We got up fairly early and after another look at the weather forecast
we decide to leave. Jonnie and
Marion are also going, but only 5 miles to another bay on the same island. We have decided to make our way to
another island called Agathonisi which is due south of where we are. This means that even with high winds it
will all be downwind, so not so troublesome.
We set out just after 9am.
The sky is clear and the weather is lovely. To start with the winds aren’t particularly strong about a
force 4-5. However we resist the
temptation to put up the main and just sail on Genoa as planned. After about 30 minutes we are out of
the lee of the island of Samos and the wind really picks up. Most of the way it is the top of a 6,
bottom of a seven. But there are
strong gusts. I saw one at 32
knots, which is gale force 8. Richard
says he saw it gust to 38 knots.
In any event we were screaming along at 7 knots just on Genoa.
I was worried that the sea would be really bad. It was a bit lumpy with waves us to 1 metre
high, but not too bad and again, the waves were mainly behind us, just pushing
us along.
We were a little concerned at first to find that we were the only boat
out on the water, but as we approached Agathonisi, we did see other boats. So we weren’t the only lunatics out in
these conditions.
We entered the harbour area of Ay Yeiryiou. As we were coming in, so was the ferry, so we had to get out
of its way. The wind was still
blowing very strong and with the ferry in the main village and seemingly no
other boats anchored, we started out to go into a small bay with a beach at the
end. It was much calmer there with
much reduced winds and the sea was flat.
However, Richard was not happy with our anchoring efforts, unconvinced
we had sufficiently dug the anchor in to cope with the conditions. So we decided to go to the main bit and
see what was happening there. The
ferry was going as we got in. No
one seemed to be anchored in the bay and we were a bit confused what to
do. As we were manoeuvring a man
swam up to the boat and told us that we could moor on the ferry quay. He said we should wait half an hour for
one boat to go, or raft up to another boat. However as we approached the quay another man took our lines
and put us at the very end saying the ferry would dock between us and the other
boats on the quay.
So we got tied up to the quay and started to eat our lunch, when the
swimmer came up to us on the shore.
It seems he is the harbour police.
He says we can’t stay where we are unless we move to let the ferry in at
5pm and then return. He again
suggests we raft up to the first boat on the quay. So after we finish our lunch that is what we do. We are rafted up to a 45 foot boat
filled with 8-10 Italians. The
only problem is that they are leaving at 8am tomorrow. Isn’t that always the case when you are
rafted up!
But we are safely ensconced.
We can walk to the town (after crossing over the Italian boat) and we
don’t have to worry if the wind gets up in the night. In the meantime 7 other boats arrive to moor for the
night. After the ferry has been 4
of them moor on the ferry quay and there are three anchored in the bay.
The weather is very hot and we are pleased to be able to swim off the
back of the boat. The water is
wonderfully clear and cool! The
wind is quite gentle all afternoon, but by 9pm it does get up a bit, but
nothing to worry about. We are not
sure what we will do tomorrow.
After our Italians have left it would be nice to tie direct to the quay. We are on the end where the ferry does
not ever dock, so no problem. But
R thinks we should move on. We
will see.
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