A flurry of activity along our dock: the westerly gales have subsided, for now, and an Atlantic high has brought clear skies and light winds for the first time this month.
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A flurry of activity along our dock: the westerly gales have subsided, for now, and an Atlantic high has brought clear skies and light winds for the first time this month. Everyone is readying their boat for sea.
Some are departing as early as tomorrow — our young neighbour, a Swedish singlehander, is loading aboard stores, bricks of beer and bottled water, and cooking gas before he heads north-east to Ibiza in the morning — others, we among them, are finishing repairs and refits with an eye to departures in late April.
We are working on two voyage plans: one across two thirds of the Mediterranean and all of the Aegean to Turkey, which depends on the outcome of the current upheavals there, the other south west across the Atlantic. Both have a terminus in a home and legal residence ashore (and consistent medical care for Given) but there are some bloody hard months — and thousands of sea miles — between that and where we are now.
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G gustavinobevilacqua@mastodon.cisti.org shared this topic
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@ccohanlon South-west?! that's a big project. good luck with the preps!
We should be doing the same, but it's downpour after downpour, limiting what we can do up on deck. I can't wait for clear skies.
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@neauoire Both voyages are long — but the trans-Atlantic, if we have to do it, would probably begin in October with a couple of legs (along the coast of Morocco to Essaouira, then on to the Cabo Verdes) then a wait to cross to the Caribbean in early December. In the meanntime, we'd loiter around the Western Med and try to live mostly on the hook.
It's a couple of thousand miles to Turkey but there are literally thousands of anchorages for rest and shelter for us both.
As for the preparation, Wrack is a very minimal boat: strong, basic gear, primitive electrics, ok sails, but she lacks self steering (I got rid of the ancient, unreliable Aries) and solar power and both will be essential for what would likely be a singlehanded Atlantic crossing (Given would have to fly ahead — her heart is now too unreliable for a long passage).
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@ccohanlon Turkey, even despite all the turmoil going there, seems like a really enticing place to live quietly at anchor. If that's the route that you choose, when about would you have to cast of to be in the right season for that kind of trip? Would she also have fly ahead or can you both do the trip?
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@neauoire April/May before the fierece Meltemi (northerly) of the summer months sets in. We would sail via southen Sicily, then up the Aegean — few stops. Given would come because there are plenty of ports with good hospitals and anchorages (if needed, for rest) en route. We already have a free mooring in Istanbul (miracle!) as well as in Marmaris.
My son is quite well known as a video director there (he divides his time between Istanbul and Rome) and he loves the place. He has also found a lot of work as well as opportunities to publish, exhibit, and connect. We would live with him in a rented place but spend spring, summer and early autumn sailing. The Turks would give us residence, health care (Turkish nedical and dental is pretty good) and other social benefits as part of my son's residency. I don't expect I'll live long enough to find America as welcoming or as inspiring as I did in my youth and that saddens me. I do love North Africa, the Eastern Med, and I was raised in southern Italy. The Med' is about as good a home as I could wish for.
