Rocked to Sleep - Nice to be Aboard, WTRD 26, Sunday, September 4

Malama - In the Middle

Rocked to Sleep - Nice to be Aboard

We sleep in again today, check out at noon leaving our bags at the apartment, hang out in a local restaurant until 3:00, and try to find our boat.  Either we have totally lost our map reading skills or the drawn arrow on the map where the boat was supposed to be moored was incorrect.  Finally we call our skipper's number and he directs us to the correct location, however, the boat wouldn't be ready for us to board until 4:00. We hung out some more in the apartment lobby until 4:00 and our Airbnb host drove us to the port which we actually could have walked, but the ride was much appreciated.

Meet the Crew

We met our Skipper Rory and First Mate Cassandra (Cass), a young couple from the UK 

and France, and Chris from the UK, one of the other passengers.  

The four other passengers were out sight seeing.  After dinner out, we returned to the boat, a Jeanneau 52.5, 1998.  There are four staterooms, set up for eight.  There are seven us, one man (Chris), two women friends (Debra and Lynne) together from the UK

and a young couple (Matias - Matty  and Natalia - Natty) from Chile.

We are in the port stern stateroom, under the cockpit area.  It's roomy enough.  Our medium size gear bag fits under the Saloon table and looks dwarfed by the bag Natty brought.  We had arranged our stuff so we could park the bigger bag all week with never opening it.  The other stuff fit well into the lockers.  Stressed for nothing.  No worries mate.  We're aboard!

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's Rocking to Sleep

Lavrione (Lavrio) Greece - WTRD 25, Saturday, September 3

Relaxing in the Charter Boat City of Lavrio, Greece

It is the first time in three weeks that we have been able to sleep in and have nothing on our agenda.  

It's a breezy day in Lavrio, the jump off port for the Cyclades, (pronounced Kiklades) Islands. Sailing charter boats from crewed to bareboat, line the docks. Our itinerary will take us from Lavrio to Santorini via Kithnos, Siros, (northern Cyclades), Paros and Naxos, Delos, Mikanos  (middle Cyclades), Ios and Thira -Santorini (southern Cyclades).

We walked around the town, looked at all the charter boats in the Marina, trying to find ours, but didn't see it.   

Maybe, it will come in tomorrow.? I'm stressing about our luggage fitting on these boats. With our gear for Iceland to Morocco, we think we have more than our stateroom will accommodate.  I fear we may be sleeping on top of the bags. 

We found a geocache near the marina (309 world wide), had great pastries for breakfast, moussaka and Greek salad for dinner.

All is well with the Worrall Travel R's in Lavrio, Greece.

Goodbye Moldova, Hello Greece, WTRD 24, Friday, September 2, 2016

The Power of Friendship - Thank you Friendship Force

We bid our Moldovan Host and Host Country of Moldova a fond farewell.  Mariana and Catalina left for work and school at 7:30 am.  Mariana's mom came over just before 11:00 with beautiful vegetables from her garden and prepared us a healthy lunch of tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, meats and fruits before the taxi picked us up just before noon.  Our exchange coordinators met us at the airport, helped us check in, and we gave each other tearful hugs as we departed.  Farewell Moldova. We hope to reciprocate your hospitality in California.   The power of friendship is awesome!

After a transfer in Bucharest, Russ and I arrived in Athens, took a taxi to Lavrio (about 70 kilometers west of Athens on the coast), and checked into our Airbnb by 10:30 pm). Our host Sophia was waiting for us and showed us our rooms.  This is a small apartment/hotel, recently remodeled.  We are close to the marina and have a small studio.  Very Nice.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's in Lavrio, Greece.

Gone Sailing in The Cyclades Islands, Greece.. WTRDs 24-33, Sept 2 -12, 2016

There was a time when I took a vacation that would leave a sign on my desk at work that said "Gone Sailing"  Well, I am taking some time off from blogging for the next week while we sail in the Cyclades Islands. The last three weeks have been fabulous, but blogging until 1 and 2 am have been fatiguing. Since we will probably only have a little bit of Internet time when we come into port, it's a good time to give it a rest. I'll post some photos when we are between Santorini and Athens.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's - Gone Sailing in Greece