Spent some days in sandy Pylos last week. Visited the tholos (Mycenaean) tomb called Thrasymedes’. (A son of ‘wise’ Nestor, wanax of Pylos and giver of mostly bad advice in the Illiad. His reputed palace in the nearby hinterland I visited some years ago.)

Making 6.5-7 knots on a beam reach below Mt Taygetus

Persuasion is basically the second half of a much longer novel. Austen just decided not to write the first part. This is why it is her best novel

Mandatory yacht inspection by the harbormaster of Sami, Kefalonia. Frankly she was embarrassingly easy to bribe.

Reaching between Κεφαλονιά and Ζάκυνθος. 5-6 knots in 10-12 knots of wind.

At anchor, dusk, in the bay of Abelike, Meganisi, just north of Ithaki. We’re bound for Patras, then onwards to the Corinthian Canal.

love the brits (www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...)

Rewired Indigo's 2x 130w solar panels from series to parallel (better performance when one is shaded - increased current isn't a concern with such a small array). Add the new lifeline mounting location (which reduces overall shade), & Apollo's fulgent summer sun 🇬🇷, & voila: our first kWh day!

Indigo coming into anchor under sail ⛵️#sailing Palairos, 8-10 knots of wind. (The yankee is furled to manage speed, and you can see the anchor prepped below bobstay.) Great video courtesy of Sam from Sheffield.

I'm concerned people think I'm joking about this.

Leaving a Lefkas marina pontoon under sail power alone ⛵️ (conditions were optimal: wind fifteen on the nose, marina’s exit astern, Indigo moored to end of the pontoon)

Anchored for tonight off Aetos, Ithaki. Here, a bronze age citadel of lesser fame than Mycenae or Pylos - is it Odysseas’ palace 🏺? We’ve come two & a half miles from Vathy. I sailed it on wind which was mostly just rumour - an hour or more, fifteen tacks, to drift out the harbor channel ⛵️ #sailing

Neat close to beam reaches south, Livadi Bay, today

Close hauled in seven knots, tacking south and past the sunset to Kefalonia.

Reaching from ancient Torone down to Antipaxos

Newly repaired foresail looking fly in 5-7 knots off the port beam. (She’d taken a beating in the 40+ knot blow between Sardinia and Sicilia.) 5 stars & my thanks Quantum Sails Corfu, a family-owned sail loft which appreciates that boats should have soul ⛵️:)

Indy sailing herself into Nsis Vido anchorage in light airs. She’s 26 and able to look after herself!

a poem

Greece 🇬🇷! Close reaching into Cocyra after a heavy crossing from Krotone

Rounding Capo Rizzuto in 20+ knots

Seems unwise to name a boat after an object whose most famous property is being stuck on a rock 🗡️🪨

Reaching east from Mt. Etna.

Dolphins escorted Indy into the Taormina Roads

Rounding Punto Pezzo

⛵️🏺Charybdis: five minutes to reef from 12 knots…

Rafted up at the Costa Viola Y.C.

famous mostly for being crassly rich, too

the Tyndaridae (that’s Castor & Pollux), Quasimodo’s “Wind at Tindari” so apposite, the byzantine black madonna of Tindari: all these I made accidental pilgrimage to yesterday. Now they or meteorological circumstance bless the Bay of Oliveri with a seven knot breeze. #sailing ⛵️

Sailed and hiked to Tyndaris today

Tacking out of Mylae. We’re bound for Tyndaris, a few miles back west

shhh don’t spook the wind making 3ish in 6ish knots over the port beam on short crossing to Vulcano

While anchored off Tusa, an unexpected wind came up two mornings ago. I’d already spotted the Aeolians beckoning just on the northern horizon, so I sprang on the wind…

It’s slow going without wind! But on the upside the calm seas made it safe to anchor just off the beach at Alaesa, a hellenized Sicilian polis just beyond Cefalu. (The modern down is called Tusa.) Of little note, it rates a passing mention in Cicero and…

Still waiting for a decent wind. A slow week on the north coast of Sicily. Sailed slowly into Cefalu two days past.

Anchoring off the beach at Himera - after Marsoelle, Empiries, and Selinous, the westernmost indisputable Greek polis. No harbor, but anchoring off the beach ok: no wind forecast for another 6 days :(.

Moored in Panormus - the all-harbor. A lively sail east on a mild mistral, with the sun setting over Mons Pecararo.

Made a friend while wandering the streets of Emporion Segestum last night (Castellammare del Golfo) Eventually his mom came by and reproached him for trusting the laps of strangers so readily 😸

Landfall Sicily. It was a wild one - bare pole running at 6+ most of last night! At points 30 gusting 40 with 3m+ 🌊. Fickle February Med ⛵️ Here’s dawn today

Broad reaching at 6+ in 20 knots. Two reefs. We’re 14m E of the Isle dei Cavoli & #sailing into the sunrise :)

To Sicily! I’ve a ~three day weather window to cross before the violent mistral that has characterized this Sardinian February returns. Was lucky enough to sign on a watch keeper - Tim, a very tall German. He’s been adventuring about Italy in a solar-electric van! Expect landfall Trapani 36h.

Aotearoa ❤️

A 2,700 year old Phoenician scarab seal, created in what is now Lebanon, has been unearthed at the Nuragic site of Ruinas in Sardinia.

More engine trouble! Left Cagliari yesterday; engine died ugly. Fixing myself today, I hope - looks like an oil leak. Got to sail back to dock though - that was fun (in retrospect). Jibed to the dock under triple reefed main alone (thanks to @pinoseed-connect.bsky.social for the action shots).

Safely docked in Karalis. A nice pic of Indy coming in, courtesy of @pinoseed-connect.bsky.social - who also welcomed me to the dock :)!

🌈 Chia, Sardinia

Delayed my departure from Carloforte by a day to help a Brit move his big ol’ tourist catamaran to a yard at Sant’Antioco. Nice to do a little job. My fellow crewman was a local; his mate gave us a ride back to the ferry. This evening I’m on my way to Malfatano. There’s a tophet there - macabre!

6 hours in Rome - she’s ancient, of course: here’s the forum, curia, coliseum -

That gale I weathered off W. Sardinia was the outer tail of the appositely Cyclone Harry :) Not to be glib, but conditions even in the thick of the cyclone sounded like just another Wednesday off Land’s End, Cornwall. Or at least a few Wednesdays I had there! (18-20 ft seas, 30 to 40 knots wind)

Goodbye Balearics! We make east for Sardinia then Bizerte. Wind middling. I thoroughly enjoyed the temporada baja, the new year on these summer islands.

Easy reaching between the Balearics