Lessons learned in Shotley - a cautionary tale

August 1st - 2nd 2009

One of the advantages of chartering for the weekend is that you can give the yacht back after a few days on the water. For us hard-working people, half a dozen weekends doing this works out to be pretty good value for money compared with owning your own boat and all the marina fees and upkeep that it involves - and at the moment half a dozen weekends would seem like a luxury to us!

On an evening round our friends and fellow novice sailors Robert and Tina, we decided to have a jolly weekend away. Hamble Point Yacht Charter were very good when we chartered with them in March but we all quite fancied the East Coast so we booked up with a well advertised sailing school which also charters yachts. In fact the reason we decided upon them was because Marco and I gained our Comp Crew there. As the yacht has to be in one person's name, Marco booked and so he automatically became 'skipper'.

The day before the charter began, we were told that our chosen boat was 'unavailable' and we would be getting an alternative.

We turned up excitedly on the Friday evening with our weekend provisioning boxes, filled in the paperwork and were shown to our yacht.

At this point, we were advised that the depth gauge wasn't quite giving the correct information....oh and the furling drum on the genoa needed to be 'handled with care'. Huh.......try telling the wind to pipe down in case it hurts our furling drum!
All went well on our first day. Ok so we drifted off a bit and came a bit close to grounding - it happens! And me and Tina set fire to a tea towel. Oh, and near the end of the day it absolutely poured down but we heroically all did our bit to get into Ipswich marina and spent a cosy evening 'at home', pretty pleased with ourselves.
Next day, going down the Orwell, the wind was right behind us and while Robert helmed, Marco was on the sails trying to ensure that we didn't gybe. Once out, the wind picked up and we were able to have a great sail, tacking all the way out towards Walton, before turning back because of the time. A fraught time was had as we got a little bit close to a green can and Marco was 'forceful' in giving out his instructions. In fairness there had to be one skipper as there was no time for us all to sit down and have a pow-wow about it but it was an awkward half hour as all our nerves and patience were wearing a bit thin by now.
I excelled myself by not reading the pilot guide for Shotley Marina (there's a dirty great lock with an inogon system) where you have to line up the chevrons to avoid the silting either side of the narrow channel.

We grounded. Not badly, although is there a 'nice' way to ground a yacht? We scraped the bottom and came off again into the correct channel and vowed to do better next time.

Alas, there will be no 'next time'.

We gave back the yacht, and the charter owner was on another yacht chatting with some people. We waved and gave him the key back and were on our way.

Next day Marco got an email. The furling drum was bent. It was beyond repair (allegedly) and would have to be replaced. The company was taking our deposit which was another £600.

Bastards

We learned an awful lot that weekend. Not about sailing, but about human nature and trust. We shall share these via this blog so that other novices can learn from what happened to us.

1) NEVER accept a yacht that has to be used 'with caution'. It's impossible to do.......and in any case, why the hell should we? We paid over £600 to take a yacht out on water.....in East Coast windy, rainy conditions it's very hard to pootle along as if you are on the Ionian. The company changed our yacht at the last minute, and gave us what was, in effect, a sub-standard replacement. We should never have agreed to this.
2) ALWAYS take pictures of anything that doesn't look right. I should have photographed the furling drum on the first night to compare with the photos we were sent by the company.
3) The fear of a libel case prevents me from naming the company involved in this shambles. But there are clues. The owner tried the old "You should know me better than to think I would try and con you" trick. But we think that is exactly what he did. We were all novices and he knew that. We WERE competent to take the boat out, but we were all naive in our knowledge of the mechanics of a yacht and I think he took advantage of that too. The drum was already on the way out and we helped him pay for it's replacement. Marco and I became a couple of mugs who ended up parting with half the cost of the charter plus the entire deposit (over £1000) for a two day weekend. Not that we're bitter.......!

And of course, he's shot himself in the foot. Marco and I would definitely have chartered again and again with this company, the East Coast being so beautiful and relatively uncrowded. As it is, the £600 extra that this little outing cost us, is the last money he will ever see of ours. We will never use him or recommend him to anyone else.

