Position Report and other info UTC (+2 Hrs Athens time)
Cut and paste the GPS location below into Google earth, you can place mark This position and follow our Progress. Should this page not be updating then updates may be occurring via Satellite phone on the Posts page. You can contact us by sending an SMS (via email) To Satellite Phone. Please Note SMS is a maximum of 160 Characters and you need to leave the subject or message header blank
Wednesday, 25 January 2017, 1100 Hrs
Ready to leave Siracusa, Just waiting on Fuel which we have had ordered for days and the “Frontier” Police to clear us out. Went to visit their office this morning as booked but was told they would come to us. Hopefully we will be underway in an hour or so.
Saturday, 21 January 2017, 1630 Hrs
37 03 N, 15 17.4 E, Marina Yachting, Siracusa. Tied up Now the search for internet begins again. All well
1330 Hrs
37 02 N, 15 41E We have 25-30 Kts S-SW wind and are making around 8 kts on average of boat speed. This should increase our low average since commencing on Tuesday. I should have known not to think everything had been checked before leaving, Of course the 3 gas bottles on board were not full as assumed so fortunately one had enough left for coffee this morning however the part full one we had been using till now is empty. Anyway this lack of gas, time restrictions and a fuel top up means a stop in Sicily is on the agenda. Currently heading for Siracusa on the South East corner of the island with an ETA of around 3 hrs.
Friday 20 January 2017, 1330 Hrs
36 49 N, 18 45 E, wind NW at less than 10 Kts so still under engine. Unfortunately a lot more motoring than expected according to the forecasts. At least our average is starting to build after effectively stopping overnight Wednesday / Thursday.
Thursday 19 January 2017, 1630 Hrs
36 35 N, 20 55 E, Wind at 7 Kts from the west. Have been expecting a reasonable SE all day but so far it has not materialised. Fortunately the SW wind started to abate from earlier this morning.
Wednesday, 18 January 2017, 2045 Hrs
36 24 N, 22 22 E, Wind has built from 25 Kts and now gusting up to 35 Kts from the SW, a little too much to handle so after attempting to sail on greatly reduced sail we are now basically holding ground under engine. Very slow progress. Plenty of rain and even hail so a big thank you to Frank Eagle for his wet weather jacket. It’s the first time I have been dry for 6 years
1030 Hrs, 36 27 N, 23 13 E, Rounding the Cape Akra Maleaus and about to be heading west. It’s been relatively slow into light to moderate headwinds (5-15 Kts) since leaving Athens. We are expecting however the wind to start filling in from the South in the next few hours and building up to 20-25 Kts through the day so we should be under sail soon. All well on board.
Tuesday, 17 January 2017, 1600 Hrs
Underway now. The Port Police forgot about us so had to remind them we were waiting, anyway all set for around 1100 NM to Gibraltar. Will update every 2 days or so once out of range on the “Posts” Page.
1100 Hrs
Leaving Zea Marina, All last minute tasks out of the way and we are finally underway. It’s unlikely I will update before our next stop off as there are a few set-up issues with my new systems that just take too long to do when trying to get going. Text messages can be sent to the sat phn if required (above)
Monday, 16 January 2017, 1600 Hrs
33.94 N, 23.65 E, Zea Marina, Piraeus Athens. Provisioned and CLEARED CUSTOMS and the PORT AUTHORITY and are ready to go! A delay in receiving official registration from Australia slowed down the Greek Authorities in granting us clearance. I did expect it would take several days to prepare anyway so a wait over the weekend meant that it can’t be possible that we have forgotten anything (fingers crossed). As it’s not too far from sunset now we will be leaving in the morning to make use of a full day to sail / motor tomorrow. Will update on departure and proposed course then after a final weather check. All of us are very keen to start our adventure.
Notes on Communication: – Please feel free to send SMS messages via your email
direct to the satellite phone on board. Simply click the “free” link shown on
the top of this page or type the address as 881631430767@msg.iridium.com
It’s only a maximum of 120 Characters and you need to leave the subject or
message header blank