Friday 23^rd September – Messolonghi (Sail training Pt II)

38:21.685N 21:25.019E

Late morning we went out for a short sail on Blue Elephant again so that Mary could practise some of the things she had learnt last Saturday.  The wind was light and so we motored to the end of the canal.  Once out in the Gulf there was just enough wind to sail and we were able to try each point of sail, and give Mary some practise tacking.  We tried goose-winging downwind but that had to be aborted as there wasn’t enough wind to hold the sails out. 

On the way back into the canal we had the closest that Messolonghi gets to the ‘Hamble Scramble’ as 3 or 4 boats converged at the canal entrance at the same time – no boats all day and then they all arrive at once.  One yacht discovered that it pays to stick to the marked channel after trying to cut through the shallows and getting itself caught on a fishing net; they were escorted back to the channel by a local fishing boat.

Once again Mary provided a lovely late lunch on our return around 3.30pm.  Later we came back to Pyxis for a rest (and another go at stretching the old cockpit enclosure into place) before heading off to the café to finish the evening with a drink as the sun went down.