Telltales 82  UPDATED: FRIDAY, 20th Oct.

Back home to Symi, via France, Italy, Greece and Turkey. (Part 2)

After a week of sailing we managed to get from St. Tropez in France through the Strait of Messina and pointing straight for Greece. We already covered some 700 miles, but still need to do another 700.

Course deviation.
Friday morning, Oct 13th: Some 40 miles after passing through the AStrait of Messina and having left mainland Italy behind us, we are pointing straight east to Cephalonia, Greece, with only 180 miles of open water in front of us. The wind starts to freshen. At 9 in the morning we are beating very close hauled into 15 knots of wind. Not very comfortable and Marit is bouncing in her cabinbunk. We still have some 200 miles to do and the forecast is not bright. The wind will turn further towards the east AND will increase. Time to take a decision. We tack and point the boat on a northerly course. Back to italy, direction Rocciela Ionica, a port on the boot of Italy. Although not planned, we have no choice and that is what sailing is all about. You deal with nature and if she limits your choices, one accepts.

By 2 in the afternoon we dock Sylphe in an unromantic port, only to find a known face on the dock. Ted (from the beautifull AMAZON -built in 1885-  in Malta) is delivering a motoryacht from Greece to Malta and has pulled in as well. Ted works with oil companies and has just spend another period in Nigeria, so Marit and he have some stuff to discuss. Not to mention the fact that we had not seen each other for 3 years. Roland falls deeply asleep at 3 in the afternoon, only to awake the next morning at 10 with rain splashing on deck. Grey-ish skies surround the boat. It looks like we will be stuck here for a few days.

Sunday morning, Oct 15th. Ten O'Clock and we wake up with the rain splashing on deck, again or still. Yesterday was spent having an extensive lucnch with Ted and Jim from the motoryacht next door. We caught up with 2,5 years of absence in Malta. Later, we hitchhike and get a lift into town (3 km away) and do some more groceries. In the evening we have a diner in the local harbor restaurant, where one orders pizza by length......so either half a meter or a whole meter. A nice new concept. A last night cap onboard of  CANASTELLA and we disappear off for yet another night of sleep.
The weatherforecast for the next three days is getting worse, East  wind force 6, so we accept our predicament. Even the fishing fleet is hiding here.




Tuesday morning, Oct 17th.
Rocciella Ionica is becoming our second home......no just joking, and only to indicate that we are still here. Sunday saw a day of rain and plenty of wind, so we nicely stayed sheltered in port. And we spent a day with small jobs on the boat: a complete rerouting of cabling for the computer and a gps signal cable for the VHF involve a complete dismantling of the navigation sation. But job well done, The Imac Mini (SMMC) is great, but not a real portable computer, although the size of the actual computer is only that of a pocketbook. And since we also want to use it in the house, I needed a solution for NOT having to dismantle the complete cabling every time and packing keyboards, screens etc.. The way around this is to have a double system of screen and keyboard: one in the house and one in the boat. So, when I leave the boat for the house, I only have to take the Imac Mini and leave all cabling/keyboard/screen in the boat/house permanently. Real Plug and Play. Now it is just as handy as a portable computer, but even smaller. Once again, too much time on your hands, makes you find easy solutions. Will even get a second power cable for the Imac, so that I really have to take only the little IMac Mini and leave everything else in place.


Note the silver grey-ish Apple Mini Mac middel top of picture.

The monday morning did not bring traffic jams on our way to the office, but clear skies and sunshine. Still 20 knots in port, and a look over the breakwater did not urge us to go out to sea. Today the watermaker is on the agenda. The thing needs to be cleaned once a year and I guessed that today is as good as any other day. So, buckets and chemicals are taken out, piping rerouted and 2 hours of rinsing will guarantee potable water again for the next year.

The forecast as of wednesday is looking very bright, and we hope to be in Aegina on saturday morning with following winds, all the way through the Golf of Corinth. Keep your fingers crossed, so that we can leave here on wednesday afternoon.
However it means that we have to survice another two days in Rocciela Ionica.
 

