Hand-over cruise from Sicily to Malta, Share the Sail, Southerly 42 Launch soon, New Exploring Under Sail DVD
Hello Everyone,
Autumn leaves
are falling and here at home in Canada boats are
being hauled-out for the coming winter season. We,
however, are getting ready to launch!
After cruising
for several summers in the Mediterranean, we are
turning our sailing seasons around this year as we
prepare to launch our new Southerly 42RST sailboat in
England next month and head south for the Canary
Islands where, all going well, in early December
we'll begin our 4th transatlantic passage. The
hurricane season will be well-over by then so we're
expecting a smooth 3-week passage to the Caribbean
where we'll be sailing instead of shovelling snow for
the winter!
And this year we
invite you to Share the Sail and join us aboard the
new boat to experience cruising in the tropics for a
week or to participate in one of our off-shore
training passages. With the new boat we have room for
4 guests and beautiful accommodations to make you
feel right at home. At various times throughtout the
year we will be offering Share the Sail weeks in
exotic locations along our route and look forward to
having you aboard to share the adventure of this
year's voyage. For more information and to view the
dates still available:
http://www.distantshores.ca/sharethesail/sharethesail.html
And
now we continue the story of our recent cruise from
the west coast of Italy to Sicily to meet Two-Step's
new owners, Susan Howard and Tony Camilleri, and do a
hand-over cruise back to their and Two-Step's new
home in Malta.
At the end of
our last newsletter, we had just come south through
the Strait of Messina following a delightful cruise
along the west coast of Italy. We had anchored for
the night beneath the picturesque town of Taormina
and woke up to a glassy calm morning. The anchorage
is an open roadstead so is only suitable in calm
stable conditions. The nearest harbour is a few miles
south at the noisy and touristic town of
Giardini-Naxos where there are a couple of small
marinas. However, we had no worries about rough
weather this day, June 18/07, our last day aboard as
owners of Two-Step.
Although
the windless conditions meant a quiet time at anchor,
we were a little disappointed that our last day was
going to be a motoring day as we headed south to the
port of Catania where we were to meet Tony and Susan
the next morning when their ferry arrived from Malta
at 0800. However, we really couldn't complain since
we'd had such lovely sailing conditions during the
previous weeks in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the west
coast of Italy – cool breezes and flat seas.
Magical.
We arrived at the harbour entrance of the busy industrial port of Catania in the early afternoon and since enclosed harbours can be really hot and stuffy, we anchored off the long sandy beach to the south of entrance to enjoy the afternoon breezes and prepared the boat for our guests. At dinner we motored in to port and were directed to a visitors' pontoon where the friendly harbourmaster helped us tie bow to the pontoon. It was somewhat symbollic that also on the guest pontoon was a Southerly as if to remind us that we were really excited about our new Southerly and not to get too emotional about Two-Step who was about to begin some new adventures herself with caring owners.
There is a lot of motion in the Catania harbour with all the daily ferry and ship traffic so we were instructed by the harbourmaster who spoke good English to tie well off the dock. The local boats all have 3-to-1 tackles installed in their dock lines to make it easy to pull their boats close-to when they come down to the marina to climb aboard. From the port, the city of Catania looks pretty dirty and industrial but when you leave the waterfront and go into the town there is a transformation. Catania has been leveled by several volcanic eruptions of Mt. Etna over the years but the people just rebuild and start over. The architecture is magnificent with a mix of white and black volcanic stone, and numerous impressive statues and fountains. There are lots of nice squares where you can sit and sip a coffee, shops and boutiques to explore, an excellent market to stock up at, and wonderful seafood restaurants which we thoroughly enjoyed that evening as we wandered around this interesting Sicilian city.
We were up early the next morning, a little anxious, wondering how we were going to feel with the new owners aboard. Before we closed the sale Paul and I needed to complete our filming assignments in Italy so had offered Tony and Susan the opportunity to do a hand-over cruise with us back from Sicily after we'd finished filming so they could really get to know the boat and ask lots of quesitons. Now that the day had come, we wondered if this was a good idea. How we were going to feel with the new owners aboard running the ship?
Our 5-day voyage with Tony and Susan took us south along the east coast of Sicily from Catania to Brucoli, Siracusa, then Marzamemi where were were stuck in thick fog for a good part of a day. With clear conditions we departed Sicily to dodge ships on a night sail across the Malta Channel and on June 23rd cleared in to Malta. Of course we filmed the whole thing so look forward to episode #57 in season 5 of Distant Shores which will be broadcast this fall and winter in Europe on Travel Channel and Sailing Channel, in Canada on Canadian Learning Television and in the USA on WealthTV.
Before we sign off we have a few announcements.
New “Exploring Under Sail” 3-disk DVD now available!
Selling Two-Step put us both in a nostalgic mood so we got out some of our old Exploring Under Sail episodes, our very first TV series, which we produced in the late '90's with Peter Rowe Productions. Viewing these old favourites was a great way to reminisce about one of our voyages from Toronto on the Great Lakes of Canada, through the Erie Canal and Intracoastal Waterway to Florida in the USA, then to the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Azores and our arrival in the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar (where our Distant Shores series begins). In Exploring Under Sail we also filmed some additional episodes about race weeks in Antigua and St. Martin, Newport to Ensenada, and the LYRA race on Lake Ontario, as well as Georgs Kolesnikov's record-breaking voyage around Cape Horn. So we are releasing this 15-episode series in a 3-disk set in time for Christmas since Exploring Under Sail includes exciting destinations that we know many of you are interested in judging from the e-mails we receive. To order this and any other of our sailing DVDs please visit our store:
http://www.distantshores.ca/sailingdvds/sailingdvds.html
New DVD prices – Canadian and US dollar at Par
Due to the current exchange rate on the US dollar, we are lowering the Canadian prices on our DVDs to be at par with the US list prices just in time for the gift-giving season. Check out our complete DVD collection in our online store with new money-saving prices for Canadians.
http://www.distantshores.ca/sailingdvds/sailingdvds.html
New Boat Blog
As the launch of our new Southerly 42 approaches next month, the final finishes are taking place and the last of an extensive list of new equipment is being installed. Paul has been writing about the all the “bells and whistles” we're adding to the new boat and the reasons for doing so based on nearly 2 decades of cruising experience sailing to over 50 countries on 5 continents. He's been posting the information on our New Boat Blog. Anyone thinking they might someday buy a new boat will find this blog enlightening.
http://www.distantshores.ca/boatblog/boatblog.html
Seminars
Although we've got a packed itinerary of destinations to explore this year, we will be taking time out to conduct our annual “Outfitting and Provisioning for Cruising” seminars. We really enjoy helping others fulfill their cruising dreams by providing guidelines for safe and happy experiences on the water. For times and locations, please check the Seminars/Events page on our website:
http://www.distantshores.ca/seminars/page20.html
Wishing you all the best for the season ahead and a Happy Hallowe'en!
Sheryl and Paul Shard