End of Season Wrap-up

We are now tucked up snug in Levkas Marina for the winter, enjoying the social life, making new friends, getting to know the town and slowly working our way through the list of boat repair and maintenance chores.  As we settle into our winter routine it is time to reflect on the past season of sailing. 

Rainbow over the marina

Songster tucked up in her berth

This is our third season sailing on Songster.  We are now feeling like the learning curve is slightly less steep and overwhelming.  It has taken us this long to find the sail configurations that Songster seems to like best in different conditions and that Wandering Wally, our autopilot, can handle.  Anchoring is now routine and reversing into a harbour to moor stern to now only elicits a slight raise in heartbeat rather than the full on anxiety of our first years.  Nevertheless , we still feel very much like beginners and have so much to learn. Thus far we really are very much Cappuccino Cruisers. 

The Greek national drink - Freddos

This autumn we spent most of our time in the Evia Channel and Saronic Gulf.  Twice we had guest join us sailing.  This was a real treat for us and can’t wait for more family and friends to join us next season (hint, hint..).  Over 9.5 weeks we sailed 553 nautical miles, which is as many miles as we sailed our entire first season in 2015.  We also made the big leap of leaving the Aegean where we have been for three years and transiting the Corinth Canal into the Ionian.

 

To sum up the entire 2017 season:  We were sailing for 21 weeks (12 weeks in the spring and 9.5 weeks in the autumn) and did 53 passages ranging from 3 nm to 68 nm for a total of 1463 nm.  This was more than double the distance we sailed last season but still quite a modest total.  Of the 150 nights we were out, two-thirds were spent at anchor and the rest moored in a marina or at a town wharf.

 

We have yet to do an overnight sail on Songster, nor tried out the spinnaker or trysail and only once or twice poled out the genoa for a down wind run.  We have been in some heavy weather but nothing too drastic and except for one or two passages have never been outside of the sight of land.  

Sailing in the Mediterranean has been a great kindergarten for us and generally the sailing is quite benign.  There are no tides or currents to speak of and except for some nasty winds like the meltemi and catabatics off the hillsides or the complete absence of wind, the conditions are quite good.  

So is it time to challenge ourselves a bit more next season?  Should we continue to enjoy Cappuccino Cruising or move on to World Cruising?  There certainly will be a few planned and unplanned challenges that we will face next season and I suppose, as always, we will take it as it comes.