Aaar mates.We are in one in the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We left Kos yesterday at 11 am and sailed until 4, motored for 2 hours until we came upon this most pristine place. I cant pronounce it or even try to spell it. Anchored out and will go to the village tomorrow. I went for my first swim in the med, I feel like a little boy again! The water is still cold. Check out pictures of this place, stunning!
Kayla I’m dying to hear from you. The internet is very iffy here in Greece, sometimes good, a lot of times not . A lot of salt. Pirate Mike saying aaar mates and have a good day! Lots of goats, chickens and stuff like that, more so in Turkey but still a bunch of animals that just walk the hillside here in Greece. The med was as flat as my stomach. We anchored at Lakki, island of Leros, a place where at one time they kept all the insane Greeks.
Brad and I cant agree on who should stay, I think he would fit right in, he disagrees and thinks it should be renamed “Pirate Mike Isle”
We both got Speedos and were arrested the minute we got off the dinghy for indecent exposure. We had to go before the judge and they agreed that he should pay the fine because he actually looked worse than me. We had a school of dolphins jump over the bow of the boat the other day, only in the Med!
Mike

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Mike and I have left the village of Simi after some days. We have moved to the lower end of the island to the Monastery at Panormittis. There are only 3 boats in the bay currently when I have seen as many as 45.
The lone monk came out in a small rowing boat to sell us bread he bakes daily. With time and not any boats he stays and talks. I am drinking red wine and invite him on board and he accepts.
After 2 bottles he says to come in the morning to the monastery and he has something to show us. We arrive and he takes us through some doors and then to the lower levels in like catacombs. Walking along we get to an area where there is stored hundreds of bottles of wine dating back to when the Germans occupied the island and brought their wines from France and Spain. There were bottles that they had made through the years. He gave us a bottle of his wine from 1996 that we will drink on a special occasion.
Pretty cool over all.
Brad

Greece, Simi May 16, 2011

We are now in Greece. Simi is a town where the sponges where harvested years ago but we think they get them from China now becuase it is more cost effective. The boxes are behind the buildings where we are at.
Being at the quay for 3 days you begin to see how things work in the village. Ihave added some pictures of this town.

The weather is finally getting warm and the sun is out.
Usually the rain in now gone until Sept. I have been doing some trading for new clothes for me. Vicky will be so proud of me. Nothing is broke on the boat right now so that is a nice feeling.

We were in some bays before arriving here that where so removed they were driving uncle Mike to the edge. A little bit of that is good but not too much.
Maybe moving tomorrow if the weather is good to look at a momestary where there are still monks that sell bread to the boaters in their bay.

Later,
Brad

Turkey May 12, 2011

The Evergreen is now located at a small harbor, Keci Buku, in Turkey. The wind to the west 20 miles has been blowing at 25 to 30 knots for about 5 days. The wind here is low and we are down in the bay so it has been fine. The weather has been cold during the nights and cool during the days.

We will be moving to a new anchorage today and most likely be in Simi, Greece by next week. Since it has been cold we are not venturing out much because when there is no sun and cold you lose interest in the surroundings.

The boat is in great shape do to Mike helping out on all the surfaces exterior, refinishing the interior floor and refinishing all the teak on the outside.

Here at Ersoy restaurant, the people are so nice and helpful you can hardly stand the kindness. Rorger, Gill and Doug from the motor yacht RIOCCA recommended it and are here with us now. We have enjoyed there company.

Some pictures are attached.

Brad
Evergreen

Mike Brunet and Brad Faber are back in Turkey preparing the Evergreen to set sail on the first of May.
We are refinishing all the outside teak with a sati finish instead of the high gloss that it has been in the past. Everything seams to be working now that we are back in the water.
We will start adding picture of Marmaris Harbor in the next days.

Weather is warm during the day and cool at night.

More to come. Brad

Have arrived at Sivota. The harbor has two fleets of rental boats that base here. This is monday morning and they cut them loose. Between the excitment that each boat has and the inexperience with the boats it is quite a show to see them leave.

The harbor is well protected and we are at anchor. The quay is out of the wind and is very hot.

we are going to stay one more night here before moving to Vasiliki.

Spain won the World Cup last night against Holland. It was an event at the local pub.

The resturants here are good and the people are concerned that your visit is good.

The olive trees cover the hillside and you can see trucks going up the steep roads hidden by the bush. I'm sure they know where every tree is. We havn't seen any rain in a few weeks and everything is still very green around here.

Brad

We have landed in Levkas after going through a canal and a swing bridge. We are anchored in the harbor where it is cool because of the wind. The town is hot hot.
We should stay a few days here before moving to the south. If you just come and go you never get a feel for the place.
On our way here we stopped at a harbor, Lakka, where we passed some people we met in malta while anchoring. Reinhold, Deborah and their friend Ray. It is always good to see people you have met.

