Cruising west

When cruising, or in fact doing any traveling, you meet some great and interesting people. Since our return to the Med we’ve met a number of people from our 2007 trip and still keep in touch with others. In Agios Nikolaos we met a charming Scottish couple; Alan and Ann McIlravie who live on their boat “Sula Mac”. Alan and Ann have the temporary use of a friend’s car and kindly took us sight-seeing around some of the inland Cretan villages (some of the photos on the last posting were taken there). Coincidentally they are coming to New Zealand for a holiday in February, and we’ve arranged to catch up.
We left Agios Nikolaos as planned on Tuesday 13, and spent the night anchored in the lagoon beneath the fortress at Spinalonga. Once the last of the day-tripper boats departed we had the place all to ourselves. In fact there are hardly any cruising boats around, we only see the occasional fishing boat. It was amazing to sit at anchor only 50m from the fortress and think of its violent past – both the 16th century battleground of Christians and Muslims and later, the forced settlement of Greek lepers.
The next day was an eight hour trip to the island of Nisis Dhia. The visibility here in Crete is very hazy (maybe some ash from the Iceland eruption?). As I was writing this we were only three miles offshore, but any detail was difficult to pick out through the haze using binoculars. Although N Dhia is several hundred feet high, it only emerged through the haze when we were 13NM away – nothing like our Hauraki Gulf where we see Great Barrier Island from over 50NM. N Dhia is correctly described as “bleak”. There are four bays on the south side, sheltered from the predominant NW wind. We cruised through the first three with our paravanes still out, and saw several fishing boats moored before anchoring in the nicer fourth bay, and soon afterwards a Coastguard launch roared towards us. It came close and stopped while the crew studied us for a while, and then roared off again. We think one of the fishing boats thought we were towing fishing nets, and reported us to the Coastguard.
Our next stop was a small town of Ormos Bali. The Cruising Guide says there’s “a bit of a roll here”, and it’s not wrong. Although there was little wind we had about a 1m swell coming into the bay, so to be comfortable we put out our “flopper stoppers”, and used a stern anchor to keep us lined up with the swell.
There are very few areas to anchor on Crete’s north coast offering good shelter, because the “Meltemi” wind is consistently from the NW or N generating a 1-2m swell. It’s a bit like anchoring off Waiheke in 20kn of northerly. Only in the winter does the wind turn south, opening up dozens of additional coves where a boat could safely anchor. The coast is roughly 140NM from east to west, but there are only about six marinas and five good anchorages along its entire length. There are many more very small, shallow sheltered areas suitable for use by small craft, but not for visiting cruising boats.
On Saturday we arrived in a beautiful bay called Ormos Milati, protected from all except easterlies, and although this is one of the best anchorages on the coast we’re the only boat anchored here, and plan to stay here for a few days. Ashore are excellent clear, sandy beaches although in typical Greek and Turkish style they are covered completely with deck chairs. Some of the tavernas have loud music playing, spoiling the tranquility, which is one of the nice aspects of going to the beach.
As usual Envoy is attracting a lot of attention with her distinct and unusual appearance, paravanes out, and flopper-stoppers gently rising and falling. Many people in small craft, and even people swimming come up to us to talk and ask questions. Yesterday we met Constantine, Costas for short, who was intrigued by the boat, so we invited him aboard for a look around. He has a beach house ashore and has invited us for drinks tonight. This is one of the areas where very heavy fighting took place during WW2, and Costas’s father was a well-known partisan leader. I hope we’ll hear more about that tonight.
Ormos Milati is on the NE side of a four-mile long inlet running east-west. Further up the inlet is a NATO naval base and the town of Soudha – probably our next destination. There is also a military airfield nearby, and we get jet fighters roaring over our heads.
One of the very nice things about the Med is being able to dine outside in the very atmospheric tavernas. Unlike New Zealand there is no rain during the summer, and the temperature is still warm enough after dark to enjoy eating in the open. After they close for the night all the furniture is just left out, without the need for security – we imagine in New Zealand it would soon disappear.
Water management without the water maker is working fine, and with just the two of us aboard we only use about 50L/day, including use of the washing machine about every 3-4 days.
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 105
Engine hours and distance this trip: 93Hrs / 448NM
Technical: All OK (for once!) The paravane stabilizers have been working well, and even in 2m beam seas our tea doesn’t spill.
When we came back aboard Envoy the four diesel tanks contained a total of about 1,380L – about 36% full. All of the fuel had conditioner added when we left in early 2008. In Rhodes we bought a further 1,000L (at Euro 1.348/L or about NZ$2.40/L) bringing us up to about 60% capacity. We’re using the old fuel first, and still have about 600L to go. For the distance we’re likely to cover this year (of maybe 1,200NM?) there’s no point in carrying a full load.