All Good Things Come to an End

All too soon the day I really had not been looking forward to came round: our last day's sailing. I was trying to make every minute last for two minutes but it didn't work and the day flew past.


We all took our final and admiring glances at the Bear flag flying proudly at the back of the boat knowing that it will be a while before we see it flying at sea again.

Before I knew it it was time to call up the lead crew on the VHF radio for the last time as we came into Sivota harbour.


After a thorough cleaning of Spetses, ready for the next lucky crew who would be enjoying a holiday aboard her, it was time for our final party night.

The crews of all 10 boats in our flotilla and our lead crew came together for a final meal and the infamous Sailing Holidays flotilla awards ceremony.

With full stomachs we settled back in our seats to enjoy Skipper James' speech and to find out the awards which we were up for grabs and who had won them. I was a little disappointed not to win the dancing divas award, but did agree that the recipients, John & Emily, deserved it. George, Yorkie and I were, however, pleased with the award we did get which was the 'Lou Love' award.


This probably needs a bit of explanation for the uninitiated. Lou is short for Loutraki our lead boat and we earned ourselves the award on the occasion we were at the same taverna as another Sailing Holidays flotilla. There is always great rivalry between flotillas and the crews of each think theirs is the best flotilla. On the occasion in question everyone was 'well oiled' from the earlier punch party and there a lot of singing and cheering. We led the cheering for Loutraki and this is how we got the Lou Love award for our very vocal support.

We are very proud of our award and now we are home it has pride of place in our display cabinet.

It is quite timely that we have finished our postings on our sailing holiday as George & Yorkie will be heading off on their next adventure at the weekend, armed with the camera. I won't be going though as it doesn't involve boating.

Hope you have enjoyed our sailing adventures. Keep reading, as the guys who stayed at home are waiting for a chance to get a word in and report what they've been up to.

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

Gone Fishing!

All that talk of food from George & Yorkie, reminds me that I haven't told you about my fishing attempts yet.

As you will know, I tend to leave most of the island exploring to George & Yorkie as I am happiest being on, or not far from, my boat. I therefore spend a lot of time on board and there are few things I like better than a spot of fishing.
Sometimes I use a line and fish for my supper but, more often than not, I just like to throw out a bit of food and see the fish gather.


I find the best way to do this is to sit on the swimming platform armed with a hunk of bread. I throw this into the sea in little pieces and immediately I am joined by hundreds of little fish. In my picture you can see some of them darting around, with their silver bodies glistening in the sunlight. The water is so clear that I can even see their expressions. It is a truly magical sight and one I never fail to tire of.

When the bread runs out and I've got a bit hot in the sunshine, I simply unclip my safety line and dive into the water. As the fish get used to me they aren't frightened and swim around me tickling my fur.It's not quite swimming with dolphins but the next best thing.

Lots of love, Eddie xxx

Shore Side Adventures No. 4

Our day off was a bit of a difficult day for me, Eddie. My problem was that it meant no sailing. To be on a sailing boat, and not to sail, is something of a tragedy of Grecian proportions for a boating bear like me. It seemed like a real waste of quality holiday time.

However, the day was rescued for me, and George & Yorkie by the fun we had exploring the area round Vonitses, where we had our 2 day stopover. This was not at all a tourist area, being on the Greek mainland, so it was all uncharted territory to explore.

A short walk away from the harbour where we were moored, was an amazing bridge over to a delightful island.


As you'll quickly spot I'm not the beatiful lady, although I was with her in a loose sort of way, but if you look hard you'll see me lurking in the corner of one of the parapets.

The causeway over to the island looked even better by night when it was all lit up. The island was just the right size to circumnavigate and the water was lovely and clean for our swim.

On the east side of the island I realised that I could see the harbour where my boat was moored. This made me very proud and excited.


Follow my gaze in the picture to see the masts I was eagerly scrutinising. I'm not expecting you to know which one belonged to my boat as it takes an experienced skipper to tell one mast from another.

I began to day dream about the next day when I'd be out sailing again, I could hardly wait.

Lots of love, Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

Sailing Ellen MacArthur Style

Now we'll bet that all our readers have been imagining us having a sedate sail in tranquil waters, with the sun shining and a mere hint of a breeze to ruffle the waters and most of the movement on the boat being us moving in and out the sun to even up the tan.

Two years ago when we did our first flotilla, it was very like this for much of the time and our engine got quite a lot of use. This holiday, however, was a bit different. Although we thought it was very pleasant, for Greece it was quite extreme weather and we did have some strong winds. This was great for sailing and it was very exhilerating to fly through the water at speeds of 6 knots or more. It did mean we had to be very vigilant in our look out for hazards, such as the handful of dangerous shoals in the area, as we were moving so fast that we could have come on them before we knew it, and a collision at speed would have done quite a lot of damage.


