Cruising France to Greece on the Seawind 1600 catamaran

Cruising on the Seawind 1600 offshore cruising catamaran NORTHSTAR…

Andrew and Nhi were kind enough to display their Seawind 1600 Northstar at the International Multihull Show at La Grande Motte earlier this year.  Then, starting from the show location in the South of France, they began a Summer-long cruise to Cyprus via Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Greece.  Here’s a brief report…

We had a great sail cruising on the Seawind 1600 catamaran from Barcelona to la Grande Motte for the boat show, but then sailing along the French Coast was a real treat.  The Porquerolles islands and their beautiful beaches were a big highlight.  So too was the bay of St. Tropez, which we managed to hit outside of peak season.

From St. Tropez we sailed across to Corsica – an amazing island as you can see in the pictures (below).  We sailed along the West Coast via Calvi and Bonafacio and we found pleasant harbours and great food all along the way.

So after sailing the West coast of Corsica we sailed the East coast of Sardinia.  It’s a wonderful sail – as are the cities of Olbia and Cagliari.

Cruising on the Seawind 1600 catamran sailing across to Sicily is an easy hop.  And Palermo looks like a good place to winter the boat were we staying here longer.  It’s close to the Lipari, where we went next.  And Palermo is full of fun and excitement.  The crazy driving isn’t as crazy as they make it sound, and the street food is unbelievable.  Fresh fish and lovely little prawns arrive daily.  In the evenings the grills appear out of nowhere and the streets are full of life and the smell of great seafood.  If you’re worried about your weight, don’t go anywhere near the deserts.  Again, unbelievable.

From here, we’re on our way to the Kefalonia Greek islands, which we will sail through with some friends on our way to Cyprus.  So we’ll update again on the journey through Greece and about what we find in Cyprus.  There’s a stretch from here in Sicily across to the boot heel of Italy, which would otherwise be a long one considering it’s only us, a couple on board.  But this new 1600 is just chewing up the miles.  Light air performance is remarkable, and we’re experiencing light airs a lot.  So this time of year, in this part of the med is an excellent fit with the new 1600.  We’re dangerously close to wind speed despite being laden up with lots of goodies (read: market finds) and we’ve got everything for a year aboard.

We will have more time to reflect in Cyprus and report back on the sailing numbers.  But we’ve sailed just the two of us almost the whole way, and we’re really happy with the sailing setup, and performance.  The boat has handled all conditions with ease and comfort.

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