Our neighbours were as good as their word and were ready to leave at
7:55. So we cast off from
them. We were not ready to do
anything so we just put the anchor down while we sorted ourselves out.
The weather forecast is the same.
Winds of 17knots gusting 22, north to northeast going north
northwest. The sea state is still
said not to be too bad, going up to 1 metre waves. But instead of improving on Thursday the wind will increase
and the sea state will get worse. So we decide we should go now rather than
being stranded in this delightful, but
basic little fishing village.
So we set out around 8:30am.
The weather is pretty much as the forecast said. Maybe it is a bit more blowy, being
pretty much between the top of a Force 5 and a Force 6. The wind is a bit more on the beam and
the waves are coming from the side rather than the stern. But it isn’t a bad sail. We are headed to Patmos. We went there last year and stayed in
one of the main towns, Skala, but hoped today to go to a nice bay with a posh
hotel and spa.
The trip takes about 4 hours and it wasn’t at all bad, but I am pleased
I took a seasick pill! We get to
the bay called Ormos Grikou. The
pilot book speaks of a jetty where visitors can moor and visitor mooring bouys. But when we get there all the spaces on
the jetty are taken and the visitor bouys as described (orange coned buoys) say
private and when we start to try to pick one up we are yelled at by a moored
local boat. So the only thing to
do is to anchor.
That turns out to be a problem.
Our first attempt takes us rather close to a French boat. Out of concern and with an element of
being helpful the skipper on the boat swims out to our anchor with his face
mask and snorkel and says that the anchor is not dug in and we need more
chain. So we try again, but then
we are clearly dragging. Finally
we think we may have got it right, but we do wind up rather close to some
rocks.
To check on the anchor we decide to have a swim before lunch and R can
look at the anchor with his face mask and snorkel. His report is not very good. The anchor is on sand but it is not dug in. That will be good enough for a
lunchtime stop, but not to hold us safely in the expected high winds tonight.
So we eat lunch and cogitate over what to do. In the meantime the wind is coming directly at us and we do
seem to have settled in one place.
We have three choices. The
first is to inspect the anchor again and see if it has set. The second is to put the boat in
reverse and try to dig the anchor in.
Either way, we will be reluctant to leave the boat and go to dinner in
the rather charming looking village.
The last idea is to go into the town Skala, and see if we can find a
berth on the town pier.
Richard opts for the last choice.
At bit dull as we were in Skala last year, but off we go. The big disappointment is that as I
take up the anchor it is clear that it had dug in well as it comes up full of
sand and gravel. So there was no
need to move at all! But off we
go. The journey is short but
uncomfortable motoring into a Force 6.
We get to Skala and luckily there are a few spaces on the town pier and
we manage to get into one without too much trouble despite the high wind still
blowing a 6. My only concern is
that we have not put our anchor out straight in front of us and we may have
fouled the anchor of the boat next to us.
Our place does not have easy access to electricity or water. We shall have to be careful about that. The mooring fees are cheap, 6 euros a
night, but they want 20 euros for electricity. That may go down, but we need a longer lead to get to the
box in any event. Here is where we
hope our solar panels are doing their job.
We both shower and change and feel much better. We are about to go for a walk in the
town when the young German couple on the boat next door ask for our help to be
ballast to tilt his boat to port so he can get to a fuel pipe that needs repair
on the starboard side. This done
we do go to town and I now remember it much more. We have an iced coffee and
get some free WIFI and make reservations for dinner.
When we get back to the boat our German neighbours are getting ready to
leave. I am really worried that we
have fouled his anchor, so we watch them go with some trepidation. They do have trouble taking up their
anchor, but it does not seem to be caused by our anchor which doesn’t move at
all. After a little toing and
froing they get away and we feel better.
Have a sort of average dinner.
We use their WIFI to look up the weather. It is not good.
The sea is going higher with nearly 2 metre waves predicted with winds
between 22 and 34 knots! So it
looks like we will be stuck here for some days. We may be able to go to safe anchorages on this island, but
it does not look like we can progress to other islands, but as ever, we shall
see.
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