Capri is currently in San Carlos on the Pacific side of Mexico.

On October 13, we were once again united with our wonderful Capri.  She is still on the hard, waiting to be bottom painted and polished, while the crew luxuriates in an Airbnb nearby.

While we were gone, Capri survived Chubasco winds and a hurricane.

Chubasco winds are the result of a localized very deep low pressure that forms in the overheated landscape far inland in Mexico.  The low-pressure moves towards the coast, generating high velocity winds, in this case, the winds reached storm strength.  Our Canadian sailing friends sent us a video (YouTube) from the marina where Capri is stored.  The blowing sand almost obscures the boats; most of what can be seen is simply blowing sand.  At the end of the video, you can see a boat fall over.  Two boats fell from their stands during that Chubasco; fortunately, Capri was not one of them.  Sailors who were there said the Chubasco felt like a tornado blasting through the yard.  It was not pleasant to receive this video while we were away from Capri.  The mind starts thinking about all the damage that might have occurred and you begin worrying.  We had read about these terrible winds but had forgotten them since we had no plans to sail in the Sea of Cortez during the summer.

We chose to put Capri on the hard in San Carlos because hurricanes almost never reach here at the very edge of hurricane territory.  Most hurricanes pass south of San Carlos and move out to sea.  Known as a “hurricane hole”, many keep their boat here during the hurricane season.  But as you all know by now, when Vinni and Carsten go sailing, nothing is ever “normal”.  On my birthday in mid-August, my birthday present from the weather gods was a hurricane that ripped all the way up through the Sea of Cortez, passing over San Carlos.  Fortunately, it was quadrants 3 and 4 (the back end) of the hurricane that hit San Carlos.  Winds here are less than those on the front end are.  This meant that conditions “only” reached 50-60 knots of wind and heavy rains passed over Capri.  Happily, she stayed on her supports.  Thank you Capri.

Our plan is to splash Capri in next week – depending on how the yard work progresses.  As usual, nothing goes according to plan.  Another deep low-pressure, with winds close to hurricane strength, is approaching the Sea of Cortez.  We’re keeping a close eye on the weather forecasts.  The forecasters are saying it will make land near Mazatlán, just south of here on the same day Capri is scheduled to splash.  Mazatlán is only 300sm south of here so the splash may be delayed.  The weather forecasts is saying we won’t be affected but when hurricanes arrive, 300nm is not a big margin for error.  Hope is not a strategy, as they say, but there is nothing we can do, so hope is our strategy.

The forecasters were wrong, as they frequently are.  The low-pressure area stagnated out in the ocean for a few days before intensifying to a category 4 hurricane. Hurricane Norma.  Norma ran north passing over the southern tip of Baja and crushing Cabo San Lucas and La Paz.  Second hurricane in two months for them so they must be getting used to it.  Norma weakened as she crossed over the Sea of Cortez, becoming “only” a category 1 when she hit the mainland.  Many boats were sunk in La Paz and there was significant damage in all the marinas.  Since Denmark was just hit by a “once in a hundred years” storm and since they are still digging out and don’t need to see more storm damage, I won’t post any pictures.

We are lucky, aside from a few clouds; we feel no effects from Norma.  We are very lucky, since Norma made land not 300nm south of us, but only 100nm south.  We dodged the bullet.  The hurricane season is ending so we shouldn’t see more of them.  Capri has managed to survive two hurricanes, Irma in North Carolina in 2017, the hurricane here August 19 and now a near miss by Norma.  We are thankful that Capri can now splash with only a week’s delay.

Now the hard work of cleaning her begins.

So – what have we been doing since you last heard from us 4 months ago?

June 15 we left Capri and Mexico, flew to Portugal for a week then onward to Rome for a week, Bologna for 4 days and then 4 days on the east coast of Italy celebrating Carsten’s daughter’s 50^th birthday at an old monastery/hotel high in the mountains.  Further onto Venice (yes we are truly traveling) for a few days before heading to Denmark.  We spent 2 weeks in Copenhagen with family and friends then went to Bornholm (small island in the Baltic) where we “housesat” and “dogsat” for some friends.

We spent a long weekend with the grandchildren (living in a barrel!) visiting Legoland

August 17^th we flew to Athens, enjoyed the city sights for a few days then boarded Petra, a 38-foot sailboat some friends lent us.  They felt that we needed a break from our sailing odyssey.  What could be a better break than a sailing holiday?  Since we didn’t want to let our sailing skills get rusty – we immediately said “yes” to this offer.

While sailing in Greece we met a number of Danish sailors that asked us how sailing in Greece compared to sailing the other exotic places we have been.  By the way, we were gratefully surprised to learn many we met followed our blogs and have read our books. 

So how does sailing in Greece stack up against the rest of the world?  As with most things, there are both positive and negative aspects.  There are many, many charter boats here.  In Polynesia, there are only charter boats in the Society Islands and while they are there, there aren’t many.  In the Marquesas and the Tuamotus, you only meet blue water cruisers.

