Team Sandpiper Update Part IX By Tom & Amy Larson, USCG Retired
Origional Article with pics at http://www.presidioyachtclub.org/PortholeQtr4PH08_2.pdf
Ahoy PYC from Gibraltar! It has been three years since we shoved off from Horseshoe Cove and headed west on our adventure. In the last Porthole issue Sandpiper was Med moored at our 1st stop in Kos, Turkey after sailing up the Med from the Suez Canal. We have covered some miles since then both on land and sea. We left Sandpiper in a marina in Fethiye,Turkey for one month and for the 1st time in three years flew home to the US to see family and friends. We had hoped to fly home Space-A, but due to it being peak traveling season we decided that we could not afford to spend time in Germany waiting for a flight to unknown airports in the U.S. and then trying to figure out how to get back. It was really great being back in the States seeing friends and family, since we had flown standby we decided to extend our stay from 2 weeks to 4 weeks as we were having such a great time. Once we returned to Turkey with our grossly overloaded bags of boat parts we spent two more weeks in Fethiye, Turkey getting the 'Piper' ready to cross the Med. We headed north up the coast trying to blend in with all the charter boats that flood the Turkish coast during the summer months hiding out in small anchorages along the coast. Sandpiper then headed west thru the Greek Islands. The Greek Islands have many great stops to choose from; we choose the southern route, which is a bit less touristy. With many small harbors on the islands it is easy for all boats to Med moor. The quays are a great place to spend time watching boat traffic entering and leaving the port with all the drama of tangled anchors and boats crashing in to one another. Just off Sandpipers bow were a variety of restaurants and bars just steps away, which we took full advantage of. At times it was better just to sit on the bow sipping a beer watching all the people walk by. From the Greek Islands Sandpiper headed west 400 miles to Malta thru some very tricky winds and seas. It seems that weather in the Med is never what is predicated and certainly not what one sees in sailing magazines where everybody looks happy with the wind off their stern. Weather in the Med is quite extreme and hard to make any passage with wind in the same direction. There are many low- pressure systems blowing through at any given time with some of the most intense lighting we have seen in three years -- at times hitting the water very near to us. We were very pleased to make landfall in Malta after a bit of a rough passage mixed in with extremely congested shipping traffic heading east/west all around us. Malta was a great stop and full of maritime history. Prices were lower in Malta than in Greece and Turkey so we loaded up on as many groceries as we could fit in the dinghy for our next passage. We watched the weather forecasts very closely and when it looked like we had a good stretch of weather, we took off for our next passage of 1000 miles from Malta along the shoreline of Algeria to Spain.Once again we experienced just about every wind strength below 40 knots from every direction on the compass. We had a few days of sailing, few days of motoring, one day with winds off the bow at 20 knots for 24 hours and once again shipping traffic all around us with more crazy lighting storms and water spouts. Once we closed with the coast of Spain we got an email from a friend who was sending us weather forecasts, telling us that a big storm was heading our way, and for once luck was with us as we were just off Spain's coastline. We pulled into an inexpensive marina in Almeria, Spain, just as the winds were picking up to 30 knots. We stayed in Almeria for five days waiting for this system to blow over, we were very lucky this did not hit us on our passage from Malta as there are no safe harbors along Algeria's shoreline. This storm that passed over us was the worst storm to hit Gibraltar in 40 years causing much damage to the harbor and two ships to go up on the rocks breaking one in half. Once the coast was clear we departed Almeria/Spain in a calm and motored 160 miles to Gibraltar. As we approached Gibraltar we had to weave around many ships anchored offshore and passed the wreck that had went up on the rocks the week before and had broken in half. Both marinas in Gibraltar were closed due to storm damage and there was oil in the water from the wrecked ships. So for now we are anchored in a small bay on the Spanish side of the border from Gibraltar and it's just a short walk to the border crossing. Gibraltar is a British Territory and is a nice contrast from Spain as suddenly once we cross the border from Spain everyone speaks English. We are waiting here for a few days for the next weather window for us to head out of the Med and hit the Atlantic. Sandpiper will head 700 miles south to the Canary Islands where we will wait till December when the trade winds fill in and then head 2500 miles across the Atlantic to a nice warm beach somewhere in the Caribbean.
Catch more of us on the PYC's website, or visit us at sandpiper38.blogspot.com
where you can track Sandpipers progress, check out our many photos and amazing videos and read our postings from stops along the way.
Catch more of us on the PYC's website, or visit us at sandpiper38.blogspot.com
where you can track Sandpipers progress, check out our many photos and amazing videos and read our postings from stops along the way.
