Castles – Compass heading 180°

Apulia – Trulli Baroque

June 3, 2023 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

Our sailing blog has been greatly neglected this past winter and spring. Life got in the way – more precisely, land life in a very cold land. It was hard to find inspiration for writing about adventures along the sunny Mediterranean while wading about in deep snow. Now that the new sailing season has already begun, perhaps it’s time to draw a quick summary of the places we visited from our winter base – in no particular order. Next time, I might tell you more about which way the winds are blowing this summer. Continue reading

Brindisi – Ancient Port of the Adriatic

January 15, 2023 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

Night time scenery of the Brindisi old town, photographed from the opposite shore. Behind the seafront buildings the Roman column and large staircase, in front is a large sailing ship moored at the town quay.

From Otranto, we headed north along the Apulian coast towards Brindisi. It was a pleasant, sunny day, with just a hint of cool autumn. The passage of 40 nautical miles was uneventful. The wind was good all day, but it was already dark by the time we reached the shelter of the breakwater of Brindisi harbour. Continue reading

New Sea, New Land – Sailing to Otranto, Italy

December 20, 2022 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

Small harbour in front of Otranto with wooden fishing boats. Walled town in the backyard with castle towers and church bell tower rising above.

Slowly the Greek coast disappeared behind us. Finally, it was time to sail to a new land – Italy! We had hopped along the Sicilian coast in 2019 on our way east along the Mediterranean, but so far, we had never made landfall in mainland Italy. Continue reading

Kythira – a Bend in the Road

July 12, 2022 Compass Heading 180° Comments 2 Comments

Kapsali bay of Kythira island, with only one boat in the middle, Aina. The anchorage is surrounded by a white sandy beach with a small village and hill all around. A smaller bay in the background is the local fishing harbour. The water is very clear, blue and turquoise.

We had left Crete on the 8th of May and were sailing towards the Ionian Sea. 24 hours later Crete was still looming on our port side as if we’d gotten nowhere. It is a big island, but our progress was very slow indeed. We were sailing close-hauled, and a lot of the time the wind was so light we had to motor. Continue reading

Spinalonga Island – A One Way Ticket

March 28, 2022 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

Venetian bastion with the Kalydon peninsula in the background

I was a teenager when I first visited Crete. It was my first and only holiday trip “south”. Besides the beautiful beaches and too salty but wonderfully warm water, I’ve never forgotten my visit to an island of lepers. Decades later, we had arrived in the same place on our own keel, sailed past the famous island, Spinalonga, and anchored in the sheltered bay behind it. It was time to hop in the dinghy and visit the island fortress again. Continue reading

Naxos – the Greatest of the Cyclades

November 22, 2021 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

Our Cycladic adventure had begun from Paros, and now we arrived in Naxos after only a couple of hours’ sail. Naxos is the largest of the Cyclades islands. The main city goes by the same name but is often called Chora (chora means simply “town” or “main town” and there are many Choras all over the Greek islands). The town is situated in a large bay on the northwestern corner of the island, nestled behind a small island with the ruins of Apollo’s temple on it. Between the temple island and the town is a small anchorage, and that’s where we decided to drop the hook. Continue reading

Sailing to the Aegean Islands – Paros

November 16, 2021 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

Naxos, Paxos, Paros, Poros… Antipaxos, Antiparos, but no Antinaxos or Antiporos. Did I get it right? Perhaps the Greeks could have used a little more imagination or at least syllables when naming their islands, don’t you think? Continue reading

Rounding the Peloponnese – From Kalamata to Poros

October 26, 2021 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

The Mezapos Bay distress and the subsequent boatyard visit to Kalamata were happily in the past. It was time to look ahead, and high time to continue our journey! We had come here to round the Peloponnese, and round the Peloponnese, we would. Continue reading

Jump to the Peloponnese: Pylos, Methoni and Kalamata

August 29, 2021 Compass Heading 180° Comments 1 Comment

Two Finnish boats waved goodbye to the island of Zakynthos. It was late July, and they were on their way to the Peloponnese, and eventually, the Aegean Sea. For us, it was a rare and wonderful chance to buddy-boat together with someone, and even though it was just for a while, it felt very special. Continue reading

The Strange Year 2020 – Sweat and Social Distancing

December 31, 2020 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

At the beginning of the year 2020 we delved into boat projects aboard our sailboat Aina. At that point nobody knew that the world was about to turn upside down. Greece went into total lockdown in March, but we just kept on working. Read more about our time during the spring lockdown in Messolonghi! Continue reading

Castle Tour Continues – Corfu

October 23, 2020 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

Our sailing journey had taken us from one Venetian castle to the next, from Lefkada to Vonitsa and then to Parga, which I wrote about in my last post. Now we continued towards Corfu, the northernmost of the Greek Ionian islands. Continue reading

Castle to Castle – Parga

October 21, 2020 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

The Ionian islands of Greece were part of the Venetian Republic for more than four hundred years. Venice conquered the islands one by one – Corfu in 1383, Zakynthos about a century later, Kefalonia and Ithaca around 1500 and finally Lefkada in 1718. The Venetians and Ottomans fought over the territory for many centuries, but unlike the rest of Greece, the Ionian islands escaped the Ottoman rule. Corfu, as the bulwark against the Ottoman empire became one of the most fortified places in Europe. Continue reading

