Thursday 5^th September, 2013.

We were up early for breakfast and off on our way to Samos to meet up with Cruising Association members to sail the Dodecanese for a week.

The sun was shining beautifully, the north wind was behind us and we covered 60.12 miles sailing all the way to the headland on the south coast of Samos on the main out and the genny poled.  The wind looked like it was going to die so we took the pole down and I even thought about cooking dinner so we could have it on the way to Pithagorion on the south east coast.  I just had the carrots and rice boiling when the wind came back again and off went the vegetables and we were covering 9 and 10 knots going along like a express train.  We rounded the next headland and the wind stopped for a few seconds and then it was back again with force.  On rounding the last headland into Pithagorion the wind clocked over 40 knots and we were taking water over the side now with very little light.

With Ariel’s brilliant captain and the chart plotter we found the bright red light of the harbour in amongst all the other lights and were heading straight into the harbour having to depower the boat.  Once we rounded the harbour wall to our dismay there were about a dozen yachts already anchored.   We found a space and down went the anchor and we settled with the wind howling around us.  It did stop and start all night long but when the morning came it was bright and windless. We covered 77.1 miles and probably only 3 miles were motored.  A very good sailing day but one where we had to watch every minute of the day.