We went to dinner a couple of nights to their favorite place. They have been coming for 3 or 4 years. By going to the same place you get special local drinks and desserts. The people are so friendly and helpful if you need to find something.

We then moved to Gaios town and parked at the key. I went to a local place where they press olives. I got a liter of olive oil right from the barrel of the first pressing. Rumor has it, that Harrods comes here to label their olive oil.

We will be moving to Sivota harbor in the next days. The water there is supposed to be so clear. The water here is at 85F. It is almost warm enough for me.

Check in a few days as we move to the port where we will pick up guests. We will put on the spot.
Brad

We are now in Corfu. We sailed 36 hrs. to get here and nobody is ready for the 4th of July weekend. No one is even talking about it.

It is nice to be back in the EU, something about going from the Harbor Master, to the Police, to the Customs guy, back to the Police and then back to the Harbormaster to get out of the country. All of them have a large stamps. and copies are in quadruple. Seems like a lot of paper work. Not only that, there are 3 people in each office waiting for you.

It is hard to break a system once it has been in place for a long time.

It is hot in Corfu, and it feels warmer here. We will be moving to the south starting tomorrow to pick up guests on the 14th in Athens. We should make it if we don't stop to talk to people. Seems to be our downfall for moving along. Ian is on his way to town tonight, you know it is Friday.

We are in a harbor tonight so we will fill up with fuel and water and move along. Most places we will anchor unless we go to a tie up for a dinner out.

I will send some good pictures once we start moving.

Brad and Ian

Hi all,

We have been in Croatia for 4 weeks now. Rik and Dinska met us in Zadar and we had some good sailing with the spinnaker on 2 days. the weather was good with lots of sun. It was good to see them. We went north from Zadar and ther were not many sailing boats in the area. the water is clear clear when the wind is not blowing.

We picked JM down from Zadar in a bay wherewe were anchored. He just left an hour ago.

We went to a national park and spent a couple of days that was quite nice. we then wnt to Sali for a friday night and met the Bora wind. The Bora comes down from the mountains at 40 to 50 knots. We were stuck in Sali for 4 days. Small town, good bar, good resturants but after 4 days it was enough. the weather broke ans we had a run down 55 miles to the south at an average.f 7.4 kts. under a double reef main ans 30% jib.

Next day we ran spinnaker in 20 knots, low seas with an average of 7.8 knots, clear, warm, sunny, the days you look for.

We went to the Split area for 2 days were we meet Clive that we had met in Italy 3 weeks earily.

He was the Captain of a 77ft. sailing boat.

Moving from Split to Dubrovnik was another day of spinnaker for the entire way with 16 kts. and sun with low seas.

Dubrovnik is were we met up with Sam and Cindy that were in Malta. It was very nice to see them They were a bit jealoys when they saw all the good times in Malta because they left early.

Sam grew up here so he is a health of information.

Ian and i are moving to Corfu in the next days and on to Greece to meet Ian's friends on July14th.

Jm has been a good mate on the boat. He has caught up on his sleep, and he can sleep if he has the time. We have seen some great places. Never thought we would be in this part of the world. Hope all is well with everyone following. Make sure you follow us on the Spot.

Brad

Leaving Malta 5-31-10

We should be leaving Malta tomorrow. The wind are suppose to be strong, above 25 knots, but we will see.

We have to meet Rik and Dinksa in Croatia on the 10th. so we need to get moving. Should be about 580 NM, so we have a few days of sailing and not much time to fool around.

The stay at Malta has been very good. The people are so nice and the prices for services are fair and thats all you ask.

Ther is so much history here for all to see. I would recommend this for people to visit.

The engine is fixed. Everthing above the block has been rebuilt or replaced and I only had one diesel leak when it started back up. There was a small crack in the injector return line that i hd to get brazed by a local man you took 20 seconds to complete. He wa so good at what he does, it was perfect. Had been doing that type of work since he was 14 years old.

Would like to thank the crew and the captain from the Marlena for all of the nice meals we had together and the time we had to exchange ideas and concepts from all the different cultures. It is like a real family and I welcome any to sail in the future if they have time. Especially to my new sons Rod and Taylor. All of the food was fantastic by Leonna and she taught me how to fix calamari. It wa so good. We probably won't see Laura due to her engagement and will be in France in her free time, I know I would be, sipping wine and smelling the flowers. Make sure to take time and do that.

Next post should be from Croatia. We will put the Spot on once we depart. It will be nice to get moving again. Hopefully the weather will stay warm now.

Brad and Ian

Malta Still Here

We are still in Malta. There are much worse places than here, but here weare.

We took the boat out for the shakedown and evergthing worked well except the engine overheating.

We got back in fine but the engine has positive pressure after 1 mnute of running and when the RPM's go up the temp. follows.

we now have the engine completly apart and the head has 2 very small spots where the cylinder pressure is leaking to the coolant water.