Ambracian Gulf and Vonitsa – Towns, Castles and Nature’s Wonders

September 9, 2020 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

In the first half of August we headed north from the Nidri area. First we would travel through the Lefkas Channel, a narrow passage that separates the island of Lefkas from the Greek mainland, and has a turning bridge that opens to let boats pass. Anchors aweigh, and off we went! Continue reading

Bay of Corinth | Trizonia Island’s Creatures Great and Small

November 13, 2019 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

The sun was beaming from a bright blue sky when we began our ”autumn holiday” on the Bay of Corinth. We had our winter base in Mesolongi sorted out, but the winter was still a long way away! The day turned very hot, and a gentle breeze started in the afternoon. We rolled out our big genoa, and let the boat move downwind at her own chosen speed. There was no hurry, but our big lady seemed to be waking up as the wind gradually freshened, and was making good speed. Soon we could see the Rio-Antirrio Bridge looming in the distance. This imposing bridge that opened just before the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004, separates the Bay of Patras from the Bay of Corinth, and connects the Peloponnese to the Greek mainland. Continue reading

Looking for Venus in Sicily

August 16, 2019 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

As we approached the Sicilian coast on August the 10th, we chose – quite at random, as the sun would go down soon – to stop at the Trapani harbour. We knew nothing about the place, except that there was a free anchorage within the port. But the next morning’s googling revealed an ancient town by the name of Erice on top of a hill close by, and that definitely got us interested! The easiest way to get there would be by a cableway. Continue reading

The Journey Continues! Roscoff and Camaret-sur-Mer

May 9, 2019 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

The spring in Brittany turned out to be long. Because of the blooming flowers and warm days we had experienced in February we had expected to be on our way much earlier, but it seems the phenomenon called the “second winter” is not entirely unknown beyond Scandinavia. April came and went before we felt ready to leave. Continue reading

Dinan – a Medieval Gem of Brittany

April 2, 2019 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

Our friends from Finland spent a couple of unforgettable spring weeks with us in Brittany. March was the perfect time to do a little roadtripping, as it was nice to see some of the most popular attractions outside the busy tourist season, and enjoy the wonderful, historical places in somewhat more peace and quiet. Last time I wrote about our visit to the island monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy. Now we will continue our trip to a delightful medieval town of Dinan. Continue reading

Roadtrip to Normandy – Le Mont-Saint-Michel

March 30, 2019 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

The silhouette of Mont-Saint-Michel must be the most popular image of French travel destinations in tourist guides and magazines. It is spectacular – the three million people who visit the place every year will testify to that! Continue reading

The Malbork Castle and its War Thirsty Knights

July 3, 2018 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

Navigare necesse est, like they used to say in Rome. But there are other things almost as important to us – like history and architecture, and especially these two combined – that are as much the reason for this journey as the sailing itself. Continue reading

Wandering in History

October 22, 2016 Compass Heading 180° Comments 0 Comment

It was already the last week of August when we arrived in Haapsalu, but the place still seemed busy with tourists. The weather was warm and sunny. This beautiful old town was full of people sitting on the streetside terraces, cafes and restaurants, walking along the waterfront in the shady parks, visiting the old castle and enjoying the town’s many spas. Continue reading

on Kythira – a Bend in the RoadGlad you enjoyed it, thank you!
on Kythira – a Bend in the RoadThank you for this. Love it!
on Merry Christmas 2022!Thank you! Have a lovely winter!
on Merry Christmas 2022!Merry Christmas to you both from the crew of Temptress. Enjoy your winter adventures
on Sailboat bottom renovation | Part 1: SandingThanks for quick reply, my thoughts are same, start using the chemical paint removal till we reach a surface that we can paint over.
on Sailboat bottom renovation | Part 1: SandingHi Cornel, we're really not experts on this, but you'll probably find the original gelcoat under the layers of antifouling if you remove everything. On our boat the gelcoat had been peeled off completely, probably because of blisters. You might be fine painting new antifouling on top of old if you can find out what's been used before. Or keep removing layers until you find one that sticks, and paint over that. If you need to remove all paint, I think using chemical paint removal might be the best way.
on Sailboat bottom renovation | Part 1: SandingHi there, We bought a boat this summer, and it looks like we need to strip all antifouling layers next season. Here and there, some patches of antifouling are falling off in places reveling some darker paint/surface underneath. The main question is how do we know if the boat has been epoxied before? I am thinking that at some point someone used a different antifouling and now it's just falling off. Cheers, Cornel / Finland
on Winter in Messolonghi – Boat Projects and BBQHi Mario, we're thinking of staying in the Aegean side next winter. But Messolonghi is a very nice town and there's a small but friendly liveaboard community in the marina, definitely recommend because of that. Not sure how the marina business is nowadays, though, but they've been pretty quick to answer emails in the past. It was very affordable when we were there, and the facilities were fine. https://www.messolonghimarina.com/
on Winter in Messolonghi – Boat Projects and BBQHi, We are thinking to winter in Messolonghi, some months on the water some on yardh Do you recomend? Do you go to pass this winter to? Thanks.
on Jump to the Peloponnese: Pylos, Methoni and KalamataAmazing !!!
on Nidri, Lefkas – and more waiting!Not heading home this year. Probably overwinter in Messolonghi .