Malta to Crete
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The plan is to leave late in the afternoon of Thursday the 3rd June and arrive sometime Saturday. Its 480 miles and we always plan to arrive in daylight according to the forecast. We hoist the spinnaker in 15 knots of breeze and settle down to drinks and toast the soon disappearing Maltese Islands. The sunset is fabulous and we soon start our single hourly watch plan through the night. For a short while the sock on the spinnaker is pulled down but the spinnaker stays hoisted. The wind fills in and out goes the spinnaker and doesn't come down for 2 days.
We cross the deepest part of the Med at 4300 metres and it is the most beautiful deep purple blue colour. The moon is full and very bright so makes the night seas interesting.
For the two days we see very few ships and no other yachts.
Memorable moments apart from the fine dining, wine, good company and old school stories .We pass a large object and decide to circle. It's attached to a very large rope in 3000 meters of water and also circling it is a shark. There goes our perception of no sharks in the Med. A very airy sight and sail on. We have very few dolphins but one lot came as a surprise and gave us a great show leaping 3 meters into the air. Also out on the horizon a large ship with a huge wake is sighted and I comment through the binoculars its looks like one of those ferry things they build in Tasmania. So Ian calls her up on the VHF radio, Tim the XO responds and sure enough it is US Army, the USS Spearhead and was built by Incat in Hobart. Small world as Tim knows Rowdy (Stephen McCullu
m) from Incat very well. Rowdy sailed 2 Hobarts with Ian on Merit .We had also seen Spearhead in Sydney during her sea trials. She is big and fast and is soon out of sight. Funny how things happen, we have no one come near us and when they do we have a connection.
Our guests are too comfortable so 15 hours still to go the wind comes on the nose and builds up a sea. The girls head for their bunks and the boys love this crashing and rolling stuff. It's now baked beans and cornflakes on the menu and by morning Crete is in our sights. Winds abate and its time for steak and eggs and enter the port of Chania. Crete with its high 2500 metre mountain range is baron, sandstone colour and blue Med Sea. Chania is a Venetian seaside town with lots of character and too many tourists. We tie up to the old sea wall lined with restaurants over looking the Venetian built stone light house still in use.
The weather is now settled and we are looking forward to finding bays and anchoring out. We sail east along the northern side of Crete and find paradise in a cove called Lautarki with one taverna on the beach and we are the only boat. Dinner in the next bay of Marathi, a local Cretan fishing beach side resort its octopus, shrimps, horta (green veg), stuffed tomatoes and Greek salad. Beautiful white sandy beach, a refreshing swim off the boat, we expect this for the next 4 months.
Motoring to Rethimno its flat calm and visit what the book tells us is the most beautiful port in Crete. 
A few hours is enough and motor on to Iraklion , the capital of Crete, and according to the pilot book not a very attractive place. We find it interesting and have learnt to make our own judgement. We find a tight space in the old Venetian port with the original galley sheds overlooking us. We finally get customs clearance here after the two previous ports found it too difficult. After two hours of officials in three different departments Ian finally was issued with the Transit Log and was pleasantly surprised to find there was no charge. Despite the bureaucracy if you read Jimmy Cornells World Cruising Handbook you will find that it is more difficult for visitors to enter Australia
Nick and Michele leave us here to return to their Camel Touring business in Alice Springs and Kevin Horne from the CYCA and Wildthing will join us for 7 days. We are heading for Turkey and then back into the Greek Islands.