Google maps... grrr...

Over the last few weeks Google keep changing the interface to their maps. Which means all of our maps attached to them stop working. I've changed our interface once, but looks like I'll have to change again!

High winds in Larnaca

 The last few days we have had very high winds in Larnaca. They were just over 30 knots, with gusts over 40 knots. Windfinder doesn't show them all on their web graph, but does on the iPhone app. Strange...

King Malu is attached to a floating quay that has two out of four attachments to the pillars missing and the other two secured by bolts to the wood that are moving about 10-15cm with each swell. We're hoping it stays attached!

Next year's Volvo Ocean Race

The last Volvo Ocean race was a bit of a disappointment for me. With all the breakages and extreme cost it seemed it was less about seamanship and sailing and more about commercial publicity.

Next year it will be different. They have made a one class boat for all competitors and apparently made it stronger. Matt Sheahan of Yachting World wrote an interesting article telling us about this next generation of boats that are built to last. Now I'm looking forward to seeing how they actually perform in the real race.

First HUI PCB

This is our first significant PCB made in-house for the Display for the electric drive. It should simplify development.

Tapping solution?

Having taken the prop shaft off the boat and put it on a lathe to check if it's bent, we discover it isn't bent! Discussing with others in the marina we decide to proceed with something we had thought about some time ago, and that is fitting an Aqadrive.

We need to go back in the water on 6 November, and Richard is off to the UK for two weeks... so it's a hard push this week to get as much done as possible and then leave Tim and Jacob to finish off. With a little bit of luck it should be possible!

Back on the hard

Sudden decision taken... put King Malu on the hard for two weeks.

Why? Well the latest generation of the electric drive we are developing will arrive and we have a couple of problems to solve. The most significant of them is a tapping from the propellor shaft when we get over about 600-800 RPM.

Sailing with John and Heather

The intention had been to take John and Heather, two friends I had known for more than 28 years out for a sail. But there was no wind!

So what to do? Motor round to Finikoudes, anchor and get out the paddling canoe we found in the middle of the Aegean while sailing back to Larnaca on SAGA IV.

Other people had noisier ideas! JetSkis can be dangerous as many of the riders don't know the 'rules of the road' for sailing. But mainly they are just plain noisy. And sailing is quiet... normally!

Yes, it's October in the Mediterranean and so still warm in the water.

I think of this as 'Tim's canoe' as he hauled it from the water in the Aegean. And though I love boats, this is definitely more of a water craft and involved getting wet. No, not for me.

Tim took the opportunity to clean the outboard.

Then motor back to the marina.

ISailor

This is the track of our sail up to Cape Greco, recorded in iSailor. ISailor is a brilliant iPad app for navigation. I first downloaded it a few weeks back but found it intuitive and easy to use.

The sail was great. We were sailing at between six and seven knots most of the way in about 10-13 knots of wind. We had our large asymmetric up plus mainsail and mizzen sail. The sea conditions we excellent and it was a really enjoyable sail.

You can see that the normal logging is nothing like as accurate!

Cape Greco with SAGA IV

We have sailed up from Larnaca to Cape Greco to join SAGA IV for the night. Last time we were on board, not on King Malu.

Video from the trip from Mykonos to Larnaca

Video from the trip from Mykonos to Larnaca.

http://youtu.be/ADbIlQPhr5w

King Malu on Google Maps/Google Earth

If you zoom in on Google Earth/Google Maps, you'll see they have updated the imagery for Larnaca and King Malu is now clearly visible in her home berth!

Rhodes to Larnaca

The final leg of the voyage - from Rhodes to Larnaca.

As we leave Rhodes an extremely attractive mono-hull comes and moors alongside. Her name is Genevieve. Yes, this is a mega-yacht. The crew have black shirts, which looks smart, but must get incredibly hot in the summer sun of the Mediterranean.

It's time to leave the Greek islands behind.  It should take about 2 days and 2 nights, so we divide the crew into watches so that we can rest and take 3 hour stints at looking after the boat.

This will be a downwind leg the whole way - at least where we have wind, so as soon as we can we get the Main Sail up. This did slightly confuse family who were following the AIS signal as we turned back towards Rhodes to be into the wind. They wondered if we had a problem and were turning back for repairs. It's quite amazing to think that friends and family can watch that kind of detail.

We put the main out to port and the genoa out to starboard. The aim was to run goose-winged as far as possible and pick up what speed we can.


The heat has increased so Olivier decides on what seems total insanity to me. He trails a rope from the back of the boat to create a sort of swimming pool... that is if you hold on to the rope tight enough!

Tim and Geraldine watch from the stern. I'm on the fly bridge slowing the boat down.

