Our Travels In 2000

For some reason it's taken a long time to produce a newsletter this time
around. The main problem has been fixing bottom to chair, as there has always been some other more pleasant distraction. We covered a lot of sea miles during the year and visited some fascinating places, beginning in Turkey and cruising through Greece to Crete, then Malta, Tunisia, Sicily, Italy, Sardinia, Corsica, France and Spain. The “Evanna” was waiting for us when we arrived back in Bodrum, and fortunately there hadn't  been an earthquake in that region so she was still sitting up on her blocks. We spent a month or so on maintenance, helped by four locals.
This enthusiastic team of "young Turks" did all the jobs we had been putting off, such as repainting holds and bilges. She went back into the water looking like a new ship.

The Greek Islands  (May)

Jennifer, Graham, Helen and Bruce joined us for the 2 week cruise that was to be our "farewell to Greece". It was a wonderful fortnight wandering through the Aegean, stopping at islands we'd not seen before as well as revisiting "old friends". The tiny island of Levitha gave us a glimpse of the old Greece. Rocky barren shores led into a surprisingly lush interior where there was a single farm producing goat and sheep cheese. Unfortunately some bad weather came in, and after a couple of days looking at the sheep and goats, we all decided it was worth putting out into a gale to sail to the next island of Katapola in order to change the scenery. Everyone survived the rough ride, and in fact seemed to enjoy it.

Santorini was magnificent again. It has been estimated that the volcanic explosion that created this vast water filled crater was the equivalent of 3 hydrogen bombs, and that it was responsible for the disappearance of the ancient civilisation of Knossos. We had lunch with Janis and Maria at their tiny taverna on the rim of the crater. Janis catches the fish and Maria cooks them. An evening cruise around the crater and an overnight sail took us to Iraklion on Crete, where we had another look at Knossos and the museum. It is still hard to believe that this civilisation, with its stunning architecture ended some 3,500 years ago.

Further along on Crete we stopped at Khania, hopped the bus to the head of the Samaria gorge and hiked the 23 kms through. It was a magnificent walk, especially through the "Iron Gate", sheer walls some 300 metres high with a width of just 3 metres. It was here in 1942 that the Greek partisans successfully held up the German army. A ferry met us at the other end of the gorge, and took us around the coast to a bus for a wild ride through the mountains back to Khania. The driver was able to talk on his mobile, drink a cup of coffee and steer the bus around hair pin bends, all at the same time!

Malta,  (June)

A four day voyage from Khania saw us to Malta where we moored in the old harbour of Valetta next to the walled city, and under the great fort of the Knights of St John. We spent several days in Valetta as there was so much to see. Being a fan of Caravaggio, Carol was delighted to find in a cathedral his famous painting,  "The beheading of St John the Baptist". It is truly a masterpiece. Susan and Seamus arrived from Boston and we spent some time visiting the small island of Gozo with its prehistoric temples. One wonders how they could have moved and placed these rocks weighing many tons, with the primitive tools they had. Malta is a duty free port, so we loaded up with duty free fuel, duty free drink, and duty free anything else we could find before setting sail for Tunisia.

Tunisia  (June)

One of the few safe countries along the north African coast for a yacht,
Tunisia is also one the most interesting. Known as the "bread basket of the Roman Empire" , it is dotted with Roman ruins, and in fact whole towns. As we cruised along the coast, we hired cars for a couple of days to visit the great colosseum of Aj Djem, the town of Dougga, the mosaics in the Bardo museum and the underground Roman city of Buklla Regia. But for us the highlight was the Punic Ports of Carthage. Captured from the Phoenicians during the Punic wars of 200 BC, enough of the old ports are intact to appreciate the amazing organising ability of the Romans. The cargo galleys were slipped, and while their hulls were being scrubbed they were loaded with produce. They were then relaunched and sent on their way, in a turn-around time of one day, and all under cover! The shore around the Ports is thickly strewn with red and grey pottery shards - the remains of Roman and Phoenician urns.

While in Tunisia we tried to find a restaurant with a good cous-cous, as we were in its native land after all. But we had about as much success finding a cous-cous as we did later trying to search out a good bouillabaisse in its home territory of Marseilles. The original dishes are nothing like the exported variety. But then, friends who have visited China assure me that the best Chinese restaurants are in San Francisco and Melbourne.

Sicily to Naples  (June, July)

Sicily was the next stop, and we moored for a week in the harbour of
Marsala. It was a wonderful time and we were feted and entertained by two of the locals, Antonello who owned one of the large wineries, and Rosella, curator of the archaeological museum. Rosella pointed us in the right direction and we visited the ancient towns of Erice, Segestra and the magnificent Roman city of Selinute set high on the cliff tops overlooking the blue Mediterranean.

As we prepared to sail on, we were joined by Douglas, Fred and Cheryl and we began a slow saunter around the north coast of Sicily. One of the little gems here was the cove of Scopello. In his biography of Gavin Maxwell, writer Douglas Botting (the same Douglas on board with us) describes this tiny cove where Gavin Maxwell spent 7 years with the Sicilian tuna fishermen. Douglas pointed out the fishermen's cottages and the primitive boarding house where Maxwell lodged.
( Gavin Maxwell -  a life.   by Douglas Botting.   Harper Collins.)

We were now entering the volcanic area of Italy and we looked at quite a few volcanos, dormant, semi-active and some very active. The first was Stromboli, a perfectly cone shaped mountain rising out of the sea. We anchored (not too close) and as we were having lunch we could hear an occasional hissing sound. On watching closely, we could see the odd red hot rock flying out of the volcano, rolling down the side and into the sea in a cloud of steam. The best show though was at night when the sky above the crater turned a deep red.

