Sifnos 28th-31st July

We anchored up in the lovely harbour of Kamari, on the west coast. As darkness fell we could see all the lights as the town started to come alive, and the little churches lit on the hills.

The next day we explored the island.  It was a similar size to Serifos. with a slightly larger population of 2,900.  Beyond the port and between the flanking slopes of rugged mountains lies an abundant landscape of terraced olive groves and almond trees.  We headed up to the main settlement of Apollonia, at the top of the hill and then over to Kastro, a lovely little village perched on the cliff top.  We walked up to the little church that so typifies the Greek islands – white walls with a blue roof.  If there had been some trees around, it would have been just like the little church of the marriage at the end of Mama Mia.

The following day was a relaxing day on the beach – we managed to secure some nice comfy chairs at a restaurant bar on the beach for most of the day. 

In the evening we went to a another great little Greek taverna.  It seems all the restaurants have basically the same menu, but no complaints as we enjoyed specialties such as Greek salads, mousaka, stuffed tomatoes, stuffed squid etc and super sweet pastries such as baklava.

On Sunday we had another lovely sail, about 20 miles, from Sifnos to Paros. 

Serifos 26-28th July

Serifos is in the Cyclades group of islands, with a population of 1,414. It is about 4 miles across and 4 miles long and about 90 miles from the port of Piraeus / Athens. It has a raw and rugged beauty and steep rocky hills. The traditional “Hora” (town at the top of the hill) is a dramatic scribble of white houses that crowns a high and rocky peak, 2km to the north of the port of Livadi. Just by looking, we could immediately tell that we were on a Greek island – the white washed walls of the buildings and the town at the top of the hill, with the small church at the very top with the blue domed roof.

We caught the local bus up to the Hora. The views were spectacular, as we wandered through the narrow alleyways between the houses, which are all connected to each other with winding staircases through the alleys. We walked to the church at the very top, which had a commanding view of the harbour and island, with just a 6 inch wall around the edge of a steep drop! Vertigo anyone?.


After wandering through the alleys, we found the tiny town square, with 3 or 4 tiny cafes and stopped for a beer. We met up and had a good laugh with a group of South Africans, on a sailing holiday and all watched the local donkey delivering the supplies to the bar, up the winding staircases!


We found our way back down to the boat and had a lovely dinner at a little Greek taverna, with a table on the beach. Even the Greek wine seemed to have improved. By the time we headed back to the boat, the town was coming alive – where was everybody hiding all day in the heat?

The next morning we had a lovely 2 hour down wind sail to the next island of Sifnos.


Despite the reputation of the fluky winds in the Greek islands (continually changing strengths and directions) we had perfect conditions for a great downwind sail. Philip and Cosi were happy to sit back and let us sail the boat – déjà view reminding us of our Heat Wave days.

Greek Islands 26th July 2011

An early start with the alarm going off at 2.30am – we left to head to Heathrow, to fly to Athens. 15 hours later, after car, airport bus, plane, train and ferry, we arrived at Serifos, to see Philip and Coreene waiting for us at the dock in the beautiful harbour of Livadi -almost out of a scene from Mama Mia.
Cruising memories came flooding back as we got on their dingy and headed out to Fabuloso, their 46 foot catamaran, which was to be our home for the next 9 days. Only one thing was missing, our darling Charlotte.

England 22th-26th July

We spent 4 days in Poole staying with my sister Sheila, Bob, Jake and Daniel. Denise, John and Claire also came down for the weekend and Charlotte loved catching up with her cousins (and aunts and uncles). We were fortunate in that the weather was lovely while we were there so we enjoyed some nice walks down to the beach, and a trip out on Sheila and Bob’s boat.



Sheila had bought Charlotte a bike which she loved riding everywhere. Friday we enjoyed a nice meal at the yacht club to celebrate Sheila’s birthday.


Jimmy got to see his friend Will, who happened to be in Swanage at the same time, and we also got to catch up briefly with Nicola, John, Jack and James from s/v Serephin, that we had been friends with in the Caribbean.

Denise, John and Claire drove back to London Monday night, taking Charlotte with them, to look after her for 10 days while we went away to Greece, just the 2 of us!

Amsterdam 21st July

Once off the ship we caught a taxi and then train to Amsterdam airport, checked our luggage for our flight that didn’t leave until later that evening and headed into Amsterdam for the day.
We bought a day ticket on the hop on hop off boats on the canal (Amsterdam’s equivalent of the hop-on-hop-off tourist buses that you see in most major cities).


Due to a mixture of being tired, and then it rained, we ended up going round on the different routes for 4 hours!! Finally we got off and had a look around, stopping for an Amstel beer on the Amstel river (how Amsterdam got its name).

Heading back to the train station, we found ourselves walking through the red light district! We kept Charlotte from looking in the shop windows, where there were some very rough, old and fat ladies sitting, smoking, displaying their wears. We also saw the “Coffee Houses” that Amsterdam is famous for, with their liberal rules on the sale of pot. I naively wondered how someone would know if they were going in to buy a café latte or something a bit stronger!



Train back to the massive Amsterdam airport, plane, car rental, we eventually arrived at my sister Sheila’s house at about 1.30am. That day we had been on so many different types of transport: cruise ship, taxi, train, canal boat, plane and car!

Last 2 days 20-21st July

From Cobh, we sailed around the bottom of England and then through the English Channel to Rotterdam. This is supposedly one of the busiest channels in the world. After seeing very little traffic on the Atlantic, we were suddenly surrounded by large boats, going in all directions. At one point we were able to see both France and the White Cliffs of Dover, England.

We arrived into Rotterdam, Netherlands early Thursday morning. Rotterdam is the largest seaport in the world. It was quite interesting to see the enormity of it, as we slowly glided a long way in to the inner harbour, to the Holland America dock.

Cobh / Cork / Kinsale - Ireland 19th July

After 7 days at sea, we arrive in Cobh, near Cork, Ireland. The temperature had certainly dropped since we left New York, but we knew we weren’t here for the weather!  The town was very pretty, as we arrived into the bay, with the houses painted all different colours.



Layered up in all the long sleeved clothes we possessed, we headed off to collect the rental car and go exploring.  Cobh is actually the seaport for Cork and it was also where the Titanic and Lusitania left from, before their disaster.  Also over 3 million people have emigrated from here, mostly to the USA over a period from 1850-1970.

We drove over to Kinsale, on the coast, 25 miles away, through beautiful countryside, also including a 5 minute ferry ride with the car (saving us about an hour of driving). Kinsale is the sister city of Newport Rhode Island and also the sailing capital of Ireland.

First stop was the White House pub.  Friends had told us that they have a very good 9/11 memorial, which was nice to see in a foreign country. 


The main purpose for going to the White House and Kinsale, was to get directions from the Owner Michael Frawley (and ex mayor of the town) to visit the “Garden of Remembrance” about 3 miles out of Kinsale.

The Garden of Remembrance is a memorial for the 343 firefighters that died in 9/11. Nurse Kate Murphy, who worked in NYC for many years and retired in Kinsale, planted 343 trees, one for each of the fire fighters that died, with their name and fire company.  Unfortunately she just passed away last March at the young age of 62.  What a beautiful memorial Nurse Kate provided, for the firefighters and families.  Words cannot express the feelings Jimmy had.  We spent about 2 hours there and Jimmy went around cleaning up some of the name plaques. Plus the sun was shining and they said we had one of the nicest days that they had had in a month in Ireland!  It was quite a beautiful experience.

After stopping there, Jimmy had a pint (or 2) of Irish beer (bigger than a USA pint!!) in a typical Irish pub with Michael, the owner of the White House (not 1600 Penn. Ave)  On the way there we were trying to recall the owner’s name and Charlotte chirped up “I know, Its O’Bama!” (note the Irish adaptation!)

Jimmy was very happy that the boat did stop only 25 miles from the Garden of Remembrance.

Then it was time to get back to Cobh, return the car, a quick look around town and back on the boat by 5.30pm.

New York to Rotterdam on the ms Rotterdam 12th-21st July 2011

Tuesday 12^th July we boarded Holland America ss Rotterdam in Manhattan for our 9-day sail across the Atlantic, to Rotterdam.  We left New York with great weather, passing familiar sights and enjoying a glass of champagne as the skyline went into the distance.

Behind Jimmy is the World Trade Centre finally rising again, almost 10 years later.  Jimmy enjoyed passing his neighborhood in Brooklyn on the way out, making calls to all his friends and family, telling them to look out for the boat.

From the start, Charlotte was in her element.  Unlike the 6 kids of the last cruise in Brazil, there were now 100, and Charlotte just made it into the “tweens” group age 8-12.  As an 8-year-old “tween”, she was now allowed to sign herself in and out of kids’ club (with our permission).  The ship was the same layout as our previous long cruise, so Charlotte was very familiar with it and before long, her and some new girlfriends were signing themselves out of kids’ club to go “exploring round the ship” and playing Hide and Seek.  More than once I found them in the restaurant eating ice cream!  It was a newfound freedom for her, in a safe environment.

We soon got back into the “Life on Deck”.  This cruise we had a Veranda Suite at the back of the boat, which was very nice, in particular for the first few days, which were warm and sunny and we could watch the sunset. 


However, later in the trip we were surrounded by fog! By the end of the trip, the sunset cocktails turned into snuggling up with the blanket on the lounger in the north Atlantic! (and it’s July!)

We soon got into our routine.  With only a little home schooling on this cruise, I played bridge each afternoon (they had a good 8 table game each day), fortunately finding a nice partner of similar level.

Jimmy enjoyed the extensive library (in particular the very comfortable chairs, that it seemed most people seemed to fall asleep on each afternoon!!)  Charlotte loved kids club and made lots of friends, and then we would all meet up at the pool later in the afternoon.

The evening routine consisted of sitting with Charlotte while she ate earlier, and then, while she went kids club, we enjoyed wonderful dinners in the dining room, having fun and interesting conversations with different people at the open seating each night and then enjoying spectacular shows.

On the final night we all had dinner together in the dining room with another family we had all become friends with.

We met a number of families on the ship that were moving to Europe (with tales of anywhere from 10-20 bags of luggage in their rooms (not to mention the children!))  With the cost of excess baggage on airplanes nowadays, this is certainly a more economical way to travel transatlantic (not to mention having a vacation at the same time!!)

On the road again.... for 6 months - First Stop Brooklyn!! 9th July 2011

We set off from Bermuda on Saturday 9^th July, for 6 months of traveling.  First stop, Brooklyn, New York to stay with Jimmy’s brother Kenny.

We had 3 great days in New York, visiting Jimmy’s family, meals out and also doing some touristy things in Manhattan.

We visited Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village.

Charlotte and I rented roller blades in Central Park and skated a total of about 100 blocks!

Charlotte had fun with her cousins in Long Islands (well actually her cousins children!)