...........prefer Cowes anyway.

Lorraine the Dayskipper

May 2009

I don't like courses or 'tests'....I thought I had given them up when I left school and I definitely gave them up straight after I qualified as an advanced scuba diver. Oh, no - hold on a minute, didn't i do Dayskipper Theory for a year as well with 2 exams at the end? Ok, so maybe taking tests are better if you are actually enjoying the learning? With this in mind, and using it as a reasonable excuse to have a 5 day break with the girls, I booked the Dayskipper Practical course with Ann and Tina (the friends on the 'buoygate' weekend tale, told in the previous entry).

The course lasted 5 days, starting on Friday evening and finishing Wednesday afternoon. We booked with Commodore Yachting, based at Gosport Marina and I can highly recommend them. We learned such a lot and had a real laugh along the way, with the help of our shipmates Phil and Ingela and the antics of Tom who was our skipper and teacher. The course involved navigation, night sailing, man overboard retrieval, mooring techniques, helming, ropework, testing of rules of the road and lights/shapes etc etc. Of course there was a fair share of socialising too which was always a laugh.

Fear and Loathing in the Solent Part two...

Where was I? Ahh yes i was being smug and saying that the next day would be different. I suppose that's one way of putting it.

We headed off, after showering and breakfast back into the Medina and turned to port, heading towards Lymington, following the tide. There was no wind at first, then we had 5kn and, with our newly discovered sails out managed a respectable 4.6 (although 4 of that was probably S.O.G). We tacked over to Lymington, arriving at low water, and crept along the tight channel, mooring on the first pontoon we came to. We got out the sarnies and soup and were having a jolly old lunch, when the harbourmaster turned up to announce that we were on a pontoon reserved for racing yachts and shouldn't really be there. However, as we were nearly finished with our lunch and about to leave, he let us stay for an extra 15 mins.

We were looking forward to an afternoon tacking back and forth towards Cowes Yacht Haven where we were due to meet up with our friends Ann and John who were on their Vancouver 36 (http://www.moonlightadventure.co.uk/) with our other friends Tina and Robert. But don't expect an uneventful afternoon in the lives of 'us'! Oh no! We slowly motored out of Lymington and as I took the helm, Marco hoisted the sails and declared 'Turn to port and set sail for Cowes' (he really said "Turn it left, LEFT.....no....LEFT...oh bother....."or words to that effect - well i'm still a novice aren't I? ). At this point, our weekend charge decided she'd had enough and wanted to sit next to 'Jack in the Basket' for the rest of the day. In other words she stopped moving. Marco took over and revved the engine (a lot)...but no chance...she was well and truly stuck on something. A quick look over the stern confirmed our worst fears. We had caught on something..probably the prop. Oh joy, Oh happy day!
After the initial panic of having something wrapped around the prop, it slowly dawned on us that we were also sitting rather close to the ferry route that moves between Lymington and Yarmouth. In fact we were so close that we could make out the scowl on the captains' faces every time one went past. It was time to ring 'Sea Start'. After about half an hour our hero arrived in his rib, surveyed the area and declared that we were indeed stuck on something
(well done that man!!). He announced that he would have to go and pick up Mike the diver, who would go and investigate the problem. Off he whizzed. We waited, stranded while others passed us, some offering help, others looking mildy disdainful as if we'd decided to just park there for the night with a nice cup of cocoa and a book, blocking the shipping lane!
Another 45 minutes passed. Perhaps Mike the diver was on holiday?
Suddenly they appeared in the distance and were soon alongside our stricken vessel.
Mike the diver looked like all he needed was a copper diving helmet and he would have been straight out of a Jules Verne film. An old 'cove' with an impossibly long, grey beard, he was already kitted out in his wetsuit and the oldest looking dive tank I've ever seen. Quick as a flash he was over the side in a "I'll handle this" sort of way - I could have imagined he had his serrated dive knife in his teeth......and within two minutes an arm came out of the water like he was carrying Excalibur....except in this case, it was an old buoy.
"That'll have drifted from it's mooring that will," said the SeaStart chap. "It's invisible from the surface. Unlucky that, to get caught on it!" You don't say........
We were presented with the buoy as a souvenir and Mike the diver and SeaStart gave a cheery wave and were off, leaving us to start the engine and carry on. We gave a cheery wave of our own to the next ferry captain we saw...
By this time, it was getting late and we'd telephoned our friends to let them know of our impending non-arrival in Cowes. However, they'd decided (bless 'em) to wait and see if we turned up, so we motored quick as we could down to Cowes. Luckily, the tide was with us and we got there in just an hour. I've never been so glad to get anywhere in my life. The prospect of spending the night in the middle of a ferry lane hadn't appealed.
Lines were thrown to our waiting friends and within moments we were all done. Without even bothering to change clothes, we were out with our friends and hot-footed it to a lovely pub called the Union Inn. Cosy and welcoming, we managed to get a table for six and spent a very happy evening supping beer, eating tradtional pub food and recounting our sailing tale of woe.
But hey, Sunday had to get better didn't it!

