Back to the Summer Amy.... Who Knew?

The last post covered the Summer Amy's sale process to Alan Kepple and Chip Grounds, two Americans who are such nice guys they restored my faith in their race. I found it difficult selling her to them and they appreciated that fact by inviting me to join them in the quest to get her to the Caribbean.

It was a serious invitation, but one I felt had little chance of getting up. Way too much happening at home with Sal and I deciding on a sea change, selling the house, moving the kids and basically upending our lives…. It seems that after our sailing adventure, the place we feel least comfortable is in a comfort zone. A place we stop learning and growing and start worrying and cocooning.

Sal being Sal said that this is an adventure she would not stand in the way of no matter what was happening at home and so, here I am in Las Palmas, Grand Canaria waiting for the boys to arrive from Tangier, Morocco. 

This was my first glimps of the islands:

If you click on this link 

 Where the hell are we?

at any time from now on, you will see exactly where we are and right now, they are 180 Nautical Miles from here which will have them here in two days, all being well.

I am staying in this AirBnB which is my first experience and will not be my last. 

Run by Maria, it sits off the side of their amazing family home smack bang in the centre of Las Palmas. I have a huge bedroom with bathroom en-suite and separate entrance up those stairs on the left so I can come and go as I intend to….

Getting to the island was straight forward thanks to my Travel Agent and Sister Carol-Anne. That is until I got to Gran Canaria airport….  No Uber, no Taxis, no ATM and a sign at Information saying ‘back in five’. 

It did not specify minutes, hours, days or weeks but it didn’t matter, all enquiries at any other booth were met with raised shoulders and pursed lips… Just what I needed after 32 hours in economy!

Fortunately I had one 5 euro note which was enough to get me on a bus to a central bus station and an ATM and then a short taxi ride to this veritable haven that is ‘The White House’.

As is my habit, I hired a scooter day one and proceeded to get drenched. This island, the largest of the Canary Islands has a split personality. 

The south is the tourist mecca and is desert like. Dry, warm to hot with amazing beaches and large sand dunes. 

The north is wetter, cooler and busier. 

According to my Taxi driver there are one million permanent inhabitants on the island and 800,000 of them live in grid locked Las Palmas. Hence my drenching… the roads are narrow, so no lane splitting for me, just sit there and soak.

I’ve checked out the marina where the boys will dock which is very near my quarters. Right now it is absolutely packed. The annual ARC Rally departs from here on the 25^th. There are 240 boats all undertaking their first trans-Atlantic to St Lucia as a supervised ‘race’. A great idea for those sailors wanting to take that step with the relative safety in numbers.

We plan to depart on the 28^th 

The Sale Process

Ironically, the Summer Amy is on the hard at the very same marina in which I met Ken Karn and his mate Brian Pattinson to inspect, repair and buy the boat. 

The irony continues in that my Boat Broker happens to be Will Miller… If you recall, or care to go back to the very beginning of this blog you will meet Will and his dad Buck. Will, accompanied by ‘crewman’ Buck took me through catamaran accreditation on an epic voyage from Connecticut, through the East River, New York to Atlanta and down to Charleston, South Carolina. Will believes this was in record time clocking 400 miles in one day. In Charleston I was treated to the most amazing hospitality completing the rest of my accreditation in way less than sober circumstances.

Well, here is Will and Buck with me in Greece to handle the sea trials and the sale of this beautiful boat.

I arrived at Heathrow at 7:10am on Saturday the 25^th August 2018 and contacted my son Mark who I hadn’t seen for nearly a year. He is about to begin an internship in London. He had finished a marathon night shift at the pub he is working at 4:00am and had not as yet slept. I had to get myself to Gatwick Airport where I was to overnight and catch a 9:30am flight to Preveza the following morning. “Get some sleep son and I’ll contact you around midday and we’ll arrange a hookup”.

Disruption has come to hotel accommodation too it seems…

At Gatwick, in the actual departure hall is the reception to the Bloc Hotel. Mighty convenient if flying out in the morning and only 79 Pound a night…. Unless you want to check in before 2:00pm. “That’ll be another 49 Pounds please”.  And then came the room….