This happened in Flordia when we had water in the oil. The salt water scored the gasket and time has taken its toll.

The bus drivers going to downtown now call me by name when I get on the bus, so there are some good things about staying around for a while.

The head should be fixed tomorrow and we will put it back together. Freddie is taking care of the grinding of the head andgetting the parts for me. This is the best place for this to happen. We know people that know people.

We will probably leave on Monday because the 100 year old yacht Mir is having aparty on Sunday and we don't want to miss that.

Vicky was here for a week for her birthday. We had a nice time and met a lot of new poeple while she was here. She skould of spent more time but not this trip.

We have to meet Rik and Dinska in Croatia on the 10th of June so the presure is on to move. We have a lot of good places to go in Croatia because we met people who have been ther for 4 years and have special spots. They think we are going to have a great time.

As JM would say " we just pissed away another day and we didn't do anything".

This is a great spot for people crusing and we have had just a great time and the people here are just freindly and helpful.

We also inflated are liferaft taht was quite interesting to see what was inside. It has a lot of stuff inside to last for 10 days if you have to use it. we don't ever want to see it other than in the shop.

Brad and Ian

The Boats Floating

We are in the water finally.

The water line has been changed to accommodate the extra weight we have in the aft.

The spots from the salt water have been touched up on the mast and spreaders. Allis repainted.

We think we may stay here another couple weeks. People say the wind in Tunisia is up and the sand and dirt is carried on to the boats and it gets into everything. So we think we will pass this time.

The ports on the east coast of Sicily are also good so we will move that way as soon as we get ready to leave. The weather is warm now and the sun is hot and we are in a beautiful port so what the hurry is.

We now know the market is for good buys on fish and fresh food. There are some other things to do here but we just haven’t had any time making sure everything is ready for the launch.

We have met some good people here which always make it more interesting and you get good information.

The Pope was here Sunday; we were in the area and saw the crowds’ downtown but not the Pope up close.

Once we get I the water we will activate the spot and in the next few days we will need to do a shake down sail off the coast before we head out.

Keep in touch.

Brad and Ian

The Start of a New Year

Hello everyone,

Ian and I are back in Malta. we arrived yesterday after a stop in Belgium to see Rik and Dinska and their children. They have changed a lot in the 5 months when we stopped last to visit.

we spent Easter with Danny Carrette and his family. It was a traditional dinner with some wines. all of the boys had their female friends at dinner also. It's nice to see them moving forward in their lives and there nice girls.

Malta is sunny and 70 degrees during the day. The boat came through the winter months OK. We need to put a new water line in paint and touch up the bottom where we ran into a few things, but over all everything is in good shape.

We are staying a few blocks off the waterfront in an apt. while we are completing the prep work. the mast needs a bit of touch where the salt has attacked the paint where it has been nicked or scratched.

The fresh water in the Great Lakes doesn't attack the finish like it does in the salt.

We are scheduled to go in the water next Tuesday and the a few more days here before we leave for N. Africa for 3 weeks while it warms up in EU.

We had the Spot on today for awhile so we should show up on google earth.

We are also going to do a better job of keeping up with the blog. Hope we don't see any pirates in Africa.

It is a blessing for the gopeds (small motorized scooters) we have with us, they save so much time traveling between spot to spot. Mine is electric and Ian's is gas. I have had to carry mine as much as driving do to great luck with a flat tire on the first day riding.

Brad

The Girls

Ian had a couple friends from home, Andrea Beldyga and Sydney Ball, come to visit for a couple weeks. During their visit they enjoyed themselves to the fullest. They were able to see a live performance by Fatboy Slim, a popular DJ throughout Europe as well as the United States. The following night the three of them went to a beach club until 8:00 in the morning. Once everyone returned to the boat and went to sleep, Brad and Suzanne began moving towards Spain. We set anchor outside a small island fishing village for the night.
The following morning we pulled anchor and made it to Spain in the early afternoon. We pulled into port for the next couple days. Ian, Sydney, and Andrea managed somehow to hitch hike back to Portugal to see their friends from Club NAU one last time.
The next pint of anchor was something else to take in. We were entertained with a parade of fishing boats and fireworks. The fireworks were launched from less than 100 yards from the boat.

Portugal

We are sorry for the delay on keeping everyone up to date on our travels.

We spent a few weeks anchored along the beachfront in Portimao, Portugal. During the time we found a nice location to relax along the beach, (Club NAU). It was more like a house without any walls, a beautiful view of the beach, and furniture made of pillows. There we met people from all around the world, whom we are trying to keep in touch with for possible future travels. The crew was also invited to celebrate the One Year Anniversary of Club NAU. The party included entertainment such a complete Jazz band as well as an electric violinist playing along side of a DJ. We all enjoyed ourselves that night, some may even say we had too much fun.

