Our first Greek Storm _Bri and Jen
My wife and I had been living together for some years and had a small cross alsation colly dog, he was getting on in years and we were wondering what to do when his time was up.
Having spent many days on small fishing boats and always having a love of water, I asked if she would like to try sailing.
Even though the first available lesson in the UK was in November, she agreed and our first lesson was booked.
So here we were around 8 years prior to sailing in Greece, in the freezing solent, on a small 34foot Bavaria we were learning to sail.
Plenty of lessons and qualifications followed, with many thousands of miles and hundreds of hours sailing under our belts, we decided to quit the canaries and move to Greece.
We found bare boat charters expensive, with non of our local friends being sailors, it was hard to justify the bare boat prices. So we decided to flotilla.
Flotillas are a great way of stepping from lessons to reality of self captainship.
The prices are generally lower than bare boat and you have the added security of sailing around with a lead crew and other flotilla folk.
Yachts are generally well kept and if there is a problem they are usually fixed with efficiency.
The lead crew provide a passage plan and help with lines and instructions on best places to moore.
They can also be very entertaining – you know who you are!
On this occasion we had booked with Neilsons, 2 week flotilla cruise with a free sailing weekend in the middle.
The yacht was a small 30fter with an in mast firling main and furling head sail.
The engine was 20hp but it was perfect for us both.
We enjoyed the first week flotilla having sailed into many bays and towns without even a hitch.
Friday night had arrived and the next 2 days were free for us to go wherever we wanted.
We decided since we were overnighting in Kastos to head across the water to Kioni.
We set off around 11 and were making good progress, we had a good south easterly wind and all of the sails were out. 17knts and we were flying.
Just as we rounded the north side of Atokos island we saw a commercial oil tanker heading our way. So we are 17knts but only 7knts over ground.
The oil tanker looks like he doing somewhat more and as skipper I am duty bound to give way.
With the wind staying steady I aimed the bow towards his stern and watched as he flew past on our starboard side.
Rounding his stern and aiming back up towards kioni things took a turn. The wind indicator jumped very rapidly from 17knts to 25knts, Jennifer and I looked at each other and shouted to reef in almost in unison. As we did the wind jumped again from 25 to 30 and then again to 40knts.
As the bow came spinning round into the direction of the oil tanker I managed to glance at the gauge again 44knts. Jennifer was at the helm while I was attempting to get the head sail furled, turn us into the wind I shouted, turn the steering! She looked at me with shear fear and shouted back “I am hard over” “what?” Having never had this ituation before and hearing the roaring 40’s in my ears I struggled with gaining composure. What to do, what to do, I need to stop the yacht. Get the sails in. But the wind is too strong.
Damn damn think man, I let the head sail lines to loose and just let her fly around, thinking if it tears it tears, better that than us dying.
I swiftly did the same with the main, the noise horrendous, we had no control of the yacht at all. We were just being blown by the wind up to wards kioni. But we were still way to far away and struggling, I quickly looked at the island and made a decision – “we will head to frikas” “what” came the wifes response, “give me the wheel, we are going to head into frikas” . with she let go of the wheel and crept into the companion way entrance. Ducking down behind the stairs she sat looking petrified. I took the wheel and heaved as hard as I could, luckily although very noisy, the sails had let go enough for me to turn. Brilliant I thought to myself, there’s hope for us yet.
So off we sailed, with no wind in the sails, they were flapping around all over making a right racket, we sped towards frikas at 6knts.
Yes I thought, this will work, we will duck in there, sort the sails and stay there over night. But there was a problem, on the route to frikas was an under water reef. Usually passible but in this storm may have been a tad close. The wife checking the rout on her mobile shouted her fears. I didn’t really have a lot of option as I couldn’t really turn the yacht any more. We had to go across the reef, regardless. Luckily the windage had blown us just to the edge and we crossed without incident.
And we blew into frikas. In the lea of the first hill we hit calm, few, lets get the sails in.
Promptly as we could muster we got all of the sails wrapped up, still being blown at 3knts into frikas we came to a bit of a valley in the hillside, the wind blew like the preverbial piglet ounce more and shot us in towards frikas at 4knts.
The bay and harbour walls were very empty, I put the engine in reverse and set the lines for side too mooring. We weren’t slowing down very quickly due to the wind and I was prepared to beach the yacht.
I asked the wife if she was ok stepping off at 3knts. Repeating that we only get once shot, if it doesn’t work, she must let go of the bow line and I will see her on the beach.
She was keen to step off and did so with vigour, quickly taking a loop around the steel wall cleat and hanging on for dear life. I turned the wheel to port and we slammed against the wall. Leaving the engine on full I tied off the stern then took the bow line and secured. Thank god we were there and safe.
A buystander on the town quay promptly came over “ you did a great job getting in, well done” “I need a drink or 5 mate” I replied.
The wind still blowing a hooly we covered the yacht in a cobweb of lines and went for a beer, or 5, maybe more.
In the morning we awoke to a glorious day and a yacht full of Germans parked in front of of our bow, leaving around 1.5m distance between us.
The 6 people in the stern saloon were having breakfast and no doubt laughing at the state of our yacht.
No offers of help came, my wife asking “how can we get out?” since we had already discussed the fact we had been very lucky coming in to have missed the pile of rocks which was now sitting very close to our stern. We were stuck. Cant go forwards and cant go backwards. But I was dammed if I would be sitting around waiting for this lot to finish their breakfast. I began removing the loose lines, all of them. One by one ntil I was left with just two lines, the bow line and the stern line. Germans munching and enjoying the show during it all. Waiting for me to mess this up. My wife looking a little hopeful but not very encouraging, “are you sure you know what you are doing?” she whispered.
Position yourself on the bowline please, don’t slip until I give the word, I instructed her.
Putting the engine in forward the bowling went tight and she looked back at me as we edged a little closer to the german yacht. I popped the rudder into starboard and the stern began to move away from the wall, is it did I give a little rope, then a little more then a little more, until I had no rope left to hold onto and I could see I was on a clear line away from the rocks. Then popping th engine in revers I waited a second, ok let the bowline slip please. Which she did, and we reversed away from the germans with the utmost aplomb. Quite surprisingly they all stood up and clapped “bravo, bravo” they shouted. “Enjoy your breakfast” I replied…..powering way
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