I know I’ve been remiss in keeping up with my blog so apologies for the lack of updates for quite a long time. A lot has happened so here is a longer post with some pictures showing the highlights of my first two and a half months in Greece.
Lefkada Town
After my crew helped me get mored stern-to on the causeway into Lefkada Town I spent a month there getting some administrative tasks sorted out. It was quite nice being able to step off the boat and walk into town with the dingy-free access that provides to groceries, bakeries, Chandler‘s, hardware stores and the like. There was of course no power or water to be had there, but it was also free. I made friends with some French people who moored near me and a German shipwright who lives on an old wooden sailing ship and has done some wood working repairs for me.
I spent quite a lot of time in Lefkada troubleshooting my water maker, which wasn’t producing the rated output it’s supposed to. After helping me diagnose and rule out all other possible problems, EchoTec, the manufacturer of the watermaker, shipped me a high pressure pump rebuild kit. All that trouble shooting took most of July. The rebuild kit had to come all the way from Trinidad and clear Greek customs in Athens before it could be sent to Lefkada. More on the rebuild later.
There is a great little Cuban music and rum bar in Lefkada town called Havana. I met several great people there, including the couple that own and run the bar and they introduced me to some locals who have become great friends and are helping me work through some of the administration tasks involved in relocating to Greece.
Meganisi
It got difficult being moored stern-to on that causeway in Lefkada Town as the prevailing winds blow over the road and directly into my cockpit and into my cabins. The traffic on that road is quite heavy as it’s the only way to drive on or off the island. The road also features a moving bridge, which, when it’s in its normal position allows cars and road traffic to cross but not boats. The channel for boats connects the Southern Ionian, including Lefkada Town, to waters North up to Paxos and Corfu, so has a large amount of boat traffic. The floating bridge opens on a periodic schedule for boats and when it does, the road traffic comes to a standstill. As it was very hot in July (up to 36 Celsius) people tend to leave their engines running with the windows up so they have air-conditioning, while they wait for the floating bridge to return to its car position. Inhaling all that exhaust after several weeks was getting to be more than I could handle as it was making me ill.
So with the help of my new local friend, we slipped the mooring in early August and sailed South to Nidri. After a couple days there I carried on my own to Meganisi.
Meganisi was great as it allowed me to swim on a daily basis, most days 1 kilometer of freestyle. There is also a little mini market ashore there and two restaurants in the bay where I was anchored.
After that, I picked up my new local friends in Nidri and we sailed South around the bottom of Lefkas Island and then North up the West Coast of Lefkas, up to Anti-Paxos and Paxos islands. It was super crowded with so many boats as July – August is high season in the Ionian.
Corfu Town
Next up was Corfu Town, always very nice to visit. Only spent one day there, but could have spent longer.
We stopped in North West Corfu in Kassiopi, to visit Pitcha’s friend Rinda, who runs the Nicolas Bakery there. We got some wonderful cake – and Rinda gave me fresh green papayas, Thai chilis and oyster sauce! Very hard things to get in Greece. It was such a treat and I was very thankful. I hope to see Rinda and her family back in Thailand in February. Needless to say, I made spicy sum tom Thai papaya salad back on board!
After Kassiopi we headed West and around the top of Corfu, spent a very unpleasant night at anchor, rolling side to side. The next day the wind was unusually from the South and not the North-West as normal, so we spent the day beating upwind to South-West Corfu and another night of rolling at anchor.
Windlass Failure in Paxos!
After Sailing back down the West Coast of Corfu to Paxos, when I tried to anchor, the anchor windless failed! I was raising the anchor to re-set it, and when I took my finger off the up button at the helm to slow the anchor coming into home position. The windlass should have stopped, but it kept on running, banged the anchor home and then refused to work any more, up or down. It also refused to be manually operated. There was no way to deploy the main anchor.
After retrieving our long shore line, we motored over to a wider anchorage with a sandy bottom and tried to use the boat’s back-up anchor on a rope rode, which I keep ready in the bow locker but have never used. After four attempts and failing to get the back up anchor to hold, I gave up and made the decision to sail South to Lefkas and to book Nakee into the Lefkas Marina. It took a very long time to get back to Lefkas, where we had to wait with about 30 other boats, all milling around in a crowd, waiting for the floating bridge to open at 19:00. It was of course blowing in the mid 20s, so not easy, but we eventually made it into the Lefkas Harbour with out any collisions with all the charter boats (most of them gigantically big catamarans). My friends, new to sailing, managed to get the dinghy off the davits and hoisted on to the foredeck, while I stayed at the helm, avoiding collisions in close quarters. We then went into the marina and managed to get moored stern-to with the marina’s slime lines – necessary since my anchor was out of action. The cross wind in the 20s didn’t make it easy, but we did it with the help of the marina staff.
That was the end of a long and stressful day! I was exhausted but very happy to be safe in the marina. Not having the ability to anchor is the most fundamental safety concern.
