When we bought Emerald her deck and coachroof had previously been painted using Awlgrip paint. It weathered well but in the last few years had begun to look worn, scratched and faded. We have made a few epoxy repairs to the deck which had to be painted to protect the […]

1st June A couple of weeks in Vlicho Bay and it was time for a change of scenery. We decided to head over to Ormo Varko on the mainland, 6nm northeast of Nydri. A light easterly was blowing and we managed to sail all the way; as we passed the small […]

Our friends Pat and Duncan offered to go halves on a car share so off we went for a day tour of Lefkada island. First stop was a walk in the Melissa Gorge (a leaflet describing this and many other walks on Lefkas can be downloaded from here) off the […]

The sea | the sea | the open sea |The blue, the fresh, the ever free |-”The Sea,” Bryan W. Procter. It is at last time to sit down and write Part II of the green Emerald series. This time I’ll go into detail of our solar panel setup and […]

It’s just over a week since we arrived in Greece and we’ve been busy little bees. First was a trip on the bus (€1.60 each way, pay on board) from Nidri to Lefkas to pick up an internet SIM. We went for a Wind SIM which gave us 6GB for […]

Sailing to Greece On Wednesday morning we were up at 5am to set off for Greece. The air smelt of sulphur (Etna was erupting) but there was not a breath of wind. We dawdled about for a while delaying our start, checking and checking again the wind forecasts. It looked […]

The Making of a Syracuse Super Sarnie Last time we were in Syracuse we never got round to trying one of the mega sarnies from the Caseificio Borderi deli at the far end of the daily market. The time had come to make amends so we joined Tree from Tinkerbell amongst […]

We started the summer 2015 season with a reverse in direction of the last trip of last season. Like last year we were able to sail most of the way and the winds were stronger than forecast. The last day of boat prep was fairly manic not helped by things […]

April arrived with improved weather; warmer days and less wind made progress on the job list easier. The canopy needed a good wash to get rid of the Sahara sand that occasionally blows across from Africa, then re-waterproofing and some sewing repairs made, mostly due to the thread starting to […]

March arrived and it felt like time was suddenly racing on and we needed to crack on with some boat jobs. New covers for the cockpit seats, finishing the solar water heater (read about that here), lighting for the back deck and numerous other little jobs. Bar Stella Marina has been […]

Colin has always been a rugby fan having played from school age; when we met I soon began to enjoy watching it too, although it helped that it was the year England won the rugby World Cup! Whilst were watching the 6 Nations last year we realised that this year Ireland […]

My Soul is full of longing For the secret of the sea, And the heart of the great ocean Sends a thrilling pulse through me. -”The Secret of the Sea,” Longfellow. Well hasn’t it been a while since my last blog. I do apologise, but thankfully my wonderful wife Nichola […]

After the balmy weather of Christmas the New Year made a chilly contrast as colder, stormier weather arrived. We were too busy sleeping off the fun of New Year’s Eve to make the swim in the sea, but 10 or so hardy souls braved the waves. Unfortunately after new year […]

Sinterklaasavond Christmas festivities started early with the Dutch celebration of Sinterklaasavond on the 5th December. There is a good sized group of Dutch winterers in the marina and they organised a night of dressing up in orange, eating traditional Dutch food and joining in a conga type dance in the […]

Yacht Emerald is changing! We are in the process of creating a WordPress site for Emerald. Keep a look out for new blogs and a new look site. Please comment with any suggestions on the style and layout.         [codepeople-post-map]   Bye