Wet & Wild Sailing

With a cyclone approaching bringing strong winds, thunderstorms, big waves and swell, we considered our options of where to go to escape the worst of it. Our plan had been to continue southwest and visit the many beautiful bays around the Peloponnese as we have not previously explored this area. We would probably be ok to wait the storm out in Paros as it was forecast to be on the edge of the storm, but this option would potentially mean staying in the bay for a couple of weeks. Often in Greece we have found that when there is a big storm late in the season, it seems to mark the end of the good summer weather with less favourable conditions afterwards. With this in mind we decided to change our plans and head northwest towards the Corinth canal, the top edge of the cyclone was due to bring an easterly wind in this area which would hopefully blow us straight through.

It was disappointing to miss the Peloponnese but that’s life on a boat, you have to take what the weather gods offer.

It was overcast with very little wind as we weighed anchor and left Paros, there were lots of thunderstorms due to arrive in the evening and through the night and it felt like the calm before the storm. With a very light force 1 easterly wind, the engine was running for the majority of the 45 nm journey.

We arrived at Kithnos island and anchored in Apokrisi bay on the west coast, a calm bay surrounded by hills and a couple of tavernas. There was a few spots of rain as we anchored but this soon cleared up and we had a very calm night but with the ominous sound of thunder in the distance.

At first light there were more black clouds but with an easterly wind blowing 10 kts, a nice light sailing wind. We initially headed for Poros at the north eastern tip of the Peloponnese, but after three hours of sailing we got an updated weather forecast for the day which showed a massive bank of storms all around that area, we decided to change course and head further north to Athens.

We managed to sail for most of the journey until the wind came around to the north and we were heading straight into it, so the engine came on and we motored through the building swell to Ormos Varis, a large bay on the outskirts of Athens where we dropped our anchor among many big superyachts.

It had been a grey overcast day with some big black stormy clouds around but so far we had managed to dodge the rain. This was soon to change, we had a very lively late afternoon and evening. Thunder and lightening was crashing all around us, the swell had built up coming straight in to the bay and it was very rock and roll onboard ZigZag. Torrential rain eventually arrived along with a stronger wind, Paul went out to the cockpit to check everything was ok and was instantly drenched as if a bucket of water had been thrown over him. There was a wall of heavy rain all around and he couldn’t see much further than Ziggys bow, with no idea which way we were facing and unable to see the shore or other boats in the bay, it was very disorientating. We have an ‘anchor watch’ app which I was checking inside just to make sure we weren’t dragging while Paul stayed outside with swimming goggles on in the hope that they would help him see better by keeping the rain off his face!

At one point a large super yacht did swing past close to our bow on their very long chain, but fortunately everybody’s anchor was holding well, so we were able to sit tight and wait for the worst of the storm to pass.

After approximately one hour, most of the heavy rain had stopped and the sun came out bringing a double rainbow with it. A blanket of muddy water was coming towards us from the shore turning the sea brown. We took this opportunity to reposition Ziggy a bit further away from the super yacht.

There were still storms in the area and we continued to see lightening flashes throughout the evening but thankfully they all avoided us and we didn’t get caught in any further rain. At least Ziggy was looking clean and sparkling after such a downpour. The dots on this map show each lighting strike in the area over a period of a few minutes.

Unfortunately, with the stormy weather, it wasn’t feasible to go ashore to look around Athens, we did visit several years ago so this wasn’t too disappointing. After a one night stopover here, our journey continued 40 nm west towards Corinth. We motored out of the bay and weaved between the many huge tanker ships anchored just outside Athens, there must have been at least 50 of them. There was also lots of rubbish, pieces of wood and trees to avoid in the water which had been washed out to sea during the storm. After a few miles we had passed all these hazards and put the sails up, the northeasterly wind was gusting 20 kts and ZigZag was sailing happily through the large swell.

After we passed all the familiar oil refineries and approached Kalamaki bay just outside the entrance to the canal, the anchor went down for the night ready to go through the canal in the morning.

The next morning, having already booked our slot online (and paid €250) for 8am to transit the canal, we radioed the control office after the sun rose, to ask permission to proceed, they advised us to lift our anchor and wait at the entrance. While waiting to be called, the wind picked up and was gusting 30+ kts which wasn’t very comfortable circling around the small space outside the entrance.