As you know I (Eddie) always wore a safety harness while out on deck, but George & Yorkie were a bit small for a harness. When it got a bit rough, and Spetses was heeling over, for safety, they both took up residence in the cockpit cubby hole. This was a great arrangement as it meant they could look out easily and didn't have to miss anything, yet they remained safe and dry.

There was one particular day when, with 2 other boats, we sailed off in the opposite direction to the port we were heading to that night, as we wanted to do a bit of exploring. It was a lovely day and took little time to cover the 13 miles to the bay we were aiming for. We had lunch and a swim in a sheltered bay, blissfully unaware that the wind had got up some strength. As we emerged into open water, the mainsail was not even raised, and the genoa was reefed to the maximum! It suddenly dawned on us what an adventure getting to Preveza, over 20 miles away, was going to be. It is a good job we are not easily scared and always up for an adventure.

We soon had to give up sailing as the direction we wanted to travel was straight into the wind. Under engine then, we had to drive our brave little boat Spetses, straight into some enormous waves. Every time we hit a wave the spray flew right to the back of the boat and our minders, in particular, got very wet. We imagined we felt a bit of what Ellen MacArthur must feel when sailing in big seas, although, in reality, she'd probably laugh at us calling these waves 'big' and say they were just tiddlers.

After about an hour the wind dropped enough for the voyage to become almost sedate.


As we came into harbour and tied up, the drying off process started. Fortunately it was sunny so I was able to dry my wet bottom quickly by baring it to the sun. It was all quite decent I assure you. We discovered that as the forward hatch had not been properly latched all our bedding has got very wet. The fact that we had to wait for it to dry, provided us with a good excuse to linger at the taverna having an extra glass of wine. Mind you we were all so tired after our adventure that we'd no doubt have slept well even if the bedding hadn't dried.

Lots of love, the intrepid crew of Spetses xxx

From Paw Power to Horse Power

With all the rowing practice I had, I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that I won the rowing regatta. I got a great treat as my prize. The lead crew let me have a go in their rib, which had an outboard with some serious horse power - or so it seemed to me. It certainly seemed very fast compared to rowing speed. Here I am waiting to ferry the lead crew back to their boat before taking a spin round the bay.


I had to be careful not to create too much wash when I was in the area where George & Yorkie were Croc sailing as I wouldn't have wanted to knock them out of their Croc.

But of course, we were really on holiday to sail, so we wasted no time in getting back to some sailing. As always there were a lot of jobs for me to do. I particularly like working the winches as they make sailing quite a big boat possible even for a bear of my size. Here I am preparing to loose the tension from the anchor rope as we were about to depart.


Hauling up the anchor from the seabed wasn't quite so much fun though. It was very heavy and my fur got very wet and muddy, so I had to have some help from my minders. While I was wet and muddy I thought it would be a good time to practice the bear overboard drill. I would leap overboard and get clean, and my crew could practice rescuing me. As I'm currently writing this entry you can tell that they did pretty well and I was quickly rescued. In fact I could have done with a bit more time in the water as the Ionian sea is so clean and warm. Sadly everyone was too busy doing their part in the drill for any photos to be taken.

Lots of love, Eddie & the crew of Spetses xxx

What does a Bear do with a Pair of Crocs?

And yes, we really did have some fun after the barbie when the rain stopped.

Eddie took to the inflatable dinghy and got some rowing practice in before challenging some fellow boaters to a rowing regatta.



George and myself hitched a lift with Eddie to some nearby caves where we disembarked to do some cave exploration. You'll have to look hard for us in our picture as we blend in rather well with the rocks.


We really fancied joining in the rowing regatta but unfortunately we were a bit small to manage the oars. We did quite enjoy playing at being coxswain sitting on the edge of the boat and shouting at Eddie to put a bit more effort in, that was until we thought up a new watersport of our own, Croc sailing.

Now I'm sure all our readers are contemporary enough to be familiar with those trendy and colourful shoes which are the latest fashion. Yes, we're talking Crocs. George and I had seen the advertising which says that Crocs are great boating shoes and that they do in fact float.

We decided to give this claim a bit of a test. We climbed aboard and pushed off from the dinghy. We quickly established that Crocs certainly do float, even with a couple of bears who have enjoyed a big meal aboard. However, we also discovered that water comes in the side holes so you quickly get a wet bottom.


We quickly thought of the perfect solution, we climbed inside a sandwich bag and that kept us nice and dry. Don't be deceived by the fact that the sea is so clear in our picture that it looks as if the sandy bottom is just below us. It wasn't: we were in the same depth of water as our boat Spetses, so about 3.5 metres. That was the reason for the safety line, so we didn't sail off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

Why don't you give croc sailing a go sometime?

