We have been in the Port of Merika on
the island of Kythnos, after a couple of days at anchor in Apokriosi, a nearby
bay. The dock is free, the harbour master helpful and the island itself a
delight. It has fine beaches and rugged scenery – craggy hills criss-crossed
with miles of drystone walls. The harbourside town is a pleasant mix of tourist-oriented
tavernas and traditional shops. The butcher’s shop has no sign – everybody
knows that the old woman with the moustache and no front teeth sitting out the front
is the butcher! Best of all, Kythnos was where we caught up with our friends
Laura and Olivier on Hephaistos once
again.
Bouillabaisse with Laura and Olivier
Dry stone walls
The first few days were good but on
Thursday a departing yacht picked up our anchor and dislodged it from where it
had been holding us for three days. We didn't know this and went off to the Chora
on the bus. (many Greek islands have a Chora, or central place)
Pretty house in the chora on Kythnos
Street in the chora, Kythnos
When we returned we had been bashing
into the dock and our Turkish friend Barbur had repositioned our fenders to try
to stop it. The anchor kept giving way
in the strong winds and we had no choice but to go out from the dock and try to
re-anchor in 30+ knots. That held for 20
minutes and we dragged again. With the
help of the dockmaster Manolas, Barbur and our friends Olivier, Laura and
Joachim plus assorted onlookers we went out again. This time it held, but only overnight. Next afternoon when the Meltemi really fired
up we dragged again. Same deal, same crew.
This time we moved a little to the west and it held. Today, Sunday, was forecast the same, 25-30
(more of that later) but Monday and Tuesday were scheduled to be worse, 35-40. Hephaistos had left the previous
evening, bound for Mikonos. We had originally planned to sail east with them,
but the Meltemi is apparently even stronger in the eastern Cyclades, so that
was not the direction for us!
Hephaistos leaves for Mikonos
We decided to head south straight
away rather than wait for the inevitable dragging - it would be worse because
the harbour is now full, as Greek annual leave began on Friday. Our reasoning was better 30 knots pushing us
down out of this atrocious island chain than being sitting ducks in the port.
We carefully plotted a series of day sails, with supposedly sheltered
anchorages – Kythnos to Serifos, Serifos to Sifnos, Sifnos to Folegandros,
Folegandros to Santorini, then a fifty mile to Crete.
Some days are learning experiences
and some days are just bastards.
So off we went. Thank you forecasters, one and all. Our 20-25 knots very quickly turned out to be
30-40 knots. Still, with the boom brake
holding out the main, and a small handkerchief of genoa we barrelled along at
6s and 7s, lots of 8s and one 9. We have
photos!
We arrived at Serifos an hour before
we thought we would in 40 to 50 knots and were not happy. We anchored in the best shelter we could find
and had one sustained gust that reached 52 knots.
We decided not to stay – we would
just anchor for a short time to tidy up
the mess from rolling downhill all morning and prepare for an overnight sail, but
then we couldn't get the anchor up in the howling gale force of this abysmal Meltemi.
It took both of us working up front at least 45 minutes to get clear,
reclaiming our anchor chain a few links at a time between gusts.Anyway, we have little wind right now and it's 11:30pm. It's still warm-no-shirt-warm and nobody else seems silly enough to be out here tonight. We're just abeam of the island of Folegandros and should hit Santorini around 8am. The further south we go, the lower the influence of the Meltemi.
[Later….]
Supposedly. It came back at 1:30am and heralded the
beginning of another hard day. We
cruised along in the dark at about 4.5 to 5 knots with only a little sail
out. It was rolly and uncomfortable,
just the sort of conditions Carol hates.
The inevitable occurred and she felt seedy all day. To add to our problems, the batteries began
to show signs of loss of power, and even
the engine couldn’t keep up with them.
Power reading of all 12v manuals on board began and then Terry checked
the aft pair of batteries. This is not
easy in a marina let alone on a rolling yacht in a seaway with 30 knots of
wind. Everything had to be removed from our tiny “garage” (basically, our shed)
including bags, tool boxes, parts boxes etc to get access to the panel to lift
off to get at the two massive RV batteries there. Terry began filling them with
distilled water and eventually used up 2 litres. Reminder to check more often. That helped and they began to hold about a volt
more but he was exhausted and covered in sweat and blood – yes, Mr Fixit went
and cut something else again. And the
fan belt is loose – perhaps not enough power is getting in – another job when
we reach a dock … Still, that crisis out of the way the real fun began.
We had to approach our destination
from the north west. Wind here was no
longer behind us but from the West, as was the now considerable swell. We had about 2 hours of cutting across this,
with some very scary rolls and pitches.
Couldn’t use the autopilot and hand steered the whole way.
As we approached the Bay of
Spinalonga, towards our marina (all thoughts of anchoring out had long
disappeared), the wind increased with the katabatic effect of the huge mountains
on Crete. The highest gust we managed to
see was 56.9 knots, with the majority over 45 up to 53. It was an hour of intense concentration.
[This was a very impressive sailing effort by the Capt. though he wouldn’t say
it himself.]
We arrived in the town/city – as yet,
we were unaware of exactly where we were apart from the name of the marina, and
of course just as we arrived the wind picked up again. We were assured by Gregori, the marina
security guy that we would be ok and to enter the marina slowly. With all the fenders out and all the lines
prepared, Carol was relaying messages from the VHF (the cockpit extension got
kicked out and is not working) and were told to come straight ahead. A bit of forward/reverse/almost hit the
Yankee boat/ manouevring and we had a stern line on. Then the lazy line on the bow and we at least
weren’t moving anywhere. The wind was so
strong we had to winch the stern in to the dock.
Crete in sight
Anyway, after all that and a tip for
Gregori (these guys are worth their weight in gold) we were all finished with
the Meltemi and the Cyclades. Out to
dinner at 11pm (there were still people arriving then as well as us) for a gyros
and a couple of Amstel “big”s
We slept until 10am today then began
wandering about what we now know is Aghios Nikolaos, and what a wonderful place
it is, too. As usual, Common Sense has found one of the
world’s gems, but more about that later.
The
past 36 hours has felt like an adventure novel or an action film. The hero and
his faithful sidekick battle formidable odds to reach their journey’s end. The
setting: craggy Cycladic islands, the indigo sea, the fierce gales of the
Meltemi winds; even the narrative structure was there – three major challenges
or complications to overcome: retrieving our anchor and chain against the wind
in Serifos; untwisting the tangled halyard from our headsail in the darkness on
a heaving sea; restoring battery power to the boat, once again under tough
conditions. Then, just as you think you’ve reached a safe harbour, the final
challenge of docking in a rising gale. And now, the resolution: sitting in an
open air tavern overlooking Spinalonga Bay in Crete, a cold beer and charcoal
grilled gyros, we enjoy the warmth of the night, the solidity of the ground
beneath us and the chance to relive the
adventure in comfort and safety
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