 TO GREECE.
Thursday morning 7 O'Clock and we cast off from the jetty in Rocciela Ionica. It has been long enough. The weatherforecast is 3 - 5 Beaufort from SE turning to West. That will suit us fine. We have 190 miles to cover till we hit Cephalonia, with an average of 6 knots per hour we should be there by friday midday. We turn Sylphe around the breakwater of the harbor and turn her on an easterly course. We encounter a nice and long swell, the result of the last days wind, but there is hardly any wind at the moment. We hoist main and staysail and motorsail onward. By midday the wind is steady 12 knots SE, so just 60 degrees off our bowsprit. Very do-able.
We meet some big ships, most of whom deviate their course to avoid us, One however is persistent and Marit takes the control over from Manolo, the autopilot, to miss it. The captain is standing on the bridge, but does not wave back. Ah well, after this the sea is empty.
At 2 in the afternoon I hoist the yankee as well and we do a steady 7,5 knots....and in the right direction. By 5 in the afternoon the wind has turned into the south and is at an irregular 12 - 18 knots, sometimes hitting 20, but at  a nice 90 degree wind angle. The sea is slowly building up and the first spray comes over deck.
The clear blue skies from that morning have moved on and scattered dark clouds surround us. Still better than in the rest of the Med around us, according to the italian "Mare Mosso Radio" (VHF 68, one really gets depressed listening to this computer voice, but any info is better than nothing in this open water with NO shelter at hand). It is raining and thunderstorming on both the east and the west of us, Greece gets hammered (serious Meltemi), on the other side of the Corinth Channel and the beautifull Tyrenenan Sea, that we just left, is now a storm front with force 8. We made it through in time and our patience in Rocciela Ionica has paid off.
In the mean time we happily sail on into the night, while we both sit inside and read a book. It is colder outside, after all mid Ocotber.

Another 120 miles and we are there...home.... Greece...... At midnight I take over from Manolo and handsteer, for two reasons, it is one of the best night sails we have ever done and the wind is shifting back in an easterly direction. Not what we want.

Well, actually not so well. All went smooth with both jibs and the main till 5 in the morning. We were averaginfg 8 knots. The wind was behaving ridicilous, though. And for two reasons, both I still do not understand. First of all there were gusts.....in the middle of the open sea, at least 100 miles from land??? Does not make sense. And actually very big gusts that lasted 3 or 4 minutes. Out of nowhere the wind would go from 12 to 20 knots. And this every ten minutes or so. Quite bizar, but we could deal and live with that. Adding some extra speed.
The second strange phenomenen was that during the gusts, one had to bear away, instead of taking advantage and luffing a bit. Even more bizar, when the gust was gone you could luff again. Never got the hang of it, nor do i understand it. But we made great progress and speed.

At 5 in the morning the windmeter hits 21 and that was my indicator to take the yankee down, and so I did. Still pitch dark, hit the decklights and went forward, while Marit kept the boat on a downwind course to facilitate my struggle. The sea got confused with very big rollers and breakers from all sides, except there where the wind was actually blowing from. It stopped us dead in our tracks,.....all 35 tons. The wind picks up even more and hits 25 now, and of course turns straight onto our bow. Are there any miracles left in the Med??? We still only need to do 40 miles, but they could become horrorsome, as we are tired as well by now.



So, we struggle the last hours to get into port, although we could see the islands at dawn already. And instead of the south tip of Cephalonia , it became the North tip, and almost Levkas, which is even further north, as the wind klept veering further back into the easter. Not predicted, but it simply happens. The whole excercise (including having to tack 4 times to reach port, quite frustrating not to be able rto go in a straight line, after all) was accompanied with 30 knots of wind and rain. Not your most memorable circumstances.

We dock the boat in the pittoresque port of Fiskardo, Cephalonia at 1 in the afternoon. Welcome home. I have not let go of the helm in 13 hours.

It will all be soon forgotten and than we remain with the great sail we had up to 5 in the morning, as it was really beautifull and fast. We still did 212 miles in 29 hours.

And we have some damage to sails, but nothing a skill-full sailmaker can't repair.


STILL TO COME:

Greece: from Cephalonia to Symi, via Corinth Channel (450 miles)
To go from Cephalonia (most western point of Greece) to Symi (almost most eastern point), involves cruising through very familiar waters and too many friends to go non stop. So we will go through the Corinth Channel for the second time this year and pass via Aegina and than onward through the Cyclades islands. And when we hit the Turkish Coast, we also know that we just missed Symi...........turn around.


AHOY
Roland and Marit
www.sail-in-style.com