Errrr......well.......after a night of booze, food, mariner's tales and rum (yes really), we had a fry up at the working men's club in Cowes high street as it was the only place open on a Sunday. It was pretty good too. After a bit of browsing in the chandlery, we said our goodbyes to the others and headed off back into the Solent for our last jaunt of this trip.
It was great - the tide was heading west and coming back east in the afternoon so we turned again to port and meandered along until we got to Newtown Creek. Decided to go in and have lunch there although it would be low water in a couple of hours so we had to be careful where we anchored. We chose our spot and the anchor held well. Soup, pasties and a large mug of tea went down a treat. We were chuffed with our spot, although the boat next door moved away after half an hour and, as he left, muttered across to us that he thought we were moored too close to him. Couldn't see that ourselves....
Reluctantly we had to leave as we only had three hours left of our charter and wanted to try and sail back with minimal stress. Stress? We don't know the meaning of the word.....yet.
As we left, I heard the call of nature and decided this would be as good a time as any to use the heads (pootling slowly out of Newtown Creek).......as I was sitting, contemplating the 'incident' of yesterday I heard a thud, the sound of swearing from the helmsman and simultaneously I shot off the seat and cracked my head on the door of the loo. Regaining my composure (and consciousness), I staggered upstairs to find Marco beating the wheel up and swearing, looking skywards....probably how we got into this mess..you're meant to look at the water. I however was looking seawards and it rather quickly became obvious that we had grounded. Bugger, balls and bedlam! The boat turned into a competition of headless chickens as we bumped into each other, turned in the other direction, then back and into each other again, both trying to sort out the mess but doing absolutely nothing in the process.
Back on the helm, Marco revved it into astern....nothing. Forward...nothing......oh great! Talk about a comedy of errors!
We could see what had gone wrong. He had cut a corner, not noticing a rather large (now you come to mention it) red can in the distance that we should have gone around.
We remained there chatting (read blaming each other) for about 20 minutes then Marco had another go with the engine. One, two, three, rev it astern! It worked! He gave me the helm whilst he went to re-stow the uninflated dinghy that we'd considered using to lay out an anchor.
Obviously liking us, and not wanting to go back to Hamble, there was another bump, thud and as if by magic, our boat had crossed the narrow exit channel of Newtown Creek, only to drift too shallow on the other side!!!! Fortunately this was just a minor handshake with the bottom and we were soon on our way again. There were no more 'incidents' and we returned our girl to her rightful spot at the marina, rather relieved that we'd made it back in one piece.
Lessons learned today and yesterday...
1) There was nothing we could do about the sunken buoy. We were just unlucky. At the time though it just felt as though we were not cut out for this sailing stuff.
2) Always check the charts and plan your passage. We were lucky at Newtown Creek that it was low water and after 20 minutes we had enough water under the keel to lift us off. Had it happened at high water we might have been there all night - another call to SeaStart???
3) I wrote on YBW scuttlebutt about the 'incidents' of this weekend as we were suffering rather from a lack of confidence afterwards. My post got over 70 replies, nearly all of them really encouraging. Thanks guys. Three months later an article by Libby Purves appeared in Yachting Monthly - all about lacking confidence every so often.and starring 'Mr and Mrs LandM...us! A picture too...fame at last. We learned so much about sailing and about ourselves this weekend and can't wait to get out on the water again - as long as there's enough of it and no floating buoys!

