It’s hot. Really, really hot. And that thunderstorm….it didn’t materialize…in fact the wind died, the sky cleared, and the temperature rose. For awhile….
A quote:
“Because of high and large landmasses in Greece it is extremely difficult to predict what local winds and strengths will be. The Greek meteorological service does its best but nonetheless faces an almost impossible task. Fortunately the wind direction and strength in the Ionian are remarkably consistent in the summer. For those who really want to listen to a weather forecast…remember to interpret them leniently.
Now, at 4:30 pm the winds are rising again. Several boats have arrived and we are a little more full than we were last night. We have a French crew on our port and a nice German crew to the left (there’s a woman on board so yes, they are nice). The French boat came in wildly and had to take several stabs at it before finally tying solidly to the dock. Then, as soon as they had docked, they left. No fenders out, their anchor hatch wide open, dinghy line piled on the foredeck. A bit slovenly and the lack of fenders meant that two boats that tried to come in later in the winds that whipped up, couldn’t get to the quay. The Germans came in nice and straight…straight across our anchor line. We are crossed…should be interesting tomorrow.
Interestingly, a Grand Banks arrived a little while ago. It’s an interesting collage…an American boat (yes I know they are built in Singapore and Malaysi), with a German captain, an Asian woman, and two young Asian girls. The Asian woman was standing at the stern ready to pass a line ashore to an awaiting pair of hands…she was dressed in white from head to toe and sporting a fashionable pair of bright yellow rubber gloves. Stunning!
The winds really wound up after about 4:30 pm and there were whitecaps outside the breakwater, actually, they were rolling right into the harbour and there were some wild boat maneuvers as the last boats for the night rolled in around the harbour dogleg. A 36 Bavaria with a crew of 6 German men arrived, complete with a skinned fox hanging from the halyard….lovely! They struggled but managed to berth next to the French boat….with their anchor across three other lines, including ours. They then broke out the drinks and started to party.
Eventually the French couple returned…started up the motor, and prepared to leave. We were surprised, and so were the hardcore sailors (now) two boats down. When they pulled up we could see the anchor line of the boat next to them stretch up and tighten, but they slid it out from underneath without too much issue, so hopefully we should be able to do the same tomorrow. The British woman called out to us and asked us where they were going, we replied that we had no idea, the nearest port was easily 2 hours and it was getting dark and the seals were wild out there. When they rounded the dogleg they buried the bow of their boat in the waves several times and were barely making any headway, but they got out, pulled the main, and went South. To the best of our knowledge, the nearest port that way is probably 4 hours. That will be one wild sail!
The rest of the evening was uneventful and we turned in early for a bumpy nights sleep. Off to Sami in the morning we think.
2 comments
Must be hard not to ‘worry’ about those foolhardy types … not only about THEM, but also for the hardships they may well cause to others … ?
For some people, the wild weather is where the fun is. But I am with you and would stay out of it if I had a choice.