Freedom!! (Crete)

 

4th June 2020 (Crete)

Two days ago, after a long, and I’d have to say mentally challenging few months locked down in Ag Nik marina, we are free!

Waving farewell to those foolish and brave enough to see us off in the drizzle on B pontoon, we slipped away, carefully avoiding our opposite neighbours long bow-sprit. The day had something of a British summers day about it: wet and horrible, but showing potential - in cricket terms; it had a ‘we might get a few overs later’ look. Our destination for the day is Dhia, a little uninhabited island about 10 miles North of Heraklion. A motoring day (as opposed to sailing), but both very glad to be on the water once again. 

Having seen no other boats or ships on the water, after a good day, we made it to Dhia with a couple of hours light left, these I spent naked, swim / exploring the little cove we were sharing with the seagulls for the night. There were more sea urchins than I’ve ever seen before, so the initial ‘oh this is lovely’ turned to ‘oooh shit’ fairly rapidly in the fading light as I attempted to avoid becoming a pin cushion... anyway, returned to the boat unscathed. Both tired, and after dinner headed to bed for a deep sleep in calm water : Really lovely.

Up early the next morning (yesterday), not quite with the sun, but shortly after. Breakfasted on peaches and chocolate croissants, then raised the anchor and headed away from our lovely first stop for 2020. The wind was close to being on the nose initially so not ideal sailing conditions, but we’re wanting to get North at the weekend, so need to get as far West along Crete as we can to make the hop North easier. We did manage to get the sails up as the wind shifted slightly, close hauled, and occasionally flappy we made our happy way along - relishing the wind on our faces once again. Really must mention the sky: the clouds had formed a strange uniformly whispy pattern, like a dandelion gone to seed in a dogtooth formation.... not easy to describe..as you probably noticed :)

Skirting along the North coast we made such good progress, that we eventually opted for our plan C destination : Marathi Bay. 

With a few hours still to go, the wind and seas picked up considerably, with the occasional splosh coming over the sides giving us a salty shock here and there, but we decided to tack across it, which we managed with a few stressed moments. That’s fine - it’s the start of the season, so our techniques aren’t as refined as they were when we finished up last year. It didn’t help that we were under the watchful eye of an ominously close battle ship patrolling the exclusion zone that the wind really wanted us to go into... and did I mention the area we are in is a NATO submarine training area AND a mine laying test area..! After a couple of hectic hours, we reached our destination, a small partially sheltered bay with beach umbrellas laid out to greet us. Very minor trouble setting the anchor ( into sand : wouldn’t dig in at 2.2k revs, but did fine at 2.5k). We then raised the recently completed (by my clever wife, with assistance from Anne) riding sail to stop our stern swinging too much. All settled down, and both absolutely knackered and aching, had a dinner made by my fair hand ( a rare occurrence) then Chez to bed, and me following shortly behind. Will spend tomorrow here, then head off North tomorrow night.