…when we became captives of the wind!

Isn’t that poetic!? It makes you think of a nice mellow breeze and jasmine scented winds making long dresses float, exactly perfect for the “natural and unpretentious” Instagram picture…not insane gusts of wind that turn the kayak upside-down and take the paddle flying to no one knows where…! we gave up looking for the paddle.

The weather forecast said there would be about 5 to 6 knots of wind on Wednesday and then some serious wind was expected for Friday and through the weekend with up to 30 knots of wind gusts. We were at Elafonisos on Tuesday and checking the weather is now a daily routine for us, given that we make most of our plans based on the weather forecast. So we set off for Kythira on Tuesday and we were planning to go south to Crete maybe Wednesday or Thursday.

First time I ever visited Kythira, and it was love at first sight! There are two little bays, one next to the other and we decided to anchor at Kapsali beach. This is such a beautiful place! Exactly what you have in mind when you think of the Greek islands. Big rocky background, little white houses with blue windows, colorful tavernas, small beaches with crystal clear waters. On the left side of the beach there is a very pretty little lighthouse, white and blue and the whole place looks like a painting advertising the endless beauties of Greece.

So we thought we could stay a couple of days before going South, to enjoy the place, after all, every single app we have about the weather and the wind strength and direction assured us that no wind is expected yet and we were 100% protected at our anchorage. At Elafonisos we met up with some friends of ours that we knew from Marina di Ragusa, they have a boat like ours and they were thinking of staying at that island before heading back to Italy. When I saw how pretty Kythira was, I texted Valeria and described how pretty the place is and definitely worth a visit, so they said they would pop over for a couple of days.

At 3 am in the morning we came on deck to make sure the wind was not tearing our boat apart and only sounded like that when we were below deck. The anticipated 5 to 6 knots of wind became a formidable 30 to 40 knots ! (8 beaufort). The night was pitch black, there was no moon, the wind coming through the lines and the masts of the boat was making an incredibly loud hissing noise that sounded like everything was coming apart. In the bay we were about 7 or 8 boats on anchor and there were some boats docked at a tiny dock on the shore. The chain of the anchor was making banging sounds and literally everything that was attacking my eardrums was new and unidentifiable! We could see that everyone was on deck on all the boats and there was some commotion on one sail boat near the tiny dock with people shouting and trying to do something. Two small motor boats drove by and set anchor very close to shore, one boat left and tried to find refuge to the smaller bay on the left. The commotion was because the chain of the anchor of the boat that was trying to move was caught in some rocks, as we found out the next day, and they had divers in the water since 6 am trying to get them free.

Our anchor was holding very well and the boat was doing lots of miles in the sea, moving left and right without going anywhere. The word to describe that night is “sensational”! You know how when you see a horror movie, if you turn off the sound, those scenes that were terrifying a minute ago become…funny! Not scary at all!? The sound effects make all the difference. Well, Mother Nature is well versed in all the necessary sound effects to render a situation horrifying! The noise was unbelievable. Every single part of the boat that could move, moved by the wind making deafening noise! An ill-coordinated cacophony of all kinds of unimaginable sounds. I was standing maybe 2 meters away from Jeff and I couldn’t shout loud enough for him to hear me. I thought the wind would rip the boat apart!

It was amazing to me that the anchor sustained all this force and still kept holding the boat to one spot! I eventually went below and Jeff stayed on deck to keep watch on things. In the morning I texted our friends not to try coming because the weather forecast was messed up but it was too late! They had set sail trusting that they will find some fair winds of 6-7 knots and they encountered 45 knots of wind! Thank goodness that Marco is a very experienced captain! I was so happy and relieved to see them enter the bay safely a couple of hours later.

The wind gusts are formidable, from 6 knts they go up to 32 in seconds. Mother Nature is demanding respect and as we are literally at her mercy we are definitely feeling very respectful of her whims. Ever since we established the complete unreliability of the weather forecast, my spirituality has peaked again and my prayers have become much more regular than my monitoring of the weather and navigation apps.