S/Y FAMAGUSTA

S/Y FAMAGUSTA (“Ammochostos”) was a Beneteau 50 sailboat that I bought in 2008 (as “Nabucco”) in Salerno, Italy. The boat retained the Italian flag and in February 2009 I sailed it back to Germany, where I had been living permanently since 2004. Its port in the Baltic became Heiligenhafen. From there began the sailing trips, sometimes to the North and sometimes to the South. Dream trips, which I hope will seduce the young sailors!

In the refit I did in 2009, after the damages during hurricane "Klaus" some 200 miles southeast of the Balearic Islands, the boat was refited for "ocean" cruises! After scraping, plastering and deep blue painting the entire hull, I have installed the following equipment: a new autopilot, a second cockpit chart plotter, new VHF with distress function and connection to the new A.I.S Radar, brand new Echo Pilot (Forward Looking Sonar, so that we can see underwater in front of us up to a radius of 200 meters), new log and depth sounder, new sprayhood, new gas cooker, TV/DVD Player, 3 new 200 Ah batteries and an extra "Battery-SURVIVOR" connected only to the VHF and the chart plotter (so that in case of a general electrical black out we can continue to communicate and navigate), EPIRB satellite buoy, Weather Report Receiver, three independent electric bilge pumps and of course Sebasto diesel heating that warms every corner of the boat...

Fortunately, the saying "I wish I new that earlier" was complemented in my case with the saying "better late than never!" And that's because sailing without damages is sailing without sea!

Famagusta sailed to the Western Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, the Atlantic coast of Western Europe, the North Sea and the Baltic. Many of her stories are described in my e-books "TO TAXIDEMA" and "PLACES AND PORTS THAT ENCOURAGED US". They are available in Greek and in German on Google Books and Amazon.