Happy Christmas to all!

Hi there- well it certainly is a Happy Christmas for us! We arrived in Antigua on Dec 20th after 21 days at sea. Fairly good passage, but we struggled with having enough wind even though we were in the tradewind belt.

The 'jock crew' - (4 strapping guys plus Irena) was great - but we managed to make it through ALL of our provisions. We had challenges as well with a fresh water leak and a propane leak, so we were rationing pretty carefully near the end of the passage. We actually ran out of propane 3 days before we arrived in Antigua, but had managed to cook up all the food before hand and use the microwave to heat things up.

Very grateful that Cress held on the that old microwave, that I was ready to toss out before we left Turkey!!! That saved the day.

It is now Christmas Eve and we have a new crew - dear friends AL and Leona from Vancouver and Cress's daughter Breanna - so we are cooking a Polish Christmas Eve meal for tonight and have a turkey thawing for Christmas day. We will be at anchor in a beautiful bay in Antigua before shoving off for Guadeloupe on Boxing day.

Loving the Caribbean people, weather and turquoise water, lots of snorkeling and swimming to be done over the next few weeks as we make our way down the chain of islands to Grenada.

Hope to send photos soon - but internet continues to be a huge challenge.

Merry Christmas to all from the crew of Conversations.

Irena and Cress

Down Wind Sailing?

Well our bags are packed, we're ready to go....
Winds from the north, 20 to 15 knots..... could it be? Downwind sailing at last is here for us?
Been in the Canaries this last week preparing for our passage to the Caribbean. New crew onboard - Lyle, Mitchel and Willy. The five of us set sail this morning in a few hours. We expect to be less than 3 weeks on passage to Antigua. We will be better blog keepers we promise with Canary pictures and the story when we arrive there just before Christmas. Cress

Outta here!

 Gibraltar to Morocco!

Well my goodness- it took A LOT of upwind sailing - but we are finally out of the Med - through the Straights of Gibraltar and on the African continent - in Morocco at last! Once again though, we are waiting out some rainy weather and high contrary winds in Tangier (not exactly yacht friendly!!) before hopping down the coast.

We (the girls - now including my niece Anastasia) did manage to get off the boat for a road trip yesterday while Cress minded the boat - mainly because we are the 5th boat rafted up to a mangy dock behind an out of service ferry! Also, Cress had one of those nasty jobs to do yesterday fixing the head pump - guess that's the price for having the harem crew doting on him ;-).

In any case, we are ready to set sail as soon as possible - maybe tonight or early morning and make time down the coast.We opted to skip Casablanca when we heard the population is 4 million - after being in Tnagier a mere 1 million and being constantly accosted in the medina (not a pleasant experience at all) - but still would really like to see Marrakesh and the desert and the wild, wild, west coast of Morocco.

Otherwise, all well on board!

These photos are from the blue town we visited called Chefchaouen - on the mountains about 2 hours east of Tangier.

Safe in Gibraltar!

Update.

Fabulous sail today. Having beat our brains our short tacking the coast of Spain day and night,against 20 and 30 knot headwinds, (under power and sail), this morning we hit the far western end of the Med and caught a break with a long single tack beat down to the rock! Gibraltar! We did it Turkey to Gibraltar. We left Turkey, October 4th, arrived here November 8th. One heck of a lot of upwind sailing!

Tied to seagull-shit festooned dock for tonight, too tired to care or go ashore! 

Details to follow.

C

The Harem Crew rocks

Ahem…..

…….

…Ahhhemm! 

Which one is the squash? (hint - none of them, its a carved Halloween melon
Ask Barb)

.........

Testing…testing one, two, three….. four.

Hmmm, well it still seems to work….

……

Well, Hello!

Some of you may have been wondering where is Cress's voice in all of this on the blog. Where is the Captain!?

Indeed, maybe you haven't noticed, and that's okay, but I certainly have been wondering!

You see, I am the lone man on a boat load of four. All three of our crew are, shall we say, 'mature' women, each quite practiced in being in command all on their own. And taken together on a boat? Well, they practically don't even need a captain!

Ellen, Barb, Irena, left to right

They are impressive. They show up for watch at every ungodly hour and in every kind of weather, on time and in good spirits, dressed sensibly no less. Like a trio of Broncos they hang on and steer without complaint while the salt water runs down the back of their jackets and the boat bounces through the short Mediterranean chop. They take sailing orders without complaint or question, and learn quickly which of the endless ropes to cleat, release, pull, wrap, coil, etc… And -- this is what separates them from the more macho crew we have had the pleasure of - they also clean, tidy and organize below until the boat is in Bristol shape. And each meal from their galley is a feast fit for any time or place. They plan and shop up all the food, organize it in our fridge and freezer, and serve it up each meal with wine and we practically eat off white table cloths, almost.