Fear and Loathing in the Solent.....part one

Ahh the Solent! Training ground of would-be Knox-Johnstons everywhere....and the destination for our first solo UK yacht charter.

Hamble Point Yacht Charter had caught our eye at the Boat Show earlier in January 09, so we'd booked ourselves onto a lovely Hallberg-Rassy 342 for a weekend in March. To add to the excitement, friends that we'd made through Marco's evening classes were going to be sailing as well and we arranged to meet them in Cowes on Saturday night (as one does). We were really looking forward to it.

For about five minutes

Paperwork carried out, inventory checked, we hopped, skipped and jumped onto our new home-for-the-weekend, started her up and Marco reversed merrily out of the pontoon. We ignored the salty old sea dog on the opposite pontoon who was jumping and pointing and he seemed to be calling out and waving at us. Clearly mad, we tried to ignore him until we reversed closer to him where we could hear the words "line", "water", "prop" (he probably said 'novice idiots' as well but we would have chosen to ignore him anyway)....quick as a snail, I shot over to the stern and rescued the trailing line, thus preventing an early disaster.

Once out into the shipping lanes of Southampton water, I proceeded to get a wee bit confused by all the markers and buoys although it all made sense when a large million ton cargo ship seemed to become rather larger than life behind us (astern Lorraine, astern....) and we moved across to generously let it through. We caught some wind and couldn't wait to hoist the sails. As I took the helm, Marco puzzled, scratched his head, chin, arse, whatever and came to the inevitable conclusion that this being a Hallberg Rassy, it therefore wasn't a Bavaria and he had no idea where to find the halyard. Cue lots of stress, frustration, shouting and conclusions that 'we' weren't cut out for this sort of thing. We then discovered the halyard lurking by the topping lift area (what a silly place to leave it), then had trouble finding the topping lift. We ended up taking out the genoa and 'sailing' over towards Cowes at 5knots which made us rather pleased with ourselves (but God only knows why).....

There was much smugness to be had at East Cowes as we successfully came alongside our designated pontoon at the first attempt. Having paid our dues for the night at the harbourmaster's office, we treated ourselves to a beer/wine for the economical sum of £2 each at the marina pub. Having chatted away to our neighbours, who found the topping lift over by the mast for us and introduced us to their boat cat, we decided that we would sail to The Folly Inn for dinner. As i say, we were smug and, having successfully moored up in daylight..hey, why not be REALLY smug and try it again in the dark?!
So we sailed off up the river Medina and moored alongside the pontoon right opposite the pub. This was the life! Having called a 'cab', we waited for half an hour for the river taxi chap to turn up and transport us over the water. We settled down for the evening on squashy sofas with a large glass of wine each and an order of fish and chips and ruddles beef pie to look forward to.

In my opinion, all this Greek sailing with no clouds, endless sun, diving off the back of the boat and Mythos on tap is all very well, but there is definitely a very big place in every sailors heart (well, ours at least) for a nippy March evening, roaring fire and a large fish and chips in a cosy(ish) pub anywhere in the UK after a day on the water.

We stayed until 9, then got taken back to the boat by the same water-taxi chap who had been 'waiting patiently' (read drinking the bar dry).
Ha ha, the idea of a nice easy mooring up sesh at night after a wine doesn't really work. It took 3 attempts!!