Mt Etna was in full and furious eruption and we drove to just below the
summit, but were not allowed to go to the top as it was considered too
dangerous. But it was the great Vesuvius, and the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum the volcano had destroyed that held the most interest for us. We went right to the top of Vesuvius and walked around the rim of the crater. And yes, there are still a few sinister wisps of smoke escaping through the odd crevasse. Pompeii was truly wonderful. To be able to stroll  the streets of an ancient Roman town that was in fact preserved by the very forces that destroyed it, could light up any imagination. Probably the more interesting of the two towns was Herculaneum. It had been engulfed in hot mud and was perhaps better preserved, with many wooden beams still intact, and mummified bodies laying as they fell.

Vesuvius revisited
On the mainland opposite Capri is the delightful little town of Amalfi. This fairy tale city is set in an indentation on an otherwise steep coast. We arrived at fiesta time with the town decorated and ready to celebrate. Anchoring was difficult because of the depth, but we saw an old barge moored fairly close in and decided to drop anchor beside it. There were a couple of men on board and they began waving and shouting. As Douglas was our official interpreter, we asked him what they were saying. "I don't think they want us here", said Douglas. "If they can anchor here, so can we", said Fred, so we dropped the anchor. The pair continued waving their arms up and down and
shouting, "boom, boom", but they finally shrugged their shoulders, and we didn't take any more notice. It was later in the evening after the sun had set, and we were just finishing a lovely meal on deck when we heard a loud "whoosh",  followed by an ear-splitting explosion overhead. The sky directly above us lit up with brightly coloured lights, which then began raining down on us. No, it wasn't a volcano erupting, we were in the middle of their fireworks display, being set off by the men on the barge! Everyone flew into action. Carol and Peter raced for the anchor while Fred, Cheryl and Douglas stamped out the burning fireworks on deck. As we hastily found a new anchorage, we realised what they had been trying to tell us.

Capri was a delight. We toured the island, lunched in Annacapri, then
visited Domain Michele, the house of the famous doctor Axel Munthe. We gave the blue grotto a miss, but found a wonderful cheese factory that made Mozzarella.

Sardinia and Corsica  (July, August)
Not far off the coast of Naples lies the island of Ponza. Tony, Maureen,
Anne and Gogs had joined us at Naples, so we thought Ponza would be a good departure point for Sardinia. We found an anchorage by one of the great rock formations that the island is famous for, and settled down for a pleasant couple of days. The 2 days turned into 7, as gale after gale swept through. We put the time to good use though, exploring the island and sampling the wonderful seafood in the restaurants. We were a bit concerned about using the dingy to go ashore as Anne and Gogs are in their 80's. But we needn't have worried. After a couple days they were leaping in and out of the dingy like 20 year olds! They were all wonderful crew.

Porto Cervo was our destination on Sardinia and we reached it after a day and night sail and anchored in the outer harbour. What a shock! We had seen some big and expensive yachts before, but nothing like these. In the harbour, there were few vessels under 30 metres long, and many of them had helicopter landing pads. In a brokerage office we saw several listed for sale. The cheapest was around
USD$ 25 million. The port was built by the Aga Khan to harbour the yachts of the rich and famous, and they all come here to "see and be seen".

We all found Corsica a lot more interesting. The scenery up the west coast was spectacular with vast mountain ranges running down to the ever blue sea. Our first stop was Bonifacio, with its narrow entrance where the houses are perched on the cliff. Inside it widens out into a sheltered, placid harbour. (Placid that is, until you find you have hooked up someone else's anchor with your own!) We left “Evanna” for a day and hired a car for a drive inland to sample some of the famous Corsican cuisine, and it certainly didn't disappoint. Back on board again, we sailed on up the coast to Propriano where we were met on the dock by our friends Elizabeth Humes and family, and we spent a wonderful evening at their house on the cliff top.

France and Spain  (August, September)

The south coast of France was one of the greatest surprises. While so much
of the Mediterranean coast is covered with high rise buildings, the French
have left all of the delightful little coastal towns such as Villefranche,
Antibes and St Tropez much as they were. With just the two of us on board we cruised from Monaco to the Camargue, putting into many of the harbours,
looking up old friends and visiting some of the great museums and galleries.

We had only just docked in Monaco harbour when our friends Charles and Jo
Bastin dropped by and invited us to dinner at their apartment. We had a lovely meal on the balcony overlooking the harbour. From Monaco we moved along and anchored at Villefranche which we used as a base to visit the Picasso museum in Antibes, and the Chagal and Matisse museums in Nice. But one of our very favourites was the little fishermen's chapel in Villefranche that Jean Cocteau had decorated with murals. The perfect sweeping lines were a reminder that Picasso and Cocteau had once worked together.

Peter had always wanted to sail into Marseilles, and he got his wish. It's a
dirty. smelly port, but there is still something mystical about this "Gateway to the Mediterranean", and we had an interesting few days before sailing on to the Camargue. At Port Guissan we hired a car for a week to tour Provence, and for a second visit to the Bastins, this time at their their magnificent manoir at Tournan d'Argenais, where we spent the night. Back once more on board, we had a few more friends drop in. Among the visitors were Ron and Joanna Sullam, and the Fallet family from the Champagne region.

There's little space left for Spain, but we did enjoy ourselves there. We
found a quiet place, a little harbour  called Addaya on the island of Menorca to do some much needed painting and varnishing. We also found time for some serious touring of the Balearic islands, and mainland Spain, and hope to do a lot more next year. We hauled “Evanna” out and left her at the little port of Torredembarra just south of Barcelona where we hope we'll find her when we return in April 2001.

Peter and Carol Evans