Petros manage to move boats around the yard until we had just enough space to be put on the travel lift and expertly towed out of our winter storage area. Finally we were pushed into the Mediterranean for another season of sailing.

We anchored just off the beach to put the main sail on and sort ourselves out, but ended up staying there for the night as there was no wind and by the time we had got sorted it was a bit late. 

The next morning there was no wind at all. We woke to a glassy flat sea but decided to move on anyway. My plan of a lovely spinnaker run to Souinon, 66nm away was dashed, it looked like a motor to Almiropotamos a short 25nm away. So we set off under engine. For a couple of hours we motored until the tell tale signs of wind on the water encouraged us to put the sails up. Soon we were sailing with two reefs in the genoa and one in the main in a lumpy sea with SSE F5 gusting F6 wind and we were heading South! Obviously the N, NE, NW winds have not established themselves yet:(

As we were tacking down the channel I let go of the helm to do a quick job, on getting back to the helm I noticed that Muskie was sailing herself without me, the sails were balanced, there was no weather helm and Muskie was following the apparent wind on her own. Apart from when we needed to tack, Muskie sailed herself all the way down the channel until we turned to enter the bay. 

After tacking our way down the Evia channel we entered the mouth of the inlet doing 8kts on a beam reach, after the last tack that put us on a course to enter. On trying to get the mainsail furled, as we were nearing the head of the bay, and still bombing along, the halyards of the burgee flags got themselves into the mast furler with the mainsail as we furled it. This meant we had to let out the mainsail again, release the halyards and then try to furl it again, quickly. We managed it in the end and also got the genoa furled before we made our last approach to the anchorage. We were still doing 5.8kts under bare poles, the engine was on but not engaged. Thankfully the anchorage was sheltered and we dropped the anchor in 10.3m of water and flat sea just off the little village of Almiropotamos on Evia. 

Muskie at anchor Almiropotamos

Statues in the shallows along the beach

Spring flowers