We made it to Greece - hooray! After spending 5 days in Syracuse (Sicily) which we really enjoyed, we set off at 6am, heading to Paxos (just south of Corfu). We were not expecting much wind and we were right! We sailed for about 4 hours in total for the crossing which lasted about 43 hours, however the sails did increase our motoring speed most of the time too. We had a few sightings of dolphins - two leaping right out of the water, but none of them came to play....

What to tell!!We have been cruising the Aeolian Islands - a group of volcanic islands just north of Sicily. Vulcano (an 80 mile sail from where we were on the north coast - we had good winds and averaged around 10 knots) had a great but very crowded anchorage. Ashore was a good beach with hot springs in the sea, and behind the beach was a pond of hot volcanic mud which we basted ourselves with and wallowed in (those of you who kjnow that Anna wants to be a hippop...

Hi everyoneWe are in Sicily! We left Carloforte on Tuesday evening, after staying till the fair had opened (it was Annas birthday after all) and the girls had trampolined and bumpercarred.The winds were a bit stronger than forecast and we sailed pretty much all the way, arriving on Thursday morning at about 4 am. We broke our top speed for the boat so far, at 16.9 knots - after that we thought it prudent to put a reef in, which helped Audrey the autohelm to cope ...

Blog23Hi everyone. This is just a quick note to say we are leaving Carloforte and all its charms to head for Sicily. The Tuna festival has been great fun, the only downside has been having the noise of the fair late into the nights. Some of the street performers at the festival were brilliant, Ellen and Anna particularly enjoyed the puppet show (several times!) and I managed to be the mug from the audience chosen to join in twice! (it didn't seem to matter that I...

Blog 22We are still here in Carloforte! Our barnacled bottom is now silky smooth, our sail has been to the sailmakers and come back all patched, various other jobs have been done (fixing bilge pumps, gelcoat repairs, engine oil changes) and double Helix is looking gooooood! (still a work in progress though!)Just as we were ready to go again, the wind has turned against us (in a very big way) so we thought we might as well stay here for the Tuna festival at the we...