Sail with sy.Ayla in the Med

Christmas letter 2009

sailforfun — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:46:50 +0000

During the winter we made a decision to sail our boat back to Sweden this summer.

This was our 4th year in the Med and now we were going back to the Baltic and back to work as well. We have had a wonderful time in the Med meeting so many friends and even a lot of good sailing although the winds are either too rough or too calm.

We left Preveza, in Greece, in the middle of April and arrived at the Baleares three weeks later. There we had a lovely time with old and some new friends before we sat sail for Gibraltar. It took us three days and nights to get there. It was three years since we left Gibraltar and the place was quite different today. But we do love this place and it was no problem to stay for 10 days here. We left the Med together with an easterly wind in Beau forts 7 – 8 and also used the power from a westerly going current.

In Portugal we looked at the weather carts for the trip outside the west coast of Portugal. The prevailing winds here are going south but before July you may catch a breeze from the south. And so we did and celebrated Midsummer in Camarinas in Spain three days after leaving Lagos in Portugal.The Midsummer in Sweden is known for eating raw fish and drinking snaps. And so we did in Spain, looking out over the Bay of Biscay. When we crossed this terrifying bay the wind was gone so we had to cross it by motoring for three days and nights. We enjoyed a few weeks in France eating good cheeses and tasting delicious win. The French cooking could make everybody happy.

The Canal Islands was bathing in sunshine when we arrived. We picked up our bicycles and explored those lovely islands for some time.

Our next stop was wonderful Holland. We sailed “The Staande Mast Route” and spend 4 weeks sailing under 60 bridges and become experts passing several locks. Passing Amsterdam by night in convoy with another 10 sailing boats, all by the book. Unforgotten moments sailing in these canals, liked sailing in a brochure from a plant shop.

Through the Kiel Canal and we were back in the Baltic Sea again after 5 years and 15 000 nm. We have visit 19 countries and meat so many nice people. Many of those are our friends for lifetime.

Gibraltar to France

sailforfun — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:36:25 +0000

We left Gibraltar with a strong easterly wind on 6 Beaufort. In the Strait we got the wind exactly from the behind and the waves were about 3 meters. But with only the foresail up we did a good speed and had a comfortable trip out to the Atlantic. Outside Tarifa we changed course from westerly to northwesterly. We planned to sail to Culatra in Portugal.

We stayed a week in Algarve and meet some old friends in Lagos before we sat sail for the west coast of Portugal. This coast line is famous and known for its northerly winds, but we were lucky to catch a wind from southwest for two days. Together with another Swedish sailing boat we made this distance in 50 hours.

In the bay outside Bayona in Spain we dropped our anchor. It was a very special feeling to have done this distance because of the unfavorably winds which are preveling here. After a good meal and a cooled bear we went to sleep in the cockpit.

Bayona is a very nice town and we did a lot of walks in the old town. It was in the middle of June and we were now planning for the midsummer celebrations.

We day sailed up north on the Spanish coast and in a few days we arrived at Camarinas. We came here on our way down to the Mediterranean. It is a very safe bay to anchor in so we planned to go into the bay outside the town to seek protection from the winds. In this area we must beware of the winds and the tides and of course a good sandy sea bottom for our anchor.

We had a nice time here together with sailors from all over the world, but we celebrated the Midsummer Eve bye ourselves in the cockpit. We had Swedish “matjessill” and together with new potatoes from the market in the town it was a unforgotten moment in our life.

We planned the trip to cross the Bay of Biscay and one day we decided to go the day after. The winds should be weak and westerly. About 5 boats left the marina, and the bay were we anchored, and sailed towards France.

We had a pleasant trip over the bay and after about 65 hours we saw the French coastline in the horizon.

Now we had made the most difficult distances on our trip back home to Sweden. Hopefully the rest of the trip should be in favorable winds……….

The bay of Cadiz

sailforfun — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:50:02 +0000

We spent 10 days in Gibraltar waiting for the easterly winds to take us out to the Atlantic. The wind came after 7 days but very strong, so we waited another 3 days before we left. The winds in the strait outside Gibraltar always give strong winds. You must follow them and even the current. Our trip through the strait was pleasant with a wind from the behind 11-14 m/s and a current going westerly with 2 knots. Outside Tarifa we change course to NW and planed to Culatra on the Algarve coast. After 26 hours and 160 nm later, we dropped our anchor outside Culatra. We stayed in this beautiful place for a couple of days before we sailed to Lagos to meet some friends. In the marina we met a Swedish sailing boat also heading for Sweden. We planed together the trip on Portugal’s west coast. The problem on this coast line is the northerly winds are prevailing, but we were very lucky because two days later there would be winds from the south. We planed to take off early to days later and our schedule was to reach Baiona, in Spain, after 50 hours.