A 1.5 by 1.5 metre entrance, flanked by a 1.5 by 1.5 shower/basin/toilet which, like the boat all gets soaked when showering. Towel to hang outside to avoid a similar fate. The bed is surrounded on three sides by wall hence the name the ‘Bloc’ I guess?

However, it was spotless and odour free. The towels were huge, white and fluffy and the bed very comfortable. 

There was a bedside touch screen which handled the lights, blind and climate/aircon and it all worked perfectly, specially the aircon which is always near impossible to regulate in your average hotel room. I would definitely stay there again…

I caught the express train to Victoria station arriving at around midday and called Mark… and called…and called. Probably asleep I thought but to my dismay I didn’t have his new address, I just knew it was in Shoreditch somewhere and I’d Google Earthed it once while video chatting with him, so I had an idea of what the place looked like. 

Found Shoreditch High Street on the Tube map, Oyster card in hand, off I went. Found a pub in Shoreditch High Street figuring he must be nearby and called…. and called….and called.

Two wines and a snack, jet lag kicking in, trying everybody I knew who knew Mark and the closest I got was Brick Lane so off I trudged and there it was… the building I’d seen on Google Earth. I buzzed…. and buzzed…. and buzzed and then tried calling one more time. A very groggy and a little shocked Mark finally answered having slept through his alarm and innumerable phone calls.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at a roof top bar in perfect weather with views across to the city and never having been in that area in all my years in London, found Shoreditch to be enchanting, young and vibrant. It was so good to catch up with my boy despite his DIY haircut!

Before leaving the hotel, an email from the marina’s technical department informed me that a solenoid had malfunctioned and blown the electrical start unit… The part would take 5 days to arrive! This was Sunday the 26^th and launch for sea trials was scheduled for Tuesday the 28^th… 

We had Will Miller, my broker from the US, Ray Ashton, the surveyor from Athens and his mate/assistant Colin, Chip Grounds and Alan Kepple the buyers from the US all turning up for it, so this was no minor inconvenience.

I arrived in Preveza at 2:00pm on Sunday the 26^th and picked up a pre-paid hire car… “we will have to give you a bigger car because we don’t have any of the type you hired left.” 
Cool!, always up for an upgrade…

“You are late. The car was booked from 6:00am and it is gone, you will have to pay the difference…”

This is the upgrade. Can’t imagine what I was supposed to get??

“Whaaaaat!... I booked and paid for a car from today, you have my time of arrival, what do you mean I’m late!”

“You booked it through Holiday Cars, they have your arrival time, you can take it up with them, but if you want a car, you have to pay.” 

Oh yeah…. I’m back in Greece! What was I thinking? Just calm down now Gregory and pay… 

Arriving at the boat was more emotional than I was ready for, specially without Sal and the kids to be part of it all. The Marina had scrubbed her down and shined up all the silverware and she looked amazing. It struck me as utterly unconscionable that I was there to set the boat up for a sea trial to sell to a stranger and not to go sailing once more. I poked around familiarising myself with how I’d left her for the winter, they’d spruced up the inside and rather than musty and stale after months of closure, she smelled like new, welcoming and familiar…

Now this is going to sound strange, but that evening I took a glass of wine and on one of the pulpit seats on the bow under a full moon, gazing back at her I found myself in conversation with a boat!

“You look just amazing” I said.

“Why are you selling me then?” she asked

“Well, the kids are in high school now and Europe is a long way to come for just a couple of weeks of sailing The places we haven’t been to so far are a long way from here….. 
and I could really do with the money” I said.

“But if you sell me, you’ll just spend the money, if you don’t sell me, I’ll be here waiting for you. Didn’t you want me to take you across to the Caribbean” she asked

“Well, only if nobody bought you here and the guys who are buying you want to take you to the Caribbean, so you get to have that adventure anyway, and who knows they're probably really nice people” I replied.

This imaginary discourse went on for a while as I tried to justify selling and it became a classic….”It’s not you, it’s me” conversation. Call me nuts, but this how I feel about selling this boat.

