FW: Viv and Tim; the full story, from the beginning.
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36:38.96N 25:22.17E 20 – 30th
August Ormos Manganari, island of
Ios about 20 miles from Santorini. Monday 20th Like good, careful sailors we
arrived here a couple of nights ahead of schedule so that we had plenty of time
to make the short crossing to Santorini to collect Viv and Tim. The Meltemi
(definition ‘The bad tempered one’) blew a bit harder than
usual. More of a massive tantrum than a bad temper really so we thought
it prudent to take it in turns overnight to stay on deck (harnesses on,
man-overboard alarms on, clipped on) to keep ‘anchor watch’.
We were pretty sure that our anchor was well dug in but you never know about
everyone else in the bay, and by this time there were a lot of us tucked into
the shelter. The Meltemi cheered up a bit and eased in the early
hours so suitably encouraged we both went to bed thinking all would be well. Tuesday 21st No idea what we did to upset
it but tempers flared again early morning and off the Meltemi went again.
Gale warnings and 40 knots of wind so we sat tight and started sending e-mails
to Viv and Tim warning them that we may not make it to Santorini in time.
The main problem was that there was no space in the one and only marina there
and no indication of when a berth would become available because everyone,
fishing boats included, was sheltering. It wouldn’t have been a
pleasant sail but it was very do-able. What we could not do was risk
having nowhere to tie up once we arrived. Viv and Tim, not easily fazed
by such things, had already found out about the ferries and made alternative
plans. Wednesday 22nd Anchor watch for some of the
night again and then real signs of things calming down so we took the dingy
ashore (Hooray!) to recce suitable pick-up points. We chatted to the
Aussies running the windsurfing shack and returned to Tashi Delek confident all
would be well. Viv and Tim arrived, found a
hotel on Santorini, booked in for the night and arranged to catch a ferry the
next day to Ios. We carried on bobbing up and down and listening to the
howls of the, by now, ‘completely off-the-scale, boiling mad and furious
one’. I furnished Viv with a
shopping list by text so that they could purchase provisions en-route. We
wouldn’t starve but we like to do better than pasta and feta cheese every
day for our visitors and, at this stage, we had no idea when we would next get
to a shop. Thursday 23rd Slightly calmer night and we
were pretty sure we would get ashore to greet our guests. Then the bad
tempered one got really upset all over again; we got the outboard off the dingy
in the nick of time as it spent much of the morning being blown over in spite
of additional ropes to keep it upright. With the help of text
messages and binoculars we knew when Viv and Tim arrived on the beach.
Slightly incongruous arriving at the waters edge fully clothed with
luggage. Our best bet was for them to ask the Aussies if they would mind
bringing them out in the ski-boat which they were delighted to do and we
managed to safely transfer visitors and luggage on to Tashi Delek while bouncing
up and down getting blown around. Shane and his girlfriend Sarah
returned later for a well deserved Martini.
Friday 24th Things seemed to be settling
and there were no gale warnings on any of the weather forecasts so we set off
for the 2 ½ hour sail to the harbour at Port Ios. We needed to fill up
with water and give Viv and Tim a taste of what they had come for. Ten
minutes out of the bay and they got more than a taste; more like a great big
mouthful of salty water. Tim started sailing a catamaran this summer; Viv
has never sailed, so before we put them both off for ever, we turned back. That evening we ran out of
water in the tanks but had plenty of bottled so no-one suffered too badly and
we stayed clean enough for one night. We had plenty of food in the sense
that there were tins of tomato, bags of rice and pasta, porridge oats and other
such staples but it was about to get tricky. Mike produced a terrific
pasta carbonara however so we didn’t feel too badly done by. Saturday 25th The wind still blowing but
settling just a touch to more of ‘a bit cross’ than
‘bad-tempered’ so we set off again with two reefs and the
additional motivation of getting to food and water to steel our courage and get
us going. The sea was a bit lumpy but nothing too terrible and the
forecasts were reasonable so generally not a bad sail. Dodging the
ferries (big, fast, no-one gets in their way) we arrived in the narrow channel
into Port Ios, a rather grand name for a tiny, tiny harbour. We were all
organised to go alongside in our usual calm and elegant fashion when; big gust
(huge really, think massive tantrum, feet stamping and arms flailing two year
old at a supermarket check-out) and the dingy blew off the deck. Aaagh; yes, of course it was
tied on. At least it was until that very second. A pretty slick
man/object overboard procedure followed and we got it back fortunately without
difficulty or mishap. Except that by now we were in the wrong bit of the
channel for Mike’s carefully laid manoeuvring plans so we had to do a bit
more manoeuvring to sort that one out. After that it was easy.