OK, so lessons learned from today......
1) Learn everything about your yacht before you take it out of the marina! Sounds obvious but not if you are slightly smug and think you know it all when you dont!
2) If you are a smug novice, revise sailing knowledge anyway just in case. Then you won't be surprised (read:caught out) in the middle of the Solent.

Ahhh....but of course, tomorrow would be different, and indeed it was!

Nikiana to Vlikho

Saturday 13th September

Achtung! I was awoken from my peaceful slumber at 01.15 by the Germans singing 'My Way', accompanied by a guitar! Naturally, Marco snored all the way through it so I just lay there wishing I had some ear plugs and eventually dozed off.

When we got up at 8am the Italians had already left..we had coffee (surprise) and watched a man fishing at the end of our mole. We were also treated to the bizarre sight of an old man in his underpants tightening his sheets....yes it's them Germans again! It's a funny old life! This didn't put us off our breakfast as you might imagine it would although we decamped from the boat to get provisions and hoped that they would be gone by the time we returned with our booty. We picked up some lunchtime beer, cheese pies and water and when we returned the Germans were just leaving! Hurrah......peace restored, we ate, reading our books and watching fishermen. We left at 10, motoring towards Skorpios. We wanted a relaxing last day and for a change, there was wind in the morning so we had a good sail down. Cloud was building as we motored in to see Onassis's landing platform on the north of the island. There were hoards of daytrippers there so we didn't hang about and carried on. Around the corner we came across a huge super-yacht - so big it had a heli-pad on it! We eventually moored around to the south of the island and dropped anchor in a bay which was sectioned off by a line of buoys. These are there to 'discourage' people from anchoring too close to Skorpios - and while you can swim around in the area, you are not allowed to set foot on the beach. Winspit crossed the line slightly as we spun on the anchor, and......maybe not coincidentally, a little red van whizzed down within 5 minutes to 'eyeball' the area and possibly us! Cameras are everywhere on the island apparantly......and although nobody lives on Skorpios now it has a full compliment of security staff to care for the grounds (and keep out noseyparkers).

We swam and read and decided that next time we come to the Ionian we should spend a bit less time sailing from A-B in a rush to fit everything in and see a bit more of the places we go to. ,

Eventually, it was time to leave and we headed out straight into WIND! We spent an hour or so sailing back and forth between Skorpios, Lefkas and Meganissi and managed around 6kn in 13knots of wind. Woohoo! It was then time to take Winspit home so we took the sails down and motored into Vlikho Bay, following another S.I. yacht. Naturally we forgot to switch the VHF on or radio ahead with our arrival and therefore we didn't hear the message to stay out of the bay for now! Chris sent Robin out to eventually get us and within 10 minutes we were moored up nicely at the end of the quay. We chatted to a group of yotties next door for a while and then got showered and changed for the Pimms party that Sail Ionian host every Saturday to end everyones holiday. Chatted to a newly engaged couple, Dave and Deb for the entire evening, eventually ending up at a restaurant recommended by the S.I. crew.......the restaurant were hosting a pig-roast barbecue which Marco really fancied the idea of. BIG mistake....the owner was friendly enough, but the food was rather ordinary which made for a disappointing last meal. Enjoyed our last Mythos of the holiday though! We all ended up in Vlikho Yacht Club which doesn't really feel like a yacht club at all...rather a bar/restaurant with a nautical name. However, the atmosphere was great and once Dave and Deb had left, we decided to stay for one more drink. Bizarrely, we ended up bumping into a couple whose blog i've been reading to learn a bit about the Ionian. A lovely couple called Tim and Katie who were on their first trip back, having sailed up to Montenegro the previous year. We chatted for 10 minutes or so then we left them to catch up with their friend who they'd come to visit. Back on board, sleep beckoned.....our last on the water for a while! Boo hoo!

.....and another thing.......

the next morning we awoke to menacing black clouds - the first of any colour cloud we've seen in two weeks. The day after we flew home, a violent storm hit Fiscardo and many yachts were wrecked on the rocks....the very place that Marco had wanted to moor just a week earlier. Makes you aware of just how much weather matters when you are a sailor.

yukky black cloud...

