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!).
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.
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!).
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| Leighton unpacking our new liferaft |
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.
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