We do understand the popularity amongst Danish cruisers for sailing in Greece.  The weather in Denmark is often cold, rainy and grey – coming to Greece is like coming to Paradise.  The days are sunny and warm, the waters are cobalt blue and (by Danish standards) very warm and gin clear.  It seldom rains.  The only negative are the Meltemi winds.  These powerful northeasterly winds blow like a tunnel wind between Greece and Turkey.  These winds can be a true challenge as they are frequently so strong that it is not possible to sail upwind against them.  For those that have chartered a boat in Athens, the winds can make it impossible for them to get back to Athens to return the boat and then it gets expensive.  They have to leave the boat on an island somewhere and then pay a delivery skipper to come out, pick it up and sail it back to Athens.  They also end up paying for extra charter days etc. etc.  Here, in Greece, the Meltemi decides when you sail and when are don’t.

We found the Greeks to be friendly and the restaurants to be inexpensive and good.

Having said all that, here come the negatives.  The number of charter boats here is unbelievable.  Most Greeks can’t afford to own a large sailboat (there are also many northern Europeans chartering boats here), so they rent one.  Because it is so expensive to charter a boat, the charter boats are 50 feet or even longer with 8-12 persons on board.  Typically, only one person on board that knows anything about sailing and many times that experience is limited.  When the weather turns nasty or when they try to land their boat at the dock, this is a recipe for disaster.

Docking in Greece is somewhat different from most other places.  Here you dock in what is known as a “Med landing”.  A Med landing means dropping your anchor 3-4 boat lengths from the dock then reversing in and tying your stern up to a pier.  Sounds simple – doesn’t it?  Of course, if you are trying this in a strong sideways wind, you will have a host of problems.  Then add the fact that you usually are trying to hit a narrow space between two other boats and now it really gets entertaining.  Every evening the “harbor shows” of inexperienced skippers trying to land their boats, provide endless entertainment for the rest of us.

Of the challenges are also there when either you or your neighbor leave the dock.  Now the big question is “Is your anchor chain picking up your neighbors anchor because the chains are crossed?”  Or, “is his chain ripping your anchor out of the sea bottom?”  Or does your anchor have hold of something immovable on the sea floor – an old anchor, a mooring line or even a sunken boat.

In other words, even if you have tied up at the dock safely, the challenges are still many.  Good skippers ask the neighbors when they are leaving and are on their boat when they do – just in case the neighbors picks up your hook on the way out.  I’ll never be fond of these Med Landings.  We’ve seen too many collisions and screw-ups.  But, if you want to sail in Greece, there is no way around it.

There are many secluded and beautiful bays for anchoring in Greece

The sunsets here are ok.

After returning Petra to her rightful owners, Carsten flew to New York to visit an old friend in New Jersey while I stayed on Poros in an Airbnb and began work on our third book.  It will (probably) also be our last book.  Therefore the title; Capri – Homeward Bound.

Four days later I met Carsten in New York and we flew to Cancun, Mexico to visit the Mayan Indian ruins in Yucatan (yes, we have really been globetrotting these 4 months).  Entire Mayan cities have been excavated and the huge temples, known as Mexico’s pyramids, are truly astonishing.  It was an “experience of a lifetime” and Carsten will detail it in our next blog.

But you are surely now asking, “What are your further plans?” 

From November to the end of April, we will be sailing in the Sea of Cortez.  Until now, we have only experienced the southern end of the Sea around La Paz and the mainland across from it, Mazatlán and south to Manzanillo.  Now we will sail north and explore most of the northern end.  That part of the Sea of Cortez is actually the reason we sailed down here.  The northern part is supposed to be paradise (well, we have been in paradise, also known as French Polynesia, so we will be hard to impress).

At the end of April, we will put Capri on a ship and have her sent to Florida.  We could sail down to the Panama Canal ourselves and then up to Florida but most of that trip would mean we would have the wind hard on the nose.  For weeks on end.  Vinni and I have done that and don’t need to prove we can do it.  We could also wait out the seasons but that means an extra year and we are already delayed 2 years by Covid.

The winds along the Central American coast are not to be toyed with.  They can be dangerous as hell, especially those two known as “Tehuano winds and “Papagayo winds”.  You have to pass these areas no later than mid-May as the hurricane season starts here in mid-May. Sailing ourselves means we would spend an entire hurricane season in Panama on the hard.

If we left Mexico earlier to beat the hurricane season, we would run into the “Christmas winds” in the Caribbean.  Faithful readers of our books and blog will recall we ran into these when we sailed down to the Caribbean from the US in January 2018.  That was hard sailing and not something we have any wish to repeat.  In conjunction with the Christmas Winds, deep low-pressure zones develop in the Mexican Gulf and we would end up trying to cross those.  We could end up sailing for weeks and not getting anywhere.

So, we will pony up the $27,000 for have her shipped from La Paz to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  This is still less than what it would have cost for the alternative, having her shipped from Thailand to Italy (that costs $65,000).  There are multitudes of reasons we are sailing back to Denmark via the Atlantic.

Mid-may we will be off-loaded and sail to Bermuda to wait for a weather window for the passage over the Atlantic as we head for the Azores.

All of which means that we will be tying up Capri in her old berth sometime near the end of August 2024, ending a (then) 8 year grand adventure.

We will write more about the Sea of Cortez, but the next blog you get will be about the Mayan Indians and their fabulous cities.