From Italy to Greece

Enough time had passed in the bay of Cugnana, Sardinia, that we were looking forward to setting off again. It was another weekend and the anchorage was filling up. It is often the case that the boats anchor too close together. That doesn’t matter if they only come for a swim, but if they stay longer, the distances have to be good for the whole swinging circle. The latest gadget we have is a measuring device that is sold for measuring distances when playing golf. You can use it to take a bearing on neighbouring boats and use a laser to measure exactly whether they are getting too close 😉

We set off in the late afternoon. The original plan to call at the port of Olbia with the SAN had fallen through because an event was taking place there for which the public jetties were closed. So we resigned to tune in to night-time sailing again. The tour was to offer us everything from calm to wind force 9, gusting to 10, but you couldn’t tell that from the weather forecast.

There was often very little wind, so we had the slowest tour so far. Several days with 24-hour runs under 100 nautical miles. However, we still didn’t beat our all-time-low 24-hour run of 53.7 nm, albeit only just (57.5). Instead, we had some of the worst wind we’ve ever experienced at sea. We didn’t want to sail around the outside of Sicily to avoid getting into waters where we might encounter refugee boats. As a relatively small yacht, you can’t pick up 30 people in distress. The rule of behaviour in such cases is to wait nearby and call for help. All in all, not a situation you want to get into.

During an absolute calm (we were drifting, but not in a good direction) we still didn’t want to use any diesel. Both of us independently considered whether we could use the electric motor to at least somehow keep the boat on course. Mathias then started to make a bracket for the motor, which we wanted to mount on the back of one of the outer hulls. This turned into a lengthy tinkering session. In the meantime, a little wind came up again and then a little more, so we didn’t need to test the construction. But, we are now ready for the next calm! 🙂

Sicily comes into sight:

We drove to the strait at Messina between the boot of Italy and Sicily. Shortly before we turned in there, we came to an area where high-speed ferries operate. They travel at 30-35 knots, appear suddenly and are quickly very close. It was also irritating that there were so many of them. Just as you saw one disappearing on the horizon, the next one appeared, travelling in the other direction. At one point, one passed by our bow and one by our stern at the same time. We were glad that we were sailing there in the light so that we could see better and be seen.

The strait is just over a nautical mile wide at the northern point. Due to the heavy shipping traffic and the current, the water there is choppy and you have to be careful. Although there is a traffic separation scheme, a dinghy was crisscrossing all over the place. You don’t need a licence for a boat like that.

The sun was setting as we sailed through the strait and I should have gone to bed. But I stayed awake to watch out for other boats and switch off the AIS alarms, which also beeped when the other boats were nearby but stationary in harbour. We only had the AIS symbols on the small screen of the radio. The VHF/AIS device was not recognised by the plotters*.

*(This problem has since been rectified by Mathias. He is always good at solving electronic problems, but the problem persisted during the trip.)

Then I tried to sleep, but the boat rolled. When it got really lop-sided and loud, sleep was out of the question and I got up again.

That’s what happened: A jet effect developed in the strait and the basic wind increased to 35 knots. We had 3 reefs and the jib plus engine assistance, so actually no problem. But there were also gusts. Mathias had had to bear away from the wind too much for his liking and wanted to get back to the eastern shore. That’s why he had gone upwind and we sailed against and into the waves for a while. I watched the wind gauge, which kept showing over 40 knots and measured up to 51.3 knots a few times. Well, that may have happened when we were going down with the wave, but the wind was gusting to force 10 and that over a longer period of time – not a good feeling!

The next day, we bobbed along the coast for a while, then turned off towards Greece, set a spinnaker and made good time. The wind fluctuated in strength and direction and our autopilot was also a bit of a bitch and occasionally failed for a short time. That meant we always had to be watchful. But the wind remained moderate, usually around 10 knots, sometimes up to 18 or down to 7. Pleasant sailing on a downwind course.

Setting and recovering the spinnaker is less trouble than it used to be. In the 8-9 knots of wind, it only took us 23 minutes to haul in the spi, stuff the rest of the sail into the bag, thread the sail into the front locker and pick up and stow the sheets. OK, Boris Herrmann probably wouldn’t let us join him with this time, but we were quite satisfied. A pulley on the haul-in line helps to pull down the sock. Whilst the captain is doing a less than exemplary job of jumping across the deck in his pants, I’m still only approaching the monster sails armed with shoes, gloves, helmet and lifejacket. However, I am the one standing at the front and getting the thing down while he is at the helm.

But we do have to struggle with the heat again. 30°C during the day is normal, and we had to take a shower after setting up the spi. But the batteries are always full and the water is hot 🙂 . It’s supposed to be 35° in Greece. In some parts there has just been a heatwave with 45° and 60° in the sun at midday. You have to take a siesta and drink a lot. Some tourists died because they were hiking over lunchtime. That sounds almost like Mexico. I think we have to look for nice bays and always hope for a light breeze over the sea. There are said to be plenty of places like this in Greece. We are curious.

We first arrived in Kofalonia. Chosen because there’s a Lidl (quark 😉 ). We will look for the next destination, where are direct flights to Hamburg and after that we can see where the wind takes us…..