port quarter. Navigation by eye, all headlands in sight. 13.00 - navigation cock-up! should have changed coarse at last headland, now approaching Skyros - still, I always wanted to visit Skyros and we could do with some fuel. Skyros very quiet, very peaceful and very hot. Sorted 2 gerry cans of fuel then had to move to end of quay as we were in a tripper boat's berth. Had some dinner onboard with a few cold Amstel beers. Departed Skyros at 20.00 via the shallow channel (3.5m) bound for Alonissos, taking a slow passage to arrive early morning

14Jun03 - Alonissos in sight, beautiful morning with wind on the nose again. 08.20 moored stern to in Patitiri harbour. checked in with customs/port authority and phoned Carol with the good news.

Carol had arranged flights home for Ash and Mark for Friday (Ash had to be back by this date latest). This gave them a couple of days to relax before travelling home. Later in the day, Ash and I moved Pleione around to Votsi harbour, about 10 mins, to her final mooring inside the mole.

Villa Seven Sisters now has the yacht Pleione for cruising the Northern Sporades set in the beautiful Aegean sea, for it's customers.