Some good sailing!
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Wed 29 Jul 2009 13:21
39:20.7N
24:04.6E
Monday 27th July
2009
Slipped moorings
late morning - no problem with the anchor coming up this time, except that the
last 10 metres of chain and the anchor itself were covered in thick grey sticky
mud, which we had to wash off before letting the chain go below into the
locker.
With a reef in the
main and two thirds of the Genoa out, we were doing 8 knots with 24 knots of
wind on the port quarter almost all the way to Ormos
Panormos.
The anchor was down
and the line ashore by 1330 - time for a swim before lunch!
A chilled out day,
reading, swimming, snorkelling, eating chicken kebabs cooked on the barbecue for
dinner and enjoying drinks in the cockpit as the moon went down over the
hills.
Tuesday 28th July
2009
Anchor up
mid-morning, and with one and a half reefs in the main and the yankee we had a
cracking sail to Steni Vala on Alonisos. We arrived mid afternoon to find
Sue, Nip and co had beaten us by an hour or so. Sue took the lines and we
were soon tied up.
The quayside in Steni
Vala
The view south from Steni Vala bay
We walked round to the next
cove, and swam and snorkelled, then back to the boat for a
siesta.
Later, over pre-dinner drinks, we worked out the rules
of the game of Okey we had bought in Turkey, and played a couple of rounds
before eating ashore in the fish taverna.
By coincidence it
just happened to be Sam and Joe's birthday, and we were invited for after-dinner
drinks and cake, which nicely rounded off a very good day.
Happy 16th
Birthday Sam and Joe!
Wednesday 29th
July 2009
After some
discussion with the Greek skipper of Sue & Nip's charter boat about the
conditions around the entrance to an anchorage we wanted to visit on Panayia, we
slipped moorings mid-morning and headed up the channel between Alonisos and
Peristeri.
With a strong wind
on the nose we decided to motor up the channel rather than tack, and headed
straight into our lunchtime stop on the South West corner of Panayia - Ag Petros
Bay. Here it was not as sheltered as the Pilot would have one believe, but
we found a spot in reasonable shelter and let go the anchor, only to find that
it was jammed up in the locker and wouldn't run freely enough to get it
down. So we headed back out to deep water where we let out 30 metres of
chain and carefully laid it back in the locker so that it would run freely on
the next attempt. In the meantime a trip boat had vacated a good spot and
we went back and anchored there. The anchor chain was still a bit sluggish
but we got it down ok for a lunch stop.
We left this bay at
1600 and enjoyed (!) some lively sailing into the wind for a couple of hours
before deciding to motor sail so that we could head up into the wind more.
On switching on the engine, however, we heard the most awful knocking noise
which suggested that something was very wrong! We switched it off again and put
the yankee back up and Steve went below to investigate. He discovered that
the nuts and bolts holding the aquadrive flexible coupling of the drive shaft
had worked their way loose and one had come off altogether. We made a note
to complain to the company that had 'serviced' the aquadrive during the
winter! Fortunately Steve was able to locate the missing locking nut in
the bilge and to replace it and tighten up the others, and then we were able to
motor once again. This was a sobering experience as the island we were
sailing off and to is uninhabited and the anchorage requires a good engine to
get in and out of its narrow entrance. Without the engine we would have
had to sail back to Steni Vala and request help. This was at 1800, with only a
couple of hours light left, so we were particularly glad that Steve was able to
identify and remedy the problem!
We eventually
arrived at Planitis and it was fascinating to see the flat water the other side
of the entrance. This anchorage is almost entirely enclosed and depths at
the entrance are little more than 6 metres, so virtually no swell enters the bay
at all. We dropped the anchor and enjoyed a peaceful,calm evening and
night with only the stars and a few goats for company.
