NW coast of Crete

Kissamos was a nice little town – not touristy, and we anchored inside the harbour wavebreak. I used the dinghy to top up our water supply from a free tap ashore using our 30 litre water containers. At 0400 the next morning we heard a very loud rumbling sound. I went up on deck and saw a huge ferry, about 90m long, berthing nearby. The loud rumbling was the ferry’s engines and thrusters. It’s amazing here how such large ferrys berth in quite small harbours.
We cruised around the most westerly point of Crete’s north coast to the island of Gramvousa. This is a spectacular area and the island has a couple of bays on its south side, making it reasonably sheltered from the prevailing NW-N winds. Crowning the island are the ruins of a huge Venetian fortress built in 1579. This fortress is triangular in shape, with each side 1km long. It was the last Cretan stronghold to fall to the Turks in 1692, having been held for three years by 3,000 Cretans. In the early 19th century the area became a haven for pirates until an Anglo/French expedition rooted them out in 1828. Why can’t we do the same to the Somalis today?
On rocks separating the two bays is the wreck of a steel ship, about 40m long. Most of the parts are still recognisable, and a sombre reminder of what can happen at sea.
We spent two nights there, and from mid-morning to late afternoon ferries brought day- trippers to the island, but after the last of the ferries left it was very peaceful, with only a fishing boat and runabout moored in the bay, and a few campers ashore.
Gramvousa is as far west as we’re heading this year, and the furthest distance from Marmaris. The whole time we’ve been heading west from Rhodes, and then along Crete’s north coast the wind has been NW or W. We thought from now on we’re going to have the wind behind us or on Envoy’s port quarter, which does make more pleasant cruising. Guess what! When we left Gramvousa to head east back to Kolimbari we had our first NE wind, albeit quite light.
When we’re cruising we mostly leave our paravane arms in the down position, and if we’re in the open sea we have the stabilizing fins deployed, as it’s much easier to launch these when it’s calm, using a block and tackle that Kevin O’Sullivan & I set up back in ’07. When we anchor we either leave the stabilizers in the water, or replace them with our flopper-stoppers, which are more effective at reducing roll when Envoy is stationary.
During this passage we watched the All Blacks play the Wallabies using our Vodafone USB plug-in for internet access, and a site Di found called www.watchliverugby.com. If this proves to be reliable it may save us having to invest in satellite TV to watch the World Cup next year.
We spent a further couple of nights around Kolimbari and then came into the delightful Chania harbour, which we’ll cover in our next posting.
I do harp on about how few boats we’ve seen. Since leaving Agios Nikolaos marina we spent 21 nights anchored at some of the most sheltered and beautiful locations in NE Crete. Out of those nights we had 17 with no other boats in the bay, or in sight. The most crowded was a night when we had a runabout, a yacht and a fishing boat in the same bay. As we sit in Chania harbour there is only one British yacht and two local motor yachts here. Where are all the cruisers?
This 21 nights gave us a good opportunity to monitor our water usage, averaging 44 litres/day. This means that with Di & I aboard we have about 34 days’ supply, while we expect to have about 15 day’s supply with guests aboard – but then we have more hands to help replenish water!
Log
Days aboard Envoy this trip: 122
Engine hours and distance this trip: 120hrs, 584NM
Technical: No real issues. We now have from Piraeus the correct stuffing gasket material for our prop shaft. Our smaller Arimar RIB is away getting repaired, or may have to be replaced.