Tuesday 29^th June – Kissamos, Crete – Avelomona, Kíthera

36:13.551N 23:04.970E

Over night it was much quieter than the town quay at Khania which never quietened down before 3am.  The very large tripper ship went out for an evening cruise and returned around 11pm with music blaring, and the sound of a few cars being driven along the quay by the local fishermen stood out against the silence, but generally we had a much better night.

We were awakened by the bells from the small church nearby around 7am and decided, looking at the latest forecast, that it would be better to move on today after all.  So we prepared for passage and left Kissamos around 7.30am.

The passage could easily be divided in three.  The first third we motored in a glassy sea, no wind and no swell – quite a change from yesterday.  We had a leisurely breakfast as we motored along and enjoyed the scenery leaving Crete. 

As we approached Antíkithera, the wind built a little and we were able to pull the sails out and motor sail close-hauled, allowing us to ease the revs to save fuel, whilst still keeping up 6 knots.  As we cleared Antíkithera the wind built to a F4 as forecast; the motor went off and we had a fantastic sail the final 15 miles or so.  The swell hadn’t had time to build so we had a fairly flat sea and around 15 knots of wind – great.

The last part of the trip was not so good to say the least.  A couple of miles offshore of Kíthera, the wind increased to 20-25 knots ahead of the beam, accelerating around the bottom of the island.  We were heeling hard at times in the strong gusts and progressively reefing the genoa and then the main to keep the dinghy, which was strapped across the stern, from trailing its stern in the water. 

As we came into the lee of Kíthera the wind and swell eased a little, and we headed in towards Avelomona where we had stayed previously, rather than carry on to Dhiakofti, which we had originally been considering as an anchorage for the night.  The wind eased more as we entered the tiny harbour but it was still too strong for attempting a stern-to berth in the confined space.  As there were no other boats around, we tried to go alongside where Esmeralda had berthed previously.  We attached a bow line and hung off, then pulled the stern gently in.  Unfortunately, the depth alongside went down to 1.9m, our keel depth, oops, so we let it out again; obviously Esmeralda had much less draught than we thought.  We realised that this was not tenable over night, as any wash would have us grounded, and had to think of another plan. 

We decided to carry on around to Dhiakofti, the main ferry port for the island, as we had originally been planning and just drop the hook.  It is a recommended anchorage (both in the pilot and from people we have met) and also has some alongside mooring in the lee of the ferry dock.  Once out of Avelomona, the wind filled in again and we sailed around to Dhiakofti, picking up winds of 20-25 knots off the high ground as we rounded Dragonera and Andidragonera which sent us speeding along at a rate of knots.

At Dhiakofti, there was no-one there, but it was easy to see why.  The wind was gusting about 25-30 knots off the mountain side and there was a seriously uncomfortable fetch across the harbour.  We tried to berth alongside the ferry dock in 20 knots and just couldn’t manage it and anchoring seemed a very uncomfortable option.  The pilot book recommends another place to anchor in west winds just the other side of small island enclosing Dhiakofti so we went round to try it.  Whilst a little quieter, it still felt uncomfortable with the wind roaring at us over the hill and was quite deep water for anchoring; the view was also straight across the wreck of the Nordland cargo ship we had seen previously, so not an optimistic view.

We decided that the best option was to go back to Avelomona, where it was at least much more sheltered and planned how we could berth there safely – neither of us fancied an overnight sail.  We motored back down there (quite fast, as it was now approaching dusk).  We had various plans prepared but bows-to with the kedge was looking favourite.

Just as we approached Avelomona, the wind disappeared completely!  We couldn’t believe it!  Another yacht arrived just before us from the opposite direction, the only one we have seen all day, and it berthed stern-to as we approached.  We coolly came in stern-to next to it, with only between 4 and 7 knots of wind as if it was a normal day – the difference was so dramatic.

We are now stern-to and feeling like we dodged a bullet.  We had expected the wind to increase at Kíthera but not until later and not as strong this side of the island as it turned out, and we had expected the anchorage at Dhiakofti to offer significantly more shelter than it did from the west.  The wind has built again here at Avelomona this evening but nowhere near to the strength of that at Dhiakofti – we won’t be trying there again in a hurry and will not be recommending it.