A cracking sail, Gromit.
- Richard Crooks
- Apr 15, 2024
- 2 min read
The forecast was favourable, the boat was ready, and Tony and I were set to do our 150NM delivery trip from Leros to Olympic Marina (it’s not far from Athens airport). Alix would fly and meet us there.
We should have waited until the marineros arrived to help us exit our berth. But it was 07:30 and they don’t start work until 08:00. We had an empty berth downwind of us, next to an open channel, and we were almost pointing directly to the exit. Very low risk, although against marina protocol! We decided we needed to press on and depart. Alix now insists that I write a grovelling apology to the office.
Alix hopped off the stern and waved goodbye as Tony released the lazy line from the bow, and I slipped the two stern lines. We were off! “See you in, Olympic Marina!”, we shouted.
Out in the large Lakki bay, the main and jib were out by 08:05. We were sailing westwards and out into the Aegean Sea. By 08:28 we had our first two dolphins playing effortlessly in our bow wave.
The wind was from the north and we were heading just south-of-west towards the middle Cyclades islands. We were on a comfortable and fast beam reach in about 10 knots if true wind. We expected that the wind strength would build later. We passed the low islands of Levitha to our port, and the mass of Amorgos loomed off the port bow, with its usual duvet of fluffy cloud starting to form.
The wind died temporarily and we had to motor sail for an hour, but then we found the wind again as we headed west along the northern Amorgos coast. Soon we were putting in 2 reefs, as the wind gusted 26 knots (F6) and was a good F5 all the way.
The northerly wind squeezed and accelerated along the east coast of Naxos as we sailed south of it. It rushed over Missy Bear and she heeled some more, but took it well. We were bowling along at 7-8 knots, with the wave trains building. We took a couple of bigger waves over the starboard bow and warm, salty water gushed down the gunnels towards us at the stern.
We discussed which of the smaller Cyclades islands to head to for shelter We decided to look at Koufonisia, but the northern bay had little protection from the north. We bore away and sailed quickly down around the south-east of the island. We could have looked into the harbour, but we were sailing at 9 knots passed the entrance before we knew it, still with 2 reefs in!
We screamed through the gap between the two Koufonisia islands (Kato and Pano) and decided to head south-west towards the west coast of the next island, Schinousa. The main, yet tiny, harbour of this small, bucolic island is narrow and well-protected from northerlies. So, we passed the ferry quay and anchored for the night in 5m or water right at the head of the inlet.
Our first ‘shake-down’ sail of the season had been accomplished: 70 NM in 12 hours. We both slept well.
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