37:09.44N 25:14.44E
Muskrat
Chris and Alison
Wed 25 Aug 2021 19:30
| Well the Meltemi did start to blow, but with the anchor dug well into the sand Muskie was being held fast. Thats not to say that we were having particularly comfortable time. The wind was continuous with nasty gusts up to 42 knots that shook the boat making you feel something was going to give at any moment. The snubber rope on the anchor chain, despite having rubber protection on, wore through the rubber and was in danger of chafing until Chris managed to find another piece of hose to help protect the snubber rope. We had a second anchor ready to put out if it was needed. More yachts started to fill the bay, all with metres of chain out against the wind. As time went on I was starting to question what was happening. The forecasts was for gusts up to 35 knots for 3 days, but we were getting in excess of 42 knts with no sign of improvement. On day 3 when it was all supposed to be calming down, the gust were still up in the 40s. I then started to put things together. The south facing beach was experiencing the same strong winds as we were, there had been a steady flow of rubber rings, beach balls and anything that had not been tied down on the beach being taking out to sea, then there was the fact that the wind eased off at about 2200 at night, only to suddenly start again at 0127 precisely the next morning. I suddenly thought that what we were experiencing was not just the ordinary katabatic winds from the mountains all around us, but its own special feature? So we decided to leave the next morning, strong winds or not and take our chances outside the bay and out to sea. The next morning with the wind blowing 37kts, we slowly motored up to our anchor and Chris gently managed to edge it out of its sandy home. We got to the mouth of the bay with the wind howling around us, turned to port and suddenly we were in flat calm water with winds of 20-27knts, what a relief, our theory was correct, another lesson learnt the hard way. The sail to Paros was 37 miles, the wind was North so it was a beam reach but at times due to our course we had to sail a little closer to the wind. The sea was lumpy and Muskie was corkscrewing around the waves - time to get our sea legs. We sailed mostly under a reefed Genoa but we did manage to get the main up until the wind dropped and we had to motor-sail for a while. Just as lunch was about to be served, the wind filled in again and we got the Genoa and Main up again. We ended up entering Naoussa bay on Paros under reefed Genoa, surfing down the waves into the bay. We anchored under the headland in calm windless water, what a relief, we slept well that night. Naoussa Bay  Church in Naoussa  The ferry to Naoussa   Narrow street in Naoussa |