1st October finds us setting sail on the boat in Corfu, a little late in the season and wanting to get out of the Med before the winter weather sets in. We quickly retrace our route from previous years, visiting Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Menorca, Majorca, Ibiza and then Gibraltar during the month. By early November OceanFree has travelled 2000 miles and is in the Canaries Islands whilst we prepare to cross the Atlantic in December to Barbados and the Caribbean.
The above map is a SAMPLE wind report with typical conditions for the season Want to see what the conditions are in the Atlantic today and for the next few days? Click here to get an up-to-date Passageweather.com report for our route. With information taken from the North American computerised [...]
We had a good aftermoon exploring the Rock of Gibraltar. The town and marinas have not got much going for them, but the Rock itself was fun. We took a cable car to the top and were warned to keep our bags concealed. There was a pack of about 20 [...]
We had the liferaft serviced today in Palma Majorca. And because it was a few years since it was last out of its shell, I thought it would be good to see it exploded. The liferaft technicians were very thorough and checked it visually first. They unpaacked it, checked the cylinder and valves and then pulled the inflation cord. The raft filled up well and was in as-new condition no need for concern.
We set off back to Majorca to Palma which is the main town on the island, mainsail and genoa up straight away and we're hooting along at up to 12 knots! Arrive in Palma, an overwhelming number of marinas to choose from all next to each other along the edge [...]
Isla De Cabrera which is an island in a National Park off the coast of Majorca, about 40miles from Porto Cristo. Lunch along the way, Jane made some sandwiches which went down a treat. Arrive at about 4pm, you are supposed to fax through 2 days ahead of your arrival [...]
Monday 7th October We stopped today for lunch on the Lavezzi Islands. Well Lavezzi rocks really.
At about 9am, we got our first bite on the rod, a tuna running hard and fast away from the boat! I went to get Angus out of bed but he was already running down the corridor! Excitement stations, George reeled in the tuna, a fairly good size, but when [...]
We left Italy this morning after a quick night in a commercial port in the Straights of Messina. Strange night - we had two Italian coastguards turn up in their car alongside our berth in the port at about 9.00pm They did not get out of the car - but had me come up to the car window and asked all kinds of questions. They then said they would be back at 1.00am to check our paperwork! I persuaded them to take the details with them and they went through all our papers and transcribed everything onto a scrap of paper. They struggled with the concept that we had sailed there from Corfu!
Left the marina at about 9am, fuelled up and set off by about 9:30-10am. Motored north from the east side of Corfu bound for the southern tip of the Italian coast. Not too far from the safety of the bay it started to get quite rocky, and it [...]
Look no hands! And not much holding up the mast either We bought a replacement set of standing rigging from Spencers Rigging in Cowes (dont use them, they were appalling to deal with) and sent it down by truck to Corfu. We moved the boat next to.the Quay in Corfu [...]
