Limped into Lefkas
X86
Rich Carey
Tue 13 Jun 2017 06:01
38:49.949N 20:42.747E
Doozy of a day, but these are the days that sculpt real cruisers.
Left lovely Kefalonia, for a quiet ancorage at Melasina. A nice easy 5 hours was had, even had full sail up as the wind was only mostly on the nose ... Anchored in a lovely bay with good space, but no holding, so did it again, seemed ok against two ropes laid ashore by able crew. Good swim. Lovely. But then ... breeze blew up contrary to prevalent direction, and the anchor didn't hold. First WTF! Ditched shore lines, tender, and vice admiral Chance, to go anchor again. Second WTF! - the starboard engine stuck in forward. No neutral, no reverse. In tickover, the prop just lazily turned slowly forward. Went out into open water, and jumped over the side in the vain hope it was an issue below. Of course not. With only one good engine, the ancorage was impossible, so called vice admiral on VHF and recovered him to yacht. Decided to head to Cleopatra boat yard/marina - 3 hours travel north, 5 hours daylight left. Called them up and they said "sure, but we are experiencing challenging weather conditions". We looked north, from our clear blue sky patch of water. Third WTF! - one speck of the horizon, the exact to which we headed, was inky black. One hour later, we were on a different planet. Chop was low, due to the narrowing sea area we were headed up (small fetch), but highly active (boiling). Wind gusting 30 knots, 40 degrees of starboard, which slowed us to 4knots at times. Rain wasn't too bad, although freaked the Bosun. Clouds were awesome, and the lightening was all around and pretty spectacular. At no time did we feel in any danger, and the crew while slightly nervous and in life jackets, kind of enjoyed it. Saw a small (weekender), power boat washed onto rocks at the side of a beach, with two crew battling to limit the damage. We were not in any position to help, and they were not in any danger. No doubt very costly.
Onward we ploughed, and an hour later the inky black of the north, was just an inky black to the south. By the time we'd traversed the Lefkas canal, our daylight window had shrunk (due to the wind slowing us down), so we decided that we'd had enough and pulled into Lefkas marina. With our disabled starboard and an inconvenient 20 knot breeze that typically popped up at the wrong moment, we got tied up, but did give the port snout a bit of a clout - just a minor scratch due to my slightly botched approach.
Forth WTF! - went for dinner. On the way back, we bimbled around the Marina and passed a bar showing football. I commented "what a shame it's not the Canadian GP, which is on about now". Twenty meters later we came to another bar, this one showing the GP, and ... it was on Lap 3 of 70. I were gob smacked. Ditched Karen and Bosun (Chance had already headed back), purchased largest beer, and settled down for an excellent watch, at the end of the doozy of a day.
Now we await people's to assist. Currently awaiting quote to get hauled out, cleaned up, serviced, and repaired. Might be here for a week or two.
Doozy of a day, but these are the days that sculpt real cruisers.
Left lovely Kefalonia, for a quiet ancorage at Melasina. A nice easy 5 hours was had, even had full sail up as the wind was only mostly on the nose ... Anchored in a lovely bay with good space, but no holding, so did it again, seemed ok against two ropes laid ashore by able crew. Good swim. Lovely. But then ... breeze blew up contrary to prevalent direction, and the anchor didn't hold. First WTF! Ditched shore lines, tender, and vice admiral Chance, to go anchor again. Second WTF! - the starboard engine stuck in forward. No neutral, no reverse. In tickover, the prop just lazily turned slowly forward. Went out into open water, and jumped over the side in the vain hope it was an issue below. Of course not. With only one good engine, the ancorage was impossible, so called vice admiral on VHF and recovered him to yacht. Decided to head to Cleopatra boat yard/marina - 3 hours travel north, 5 hours daylight left. Called them up and they said "sure, but we are experiencing challenging weather conditions". We looked north, from our clear blue sky patch of water. Third WTF! - one speck of the horizon, the exact to which we headed, was inky black. One hour later, we were on a different planet. Chop was low, due to the narrowing sea area we were headed up (small fetch), but highly active (boiling). Wind gusting 30 knots, 40 degrees of starboard, which slowed us to 4knots at times. Rain wasn't too bad, although freaked the Bosun. Clouds were awesome, and the lightening was all around and pretty spectacular. At no time did we feel in any danger, and the crew while slightly nervous and in life jackets, kind of enjoyed it. Saw a small (weekender), power boat washed onto rocks at the side of a beach, with two crew battling to limit the damage. We were not in any position to help, and they were not in any danger. No doubt very costly.
Onward we ploughed, and an hour later the inky black of the north, was just an inky black to the south. By the time we'd traversed the Lefkas canal, our daylight window had shrunk (due to the wind slowing us down), so we decided that we'd had enough and pulled into Lefkas marina. With our disabled starboard and an inconvenient 20 knot breeze that typically popped up at the wrong moment, we got tied up, but did give the port snout a bit of a clout - just a minor scratch due to my slightly botched approach.
Forth WTF! - went for dinner. On the way back, we bimbled around the Marina and passed a bar showing football. I commented "what a shame it's not the Canadian GP, which is on about now". Twenty meters later we came to another bar, this one showing the GP, and ... it was on Lap 3 of 70. I were gob smacked. Ditched Karen and Bosun (Chance had already headed back), purchased largest beer, and settled down for an excellent watch, at the end of the doozy of a day.
Now we await people's to assist. Currently awaiting quote to get hauled out, cleaned up, serviced, and repaired. Might be here for a week or two.