It took the whole week to get the windlass working again. There were lots of ups and downs, a false diagnosis that the windlass motor was burned out (it wasn’t- now I have a spare) and the wrong new windlass control box installed. Finally on Friday Paleros Yacht Service managed to get the correct windlass control box installed and I was thankfully able to leave the marina on Saturday morning. Staying in the marina for one week in the high season is super expensive, so to be avoided if at all possible.
It turned out the heavy duty “up” relay in the original control box failed due to salt water ingress and the original 150 amp circuit breaker failed to trip when the windlass was running against the stowed anchor and pulling 450 amps! Lucky we didn’t have a fire!
What I hadn’t however anticipated was the return of the charter fleets on Friday night, before I could escape the marina. Of course one of those gigantic catamarans had to moor next to me, upwind of me. The “credit card captain” managed to loose control in the cross wind and impale his catamaran on Nakee’s oversized 45 kg Ultramarine anchor. Luckily there was no damage to Nakee – just a light sprinkle of fiberglass dust from the large hole in the catamaran’s hull. The next morning the charter company’s repair guy was there with a grinder, he ground off the edges of the hole, picked out the loose foam (these things are made of two egg-shell thin fiberglass layers with foam injected between them) and filled it with some bondo type filler, sanded it down, and back out on charter it went that evening! The credit card captain undoubtedly lost his security deposit. Lesson learned: avoid being in the marina on Friday or Saturday in the high season!
While in the marina waiting for windlass motors and windlass control boxes, I finally had time to rebuild the watermaker high pressure pump. Its output is now 3x better from 5 to 15 gallons per hour but still not at the expected 25 gph. Next step is to change the through hull when Nakee is lifted in October. I hope that improves things, but I can live with 15 gph!
Freak Lightning Storm
After spending almost a week in Vathy Harbour on the island of Ithaca, I decided to move again, as it was blowing in the mid 20s and gusting to low 30s there. The breaking waves in the harbour, which faces directly NW into the prevailing winds, made it nearly impossible to venture ashore in the dingy. I managed it twice but stopping the dingy bashing itself to bits on the town quay in that wind and waves wasn’t easy. The harbour is also very crowded with charter boats each afternoon and unsuitable for swimming.
My new local friends recommended Kastos, a small, long skinny island closer to the Greek mainland, so I moved Nakee ~15 nm last Friday to Kastos. I managed to find a patch of sand to drop anchor in, just off a small beach adjacent to Kastos’s small harbour. The water is crystal clear and it is safe to swim, so Ive been really enjoying this place.
Last night I finally decided to venture ashore for the first time on Kastos. There is a cocktail bar in an old windmill up on a hill with fantastic views.
While up there I saw dark clouds gathering over the mountains on the mainland. The view however stated out as very benign.
The clouds darkened and there were distant flashes of lighting, but the storm was moving away from Kastos as it developed, so I didn’t give it much thought and walked back into the village for some food. This meant I could however no longer see the horizon.
While eating the thunder and lightning stayed getting louder and closer together, with the breeze freshening. I quickly finished off my dinner, paid and hurried back to my dingy. By the time I was leaving the Harbour in the dingy the rain had started, but only a few drops. The wind was up and very large waves were breaking. To avoid the dingy being capsized or me getting knocked overboard, I had to sit down on the dingy’s floor and push the electric outboard to high power to make progress. Against the weather.
When I got out into the anchorage I could see pandemonium – many yachts were dragging anchor and a new 80 foot Oyster yacht, all illuminated, below and above the water, without a soul on board had dragged back with only a few meets away from a rock cliff. I navigated around the bow of the Oyster in my dingy and then saw two of my anchor neighbours bashing together. A Norwegian boat had dragged anchor and snared itself on the anchor chain of a German yacht. The wind and waves were smashing the yachts continually together, but there was nothing I or the skippers could do. Eventually a very large wave lifted the Norwegian’s yacht off the German yacht’s anchor chain and the Norwegian was able to motor out of the anchorage.
Thankfully Nakee hadn’t dragged and I made it back to her! I had a very hard time getting out of the dingy and onto Nakee, the waves were so big. The yacht was pitching up and down like crazy. Eventually I managed to get on the yacht without falling overboard and being mashed between dingy and yacht. Was difficult getting the dingy hoisted in the davits and ratcheted down to immobilise it, but I managed that too.
My anchor drag alarm was going off, as I had dragged out of the defined guard radius and there were several DSC distress calls on the VHF. Many yachts were fleeing the anchorage, but I decided to say put as Nakee was not dragging any further. Up at the bow to check on my anchor chain, bridle and chain hook, the bow was pitching up and down so much thw waves were breaking over the bow!
I stood watch and after an hour or so, things started to calmed down and I was able to turn in for the night.
This morning the German skipper came by to ask if I could be a witness for his insurance claim, which I agreed to. He told me some yacht had hit Nakee last night before I managed to get back, but luckily there is only a minor scratch. No one came by today to claim responsibility.
Another lesson learned: at first sign of lightning or thunder, head back to the boat ASAP! I’ve now set up an automated notification on my phone for extreme weather alerts and will pay closer attention to them too.
Last night there was also an eclipse of the full moon, making it appear dark and red – some call it a blood moon. I managed to snap a picture.
