Spacegrazer

Saying Hiya! to Hades Ancient Greek legend has it that the caves at Diros were the entrance to Hades – the underworld, the realm of the dead… We dropped our anchor in the bay just outside this entrance, and made our way to the visitors’ centre to buy ourselves some tickets. Because you don’t just […]

Early morning arrival After an overnight sail from the island of Milos, which covered about 80 sea miles, we arrived at Monemvasia on the Greek mainland early in the morning. The sun was just rising. The tiny peninsula of Monemvasia looks like a massive lump of rock from a distance. As you get closer, you […]

Santorini is such a stunning, strange place, that I do not even know how to start to describe it. Wikipedia has this to say: Santorini is essentially what remains after an enormous volcanic eruption that destroyed the earliest settlements on a formerly single island, and created the current geological caldera. […] It is the most […]

Let them eat cake We had a birthday coming up on Spacegrazer and the kids were very excited about it. Granddad would turn 68 while staying with us. We had already shopped for cake ingredients a while back, so we could be sure that wherever we would be, we would be able to celebrate properly. […]

Friends reunion We arrived in Kos a couple of days before Max’s mum and dad were set to fly in from New Zealand. We would use that time to tidy up and clean the boat, sort out cabins, stock up on supplies, etcetera. But first, we wanted to catch up with Jack & Julia and […]

  Making friends On our way south to Kos to meet up with Max’s mum and dad, we stayed in Patmos a few days. A couple hours after anchoring up, a boat with a Dutch flag came sailing into the bay, with kids on board! So we waved ecstatically and invited them on board. Wouter, […]

Things the kids were into in August 2017 Swimming (duh) Board games and puzzles Playmobil Zoë likes to sit high up in the cockpit when we are sailing and yell into the wind: “Woohoo, this is amazing!” Beau loves doing yoga. Funny stuff they said this month Zoë: Max: “Zoë, you will be 5 next […]

Millionaires’ idyllic island We are making our way south through the Eastern Aegean Sea, more or less in a straight line down from Lesbos, via Chios, Patmos, and some smaller islands in between, to Kos. At the end of one sailing day, the anchorage we planned to stay at on Chios was not as sheltered […]

Island under pressure After Jean left us in Mitilini on Lesbos, we stayed there for a few days to load up on provisions and fill the tanks with diesel. The kids enjoyed the local playground. We enjoyed the bustling old streets lined with shops and restaurants. But there was something in the air that made […]

Can I invite myself? A couple of weeks ago Max received a message from his auntie Jean. She had been following our journey and was wondering whether she could tag along with us for a few days, or a week, or whatever. She would be flexible and would meet us wherever was convenient. We thought […]

Reunion We had been on Alonissos island for a while, waiting for Max’s hand to heal and then waiting for some packages to be delivered – with parts for boat repairs. Then on one glorious day, the packages arrived, and our friends Oliver, Sinem and their son Henry on sailing vessel High Flight dropped by […]

Heading for the Sporades islands from the Corinth Canal, we made a couple of short stops. We enjoyed being anchored in the bay under Cape Sounion for a couple of nights. It is a beautiful place, with an ancient temple to Poseidon on the top of the cape. Temple raiders We met up with Stella […]

We have gone through the Corinth Canal; and are now sailing the Aegean! Going through the canal was very exciting. It is a very impressive structure, with high walls on either side and a couple of bridges going over it. Some facts Wikipedia says about the canal: “The Corinth Canal is a canal that connects […]

Our journey towards Corinth continues. We stayed in the bay just outside Galaxidi for a couple of days to relax and celebrate my birthday! Birthday celebrations I always miss my family and friends on special occasions, but I have to admit that this year I had so much fun on my birthday it made up […]

We are heading east through the Gulf of Patras and then the Gulf of Corinth, to cross from the Ionian Sea to the Aegean Sea by way of the Corinth Canal. Messalongion We stayed in Messalongion for one night, “famous” because Lord Byron died there. It’s a funny little place at the end of a […]

Visiting another beautiful island We arrived in Ithaca, famed home of Odysseus, two days before Beau’s sixth birthday. The grammar school geek in me was quite excited about being on the island that Homer’s hero was from (although there are convincing theories supporting that Odysseus was not from present-day Ithaca, but one of the neighbouring […]

Things the kids were into in May 2017 Swimming. They are in the water all day! Lego – especially Beau Home-made play dough. We don’t really like having play dough around as it gets into everything and we worry about it blocking the bilge… which would prevent water from being pumped out of the boat. […]

We are now in Vlikho bay on Lefkada (I thought it was called Lefkas – maybe that’s a Dutch thing). The bay is very large but calm, with lots of anchored boats quietly bobbing along. More Friends’ Reunions The minute we arrived we started looking around for the blue hull of our friend Peter’s boat. […]