Evergreen has completed the transatlantic crossing and is resting comfortably in Lagos, Portugal

Brad and the crew,

Thanks for having me. It is something special you have going on. 3 very different characters on a 42ft boat that have tons of hospitality for everyone joining. There hasn't been a moment that we didn't feel at home.

This week has been tremendous. Nobody would have thought a crossing could be this easy going:

- Patrick blended in as if he has always been around.

- The wind has been so favourable to us that we only needed to jibe 2 times in a whole week

- We were able to keep the speed up and had record breaking days

- Waves have taken us all the way

- The fresh catches were a blessing and Suzanne made wonderful meals of them

It is hard to believe we caught two fresh tuna at the same time; half an hour later we had Sushi on our plate!!!

We saw Orca whales swim under the boat

Dolphins were a daily treat

The Evergreen has shown that she is more than a sea worthy ship; a warm welcome home and a fun place to be at.

I'll be watching you on this trip and am glad I could be a part of it. I hope to get back soon.

Rik

Evergreen is bound for the mainland!

We are making final preparations for the last leg of our transatlantic crossing and plan to leave this afternoon.

Brad's last bag arrived today after being lost somewhere along the way. The crew is complete (Rik arrived with Brad and Ian picked up Patrick, a "local American"); the boat is ready.

Ian had a fantastic week running with the bulls, meanwhile he got good at it, and hanging out with his new friends from the military base. We all got a taste of it yesterday and very much appreciated it. Thank you, Julie, for having us around. Omar, from Texas, took some fantastic photos of Ian "teasing" the bulls.

Praia Da Vitoria, Terciera, Azores

To all of our faithful followers, please accept our most sincere apologies for the lapse in entries. Thank you Lisle for taking the blog reigns while you were here, you left some big shoes to fill. Thank you JD for all of your hard work in Mobile and for all you taught us while you were here. To Vicky and Anita, we are truly disappointed that your visit was cut short by travel delays, but we were very happy to see you in the short time you were here. We enjoyed having all of you around more than you probably realize. Evergreen is on the island of Terciera. Our skipper has gone home to attend a wedding and Ian and Suzanne are left to our their own devices. Ian is off exploring the festival that is occurring on the other end of the island and Suzanne is taking advantage the local beaches and some rare and much appreciated alone time. We are looking forward to welcoming our next crew member, Rik. He is from Belgium and has been participating in the Mac races with us for the last several years. We are planning to leave the Azores for Portugal when Brad and Rik arrive next week.

Horta Day 5

We have been enjoying the scenery and food of Portugal.
The island of Faial is about 13 miles long and 8 miles wide.
JD took his flight out today and Lisle will leave on Friday. Additional crew would help for the 800 mile trip to the mainland. Feel free to volunteer.
It is a tradition and also required for good luck that each boat paint something on the harbour walls in Horta. Two of the pictures show how the harbour walls look.
The top picture is the volcano at Pico island as seen from Horta.
Horta is the only major city on Faial. The airport is about 6 miles away and about 17000 people live on the island. Brad is planning to move the boat and additional 150 miles to the island of Sao Miguel. This island has a population of 200000+. The entire island chain has about 250,000 people.
Best wishes to all.

Horta Day 1

We spent a night at rest and most of the next day as well. Brad enjoys a brew at the Sport Bar. This is a traditional stop for all who have sailed the atlantic. We were with many of the ARC (Atlantic Ralley Cruisers) sailors who have also made the crossing from Bermuda. Our harbour neighbor Mary P from Kensale, Ireland was also sailed from Bermuda. There trip however was a bit different from ours. During our passage we were warned to stay south of the 37th lattitude and sailed 120 miles south of course. We never saw above 25knots of wind. The Mary P sailed north of us and were in 20 foot seas and Gale force winds. The Crew of Mary P, Neal, Andrew and Jeffery had waves wash over the boat and fill the cockpit to their knees. They broke their boom and ripped gromets from their mainsail. Brad and crew experienced a much milder Atlantic.
The city of Horta is located on the Island of Faial about 900 nautical miles from mainland Portugal. Similar to our Hawaiian Islands being west of the contiguous 48.
These islands are where Christopher Columbus provisioned for his trip to the new world.
Pan Am Airways landed here to refuel on its early flights to the US.

The transatlantic cables were routed through here.
Many of the men who Whale hunted came from the Azores.
These are volcanic islands and the island of Faial last erupted in 1957-58 in the fall and winter.
Thi island of Faial is a shor ferry ride from the island of Pico a volcanic mountain over 7,000 feet above sea level. We were very pleased that our GPS properly located the site. You can see Pico in the picture taken form a city street in Horta looking across the harbour.

Our plan is to clean and wash both ourselves and the boat before John and I leave so we have plenty to do. Will communicate again soon. Best Wishes to all.