Lots of love, Yorkie, George & Eddie xxx

A Well Drowned Steak!

Not only do the lead crew do a great punch party they also lay on a fantastic barbecue.

We invite you to imagine the scene. All the boats in the flotilla are rafted up in the most idyllic bay miles from anywhere. The sea is calm and turquiose blue in the sunshine and a stone's throw from us is a lovely sandy beach. In our picture George & Yorkie survey the scene from the land where they had gone exploring to work up an appetite for the barbie.


Jono and Stu are on the beach tending the barbie while Holly prepares the salads, and we all have our inflatable dinghies pumped up and ready to row ashore once we have have finished our apperitifs on board. What could possibly be more heavenly?

Then, all of a sudden, the heavens open and down comes the rain with a tropical storm intensity. The lead crew do not shirk from their task and the barbie continues to be tended. We all put our big awnings up on our boats and shelter in the cockpit below them, feeling a bit guilty about being in the dry while Jono and Stu are getting so wet on shore in just shorts and t-shirts. The only compensation is that it's not cold rain.

We wait patiently thinking this is just a storm and it will end soon.


However, it doesn't stop and our enterprising crew take all the cooked food back to their boat, Loutraki. We then all switch on our VHF radios and tune to the flotilla channel. Orders are then placed and plates of food are passed from boat to boat. It was amazing that nothing was lost overboard! What could have been a damp squib turned out to be a lot of fun and a great success.

You could order seconds and then thirds over the VHF and we, on board Spetses, timed our order rather well and manged to get the last souvlaki of the barbecue. It came to us, passed from boat to boat, on a paper plate which Holly had written on to say 'hands off this is for Spetses'. We knew then that Holly did rather like us!


George & Yorkie tucked in and declared it the finest souvlaki they had ever had. Then the rain stopped and we got in the dinghies for some fun.

More to come.

Lots of love George, Yorkie & Eddie xxx

Taking to the Air

The very beginning seems like a good place to start the story of our latest adventures. Being a boating bear, I had been looking forward to a sailing holiday so much that I hadn't been able to sleep for several days before we left.

There was an added excitement for me (Eddie) as I was going on a plane for the first time. I was lucky to be in the company of such seasoned fliers as George & Yorkie and to have them show me the ropes. We were all at the airport early for our 5.30 a.m. check in and once we were processed, my minders suggested I might like to get some sleep as I had a long day ahead.

However, there was simply too much going on around me for me to sleep so, as you can see, I kept popping out my sleeping bag to see what was happening and to enjoy a cup of coffee.


I need to thank my friend 'Naughty Bear' who appeared in his blog travelling in the aircraft cabin, for setting the precedent that bears travel in hand luggage, rather than in the hold.

No only did I get to travel in the cabin, I even got a row of extra leg room seats to myself - a little daft really as my legs don't even reach to the edge of the seat, but I wasn't complaining. My minders later explained that they were only free because no-one had been prepared to pay the extra charge for them! And I thought it was all because I was a V.I.P. bear.

Anyway I got a great view out the window. My favourite sights were the snow covered Alps below me and, as we descended into Preveza airport, the view of the sea I'd shortly be sailing on.


At the end of my first flight I decided that I quite liked flying but it is nowhere near as good as boating. I was pleased to discover on landing that there was only a 1 hour 10 minute transfer to my boat.

When I was shown our boat Spetses, she was every bit as wonderful as I had anticipated. I was first on board and wasted no time checking out every nook and cranny and piece of equipment.


Can you guess what my first task was? Logon on tomorrow to find out if you're right?

Lots of love Eddie & the crew of Spetses xxx

The Boys are Back in Town (again)

Dear friends,

George, Yorkie and I (Eddie) are safely back from a most fantastic adventure. We really didn't want to come home, although now we are home, we have to admit it is good to see all our bear friends again and to down a pint (or two) of Wherry while regaling stories of our travels.

So where have we been and what have we been doing? George & Yorkie provide the clue to location with our first picture.


If the Mediterranean sunshine doesn't give it away, the Greek flag should. We have spent the last fortnight roaming the islands of the Ionian sea.

The bear flag departure photo and the fact that I, the chief Bears Unlimited boating bear, was going, should have provided the clue to our mode of transport. In case it didn't, here's a picture of me with my latest pride and joy and our home for the last fortnight,'Spetses'.


Spetses, as you can see if a very fine craft which is hardly surprising as she is a member of the Sailing Holidays, Whole Ionian, Jaguar flotilla and there is no finer flotilla afloat. So it's three cheers from us for Sailing Holidays and our lead crew of Jono, Holly & Stu (they'll be properly introduced soon).

Join me again tomorrow as I've so much to tell you.

Lots of love, Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx