Miss Blue Sky/// Antibes-Herzeliya
Sailing the Mediterranean
with a Leopard 48' Catamaran
Route Map:
From Antibes we sailed to Calvi. No wind, no waves. and the best part - we caught our 2 beautiful Tuna fish, 15 KG each!
Calvi is set on a beautiful turquoise bay, with a surreal atmosphere: an ancient French castle, group of horse riders in the water, pine trees, and… Army parachutes!
While cleaning the Tuna fish, we received a visit from a huge Manta Rey, nibbling on the tuna bites.
We spent 3 days in Calvi, where my wife and the kids arrived.
Our Journey started in Antibes, where we received the boat from the Leopard Team who sailed it from the shipyard in South Africa.
There were 4 of us – our Captain – Yotam, my daughter, Shira, Shay and I. We spent 2 weeks preparing the boat for its first journey. We were assisted by Arno from Leopard, who helped us tremendously.
We got all fishing gear at guigomarine.com – great service and a very knowledgeable team. Then shopped for most of the rest at Metro - very convenient! and ofcourse, France is a very good place to load up on food and wine!
And so we went on our first trial sail, in front of Cannes seashore, and broke the traditional Champagne bottle.
From Calvi we sailed to Ajaccio & Bonifaccio. With waves as high as 2-3 meters on the way, we were impressed with the boat's performance, the Leopard held well to the pressure! Ajjacio is an ancient city built on a cliff, it is a must-see!
We anchored there for 4-5 days and hired a car for one day to go up the mountains and look at the view.
In Bonifaccio we sailed into a beautiful turquoise cave. We got right up to its opening with the boat but the pole was too high, so we too the tender.
The Aeolie Islands are just gorgeous! It’s a beautiful area:
Lipari – Volcano – Salina – Strombolly.
Sailing from the Aeolie Islands to Corfu through Messina was a very special experience: we sailed at high speed in high waves and many dolphins and whales that came to say hello – it was charming!
Then we got stuck in Capelonia for 3 days because of the bad weather, then sailed out at night, in pitch black sea, in the rain. It was a beautiful adventure!
Agios Stephanos is a beautiful little bay with an excellent local tavern, specializing in sea food. It’s a very nice place to take the tender and cruise between the little beautiful lagoons, surrounded by pine trees growing right on the sea shore and local taverns, each having their own dock, so you can tie the tender and go up to eat. This area has some especially beautiful spots with the most wonderful views/ observation points.
And we saved the best for last - Kastelorizo - a picturesque island in the south-east of Greece. An impossibly blue harbour lined with a colourful array of old Ottoman-style houses, with gorgeous food served - a beautiful marriage of Turkish and Greek influences.