Family Cruise - June 27 and 28

FAMILY FUN CRUISE
- Do you sail with your kids?
- Do you know other families who cruise with kids?
- Would it be fun for your kids (or grandkids, nieces, nephews, et al.) to meet and play with other cruising kids?
- Have you ever been to Cliff Island?

If your answer to any of these question is yes, then the Family Fun Cruise on June 27/28 is the place to be.

The weekend actually kicks off on Friday evening with a Pizza and Movie Party for the kids while the adults join in the Commodore’s Party. Some cruisers are already planning to sleep aboard on Friday night, so the Launch will run later to accommodate them.

To absorb some of the endless energy of youth, the young (and young at knee) will have a Four Square competition in the Parking Lot beginning at 9:00 AM. (if you have to ask what “Four Square” is, as I did, you are too old to play.)

11:00 AM brings the departure to Cliff Island, a great example of island culture at its best. Anchoring will be on the northwest side of the big cove on the north side of the island. (Note: depending on wind/weather conditions, the destination could change to something a bit more protected from the expected wind direction.) Want a learning moment? Ask an islander why the oldest houses face the open ocean.

At 3:00 PM ice cream lovers will rendezvous on the beach and walk to the local ice cream parlor (20-30 minutes one way).

Sunday departure is on your own. Note that the low tide Sunday morning should provide some fun beach time.

Be sure to register by calling the Club or e-mailing pyc@maine.rr.com.

Gail and Frank's travels west from Turkey: June 18th

Yesterday we completed our longest offshore passage since we crossed the Atlantic in 2004, going almost 300 miles from the east side of Sicily (Isola Vulcano) to a beautiful bay (Cala Coda Cavallo) on the northeast side of Sardinia near Olbia.
The weather "window" was good so we crossed even though there were a few more things we would have liked to have seen before we left Sicily. We really enjoyed seeing the town of Messina, Sicily even though the marina was a dangerous place to be in strong northwest winds. The waves hitting the concrete "wave breaker" pontoon dock to which we were tied were huge and even though it weighed thousand of pounds moved around like it was styrofoam! We ripped off our port amidships chock where we had our spring line tied so we have yet another repair to make when we get back to Maine! Messina is a HUGE ferry port connecting Sicily to mainland Italy about ten mile away and has ferries entering every hour - they really don't make waves, but the sound of their propellers echoes through the water and keeps you up in the night. The wave that broke our chock was mostly generated by a big black Italian "Gardia Finanza" boat roaring into the harbor at high speed - so much for officials obeying the speed limits that everyone else must....
We left Messina and raced through the Straits with the current, watching several swordfish boats around us. They are amazing looking with a harpoon station hanging out the front about 45 feet and a lookout tower rising from the center of the boat about 45' high - all this on a boat about 50' long. I don't know how they can go out in anything but very calm weather! We went on to Lipari, a volcanic island about 40 miles from Messina, where we got fuel for our upcoming crossing, and then went south a few miles to Isola Vulcano, which as you might guess is a volcano cone island which hisses steam from its crater. The harbor there is snug and has a wonderful view of the volcano. In the harbor we spied our friends Debbie & Terry on "Wings", who are doing a circumnavigation - it just so happened that it was Terry's birthday so we had a fun and delicious meal ashore to celebrate.
The next morning, Gail and I set out early to climb the volcano while it was not too hot. We made it to the edge of the crater by 9:30 AM and looked down on "ALCID" in the harbor several thousand feet below. What a sight! I stood in the sulfurous steam coming out of several vents (trying not to choke to death!) and carefully retrieved a very hot sulfur coated rock for my lovely geologist wife. We met a Frenchman at the crater's rim who took our picture and told me (in Frenglish) that he had just climbed up from the bottom of the crater (WHOA!) and that his feet had gotten very HOT (tres chaud!) The trip down was a lot easier than the climb up - we were really glad we had taken the time to do the climb as we were in too much of a hurry when we were at Vulcano in 2005. After a short rest, some lunch and cleanup, we left about 3:00 PM hoping to arrive in Sardinia about 9:00AM two days later - it turned out we were only about 15 minutes off!
The northeast coast of Sardinia is a cruising paradise with many little harbors and beautiful turquoise water, unfortunately most of them open to the north, which is the direction that the "bad" mistral type winds come from. We are enjoying this bay while the south winds predominate - in two days we will move to a snug harbor just a few miles away while the predicted "blast" from the north goes through - then we will explore some more as we move north. Porto Cervo, a harbor in the Costa Smeralda founded by the Aga Kahn is a resort for the fabulously wealthy and is about ten miles north of here - we may poke our head in, but it is way too expensive to spend the night. We will find a nice anchorage instead!