Tim joins Olivier in the water. Geraldine, like me, prefers to be over and on the water not in and under it!

And this is what SAGA IV looks like from under it. The GoPro Hero2 certainly proved it's worth.

We arrive in Larnaca approximately 47 hours after leaving Rhodes.

Astypalaia to Rhodes

Now the start times got really crazy and I didn't leave my berth to watch. The wind is now set for downwind sailing all the way to Cyprus. Tim and I rarely do any downwind sailing on King Malu, so this is good for us.

Dolphins again, but this time the sea is much clearer and we are treated to a display of swimming by mammals few others can beat.

Washing down is part of the house-keeping on board and continues daily while sailing. There is a dish-washer and washing-machine to to help with the task of keeping what amounts to a small hotel running.

As we approach Rhodes the number of boats, both leisure and commercial increases. Till now we have seen very few boats except those at the anchorages.

As we arrive a small hydrofoil departs. The sea is calm enough for it now.

We dropped anchor outside the marina, since space within the marina is a premium. Strangely there are no floating pontoons which means that the number of boats that can be accommodated is less than half than if they did have them.

We arrived in Rhodes just before sunset. The castle and the old city are amazing. Just wish I could have seen the old Colossus of Rhodes.

We went ashore and had a fabulous meal. The restaurant was one that you had to know to find. Serendipitously we did so! Apparently the crew of SAGA IV had eaten there on the way out, but the route to the restaurant was quite different.

Koufonisi to Astypalaia

Talk about an early start! 6:30 Tim and Olivier were weighing anchor and on our way.

The wind looked right for setting the main sail today since it was broad reach. Setting the main with a canoe boom is not easy, someone, namely Olivier, has to go up into the canoe, undo the bag and connect the uphaul. Olivier has amazing balance. I would have done it with a safety line. He looked like he had been doing it all his life. Which he probably had!

Then time to haul it up. It's a heavy sail on a Lagoon 56, but fortunately there are electric self tailing winches. I think I could get used to these!

Except for the canoe main sail, the Lagoon 56 is actually quite an easy boat to sail. With in-boom furling then it would be very manageable by Tim and me. Of course... the cost would be prohibitive!

It seems like only an hour or so later there is a wind shift and so the main has to come down and Olivier is up in the canoe boom again tidying the sail!

The call is 'Dolphins' and they are out playing along our bow. Seems to me they were almost stroking themselves on the hull and dancing with delight.

Navigation onboard is with a dual Raymarine E-Series. They were good, but did lock up a couple of times and need resetting. This surprised me. I am having occasional lockup problems with the screen for the electric drive system we are developing, with the CanBus/NMEA2000 interface, but I would have expected Raymarine to be bolt proof and have no problems.

We passed islands that looked uninhabited and islands that looked like there was only one house on it. I cannot imagine living on an island alone. I suppose a hermit might enjoy it, but I think I need people too much for that!

 

Arrived in a beautiful bay and great wind for kite surfing.

Olivier's passion is kite-surfing. He was out across the bay... chasing him in the RIB was quite something... trying to get film of him was something else!

Mykonos to Koufonisi

It was a very early start for Tim and me - we flew from Larnaca to Athens then on to Mykonos. I must admit I don't like flying, and I like turbulence even less. There were quite strong winds coming in to Mykonos and so it was a lot bumpier than I like!

We had been given a GoPro Hero2 camera, a sports camera that is waterproof with a very wide angle 'fish eye' lens. The distortion of the lens take a little getting used to but it captures the action, and I shot quite a lot of video on the trip, which I'll edit into a short film.

Straight from Mykonos airport onto SAGA IV and shortly after set sail for Koufonisi.

The winds were fresh, but Olivier and Gerarldine keen to start the voyage. They were both tired of the strong winds of Mykonos and hoping for lighter winds as we sailed south.

Suddenly I spotted a canoe floating in the water, barely 200 metres on our starboard bow. Olivier brought SAGA round alongside.

We were somewhat concerned we might find a body attached, but when we brought it onboard we found it unoccupied. Most likely it blew off the beach of one of the islands nearby. Tim has been longing for a canoe for a couple of years after trying it in Thailand.

Tim set the lines for fishing. I was not expecting anything as we had caught nothing around Cyprus. However, not long after we got two bites. The port line broke almost immediately but the starboard line held. It was clearly a large fish as the fight was on.

We caught the largest tuna Tim has ever caught... 'Once in a lifetime catch' He was heavily bruised but ecstatic. It was also the largest catch on SAGA IV this season.

Arriving in Koufonisi we set the anchor and settled in for the night... Fresh tuna for dinner!