Cruising Essentials Old & New

Pothia, Kalimnos - 20th May

Leaving aside the boat's electronic gizmos, each of us has favourite bits of kit onboard that we use day in day out.  Leighton has two - an orange handled screwdriver with interchangeable heads and his Feinmaster multitool. 

My latest cruising essential is a predictable old favourite, and the other is fast becoming the must-have for all cruising folk who enjoy a bit of reading.  Both are so useful that I would go so far to say that if the boat were sinking I'd rush back and rescue them.

First up, that old cruising stalwart, the pressure cooker.  I was always put off by those terrifying stories of pressure cookers exploding and refused to have one until now. Since many cruisers swear by them I changed my mind and bought a six litre stainless steel one the other day.  I reckon it'll be perfect for quick, comforting meals on long passages. It conjures up in my mind the era of good old-fashioned home cooking, of making do and mending. The first all-in-one stew we cooked in it took me back to the plain, nourishing fare we used to get for lunch at school.

Since then I've been gathering some more inspiring recipes from our neighbours. Dishes like chicken korma, cassoulet and risotto. Did you know you can bung in a whole octopus and it'll come out really tender after 10 minutes? I'm going to love it.

The second was an instant hit when Leighton gave it to me last Christmas.  My Kindle. 

What a wonderful piece of technology.  I'm over the moon with it. I will never have to worry about running short of something to read ever again. No more reading mindless rubbish from book swaps out of sheer desperation because there's nothing else available. No more asking family to lug out loads of new books for me when they visit.  I have everything I need right here on my Kindle. It is scarily easy to order another e-book online from Amazon's Kindle store, and there are loads of free reads about.  Best of all - they take up no room at all on the bookshelf.   Leighton's a fan now too - he's got one as well.

Farewell to Crete - from Astypalaia 12th May

Sailing away from Crete is a losing game, but we have to do it. It's almost always upwind and the best you can hope for is not too much wind and swell and that the forecast turns out to be right.

We've just spent a gusty three days anchored in Spinalonga lagoon off the tourist town of Elounda.  It's been fun to have Meanderer and Pacific Star close by and we made the most of the lulls in the wind to visit each other's boats. On Sunday we hotfooted it back to Aghios Nikolaos in time for one last BBQ, ready to collect our new liferaft off the Athens ferry early Monday morning (thanks Vernon!).
 

Leighton unpacking our new liferaft

There's a 24 hour weather window on Tuesday evening and we’re going for it to make passage to Astypalaia, some 95 miles NNE. At 1800 on Tuesday we get a noisy send off from the remaining live-aboards blaring hooters and foghorns to wish us on our way. We're going in company with Tony and Anne on Argosea (in a 47' Moody, they'll go much faster than us). At first we sail closehauled in a light breeze until around midnight the wind goes ahead and we motorsail on into the northerly swell, which slows our progress down.

It is sobering to think that 70 years ago this month Cathy's father was out in this bit of sea serving as a 17 year old midshipman on HMS Kingston, taking part in the naval battle for Crete. Without air cover the warships were constantly at the mercy of Luftwaffe divebombers and many were sunk with considerable loss of young lives. The Kingston was hit but came out of it safely. Cathy's father was one of the lucky ones.

Next morning finds us still 40 miles away from landfall and the pressure's dropping. The fine sunrise shows bad weather's on the way.


As we approach the island the wind freshens from the north. This puts Vathi our intended destination bang on the nose. So we tell Argosea we won't be joining them and check away to Maltezana on the south of the island. We anchor in the bay in a rainstorm.

Today we realise we've snagged our anchor in a mooring chain on the seabed.  On the plus side, for the next three days of 30+ knot winds we're not likely to drag, but Leighton's not excited about having to dive down and extricate it before we can leave. Ah well, we won't have to do anchor watch in the meantime.

Crete in Spring

When you think of Crete in the spring, you think of wild flowers.  They have been especially good this year because of the wetter than usual winter.  The bees have been out in force making the most of it.


These are some of the flowers that we've seen on our walks.

We've roamed widely with Anne Bouras's indispensable 'Circular walks in East Crete' as our guide.  We've gone on the regular marina group Thursday walks too - sometimes the demanding ones led by Robin and sometimes the gentle ones with Hilary and Ann.

We've walked along Minoan trails that are several thousand years old; we've followed donkey paths and irrigation leats through the aromatic scrub; walked up the riverbed of gorges that cut deep clefts in the landscape - all the time keeping an eye open for killer goats that might dislodge rocks far above our heads.

Taking the aquaduct across a gulley

 

The riverbed in the Kritsa gorge