They say that there are two good days when buying a boat… The day you buy it, and the day you sell it… Well, do not be put off by that bullshit. Clearly I am having a very hard time reconciling the fact that the Summer Amy will fade into memory when, as she tried to tell me, there is still so much to discover.

Going through the boat to see what I wanted to keep and take home, I came across this stash of high quality Greek and Croatian wine! I was sure we’d drank it all before descending to cask last year and now there is no chance of either drinking it all, or taking it home. 

Guess what the boat had to say to me about that one!

Lunch…. OMG I’m back in Greece! 

It always starts with the, ‘just a small healthy snack conviction’ and ends with an absolute pig out with way too much wine topped off with a four hour nanna nap. Ahhhhhh….

Tuesday the 28^th dawned with no progress on that essential part without which the starboard engine would not start making launching an impossibility. By 9:30, Will, Ray, Colin, Chip and Alan had arrived only to be updated with the bad news..

RayAshton
The survayor from Athens

I made my way over to the technical department to be told the part had not yet arrived but that it was due shortly and the moment it arrives they will fit it and let me know so we could launch.. Things were looking up, Ray did all the surveying he could while the boat was out of the water while I chatted with Chip and Alan about their plans for the boat, Will took a nap.

We all lunched together where I received the phone call…. “The part has arrived and already been fitted, please come to the technical department when you return to the marina.” I did so, and then went up to reception to arrange an immediate launch…

Chip Grounds and Alan Kepple
 the new owners of the Summer Amy... Maybe

Lena Skamnelos drives this department and has yet to complete her 'Customer Care skills course' but I know why she has the job. 

It’s clockwork in there which meant that when she informed me that a launch that day was impossible and very difficult for the next week, she knew what she was talking about… I have not had to crawl like that in a while but it seemed to no avail.

I returned to the boat to make everybody’s day. It was not long before Gregory from the technical department who I’d become friendly with last year, bounced up onto the boat to say we would launch between 11:00am and 2:00pm the following day!

Everybody went the separate ways, I showered, napped and headed into Preveza at around 7:30pm, hooked up with Will and Buck and got back to the boat at 3:30am. I may have been a touch over the limit....

Over the European winter I spent a ton of money making sure the boat was in great shape either for me to take it to the Caribbean next year or for selling with a clear concience. I was so looking forward to launching and sea trialling if only to be back on the water and to show her off. 

At 2:00pm on Friday the 30th they dropped us into the water a day later than scheduled. In less than an hour of hard running  the starboard engine overheated as it had on our voyage from Italy last year.... With the work that had been done to fix this problem, like renovating the heat exchanges on both engines I was gutted. Ray didn't seem to think it was a problem saying it would simply be a blockage in the water intake for cooling the engine and Chip and Alan didn't seem to allarmed either, but I was not amused.

We returned to the Marina to be told they could not haul the boat out until Monday the 2nd September, I was due in London today! Thankfully Chip and Alan decided to stay an extra day while we worked on the problem and came and stayed on the boat with me. 

We were supposed to go through the boat item by item, system by system... instead we drank a lot of wine and had a good laugh.

Gregory, the chief engineer came by and told us it must be the water intake on the sail drive and he'd get a diver from Lefkada to come and clear it. "If you can lend me the tool and I'll have a go" I said. Donned the dive gear and after a half an hour the job was done..... One that really should have been done properly while she was on the hard thanks Gregory!

We started the engines and the result was immediate, both engines were pumping water like new. So as not to lose our precious spot on the dock, we made sure the boat was securely moored and the following morning, as per Ray's survey instructions we started the engines and put each under sustained load and relievingly for all they hummed along comfortably  



We dropped the dingy into the water too and got the engine started as the final item and everybody was happy. I drove the boys to the bus station with a promise to try an figure a way I could join them on their Atlantic crossing....

