SERENITY NOW

  19th Oct 2018 (Astipalaia - Crete) Well this is it: Heading back overnight to our current home-base of Crete at the end of our first season on the water.  Left the quay at Astipalia in convoy with Debbie and Lachie (Mistral), who have extra crew of Steph and Andy on board. Departed at around 5pm, and motored away from the lee of the island as the sun went down. Once clear, conditions were good to get the sails up, which we did, and spent the first few hours going along quite nicely. The ever diligent Lachlan was our frequent radio companion, advising speed adjustments, other vessels, milk bottle floats in water, super tanker dimensions etc. etc. We’d put a 2.5hr turnaround watch roster in place - but this went out of the window early on. The reason for this was a combination of Chez not finding it easy to rest on a rolly boat, and me royally mucking up my first watch within minutes of taking charge ( I’d mis-read the situation of lights on the water, interpreting Lachlan...

  12th Oct 2018 (Kos - Kos) Well today is a first - having left Kefalos heading North after some diliberation we have decided to turn back. The 3 meter swell and constant slamming of the hull brought us to the conclusion that the safest and wisest plan would be to err on the side of caution and return to the calm safety of last nights anchorage. Feels strange - but right.  (Also half way through ‘Four feathers’ and looking forward to finishing that off - a ripping yarn) Haven’t written for a while, sadly missing some of the great times we’ve spent while Martin, Cheryls brother, has been with us: Turkey, Tasty Corner, Spoof and Polish Vodka to name a few of the many highlights :) ...and pretending to be a cat, as the picture clearly shows! :)