Paleros to Nikiana - changing plans and wasps for lunch

Friday 12th September

We liked Paleros so much in the dark that we decided to see if we could break the habit of a lifetime and get a coffee somewhere other than the galley of the boat. So we made an early start and walked about watching the town wake up. I wanted to walk up to the church at the top of the town. Marco wasn't keen so i started out on my own but it didn't seem too steep so i went back and got him. I'm glad I did because there was a lovely village atmosphere at the top of the hill and we found an excellent bakery by the church and bought cream pies, eating them on a bench nearby. We then meandered back down to the bottom and had a coffee at Dionysos. A few couples were already inside and we noticed they were all reading from charts. Fellow sailors - how nice. We were three quarters of the way through our coffee and the cafe was nearly full with 'fellow sailors', when we heard a familiar voice. Yes it was the pole-dancing chap from Port Athene who swaggered into the restaurant with his wife and another couple saying VERY loudly "We're 'ere - you can start now". Again everyone collapsed into peals of laughter. It was painful. We left before the rep arrived and, back on the boat we read for a while before leaving. We decided on Vassilikos for our last night as we've not been there yet and it sounded good in the pilot guide.

We motored out and looked in on a large hotel down the coast that is home to Sunsail. Looked quite nice. Off towards Skorpios there was again no wind. Very frustrating....we tried to find some wind but there really was nothing so we ended up motoring all the way. Past Skorpios, Marco had identified Dessimou Bay as a good lunch stop. Recommended by the Di and Neil at Sail Ionian we had high hopes for the place. And it looked idyllic. There were just two other boats anchored and the taverna looked lovely. We rowed in and ordered a couple of Mythos and lunch. Our starter was a gorgeous tuna salad and Marco had the chicken souvlaki while i had the longed-for-all-holiday aubergine slippers for mains. However, before we were half way through the salad we knew we had a big problem. WASPS! The table next door had loads around them and as they finished eating the wasps headed our way. By the time our mains arrived, there was nobody else eating and it was as though we'd invaded a nest (we might well have done for all i know)......we must have had 50 or more wasps buzzing around. There was really no way we could eat anything...not only was it more than a little irritating having to bat the wasps away, there was a real danger that one of us could accidentally swallow one which wouldn't have been much fun at all! The restaurant waitress didn't seem to bat an eyelid and Marco was getting seriously cheesed off, stalking up to pay and leave while i was disappearing in a sea of wasps. Fortunately, an old guy came from the kitchen with a roll of foil and packed everything up for us into a carrier bag. Great stuff. We dashed off, leaving the wasps to scratch their heads and wonder what they were going to do for entertainment for the rest of the afternoon. Back on board Winspit, we unpacked our impromptu takeaway which was still hot and it turned out to be very good.

After a relaxing, post-lunch swim, we made our way down the Meganissi channel for the first time. There were some beautiful caves and scenery so i'm glad that we did it. However, once past the south tip of Meganissi, the wind whipped up and, although we were able to sail perfectly in any other direction, we had a very rough sea and the wind was right on the nose. We weren't really going anywhere fast and eventually Marco admitted defeat and we decided to leave Vassiliki to the experts and headed back into the channel where it quickly calmed down. I leapt off the boat for a cooling swim in one of the coves and Marco did M.O.B to come back and collect me.

We decided on Nikiana for the night and had to motor there as there was zero wind in the channel. When we arrived it seemed perfect. We had a lovely spot right at the end of the jetty and moored up stern-to. We got out and wandered around stopping for the all-important Mythos. There were lots of supermarkets on the high street and Marco managed to bring us back to the harbour via several Greek back gardens and the grounds of a hotel. Back on board we were enjoying another Mythos when......horrors.......a yacht was mooring right next to us. it was a boat full of very loud, drunk Germans. We helped them in and I stood on the quay waiting to take their line but the chap on the boat hurled it at me, hitting me in the face and laughed. Nice!

