We sailed to Kos on Thursday July 18th . We picked the day because of the forecasted light winds and < 1m waves. We wanted an easy sailing day. The winds were a little more from the west than predicted so we had the 15 knot winds from almost behind us. If we had our poles out (a pole holds the jib sail perpendicular to the boat) this could have been perfect (the boat heads downwind very well with the poles) or if we put up our ballooner (a big colourful sail made for exactly this kind of wind) we would have moved along nicely……but since we didn’t we poked along at 3.5 knots for most of the trip. I hadn’t setup the lines for the poles, and we’ve never used the ballooner (I would need to figure out how to rig the lines). A boat in front of us had his ballooner out and I was jealous!
During the trip we saw 2 Russian freighters cross in front of us going in opposite directions.
I expect they were going to and from Turkey carrying mystery cargo. Not sure how often these container ships are inspected. On the map you can see Kos is right beside Turkey. Ergodan has seemed to be quieter since the last election. Maybe he has decided to be less aggravating to his neighbors and focus on fixing the economy. I have also noticed less F16s flying around. Maybe it is all related.
About half way through the trip we received a channel-16 emergency call on our boat VHF. The loud squawking sound from the radio is very startling. I noticed that we didn’t receive it on our handheld VHF (everything in duplicate) and I suspected it might be from far away.
It is always a sobering thing to imagine someone having an emergency. Of course I looked up their position but they were over 60 nautical miles away (just south of Turkey) so we were too far away to help. Our marina recently lost a boat on the rocks of Crete. The poor guy was by himself and was motoring close to a lee shore (a shore where the winds are pushing you towards shore). This is considered dangerous for a good reason. His engine failed and he was quickly pushed onto the rocks before he could get his sails out. He lost his boat and I understand was not insured. Not good. Fortunately he was rescued by local fisherman.
We are now in Kos anchored in a very big bay with 29C (84F for my US friends) crystal clear water. In the morning with no winds it is like being in a giant aquarium. You can easily see the bottom. I can float upright with my head and the tops of my shoulders out of the water which still seems odd to me after years of doing it. Probably a bad indication of my BMI 😉 There are lots of small flat fish that looks like small flounders that are exactly the same colour as the sandy bottom. They like to hang around the anchor chain as it slowly moves and stirs up the sand.
Kos is a much bigger island than Astypalia and there is a chain of islands just north of us that I am sure we will visit. Our friend’s boat is beside us and we had an excellent dinner last night. I expect we will stay here for quite some time.
Adventures on Spruzzo 