Finally we were given permission to proceed at 8.20 and told to follow another boat in, and with just one other boat behind us, our convoy of three headed towards the entrance, once inside the canal it was all very calm. Even though it’s our second time in the canal it is still spectacular to see the shear height of the vertical walls either side as you travel through in a small boat.

It looks like a lot of renovation and excavation work has been done since last year, parts of the canal seemed wider and some of the stone has been cut away making the rock face flatter in places. Most of the netting previously holding the tumbling rocks in place has been removed.

As we approached the far end of the canal we could see large waves being blown past the western entrance and upon leaving the sheltered cut we were greeted with 40 kt winds gusting up to 50 kts, blowing down from the high mountains surrounding us. This is the strongest wind that we have ever been out in. All of a sudden, those 30 kt gusts at the entrance seemed quite calm and comfortable! Of course none of this had been forecast, but this end of the canal is known to have strong localised wind if the conditions are right.

Once out of the canal we immediately turned north into the waves which were huge, crashing over the boat with the spray reaching up over the boom. Hence, we were drenched, Ziggy was being bashed around as we ploughed through at 5 kts for about half an hour. Eventually we reached the shelter of the closest headland and everything calmed down a little. Unfortunately, I had been too busy holding on and praying that the engine wouldn’t fail, to take any photos.

We put the sails up and sailed close hauled in 30 kts of wind, we were making good speed, but with the strong wind and big swell against us, the toe rail was dipping in and out of the water and it was still not particularly comfortable.

Our plan was to go to the small village of Agios Isidoros but we couldn’t steer close enough to the wind so turned a little downwind and into the next large bay which has the town of Iteas at the head. As we approached this bay it became much more comfortable and then suddenly the wind stopped completely, it was like the weather gods had flicked a switch. We continued under power to the anchorage with the wind stopping and starting every few minutes, maybe the weather gods had a rusty connection. Once the anchor was down just in front of Iteas town, we were all very salty, so much for Ziggy being nice and clean.

After a couple of nights resting in the anchorage, the wind and swell had calmed down a little so we planned to go just a couple of miles to the town of Galaxidi. When we arrived, there was still quite a bit of swell blowing straight in to the harbour and we could see all of the masts inside rocking and rolling, so we decided to continue on another 10 nm towards Trizonia.

The sails were up and we sailed west with a pleasant force 3 northerly wind, but it wasn’t long before the wind dropped and we fired up the engine. However, the engine immediately started making a strange noise, Paul went down to see what was wrong. The engine was juddering and shaking the whole boat once it went above 1400 rpm. We considered our options and decided that by running the engine at lower revs for a while we could then make the most of the wind that was due to pick up within a couple of hours, and sail a further 80 nm into the Ionian where we know of places that we could get the engine looked at. This would involve travelling through the night to arrive early morning and hoping that we had a good sailing wind to take us there.

As forecasted, the wind did pick up very soon and we were able to give the engine a rest (although a little worried that it might not start again when we needed it). We had 30-35 kts and three reefs in both sails, Ziggy was flying. By 5pm we reached the Rion bridge, you have to ask permission to transit under and the bridge control tells you which section to pass through. Luckily, he told us to go through the far right section, ‘three pylons to port and one pylon to starboard’, which was convenient as it was the only section that we could easily steer to under sail

With a bit of current helping us along we went under at 8.9 kts and our toe rail was again dipping in the water, we didn’t need to worry about the height of our mast! This picture looked straight to me when I took it!

Once we were successfully through, Paul had his happy face on.

We continued sailing into the sunset, the wind had dropped so the reefs had been shaken out and it was now much more comfortable.

By midnight we lost the wind and were struggling to do 2 kts, so with everything crossed, we switched on the engine again. We were very happy when it fired up perfectly first time and no longer appeared to have a problem. We still took it slowly just in case and finally arrived at Mikita town at 5am where we dropped our anchor in the flat calm bay and caught up on a few hours sleep.

Thank you if you’ve managed to read to the end, I know it’s a long one but it was a big week for us.