On Saturday 1st September I woke early to a beautiful sunrise feeling a little nervous about moving the boat into the slot for haul out single handedly. This is the slot where we nearly did some serious damage at the end of last season due to a mean current running across the face of the slot . The idea is to fang it and then full reverse before the end of the slot. It all went fine except for the 'marineros' who were freaking out at the hot entry.

Then the last little hurdle! A stray completely unaware of what is bearing down on him.


So she is out of the water now ready for her new owners. I have to say I am really pleased she is passing into more experienced and capable hands than my own and I sincerely hope they enjoy her every bit as much as we have..


I can't close without this....

It has been hard unpacking the boat as I've been doing without allowing thousands of memories to expose themselves. A little like peeling an onion, each layer being a new round of emotions. It was made all the more harder with Sal and the kids not being here to share it with me. For them, it must seem that the boat has just disappeared in a cloud of blue

smoke.... pooof!
Bye, Bye Summer Amy.....

Italy to Greece and the final chapter of the season.

Lakka Bay…. Twelve and a half hours with a gentle breeze behind us got us to this beautiful place. 

At some point we needed to change the flag. We had kept the Greek flag as a souvenir, a little worse for wear but it felt good to get it out again. 

Of course being early August, every man and his boat agree on Lakka Bay's attraction and they’re all here. Finding a spot that late in the afternoon wasn’t that easy and as the wind shifted so too did we until we finally dropped a stern anchor just to stop us from swinging.

The battery on our dingy is cactus so the boys swam in and I brought dry clothes and towels on the paddle board. If you need to know anything about Paxos, the island where you find Lakka Bay, I suggest you go back to the very early posts way back in 2014. It remains one of our favourite islands in Greece.

No hurry to get going in the morning we had been informed by Cleopatra Marina that whilst they can lift us out on the 12^th, there was no space in their Marina before then and that we’d need to go to Preveza Marina or on the town wall. At 10:30  on the 10^th August we weighed anchors and motored in Ionian Sea conditions (ie; glass) to Preveza.

We went alongside in the Marina for the first night but was again informed that the marina was full the following day and we’d need to vacate. I went and got us all checked into Greece. Other than that, there was not a lot we could get along with so into town for a long lunch hey chaps….?

At 10:00pm we decided we were going to the carnival…. Dodgem cars, Ferris wheel and a spinning thingo on which there is more news, but first the Ferris wheel. 

The guy on the gate looked nicely wasted with a lopsided grin on his face. He placed us in the same chair, designed for four… Up we went. We got about half way up and down we came again. Grinner's grin got bigger. "Too heavy" he says. Al vacates and waits until we’re at the top before re-embarking. 










Then around….. and around…. and around we went. Grinners grin getting larger and more lopsided on each rotation. It was as if he’d forgotten how to stop it and by the end we were all in hysterics, including Mr Grinner.

Dodgems next. Lots of parents with kids so we’d need to maintain some decorum…. We thought! 

We became the target and once again it was hysterical. Even the carnies were having fun and the news quickly got around. 

It was now time for the spinning thingo. Its has single chairs on the end of the spokes of a wheel. 

The guy placed us equidistant apart but so we could see eachother unobstructed by this massive doll in the center of the wheel. 

He allowed one little girl on who assured him she could handle it and then he just let rip. I had no idea what these things can really do when the guy at the controls lets it happen. What an absolute hoot!

In the morning, not very early you understand, we moved to the town wall. As is customary in Greece, getting tokens for the power and water was a mission. Then getting the token to work another, but the wall is where we like to be. Right in town, right opposite bars and restaurants, shops and supermarkets and the festival atmosphere which is always present when the wall is full of boats.

A much quieter evening. We had a fuel truck turning up at 7:30 to fill the tanks. This is a must if the boat is to sit for a while. The more air in the tanks, the higher chance of algae forming and blocking filters etc. 

We were scheduled for haul out at 8:00 across the water at Cleopatra Marina. Fuel guy was 5 minutes late but we made it to Cleopatra bang on time, we were directed into the slot for the travel lift but as we were going in, something unexpected happened. 

We were not warned of a strong cross current at the entrance to the slot which simply pushed us sideways at the critical moment. If not for the guy on the shore, we would be sporting some nasty damage from the concrete wharf. 

