Sunday 11th May – Saturday 17th May 2025.

Amendment:

In my last blog I said that Lord Byron died and was buried on Missolonghi, he died there but his body was returned home to the UK and is in the family vault in Nottingham. Thank you Bob for the correction. 😘❤️

We arrived into Lefkas town marina around 3pm.  We moored stern to, which means from the back of the boat. I was tasked with throwing the stern line and then grabbing the ‘lazy line’ which secures the bow of the boat instead of an anchor. Unfortunately I didn’t perform at my best and then I misheard an instruction from Jacques, nothing untoward happened I just felt very frustrated and annoyed with myself, then I got a bit upset. The mooring is always a bit tense and stressful, especially if there is wind and if some of the crew are a bit pants! 😬 However the drama is soon forgotten.  We did a bit of boat cleaning then it was time to meet our new guests, Martin & Natalie. Martin is going to be one of the crew on Mossy Joe for the Atlantic crossing, Natalie is his partner, she has sailed but at this point isn’t t going to be doing the crossing. (This may change! )

It was so lovely to meet them, they seem lovely.

We had a wonderful evening on board eating an eclectic mix of food and drinking copious amounts of Rosè!! 🎉😍🩷 

We did all get a relatively early night as we have a big crossing to do on Monday. 

We are sailing across from Lefkas in Greece to Crotona in Italy! A journey that will take approximately 24 – 28hrs. 😬😳

To be honest I was a little apprehensive, just because we will be in the middle of the ocean. I have every faith in Jacques, Tracey and the boat, I also trust Martin, who is an experienced sailor. But I’m not an experienced sailor so it’s a big deal. 

We left Lefkas on schedule and the start of the journey was OK. We were sailing against the wind which meant it was very choppy and bouncy. Moving around the boat was a challenge. I had initially said that I would cook dinner, meatballs and rice. This plan was abandoned due to the conditions and also because some people felt a little sick. Luckily Jacques & Tracey had called into a bakery in the morning and we had lots of great savoury pastry’s and fresh bread to snack on, as well as 2 cupboards full of snacks! 

For the crossing we set 4 hour watches. 2 – 6, 6 – 10, 10 – 2  then repeat. As there were 5 of us and I have the least (read zero) experience, I also have no wet weather gear, I opted to be the Galley Bitch and keep everyone supplied with hot drinks, food and snacks. Luckily for me I didn’t have any sickness. 

We spotted a couple of little birds behind the boat at one point, which is unusual this far out at sea, then a little later one of them flew onto the boat and sat behind a cupboard at the bow. After a little while it flew off again, but then came back and sat in the same spot, we decided to leave it to rest. Sadly by the morning it was dead, possibly just too exhausted. 😥 We were all a little sad that It didn’t make it. 

The conditions were less than ideal, but not really terrible. But once the sun sets and it gets dark, it all seems a bit more ominous. The noise of the waves hitting the hulls seems louder, the bouncing seems worse, especially if you’re down in the cabins. I went to bed around 1am. But wasn’t able to sleep, I had to work really hard not to become panicked by thinking about ‘what ifs!’ Or trying not to think about how thin the hull that’s protecting me from the vast, cold ocean is! 😨 You become tuned into every little sound or change in sound. Sleep eluded me, so I popped back up to see if Tracey & Jacques needed anything, this was around 3.30am They were fine. I went back to bed and finally dozed off around 4.30 then was awake again at 6.30. I got up and made Martin & Natalie some tea & toast, the sun was up and everything seemed much less scary. We were now only 6 hours away from Italy! Yippee. 🥳 

We spotted land with a few hours to go. 

We were about 2 miles from Crotone and the Italian Coast, I was sitting up at the helm with Jacques and I spotted a large boat behind us, going a some speed. It seemed to be coming straight for us. 

This in fact was exactly what it was doing. 

It was a large Vessel belonging to the Guardia Di Finanza. They are Italian military law enforcement agency tasked with patrolling and searching vessels to prevent smuggling, financial violations and any other illegal activity. 

Their big boat came very close to us and used a megaphone to tell us to stop, they then came alongside, quite quickly tbh. At one point it looked and sounded like they had bashed into Mossy Joe on the port bow, because they hadn’t fendered it properly, Jacques was not happy! 

They tied alongside and informed us that they would be coming on board. I expected all of them to get on but it was only 2 people. They needed to examine all the boat papers, the crew list and all our passports. They then filled out some paperwork. They made a cursory search of the cabins, didn’t bother to check the engine room or any of the large lockers, storage areas, so I guess we must all have innocent faces! 

While this was going on the other guys on the boat we’re examining the area that had been damaged, luckily for us it was their boat that had sustained a dink, not Mossy Joe! 😀👌 

The whole process took around an hour and was an exciting welcome to Italy!! 🇮🇹 

We moored in the marina, which had some good, hot, powerful showers  which we all used! Just to save the water & power onboard. We all then had a well deserved drink, delicious Negronis. 

Later we wandered into the town, I expected to feel a lot more wobbly than I actually did! 

The town was pretty nice and we found a great place serving yummy traditional Italian Pizzas! Perfect. 😍 

The coast that we are on doesn’t have lots of marinas or anchorages, there was some bad weather coming in so we left early the next day for an 8hr sail to the next stop, Roccella Ionica, to try and be in the marina before the weather hit. 

It was another very pleasant journey and topped off by a welcome committee of dolphins just before the harbour! 😍🩵🐬 Fabulous.

We were due to stay in the marina for 1 night, then move to our next stop Reggio Calabria, where Martin & Natalie were flying home from. Unfortunately the weather turned and we ended up staying for 3 nights. 

The weather was very wet, not cold but damp and miserable. The first night we were all knackered so I made dinner onboard, yummy meatballs and pasta.

Then the next two nights we went into town to a lovely, small family run restaurant. 

Martin & Natalie were great company, easy going and very funny! So spending downtime with them onboard was a pleasure, quizzes, reading, chatting, laughing and making a significant dent in the booze supplies 😂🍾

So far we haven’t seen as much of Italy and it’s sunshine as we’d like,  but it’s been an adventure!!

I’m looking forward to more fun times in Italy 🇮🇹 

Books read.

The Daughters of Madurai. By Rajasree Variyar. An excellent book, her debut novel. Highly recommend.