Cruising progress 2018 (Click to enlarge)
30th September 2018
After leaving Parikia on Paros, we motored round the tip of the island and headed along to Naoussa further along the coast. Although there was very little wind the seas became very swelly, which made for a very uncomfortable trip. Ferries travelling at speeds of between 20 and 32kts are continually crossing between the islands and seem to take a delight in passing close to yachts. We had one pass on each side of us about 100 metres away, both travelling at over 30kts, closely followed by a third who was only doing 18kts. The wake from the three of them was pretty uncomfortable!
We had visited Naoussa back in our chartering days and were sitting having lunch anchored off a lovely sandy beach, when Mike realised that this was in fact a gay, nudist beach. Nowadays it is neither gay nor nudist, but it's still a lovely beach! We spent a nice peaceful night there before heading back out to the nasty swelly seas and ferries the next day.
For the next week the wind increased to between 20 and 34kts, so we had some exhilarating downwind sails with a couple of stops on Naxos before finally arriving in Adamas on Milos, where we spent four days anchored near the town quay. There are amazing rock formations as you enter the bay and right down on the shore line is a row of little cottages, some of which have been extended upwards. All have different coloured doors and were originally used by fishermen to store their boats in winter, but are now been converted to homes.
From here we started retracing our steps and returned to Paros for a few nights to hide from more wind, before heading back to the Peloponnese, a distance of some 95nm. We had hoped for a good sail across but unfortunatedly had to motor sail the whole way back to Porto Heli, arriving in the middle of a jet-ski race weekend. Once we'd navigated our way around the back of the race course we anchored at the head of the bay, well away from all the racing. We've now made a start on the ever lengthening maintenance schedule which will continue over the next few weeks. A short trip to the Medical Centre in Ermioni was needed in order for one of Mike's regular injections.
We had to hurry back to Porto Heli and find a good spot for expected strong wind from storm Xenophon. Winds of more than 45kts (52mph) were expected with even stronger winds possible. We decided it would be worth laying our spare anchor at an angle to our main anchor even though this takes a lot of effort. Luckily winds only reached 30 knots and everything was fine, though we had some impressive lightning. However, we managed to get a slight tangle in the anchor lines after the storm had passed and decided to lift it up.
A warning was issued for a mediterranean hurricane and we began to prepare for the worst. Nobody could predict its path and winds of 100 knots were predicted. We removed our awning, tied down anything likely to be damaged and kept a close eye on both forecast and barometer. Reports came in from friends in other parts of Greece to let us know about strong winds on the way and the hurricane tracked right over our position.
We had torrential rain for a couple of days, prediction were for about 1/4 - 1/2 tonne per square metre over that period. Severe flooding and flash floods were predicted. The water around Mistroma turned brown and swirled around us as water ran off the land.
The wind was more worrying as it rose to about 50 knots. We decided not to deploy our second anchor unless absolutely necessary, as large changes in wind direction would cause problems. We also had three boats in front of us and two were dragging towards us, so might need to move in a hurry. Fortunately, our main anchor held, but we could see the crews on both the yachts which were dragging, working on deck after midnight on the second day of wind. Both managed to hold position though one was only 20 metres from us the next morning. We spoke later to a boat owner who was behind the new marina pontoon on the opposite side of the bay. He said that he had logged 80 knots (92mph) of wind in that less sheltered area and seven boats had been damaged.
Yachts near Levkas canal, well away from the track of Zorbas
have been reports of many yachts damaged or sunk but at least the hurricane force wind and rain has moved away from our position. One flotilla company lost four yachts in one place and an unspecified number elsewhere. Crews were evacuated to hotels but nobody was injured. We consider ourselves very lucky, even though we knew what was coming and were well prepared.
Many boats left on moorings were completely destroyed
Wind and floods caused a huge amount of damage ashore
Greek news is still full of reports including tourist evacuations and travel disruption
