On SV ATLAS - Outremer 51  
  Home
   Updated 7th July 2025
 
SV ATLAS

We started the year by taking a trip in to Kotor in Montenegro

Signe and Knut were the first guests of the year.

After a cold and rainy night sailing we arrived Durres,Albania. A real pleasant surprise and had one of our best meals ever at a local restaurant. As per picture the Romans made it here too.

Penny and Dennis came for 10 days to visit in and around Korfu- Including joint celebration of Penny and Norway's birthdays on 17th May

Arch

Tripitos Arch on the island of Paxos.

Typical mooring in Greece. This in Gayos on Paxos where the distance from the back of the boat to the taverna was about 3 meter.

We moored ATLAS up in Kefolonia and flew back to celebrate Grandma's 90th birthday and went to Flor & Fjære.

Flor & Fjære is a private botanical garden outside of Stavanger with tropical fauna. Supposed to be the world’s northernmost palms growing outside.

Back in Greece we had our Barcelona neighbour Art and our friend Lena from Hong Kong join us  through the Corinth Canal.

We rented a car in Galaxidi and drove up to the archaeological site of Delphi.

One of the absolute highlights of the summer was to pass through the Corinth Canal. 6.4 km long. The Greeks started planning the canal in 7th century BC, but the actual work started by the Roman Emperor Nero in year 67 AD and finally finished in 1893.

Average age on the boat dropped significantly with the arrival of this group of young adults that joined us in the area south of Athens.

Main town on Hydra. Luckily we were able to moor right in town centre. There are no cars on the island, transport to the uphill hotels is done by mules. It is a hangout for the rich and famous. Lenard Cohen lived here in the 70's.  To our surprise, Jeff Bezos came for dinner at the restaurant where we had sundowners.

Maria and Andy came along for the hottest week we had, up to 40 degrees!

A lot of turtles in Peloponnese.

Visitors from Stavanger. Jorunn, John, Hilde and Torleif.

Water was nice and warm. Even Atle got wet....

Methoni at sunset: the Peloponnese is full of these gems of historical towns.

Last stop on Peloponnese was in Katakolo where we rented a car and drove up to Olympia. Very impressive site. We lucked out by the fact there were no cruise ships in town that day, so we had the archeological site all to ourselves.

Shipwreck beach on Zakhintos. Supposed to be the second most photo used in advertising Greece after Acropolis in Athens. Boats are not allowed to anchor and it is not possible to go on the beach due to the limestone cliffs crumbling.

Cefalu

Cefalu, Sicily where the last Indiana Jones Movie was filmed using this lovely archway.

Gerd and Øyvin joined on the crossing from Greece to Sicily. Cefalu in the background.

After putting ATLAS on land in Teremini Imerese we visited Palermo. Very nice city with lots of architecture and churches

Stickers on some shops and restaurant stating they do not pay protection money to the mafia which is still strong in Sicily.

With ATLAS on land we drove up to Konstanz, Germany where Nicole invited us for the Fireworks Festival.Radwa and Scott also joined as well as Nicole's friends. It was a very nice weekend.

On our way back to Barcelona we stopped at the Interlaken area of Switzerland and met up with Lena and Maarten for a couple of days. Lynne and Lena went swimming in the (cold) lake.

Back in Barcelona we were lucky enough to have America's Cup boats practicing right outside our apartment.

After putting ATLAS back in the water at the end of August Sophi and Olly joined us in Trapani and we motored across to Favignana and sailed onward to Sardinia.

Danielle and Marc came for a visit in Sardinia. Unfortunately we had a problem with the starboard propeller and were stuck in the Villasimius boatyard for a week.  With our deadline we had to rush back to LGM with only a short stop in Bonifacio.

After service in LGM we stopped in Barcelona where Nora, Lasse and the boys were holidaying.  We took them out sailing while watching more of America´s Cup. Sadly, the races were cancelled due to high winds.

Leaving Barcelona we sailed down the Spanish coast all the way to Estepona in 4 days. ATLAS stayed in the marina and we took a land trip to Ronda (picture above) and Cadiz.

Coming up to the Rock of Gibraltar.

Morten, Hans and Petter joined in La Linea to start the Atlantic crossing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a link to the 2024/2025 movements of ATLAS.

Summer of 2024 started April in Montenegro where ATLAS was moored for the winter. Lots of planning went into scheduling visitors with friends and family joining us along the various parts of the journey. I think the highlight of the trip was motoring through the Corinth Canal. Click here to see a video of the voyage. The 40 minute passage for roughly 6km of the canal is compressed into 30 seconds.

We then continued around the Peloponnese peninsula. Once we ventured out of reach for Charter boats from Athens, it was very quiet and mostly local tourist. We were impressed with the variety of interesting locations & sites, nice anchorages, good value, delicious food and the ease of communicating. We departed Greece from Kefalonia crossing over to Italy, and repeating some of the Eolian Island anchorages, before putting ATLAS on land in Teremini Imerese, Sicily for the busiest and warmest period of the summer. After the break we were on a deadline to get back to La Grande Motte (LGM) for repairs and modifications to get ATLAS seaworthy for the Atlantic crossing. We managed to return to Favignana Island, sail across to Sardinia, and make our way back to Bonifacio before crossing to LGM, then onwards to Barcelona and eventually Gibraltar.

Here is the link to the next blog covering the Atlantic crossing.

Best regards,

Lynne and Atle