And they get along. They stand watch together, cook together, clean together, do their toe nails together, talk, talk, talk, even sleep together (well not in that way of course, but you know how much more comfortable women are bunking in together). They flow. Doubtless you have pondered how seamlessly a school of fish cohere and move as a singularity, or the wondered at the way a flock of birds fly together, as if a single intelligence. And so we have it on Conversations. I suppose it helps that Irena and Barb are sisters, and that Ellen and Barb go way, way back, and that all three then share a common life history of Winnipeg winters and Whiteshell Lake cottage summers.  They practically finish one another's sentences! And, they are, perhaps, the best crew I have ever had!

Can one man manage?

Wuat's a guy to do?

So boys, a new standard has been set. Lyle, Mitch, Willie, the bar is high. The challenge formidable. When we go from an all-woman crew to an all-male crew to sail across the Atlantic in December from the Canaries

Irena will be there to witness our glory or our ignominy. Let’s show them how men!

Malta

We have been in Malta since Sunday afternoon - loving it here! Earthy, gritty (but in a charming way), rich with so much history. We will be here until Friday/Saturday waiting out high winds and stormy weather coming from the NW. Once it has passed we will make a dash for Sardinia.


The following was written by Ellen during our passage and approach to Malta......

Sunday Oct 19th 12:00  We are about 25 nautical miles out of Malta.  We are passing through the gauntlet of about 18 ships of all sizes anchored in the open sea waiting for their turn to enter Malta.  This is day 5 of our passage to Malta.  We have been fighting a strong head wind from the west for 3 and a half of the 5 days.  For most of the time our sailboat has been heeled {tilted to one side}.  So life has been interesting with regard to eating, sleeping, cooking and going to the head.  The stove "floats" so we can always cook.


We take turns doing night watches, Cress and  I (Ellen) from 9pm to 2am then Irena and Barb till 7am.   Barb and I have moved into to the salon to sleep.   The v berth {in bow} is too rough for sleeping and also we have a leak coming from the forward hatch from the spray of salt water coming over the bow.  The weather has been great but the nights and star gazing have been outstanding.  Barb has an app on her iPhone to help us figure out some of the constellations.  There is always the milky way and the big dipper no matter where you are the world.  Last night Cress put out a lawn chair on the aft deck so we could watch the meteor shower show.  I relaxed and had my feet up in the lawn chair gazing the sky. 

We are looking forward to about 3 or 4 days in and around Malta.  Have you noticed that I have been using sailing terms?  Yes!!  My education of the language of Sailing is expanding.  It started before I stepped onto the gangplank onto the sailboat.  O silly me, it's not a pirate ship.  I was thinking of the grandkids. The parisole is the correct name for the gangway.  Cress and Irena have been so patient in showing us the ropes and there are a lot of ropes on board but they are not called ropes but rather "lines". Sometimes they look into our eyes to see if we understand but they see only the "deer in the head lights" blank stare.   We have 3 sails; the Mainsail, the Genoa and the Staysail, all of  which in turn have there own lines.  The line to pull up the Mainsail  is called the halyard.   Good thing I knew where port and starboard are MOST of the time. 

As I walk around the deck of the boat I hold onto a lifeline which encirles the boat. The most important rule? "Do not fall off the boat, DO NOT FALL OFF THE BOAT!!!  From reefs, boom ,vang ,windvane, backstay, topping lift, dodger, and list goes on, good thing there is no written test.  When I am at the helm, Cress asks me to sail high (he does not mean on drugs!) so I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right.  I have warded off Alzheimer's for at least a few more years with all this new knowledge.  As we zig and zag (Opps I mean tack) across the Med, I am looking forward to every new moment.  Land ! I see LAND!!!  Malta here we come.

Onward - to Malta and Beyond!

After 11 days out we are just about to begin our first overnight passage - from Crete to Malta. The past 10 days have been very busy getting ourselves organized, getting everyone used to the routine, provisioning and squeezing in a bit of sight seeing in both Rhodes and Crete. Barb and Ellen got a real taste of all different points of sail, especially with the 5 days of upwind tacking in 25-35 knots of wind. Now that was work! But now even Ellen's stomach has adjusted and all of us feel quite ready to move on.

The high winds have subsided and it looks as though we will be in for a pleasant, albeit slow passage to Malta. This will be a first for Ellen and Barb - sailing all night long, taking turns on watch and trying to sleep while underway. They are doing great though - our meals have been fantastic and all photos are courtesy of these 2 fine women. It is a real pleasure having them on board. And Cress gets lots of 'well done!' looks when everyone sees his all female crew! He just keeps smiling and letting them wonder how in the heck he managed it!




We are now tied up to the seawall in Chania in Crete, loading up with water and fuel and as soon as we pick up our laundry and a few more fresh veggies, we will be outta here.This 400 NM passage should take about 3-4 days depending of course on WIND :-).

By the way, I am truly having a hard time being without a phone!! No texting, no facetime, no instant emails.... but am slowly adjusting (NOT!). But mostly I am missing contact with Jenn and Krissy. Cress has managed to get a wireless working on the boat now, so we can all connect whenever we get a data cardin each country - so that will help!

Out for now,
Irena