Even with the knowledge of the current, it was a difficult final mooring for the season to say the least!

And so, out she came. We are in a decent spot in 'Cat Alley' not too far from the amenities with power and water and everything half the price of anywhere else. 

So, I'm very happy with the final outcome. We are booked through to the 12th May next year but no idea what will actually happen.

She remains on the market....

I’ll close with some stats:

We stopped at 30 places in Croatia, Italy and Greece

1049 Nautical Miles

152.9 Hours on the Port Engine

152.6 Hours on the Starboard Engines

1,262 Litres of Fuel
We have had an absolute hooooooot!

Monopoli, Brindisi and Otranto - bye bye Greg - hello Greece

A forty five mile day, a 9:15am start and we were in and alongside in Monopoli by 4:00pm. Once again we were warned that there may not be space for us in the harbour and when I did manage to raise somebody by radio they made it clear that wherever they were there was no room and that I should try Molo Margherita. The book told us that this would be completely occupied by the local fishing fleet.

It wasn’t. We went alongside an expansive wharf protected by a five metre high sea wall. Other yachts came and went, we had no idea where they went to, but in the end we were the only yacht on that wharf?

We have learned now that if you want to swim…. which we do, you need to stop mid passage in deep, calm, blue water, put out an emergency line and go for a dip. Ahhhhh..

One small issue. We were standing on deck after the swim when Erwin suddenly said... "what the fuck is that?" We looked to where he was pointing and something that resembled a large shark came up right where we were swimming!

In Monopoli we discovered a difference. A short walk along the sea wall and an archway takes you to an expansive paved area and the clean water on the other side of the sea wall. To be able to swim is a big deal because without needing to be told we were informed that Italy is in the middle of a heat wave… duh!

The cool came, we spruced up and promenaded our way into the old town. Typically beautiful, this town’s way of celebrating without fireworks was with this moving pattern splashed across several walls and reflecting off the water. 

The effect is mesmerizing. A great meal… again, and back to the boat for some cards, wine and laughter.

Brindisi the next stop and the final port of call for Greg Fraser. Leaving Monopoli wasn't easy. We were being forced against the wall by a stiff NE making it difficult to get off. 

A catamaran is badly effected by wind as it hits one hull on the outside and also whistles through the gap between the hulls effectively doubling the windage. Some expert fending by the boys, two engines, one full forward, the other full reverse and we managed to get off.

At 10:05 on the 7^th August, we started the 36 mile sail and were alongside the fuel dock at the Brindisi Marina by 3:30. I was expecting a big old industrial town. The harbour, due to a breakwater more than a kilometre long, is huge. Two options, the marina, a 15 Euro cab ride from town, but with power and water or keep going right into the guts of the harbour and go alongside a stunning promenade right in town, no power but water we were apparently not supposed to use…..

No brainer. I went to the Marina Office to investigate the possibility of wintering the boat here. I had emailed a few days prior to arriving and the manager instantly remembered my name but apologised for not having the means to extract the boat and put her on the hard. We chatted, he gave me all the information I needed and a nice bottle of white wine??  Not a bad start I thought.

At 3:50 we cast off again and headed into the deep reccesses of the harbour and were alongside at 4:25. 

Just such an immaculate spot. A huge rudder shaped fisherman’s memorial across the pond, restaurants a short stroll from the boat and the old town just behind the waterfront. It was a big night. Greg’s last, his taxi arranged for 9:30am so enough of a sleep in.

Not only did Greg get the full moon as a send off, it was partially eclipse too!

We had now heard from just about all ports we had requested a quote from. Preveza in Greece the most competitive by far and as I’ve mentioned, the place we actually bought this boat from. She is going to be very hard to let go, but it is a good place to sell a boat if it comes to that. This now meant that Otranto would be our Italian exit port 43 miles south and right down almost at the tip of the ‘stiletto’ of Southern Italy.

