The last Hoorah 2024
As a result of Covid and the rapidly passing years, Jan and I realised that we should now plan our future, to ensure that we don’t place ourselves in an impossible situation where I am unable to undertake ocean sailing.
For the last 11 years we have based ourselves in Turkey, sailing the Turkish coast and Greek islands. Turkey would not be the best place from where to sell the boat as the market is dominated by motor boats and small coastal sail boats.
We decided that our best course of action was to sail Song of the Ocean back to where she was built, Henan, Sweden. This would then permit us to sail the next 8 years in the Baltic Sea, west coast Sweden, Denmark and up the Norwegian coast. If possible, we would like to sail to the Lofloten Islands, just north of the Arctic Circle. With the added benefit of her being over-wintered indoors with all the maintenance carried out by Orust Yacht Services who know the boat well.
This would take me to age 90 when I might then be obliged to ‘swallow the hook’.
I started sailing on my Father’s Camper & Nicholson yacht Patna which he acquired in 1950 and kept in Burnham on Crouch. As a result, I joined the Royal Burnham Yacht Club in 1954, which I have now been a member of for 70 years. Since then, we have owned a number of yachts; in more recent years, a Najad 460,followed by a N511 and finally the N570 with which we have achieved three circumnavigations of the Atlantic, followed by a further eleven years in the Mediterranean.
However, our plan for this year, was to sail Song of the Ocean to Sant Carlos, Spain: a distance of some 1,480 NM, if we could sail the course in a straight line without the considerable adverse currents and westerly winds that dominate from its entrance through the Gibraltar Straits. However, as you will come onto read, we actually clocked-up 1,826 NM.
This then leaves us with some 2,300 NM remaining to Sweden in 2025, however, with inclement weather to be expected in addition to adverse tides and headwinds, plus Atlantic depressions bringing-in storm conditions, it is likely to end up with our undergoing a greater distance. At least we can expect to be welcomed with following winds, once we are into the English Channel and onwards across the North Sea………. I say, hopefully!
On our return to Turkey in the last week of May, we were confronted with an intolerable heat of 48°C which even had the Turkish people moaning.
As a result, we were out of our bunks by 0500 each day, to start the recommissioning jobs for 5 hours followed by a further 5 hours through to midnight with the help of the marina lights. During the afternoon the heat made it too dangerous to work. In particular the heavy work of hoisting sails.
We finally put to sea at 0630 on June 8th, down the Antalya Bay and west across Finike Bay to anchor in the calm waters of Cold Water Bay. The following day we sailed past the 12 capes in roly seas and anchored in Round Bay in the archipelago off Gocek. We were heading towards Marmaris to get our hydraulics serviced before heading west across the Aegean. Sailing north up the Turkish coast is always a challenge when the Meltimi is blowing but the following day we had favourable conditions to make to an anchorage outside Marmaris, where we waited for a marina berth to become available.
Yat marina Marmaris is not our favourite place but the yacht services available are excellent. We were slighty held back by Eid as the marina did not allow any work to be carried out during the 4 day holiday but our rigger Mustafa completed the job so we were ready to leave Turkey on June 22nd.
Checking out involves hiring an agent and tying to a very small floating dock next to the ferries to get the paperwork stamped. We set sail for Rhodes in a lumpy sea with increasing winds so it was a relief to get in the lee of the land and secure a berth in Rhodes marina, just in time to meet our good friend George Malony who had flown in from the UK to join us for the rest of the trip.
The weather conditions were not favourable but the winds were due to increase later in the week, so we made the decision to cast our lines on June 24th and head west. The concern was, if we delayed, we would be trapped by the strong Meltimi winds which can blow for many days.
We had a mix of sailing and motoring into big seas so it was a relief to approach the Peloponnese coast. At this point we had to make a decision on our course …head north to the Corinth canal or round the south of the Peloponnese. Strong westerlies were forecast for the Gulf of Corinth so we sailed south. The seas were calm, the only challenge at night being the fishing fleets that frequent the south coast. After 2 nights at sea we anchored in Katacolon, west coast Pelopenesse, so we could check out of Greece.
Although it was listed as a port of entry there was no sign of customs, port police informed us they would be at the office the following day but they never arrived and we resorted to putting our Transit Log under the door of a derelict looking building. Any further delay would have meant missing a weather window.
On June 27th we lifted our anchor with a planned destination of the marina in the Messina straights, between Sicily and mainland Italy. We had everything from calm waters to big roly seas and head winds, but sadly no following winds, with some great sailing and some hours motoring. As we approached Italy and picked up a weather forecast it became obvious that we needed to keep going to Sardinia to avoid getting trapped in Sicily with a poor forecast.
We navigated the notorious Messina straights with the strong currents , ferries and sword fishing boats, without incident and set our course for Sardinia.
Initially the winds were light and the seas were calm but as the wind built we were able to sail. It was at this point we noticed that there was too much slack in the rig which had been replaced the previous year so we made a plan to visit Mallorca after Sardinia to get a rig tune.
After 4 nights at sea we arrived in Cagliari, southern Sardinia. Unfortunately we had sailed through a sand storm covering the boat with orange pasty sand so far from enjoying a well earned rest our first job was cleaning !
After years of dealing with the bureaucracy in Greece we decided to make ourselves known to port police / immigration but they informed us that they did not need to see our papers. However, the following day we were visited by customs who wanted proof of where the boat had been since she was built in 2011. Luckily, I had all the paper work they needed. Waiting for the right weather window gave us time to re proviosion and enjoy the varied seafood and wine that Sardinia has to offer.
On July 5th we set sail for Mallorca and for the first time we were able to set the Simbo Rig for some down wind sailing in big roly seas, reaching speeds of over 10 knots. We made land fall in Mallorca after 2 nights at sea.
We were lucky to secure a marina berth which is a challenge in Palma at the height of the season and were very pleased with the services of RSB rigging who did an excellent job tuning the rig.
Mallorca was the perfect place to re provision top up with yacht supplies from the well stocked chandleries plus we found time to haul George up the mast to get rid of some of the remaining sand !
On July 10th we cast our lines and set sail for our final destination, Sant Carles mainland Spain. Apart from noticing that a baton was slightly protruding from one of the main sail pockets, ( which we carefully reefed to sort on our arrival), it was an uneventful one night trip enhanced by the company of dolphins.
We tied up in the marina and started the decommissioning work. We spent the following two weeks cleaning and servicing Song of the Ocean to ensure she was ready for the next leg of our return to Sweden in 2025, lifting her out on July 23rd.
Our distance covered from Turkey was 1,860M which meant that the westerly trade winds and currents, required us to sail another 346M more than the distance over our charted course.
Our departure from Kemer on June 8th and arrival at Sant Carlos on July 11th might seem a little frenetic. However, we were on a mission as opposed to a holiday cruise and the same will be true with next year’s sail back to Sweden, which will be substantially
more demanding what with the commercial shipping, strong tides and unsettled weather etc, a case of first the pain and then the gain of, hopefully, another 8 years of relaxed social cruising around some of the most dramatic coasts in Europe.