We left our nice anchorage in a bay on the island Fournoi located between Samos and Ikaria, beautiful water and a pleasant night, full moon and lots of stars so sleeping in cockpit was ofcourse what we did. Not to much sleep thoug because strong guts was blowing down from the mountains. We "sailed" around like crazy and of course we where concerned, will the anchor hold? No problem, it was a solid holding and we are now starting to thrust our anchor.

Starting at 06.30, a long day awaits us, 62 NM. It starts well with good winds but in the strait between the island Fimaina and Ikaria we got winds up to 40-45 knots or 9 Beaufort, it means strong gale. In the lee of Ikaria we could relax a while before the next passage, which we already knew would be tough, the strait between Ikaria and Mykonos.

It was a rough run, strong gale, Beaufort 9, 40 to 50 knots. 

Reefed jib and cutter, it was a challenge for Sans Peur but she performed just perfect. She is a strong confident and very capable lady. She took the dare and wind like a ballerina and we felt really safe all the time. The worst stretch was actually the strait between the island of Mykonos and the islands Delos and Rinia, no shelter and sometimes plus 50 knots wind speed, means STORM, and the wind straight into the nose. We had to take in all sails. That was a very noisy and a bit scary work. The waves made us feel like we where in a roller coaster, Sans Peur swayed from side to side and beat the bow hard down into those angry waves. Then we finally arrived in New Marina, exhausted, and finally at the last few houndred metres it calmed down. What a reliefe. Nothing was prepered for mooring, there was no way we could prepare out there in the storm. Mooring the Med way, anchor out, fenders was not to think about but nice neighbors were luckily "well prepared" when it comes to fenders and helped us with our mooring lines. Everything went well despite the strong wind, we were both anxious about how we should manage. We where very relieved, finally safe. It was also getting late. Everything was a mess inside, a lot of things was not in place, even though we thought we had prepared, but nature are extremely voilent sometimes. All went well. Next to the marina there is nice tavern where we ended the evening with some tasty homemade Greek food and the owners Retsina.

After 12 hours of sailing in storm and one liter of Retsina  we slept like logs, thankful to be in safe haven.

The wind in this "safe haven" is blowing at 25 - 35 knots at the moment, and we are all rocking and rolling.