We expected a decent size port with all the facilities to take care of transiting yachts, this being the optimal exit point. Wrong. Otranto is a large harbour but a very full one. The fuel dock is ridiculously small and at the root of two long pontoons full of boats. We did need fuel though and once again the cat came through. She is just so manoeuvrable making the captain and crew look pretty damn good at this…

Before fuelling we pulled alongside a large wharf. Furled lines next to each bollard indicating these spaces were reserved but we didn’t plan to be there long. We weren’t there 2 minutes and a couple of uniformed but friendly customs guys came along. They explained what we needed to do for exit formalities and I joined them back to their office. They also made it clear that finding a spot would not be easy.

Formalities over I went in search of help finding a spot and to suss the fuel dock and plan how to get in. The ‘help’ found it difficult not to laugh. I could see heaps of space to moor, but he assured me they were all reserved and everybody would be in by 8:00. Our only option was to anchor in the bay. 





Imagine our disappointment. Our last night in Italy, I have neglected to mention that our dingy battery died in Brindisi, and we are stuck out in the bay.

We anchored near the ‘beach’ on the far side from the marina and to our surprise the water was clean, clear and inviting. In no time we were very happy with the arrangement and it meant an easy and early start in the morning. We would cook on board. 

Come 9:00ish Erwin declared he was taking the paddle board in and would return with pizza! The pizza here really is good..... I mean really good. Less than an hour later he was back with dry pizza. How he managed it in the constant swell coming into the bay without falling off that paddle board or soaking the pizzas I will always marvel at and the pizza was really, really good.

An early night, a 6:00am start for a record 94 mile, twelve and a half hour sail to Greece. Lakka Bay to be precise. One of our all time favourite places to stop. 

This shot being the very tip of the stilletto of Italy. Bye and thanks Italy!

Vieste on the Spur and Trani

Something none of us is able to explain is why we left this paradise so early, only to swelter away the afternoon in Vieste harbour where we couldn’t swim? I did have to collect my dive tank at 8:00am so when we got back to the boat it all just rolled from there and by 9:00am we were sailing. We could so easily have stayed there till 3:00pm and then headed off. 

I guess we are in a hurry and can’t shake that feeling?

What is more frustrating is that we have decided that Sicily is too far and not a good place to sell a boat so we are now scrambling for places to leave her for the winter on the boot of Italy or across to Preveza in Greece were we originally bought her.

Vieste is right on point of the spur at the back of the Italian boot. The locals tell us that it is World famous with a top 10 place in the “Best places to holiday” book on the best places to holiday? 

Well, it’s not bad. Not good looking from the water, it took some walking to find the old town which we eventually did and found it typical but not special. 

Tiny cobbled streets, outside restaurants and summer holiday crowds. They do know how to charge but. 140 euro for one night, it has been as low as 70 euro in these parts.

Late start the next day, the idea being we stop mid sea for a swim and avoid the super-hot part of the day couped up in a breathless harbour. 11:15 on the 5^th August we cast off and headed for Trani, 40 miles further south.

Now here is a town that can take a bow. The only natural harbour in Italy we are told and from any angle it is beautiful. 

No derelict old building, excellent restoration work everywhere making the ancient look new but still ancient.

A complicated slime line mooring assisted by a guy who really didn’t know what he was doing. Each time I indicated what needed to be done I was met with the 'hand' until eventually I raised my voice above the hand and told him what we were going to do. He complied because it became obvious we were going nowhere under his supervision and.... we really have done this a few times now.

No matter, we made friends got dressed and headed in for a long walk to one fascinating end of town and back to the boat for a home cooked meal of lovely meaty bits I could not resist buying at the cooked chook shop. 

Just as dinner ended and again, right in front of our boat, another fireworks display. Not as long as the last but every bit as impressive, the natural harbour shores were packed with holiday makers.

After dinner we made for the other end of town. Al couldn't help himself when he noticed a word along the harbour wall with 'AL' in it. Confusing the diners right behind him, here was the outcome:

Trani is immaculate and beautiful wherever we ventured but the crowds had also moved in after the fireworks and it was hot. 

This did nothing to dampen the atmosphere but we never did find out what they were celebrating.