Marco was all for upping anchor and leaving but they then helped a yacht full of Italiens who moored next to them and we were more or less stuck there. They all got the drinks out again and offered us a campari and orange. Marco declined so I took one so as not to appear too unfriendly. M eventually took one as they were the sort of people who just went on and on until you accepted. They were harmless really but just too loud and annoying. We started to get ready and to really cheer Marco up, the water ran out while i was in the shower, so he had to wash in my leftovers on the bathroom floor!!!! There was no water in Nikiana so we'll need to use bottled water until we get back to Vlikho tomorrow. We went out and avoided the Germans who were already loudly settled in one of the restaurants around the bay....we ended up in a nice little place right in the corner by the sea. We had a lovely meal, which was only spoiled by the "white wine"which looked like wee and tasted little better (I would imagine anyway, obviously I don't know for sure). Back on board the yacht, we finished the bottle of Baileys and went to bed at 11.....we could hear the Germans in the taverna right across the other side of the harbour.

Port Athene to Paleros

Thursday 11th September

Woke up on deck to the sound of the fishing boats going out. It was only 04:30 so I went downstairs where Marco had already gone earlier (the swine left me to the elements!)...Woke up properly at 7.30 (again)...and came back up on deck to another beautiful sunrise. We had a quick glass of juice, then made our way in Junior to the shore. We then walked up to the village of Katameri which was lovely, but there was nothing open, not even the bakery. We could see the potential for an evening out or even a lunch stop but breakfast? Forget it....! On the way back, a little old Greek lady in black, watering her garden, turned her hose on us. I think the intention was to cool us down as it was already hot. Can't imagine how we would have upset her otherwise!

We made it safely back to Winspit and had a lovely breakfast of honey/yoghurt with the traditional coffee and watched the Sailing Holidays yachts leave...they turned to port as they left the bay and we noted with regret that we would probably end up bumping into them again at some stage of the trip.

We left eventually ourselves into 11 knots of wind and sailed on a beam reach towards Kalamos at 5kn for a while. As we tacked and came back towards Abelieke Bay, our lunch stop, the wind died again and we motored in. The bay is much hyped and Rod Heikel is very complimentary but we didn't really think it was that exciting. The atmosphere wasn't helped by two diggers that constantly jiggered noisily the entire time we were there and when we tried to leave, the anchor chain ran away and we had to let it run right out. Marco reversed the boat back and I tightened the gypsy before successfully pulling up again.

There was wind and although it was already 3pm, we decided it was too early to go to Paleros, so we decided to sail around Skorpios. It started well enough, good tacking, up to 6kn speed, but it all went wrong as I was helming and took Winspit off course. Being a nervous ''What do I do now?" kind of sailor I was heading towards an oncoming ferry. Marco took the helm rather huffily and i then proceeded to mess up the tacking too. Names were called, tears were shed (can't say by who)...and the result was that we had started to run out of time to get to our destination, so Marco took in the genoa and we motored fast to Paleros.

Getting there, another boat ahead of us entered the little harbour and came straight out again. We did the same. There was no space. Why?? Well, Odysseus Yachting have their base here so one pontoon was entirely taken out by their fleet. The other pontoon.....? Hmmm Sailing Holidays had tacked themselves onto the end . Having experienced them so often now, we actually preferred to anchor again just outside the harbour, thus avoiding any noisy parties and disco songs from the "Brits Abroad". We chose our spot and Marco signalled to drop the anchor. It dropped alright....and didn't stop..! Brought up several metres of chain until we could tell we were well in. We had beer and nibbles on board watching the sunset and all the day's traumas were forgotten once again.

We motored in Junior over to the shore and walked around the town. We liked Paleros - our first visit to the Greek mainland. It had real old charm, lots of cafes and tavernas too. We chose 'Dionysos' and had a lovely meal, sitting by the sea where an old lady was fishing with a single reel and line. Afterwards, we walked around the town eating ice cream before heading back to Winspit for a coffee and Baileys.