Return to Astypalia

The only negative thing about keeping the boat in Crete is that the first leg away is always long. A 15 or 16+ hour trip is a long day. We left at 4am expecting decent winds for sailing with light seas and prepared the boat accordingly. The night was pitch black. Leaving was navigating by starlight and knowing the perfectly black places were the shore. I had the boat chartplotter showing my position of course….but it has been wrong before. Very slowly we left the bay in Elounda.

There was a storm approaching from the north and the weather had been changing day by day, and the winds turned out to be stronger and the waves bigger than predicted. We motored for the first 2 hours (I didn’t want to mess with the sails in total darkness) but eventually we had all 3 sails up and we moving at 6+ knots more or less in the right direction. The sunrise was spectacular.

The good thing about the stronger winds of 18-25 knots was that we would sail at full speed. The bad thing was the bigger waves (which we had waited a day to avoid) had not gotten smaller, so we were being bashed a bit by 1.5 to 2 or the occasional 2.5m waves from the side while the boat was 20 to 30 degrees heeled over. In the main photo you can see how wet the deck is we had plenty of water to clean the boat!

This is totally fine and safe and fun, but over 10+ hours you get tired from having to climb everywhere when you need to move. I really noticed my muscles aching the next morning. (Ignoring my age or lack of conditioning 😉 Also anything inside the boat that was not perfectly packed was thrown around. One of the great things is hearing a ‘CRASH’ inside the boat and trying to figure out what went flying. I had just bought a new monitor for work which thankfully I had stowed away, but lots of stuff that was more casually put somewhere was randomly launched about. Our boat packing skills had declined over the winter. Amazing to consider the energies throwing our 20 ton boat around like a toy in a bathtub.

During the night I used our radar, and for the first time I saw a weather squall on the radar! I wasn’t sure what it was (I suspected it was rain since I could see a big cloud formation) but didn’t know for sure until we sailed through it. Our first rain on the boat during a trip! There is so little rain here in the summer I had never seen a squall before.

We only saw 2 big boats during the trip (not including our friend’s boat who was barely visible in the distance behind us). Both were about 100m long. This trip is always the most isolating: we have no internet for about half the trip (usually we always do between the islands) and there is very little marine traffic. If you fall overboard here you are probably toast!

Around 6pm we saw Astypalia. We ended up motor sailing for the last few hours of the trip because we wanted to arrive before sundown (avoid anchoring in the dark). Victoria had been feeling a bit nauseous during the trip (no fun for her) but as soon as we entered the bay she was totally fine. I was pretty tired.

After diving to check the anchor and watching the sunset I slept very well. Watching the sunsets and the changing light with a drink is my favorite part of the day. We have been to this island the most, and it is one of our favorites. Looking forward to getting on shore!

BTW here is a rich Russian’s boat just behind us. Quinta Essentia is now for sale, or you can lease it for a week for 320,000 euros…..that’s about 50 euros a minute! We are anchored closer to the shore than they are. 13 crew and carries 12 passengers in 6 cabins.