Gibraltar

sailforfun — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:37:18 +0000

We left Ibiza a early morning in the middle of May. It took us three days and nights to sail to Gibraltar. We saw the Rock in the far distanse in the early morning. The Rock of Gibraltar is 430 metres high and a narrow coastal lowland surrounding it. Gibraltar is located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and at the entrance of the Atlantic, if you are coming from the east.The climate is subtropical with mild winters and warm summers. There are two main prevailing winds, an easterly one known as the Levante coming from the Sahara in Africa which brings humid weather and warmer sea and the other as Poniente which is westerly and brings fresher air in and colder sea. Our expiriens are that the wind direction change every 7 – 9 days. Rain occurs mainly in winter, the summers are generally dry. Tourism is also a significant industry. Gibraltar is a popular stop for cruise ships and attracts day visitors from resorts in Spain. The Rock is a popular tourist attraction. It is also a popular shopping destination, and all goods and services are vat free, tax free. The population of Gibraltar are 28 000 and the main religion is Christianity. There is also a big Jewish community and you could see the tipical calotte on many people there. As a British territory, the official language of Gibraltar is English, and it is used by the Government and in schools. Most locals also speaking Spanish, due to Gibraltar’s proximity to Spain. They use the English pound but if you get a note with the text THE BANK OF GIBRALTAR, you can´t use this note outside Gibraltar. Look for the text THE BANK OF ENGLAND, and you could use it everywere in the Commonwealth.Gibraltar is tipical english but the climat is very warm and it is not raining every second day and you drive on the right side of the road!

sailforfun — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:37:22 +0000

The Balearics.

We had a good sailing from Sardinia over to Mallorca. We planned to stop at Menorca, but because of the bad weather we had on Sardinia, there was no time to stop on this island. We stopped at Port Sollier on Mallorca. It is like a lagoon to anchor in this place. We had an appointment here with some friends and it was a very nice reunion. We rented a car for some days and had a very nice week with beautiful weather here. Not to warm and not to cold. The water temperature was not to warm, so we have not been swimming yet. Mallorca is a wonderful island with a lot of things to see and explore. Nice beaches, small old villages with a lot of atmosphere and high mountains if you prefer that kind of scenery. And the Spanish people are very kind and helpfulThe food is special with Sangria and paella and all the different fish dishes you can eat at the restaurants.After a week we sailed to Ibiza, San Antonio. This town is a paradise for young people with all the pubs and a terrific night life.The Balearics are islands you love and if you have been there, you like to come back again.

ITALY

sailforfun — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:33:53 +0000

After two days and two nights we arrived to Roccela Ionica, quite close to the Messina Strait, in Italy. Our sailing from Greece had been very nice with good winds and sunny days. We hade been to this place before and knew were to go in the marina. We meet two boats here from Australia. And together with this people we hade a nice time here. You say you meet boats from different places, and of course you mean the people onboard the boats. But it is easier to say the name of the boat than the names of the peoples onboard. On day we took our bicycles and went for a long ride along the coastline. Just when we decided to turn back, we got a flat tire on one of the bikes. So we had to walk back to the boat. We left this marina very early one morning and sailed up to the Messina Strait. It was hardly any wind so we had to go by motor most of the day. The strait is very nice and we hade a wonderful day. Up in the north of the strait the current was going our way, up north, but the wind was coming from the north. This made the water almost crazy. It was like the water was boiling. And you could feel it in the boat which was shaking. We went to a marina in Milazzo, on Sicily, and stayed there for only one night and went on to Cefalu. Bad weather was coming so we decided to stay here for some days before we went on to Sardinia. Sicily is a wonderful island with a lot of sand beaches and small and old villages with romantic lanes. We do like the Italian cultures, the houses, the peoples, the food, the wine………After a week we sailed to Sardina were we on the south side hade to seek shelter outside Teulada from strong northerly winds from France. We stayed on our anchor here for about tree days before we left for Mallorca in Spain.

Leaving Greece

sailforfun — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:58:02 +0000

Leaving Greece!

We launched our boat in Aktio Marina in Preveza in the end of Mars and went over to the Swedish pontoon. We planed to stay there for a couple of weeks to set sails and do some shopping for our sailing to Italy. A few other boats, with people onboard, were also staying there. We had some unforgettable moments there. We had grill parties on the pontoon and we invited some friends to our boat at Eastern to celebrate. We made a nice “smorgasbord” in the galley with different sorts of fish, shellfish, octopus, some bread and eggs.

