Escape from Limnos
Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 30 Jul 2009 17:28
Thursday 30th July
Got away at 5.00am in the dark with the wind already blowing 15 knots. Put a
reef in the main and flew the hard wind jib on the inner forestay and set a
course for Sigri, on the island of Lesvos a distance of around 56 miles.
Once again the wind soon began to pick up and with it the waves. We were
sailing on a broad reach at first and so the waves were no real problem and
once the wind reached 20 knots we were flying along at 8 knots through the
water. We ate up the miles as the morning went by, but the wind was
increasing all the time and so were the waves. The main problem with the
waves was that every few minutes there would be a set of 'rogue' ones that
were around twice the height of the rest and these began to throw us around
as they passed through. The wind also began to veer and was now coming over
our rear quarter which along with the 25+ knots of wind was making steering
quite lively. We reefed the main down further and put a few rolls in the
headsail and calm was restored for a while and we barely lost any speed
either. Had to cross the busy shipping lanes as we approached Sigri, but
this was complicated by the west coast of Lesvos turning out to be a wind
acceleration zone. Suddenly we were facing winds gusting up to 38 knots and
the seas became mountainous. The last freighter that we had to avoid (should
he be avoiding us?) made a late course change that had us having to bear
away almost directly downwind (and alarmingly away from our destination)
which in the seas and at the speed we were travelling was very unhealthy. We
rounded up behind him and flew in through a gap in the rocks and islands,
behind which lay Sigri. 10.5 knots through the water was our top speed and
as we dropped the main and caught our first view of our destination, our
hearts sank as conditions there were completely untenable. The sea was white
with breaking waves and the rollers were just pilling through the northern
entrance, so we decided to bail out and go back out to sea and head
downwind, round the eastern side of Lesvos for 17 miles to a bay where we
knew there would be better protection.
Coming back out we just set a reefed headsail to keep the speed down and
stayed close to the land. Because of the shape of the island, this bit of
coast was soon giving us full protection from the waves and so even with
just the one small jib flying, we whizzed down to the entrance to Kolpos
Kalloni which is a huge landlocked gulf in no time at all.
The wind had certainly eased by now and we sailed into the entrance of the
gulf and then nosed into Apothekes Bay where we dropped anchor. Allegedly
good holding here which was handy as the wind kept blowing into the evening.
Forecast has this weather continuing like this in this area for another 5
days which is a bit of a pain, but we bought this Najad because of its
ability to deal with these conditions so we are heading on south tomorrow we
hope. We saw only one other yacht: a large ketch sailing up the way we had
come in the lea of the island (brave chap!). The only other query is where
is everyone else - and will there be any gaps in the harbours that are
sheltered from this meltemi when we arrive?