Gail and Frank's travels west from Turkey: June 10th

The morning of June 5th found us sailing north to a favorite snug anchorage in Nydri - just 1 mile west of Aristotle Onassis's island of Scorpio. We had hoped to meet up with our Swedish friends, Mats & Birgitta S. whom we met on the Eastern Med Rally in 2007 and visited in Sweden last summer. They are planning an Atlantic crossing this winter and we wanted to spend a few days with them before they depart. We met them in Lakka harbor on Paxos, near Corfu, one of the prettiest harbors we have visited in Greece. ALCID crossed the Ionian with them in their boat Tarsia III from Paxos to Crotone, Italy (the front of the instep) two days ago - almost 24 hours straight sailing but aside from a few thunderstorms, the sailing was good. We leave tomorrow for Roccella Ionica (near the ball of the foot in Italy) and plan to head to Messina (NE Sicily) the day after that. We enjoyed Crotone with Mats & Birgitta and plan to meet up with them again in Messina to rent a car for a day or so to see the north coast of Sicily. Then we will probably head to Vulcano, a dormant volcanic island north of Sicily and Tarsia III will head to Stromboli to watch the eruptions at night. Lots of things broken and fixed - we think ALCID is trying to tell us NOT to head home!

Gail and Frank's travels west from Turkey: June 7th

In two more days of great sailing we stopped at the windy island of Kithnos and then on to the snug harbor at Poros. We rented a car there and toured the ancient theater at Epidahvros and the ancient city of Corinth, mentioned by the Apostle Paul in his biblical "Letter to the Corinthians". On the 30th we passed through the impressive 3 mile long Corinth Canal, which connects the Aegean with the Ionian. Even in biblical times, this canal was conceived because of its strategic importance and the fact that it cuts out 150 miles of sailing to go east-west in Greek waters. It was finally built in the late 1800's. Because it needs constant maintenance and the fact that it is the only game in town, it is the most expensive waterway in the world at about $100 per mile! We anchored that night at the remote Alkionidhes islands and sailed the next day to Itea, just south of Delphi. We could not miss consulting the Oracle, so we took a bus trip to the spectacularly hilly Delphi site and its famous museum. On the 2nd we sailed to the tiny island of Trizonia, (popular with cruisers because it has an unfinished free marina!) to wait for a weather window to pass under the Rion bridge - the largest in Greece, connecting the Peloponnese island with mainland Greece. We had a boisterous sail under the bridge and ripped our jib block right off the track, but once we settled into the very protected harbor of Missalongi, were able repair with a spare block loaded on 6 years before and finally put to good use (this is why we carry what seems like more than the displacement weight of the boat in spares!) Our final day of sailing with the Suttons took us 45 miles to Zakinthos, the southwestern most large island of Greece, in the Ionian. Their plane left at 5:55 AM, so we needed to get there early enough to schedule a taxi to the airport. When the taxi driver arrived at 3:30 AM, he spoke perfect English with an Australian accent.

Gail and Frank's travels west from Turkey: May 28th

Hello,

Frank and Gail asked me to share some excerpts from their travels west from Turkey over the past month.

We picked up our friends Jack and Annie S. at the Dalaman, Turkey airport at midnight on May 18th and had a wonderful tour of Marmaris for two days, taking them out for Turkish breakfast near Cleopatra's beach and touring the city of Marmaris during the day. They got a taste of the huge marina (Yat Marin) here in Turkey which has been ALCID's base for the past four winters. We left for the island of Rhodes, Greece on the 20th, anchored off the old harbor and toured the large walled city and it's beautifully preserved Crusader Castle. Next we sailed to the island of Patmos, the site of the cave where the Apostle John herd the "Revelations" from God from a crack in the ceiling. An 80 mile sail then took us to the most photographed island in Greece, Mykonos, with its whitewashed buildings, narrow alleyways and beautiful windmills high above the harbor. We took a day sail over to the small island of Delos just 4 miles to the west, which was the center of the ancient Greek world, both geographically and politically. The king of the gods, Zeus, was supposed to have been born there. We all were awestruck to think that 30,000 people lived on this island 5 miles long and 1 mile wide!.

Great photo from PUMA Ocean Racing Team

Looks like they are loving every minute of it!

Commodore's Cocktail Party and Family Cruise

Hello PYC Members,

Please keep your calendars open for the upcoming Commodore's Cocktail Party and Family Cruise weekend scheduled for June 26th and 27th. We have lots of fun planned and details will be forthcoming within the next week.

PYC Two-Week Cruise Update

Hello Fellow Cruisers,

If you are planning on joining us for the two-week cruise, I suggest you start making mooring reservations soon based on the suggested activities. Please check back for additional updates and changes. 

And remember to pray to the weather goddess for warm and breezy days.

Spanish sailor's accidental adventure - more photos to believe or not

A robotic vehicle named Nereus has made the deepest ocean dive ever - 6.8 miles

PYC webcam is on-line

USCG Flags: what the mean

Maritime warning flags flying once more