SILENCE, DRAMA, TURTLES AND DOLPHINS , DAYS 89 to 92

SILENCE, DRAMA, TURTLES AND DOLPHINS 26 to 29 JULY, DAYS 89 to 92

After a quiet night at out tiny island anchorage we went ashore to walk the beach as it was not possible to go further without entering the lagoon. Young sea urchins were in shallow water so we trod carefully.

Back at the boat we relaxed until in late afternoon the wind shifted to NNE and got up accompanied by black clouds and white horses on the water. We were no longer protected by the island and this was not the 10 – 15 knots of west wind forecast. Again thunder storms were around the mountains and this one was coming straight for us. We were close to the shore and I felt we were getting closer.

I untied the tiller lashings to free the steering and put on the motor. We were getting closer to the beach and I could not get a good angle to get the smaller anchor up so decided to buoy the end of the anchor warp and let go the anchor, to come back later for it. As I tied the fender to the rope the motor stopped. The rope was round the propeller.

This was getting serious, the beach barely a boat length away. I dropped the heavier main anchor to hold the boat off and Gerhard arrived by dinghy from the only other yacht within miles.

I went into the water to release the rope from it’s three turns around the propeller, standing on the sea bed. Now free we could start the motor again and with it in reverse we set to recovering the anchors. As we lifted the warp of the light one clear we say that we had lifted the heavy one with the rope so neither were holding us against the wind. Anita continued to steer and try to keep us from the beach and afterwards said that the steering was heavy. That was explained by the port side lifting rudder having been pushed up by the beach. The rudder blades are designed to lift if needed and it did it’s work.

We recovered the main anchor at the stern, and Gerhard had already dropped to smaller one into his dinghy to row forward to warp us off the beach. That was not necessary as the motor was slowly pulling us clear. We carried the anchor and chain forward as Anita steered us clear of the beach and re-anchored further out but still in the waves.

I thanked Gerhard for his assistance and took the smaller anchor forward and put it away in it’s locker.

Moral of the story – Don’t trust forecast when there are storms in the mountains, and act quickly. It was amazing that we did not end up on the beach but when one rope lifted the other anchor that was a hard moment.

Later came the full moon complete with eclipse by the sun. We did not see all the process due to clouds but at about 21.00 we saw part of the moon in shadow, later the moon was fully visible but very dark (during the total eclipse) and at 01.00 we say the light moon again with last of the shadow at the other side.

We were also joined by many wasps eager to take fresh water from the bucket and from our plants. They buried themselves especially into the soil of the basil plant and only left the next day when we left the island.

What a day !!

More storms were forecast for Friday and although I would have liked to explore the distant east side of the Gulf it was much closer to the mountains so I chose to go motor 8 miles to the west side for protection from west wind and swell, and to be further from the influence of the mountains. The sea was flat and wind only came up against us for the last mile. We anchored alone in a huge bay, close to the shore, trees, cicadas etc. We had seen turtles on the way across.

There are a few houses and farmland but we were virtually hidden from the land and could be naked in nature. The evening brought us the next night of red low full moon without clouds.

The water in the Gulf is mostly shallow and warm and not clear like around the offshore islands. In fact it is a rich soup of wildlife and plants. Even pulling up the anchor we were treated to small creatures moving on the deck.

On Saturday we stayed with the boat until early evening before taking a walk ashore and enjoying blackberries and figs from their plants.

The fridge was going off again despite battery levels of 12.5 volts at times. Following the recharging in Preveza we had three days of no problems, but much cloud so the solar panels were not giving full support.

We decided to return to Preveza on Sunday and had a lovely sail under genoa back to the entrance of the Gulf, being joined by about 10 dolphins which came very close but we had no power in the phones to photograph them. For the last hour we headed slowly west again towards Preveza against strong wind, giving the motor good chance to keep fridge cool and charge the batteries. We came to the Preveza anchorage but soon the fridge was off again.

Later the sky went black, and there was a large wind shift from W to NNE and we, as others, were preparing boat for the next onslaught of weather. Lightening flashed and thunder rumbled loudly but at the last minute the wind eased and we only had rain.

I came ashore to charge appliances, just about everything being dead.

How wonderful the Gulf was, silence, distant mountains, empty anchorages, turtles and dolphins.