The weather was not that good. Some days were sunny but the nights were cold. After two weeks the weather was good for crossing the Ionian Sea, over to Italy.

sailforfun — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:25:11 +0000

Christmas letter 2008

We left Stockholm airport in the beginning of April. There were a lot of snow on the runaway but we made it and reached Athens airport without any problems. After 6 hours on the bus to Preveza we finely saw our boat again after our 5 months. We had a busy time preparing our boat, s/y Ayla, and we spend a lot of time with our Swedish sailing friends in the boatyard. In the beginning of May we lounged Ayla and sailed across the bay to Preveza and the Swedish pontoon. One week later we sailed together with some Swedish boats up north against Albania. Unfortunately we did not find any sailing marina and refused to stay in any industrial harbours together with BIG ships. For that reason we decided to sail on to Montenegro, were we stayed for three weeks. We rented a car together with the other Swedish crews. We drove around the country and really enjoyed the countryside. After a week in Bar marina we sailed up to the fiord of Kotor. We anchored in the fiord in several places and really enjoyed the spectacular view from the different anchor places. We were surrounded with high mountains, about 2 000 meters high.A few weeks later we checked out and sailed south and back to Greece again. We had a nice time exploring the surroundings of Corfu and Mother Nature gave us two earth-quakes before we celebrated midsummer on the island Meganisi, just east of Lefkas.The strength of the earthquakes was not very strong; it was like sailing the boat on a sandbank in 1 knot.

The Midsummer celebration was very nice. About 35 people enjoyed the Swedish tradition with herring, potatoes, beer and of course a “snaps”.

In July and August we sailed south to look for the sea turtles on the islands in the south of the Ionian Sea. In the middle of October we hauled our boat at Aktio Marina in Preveza and drove to Sweden through the countries on the Balkan Peninsula. We had during the summer bought a car, Volvo of course, from a Swedish couple in Greece. The purpose was driving through the countries we couldn’t visit by boat. Driving home to Sweden was a great adventure and we will write about it on our website.

We sailed 1800 nm this season and we bought about 200 litres of diesel. This is 0,1 l / nm. We usually start our engine when the speed is less that 1 knot.

Next season we are planning to sail a very long distance, 4 500 nm.

Curious about our sailing plan?????? Follow our website www.ayla.biz now in English and with weather forecast from all over the world.

Marry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Radio Olympia Greece

sailforfun — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:22:42 +0000

WX

A. (ALL SHIPS)³ THIS IS (OLYMPIA RADIO)³ WEATHER AND SEA BULLETIN
FOR SHIPPING PLEASE LISTEN ON CHANNELS:

NORTHWEST AEGEAN		23 – 60
NORTHEAST AEGEAN		82 – 85
CENTRAL AEGEAN		01 – 25 – 85
SOUTHWEST AEGEAN		04 – 25 – 85
SOUTHEAST AEGEAN		23 – 63
KRITIKO		04 – 27 – 83 – 85
IONIAN SEA		02 – 27 – 83 – 85

V H F
TIME OF TRANSMITIONS FOR WX
GMT	06:00	WX
	10:00	WX
	16:00	WX
	22:00	WX

HF
TIME AND FREQUENCY

GMT	09:30	8424 KHZ
	21:30	8424 KHZ

MF VOICE

06:33, 09:03 , 15:33 , 21:33 GMT

SVL (LHMNOS RADIO )		2730 KHZ
SVH ( HRAKLEIO RADIO )		2799 KHZ
SVK ( KORFU RADIO )		2830 KHZ
SVR ( RHODES RADIO )		2624 KHZ

Arriving at Montenegro

sailforfun — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:14:47 +0000

We arrived to Montenegro after a nice sailing day. We had some problems when we approached the lighthouse just outside Bar. It was around midnight and it was raining as well. We ( read = I ) picked the wrong lighthouse and navigated wrong. It was a lighthouse on a peninsula just north of Bar. But when we discovered the wrong course, we already past Bar so we had to turn back and go to the marina in Bar.

The marina in Bar is just north of the commercial harbor. Here are a lot of Russian people but you will hardly see any Russian flags. It is to complicated to register a pleasure boat in Russia so many Russian boats where flying the flag from Sierra Leone!

It is quite easy to do the paper works for entering the country. The people was very nice and helpful and told you what to do. We had to pay a sailing permit for one month, 225 euro, for our boat.

For staying in the marina we had to pay 40 euro per day, including water and electricity.