Straight in, mooring line picked up; Viv and Tim handling lines like salty sea
dogs who have seen it all before. Off to the shop and water into the
tanks. Caution is our watchword so
Mike had carefully taken notice of the warnings in the pilot guide about the
wash that is sent into the harbour by the ferries coming in big and fast,
no-one getting in their way. Big wash; huge. Up/down goes Tashi
Delek, up/down goes the gangplank collapsing in the middle in the
process. Blimey; a big wash indeed but we were well positioned and no
harm done. Not so further along where a yacht had pushed the
gangplank so hard onto the harbour wall that it had torpedoed the back of the
boat putting an eight inch gash into their fibreglass. Ouch.
Provisioned and watered we
moved round the corner into the anchorage. A busy beach and not so pretty
but any port in a storm. Sunday 26th Hooray again we said
hopefully. Quiet night and the forecasts all say winds of Force 3-6
(Gentle to strong breeze). Nothing too tricky there then so a good sail
for a few hours to the next island. All was well for long enough to get
past the point of no return, ie where it was quicker to keep going for another
couple of hours than turn back, and then we were off again.
Horrible lumpy sea and increasing winds hammering down. Force 3-6 in our
dreams. Mostly Gale Force 8 and Severe Gale Force 9 but then gusts that
qualified as Storm Force 10 and one, our finest moment, 56 knots ( 65 MPH),
Violent Storm Force 11. Tashi Delek handled extremely
well throughout this battering and felt comfortable and stable. We were
really delighted with how she performed and it has given us a lot of confidence
in what she is capable of. And us come to that. We will however
continue to try and avoid such tests of strength and keep some faith in the
weather forecasts which have otherwise been excellent. Viv and Tim were great and
just got on with it. Tim handled the helm extremely well whatever the
angle to the horizon. Notice too the gloves and hair.
And they both managed to keep
smiling.
We made it to a delightful
bay, Ormos Vathi, on the island of Folegandros and all seemed to be calming
down. Again. Ha! As if. Monday 27th Back towards Manganari Bay on
Ios. Three reefs just to be sure and off we go. The ‘bad
tempered one’, got all worked up again but didn’t make it all the
way to ‘violent’ remaining content at gale and near gale most of
the way. Piece of cake. Actually, not really. Lumpy,
unpleasant and getting very tedious indeed. Some light relief came when
we were joined by a small bird that had been blown off course. It had no
fear of us at all and snuggled down out of the wind next to Carols leg.
It did a full inspection of
the boat, inside and out and then flew off which was probably a mistake but you
never know; maybe it got to the island. Tuesday 28th And finally we get to travel
the stretch of water over to Santorini but with hardly any wind (the bad
tempered one was no doubt sulking by now) so engine on the whole way. We
chose the scenic route and went the long way round the caldera (crater) so that
we could see the extraordinary scenery and get a feel for the size of the
place. The photographs hardly do it justice but here is a flavour.
The cruise ship in the middle of the left hand picture gives some sense of
scale.
To ensure that, for Viv and
Tim at least, no day was entirely straightforward we were delighted that the
marina was tricky to get into. We needed to position ourselves at the
correct angle between a yellow buoy and blue hotel in order to make it through
an ancient, and now entirely submerged, breakwater just waiting to grab the
keel. Once that was over we needed to make a sharp left turn into a
narrow channel made even narrower by it’s propensity to silt up. We
reckoned we would only have about 8 inches under the keel at the shallowest point
so the tiniest wave could bounce us on the bottom. And there were plenty
of waves that day, of course. Carol on the bows with eyes
peeled through polarised sunglasses and all of Mike’s expertise engaged
we made it safely to our berth. And in case anyone thinks we are being
over dramatic we watched two other yachts get caught on, and bounce off, the
bottom over the next couple of days! Time to take stock and check
the boat over and there will be more on the damage in a separate blog but the
focus of this evening was going into the main town of Fira where Viv and Tim
treated us to dinner as the sun went down.
And then a firework display
launched from one of the islands in the caldera which included a very realistic
re-enactment of the volcano erupting. Slightly freaky.
An unexpected and suitably
spectacular end to a surprising week. Huge congratulations to Viv and Tim
who handled difficult conditions calmly and cheerfully. Tim actually
relished all of it and was a real asset because he quickly got the hang of
sailing the boat very well. Viv confessed that she did a series of risk
assessments and each time decided that she was more scared of Mike thinking she
was wet than anything untoward happening to the boat. And Mike still
doesn’t believe that anyone can possibly think he is scary.
Mostly though he’s
lovely......
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