“Towards” and not “To” – A lesson learned

On a sailboat your have to keep a log book in which you enter relevant information about your voyages. Logbook entries supposed to be titled as  going from “Towards” and not “To”? When sailing you never know what happens. So it has become customary to speak and title the logs “Towards” and not “To”. No all printed log book publishers know of this custom though. The logbook we received from our broker with Next Life use the term “To”.

The weather may require a change in your plans, or technical problems may force you to look for another harbor. Today’s weather forecasts are reliable enough to make it less of an issue for short trips of up to 3 days.  However, during the times with no real weather forecast these customs were established. Recently, a sailor in an British magazine wrote about his experiences, and that on occasion he forgot the “towards” and went by the “to”, only to find that he put his boat and the live of his crew in danger.

Our story of changing “Towards” - or Next Life's Odyssey 

We had struggled this whole trip from April on to be at the pick up and drop off locations for our several sets of guests at specific times. Our departure from Les Sables was delayed because of a really bad spring. It was bad enough for a British sailing magazine to dedicate a four-page article on it, and on the jet stream which kept sending low after low south when it was supposed to keep them further north.  So we had to delay several times the arrival of Silke's dad, who was joining us for the crossing of the Bay of Biscay and beyond. Our delayed departure from Les Sables meant that our guests joining us in Malaga had to change their flights. Then we had to make it to Mallorca for their departure. Pressing on under engine up the Spanish coast, mostly against the wind and waves, made it so uncomfortable that some of our guests decided to abandon ship early and fly home from a different location.

Petra, Silke’s sister, was brave enough to stay on. We tried to make it from Ibiza to Palma for Petra’s return flight a day before her departure. About 5 miles after leaving the protection of Ibiza Island the waves got really bad. Also our friend Gonzalo called me from Mallorca to report that the easing winds in my earlier forecast had been replaced with force 9 (41+ knots) near Mallorca during the time of our estimated arrival. When the next breaking wave on the beam made Next Life appear to stand on her ears, we decided to turn back and run for cover.

Petra searched the Internet for options to change her flight, use a ferry or a local flight to make it to her plane in Palma on time. In the mean time I got weather forecasts from several sources and convinced Petra that the next day really looked better. In deed we had a good crossing.

Costa Concordia - not "To" but "Towards"

For our next guest, Andrea, we got wiser and planned to make it towards our next destination early. Good we did that as a leaking water maker forced us to spend several days in and unplanned harbor to wait for the new part from the US. Because of further delays with the repair I took the water maker out of the boat and left it with the service center. We continued to Rome where we rented a car and drove back up the coast to pick up the fixed water maker a few days later.

We dropped Andrea and picked up Kim in Rome. We had planned continuing down the Italian coast, but our wind instruments still did not work, even though we had just received a new mast head unit. So we did a 180 degree turn and went all the way to Hyres on the French Riviera with Kazaio to try for a third time to have our wind instrument fixed. Hyres has one of the largest Lagoon dealer and Raymarine installer. I am glad we did repair it there, as it has been working ever since.  (Update: I looked at the instruments 5 minutes after I wrote this and no wind readings. Luckily, after restarting all instruments the wind readings are back. Do they want to tell me something?)

Having learned from past experiences we left Corsica rather early to make it to Corfu. for our next guests.  When we arrived in Corfu we where exhausted from making it to all the previous appointments, so we decided to change their travel plans. 

The Schönwalds

When the Schoenwalds arrived we proposed to them that they would have to take a ferry from a convenient island in the Cyclades to Crete for their return flight. We felt we would not want to make the long trip from Corfu to Crete in two weeks, and drop of Kim in Athens just a few days later.

At the same time we told the Arbingers, our September guests, to change their arrival airport. We had made plans to pick them up in Rhodes and drop them in Catania on Sicily two weeks later. After a series of emails they changed their arrival from Rhodes to Santorini in the Cyclades. We thought we where all set now.

Next Life's Meltemi Odyssey

As it turned out this year's Meltemi – the summer north wind in the Cyclades – was blowing like mad and often for a full week with no break. We got storm locked in Naousa on Paros. For a few days we could not even cross the little bay in our dinghy to get into town, neither did the ferry boats run to the beach near us. A nice spot to be locked in though. Kim even learned to wake board.

Kim's first wake board lesson

When we finally did get into town, all ferries to Crete were sold out. Can you believe it? Well, school started the next week in Germany and probably in other EU countries as well and everybody was leaving the islands. A mad rush followed to book a ferry the dame day to Piraeus (north), a hotel there for over night, then a ferry to Crete (south), with another hotel there. We have to thank the Schoenwalds for taking on such an odyssey through the Greek island, on what I am sure were crowded ships with not place to sit, on voyages that measure in 10ths of hours.

Instead of sailing to Athens against the Meltemi to drop off Kim, we decided to just sail one Island north to Mykonos. From there Kim and I took a flight to Athens, while Silke and the pets stayed in Mykonos.  We got to see the Acropolis and the Plaka.

Kim at the Acropolis

Even air travel is not without “Towards” effects. Kim’s flight was delayed for 14 hours. I had booked my flight back to Mykonos 30 minutes before Kim’s departure. It should have worked great as for the international flight we were at the airport 3 hours before scheduled departure. My local flight only required me to go through security only 30 minutes before departure. Well, the long line up caused by rebooking so many people caused me to have to leave Kim in the care of a nice Greek couple with two grand children in the line up. Kim was put up in a hotel and arrived almost a day late in Victoria. Two weeks later she got stuck in Vancouver on her flight to Tokio for a full day due to a medical emergency with a passenger.

In the mean time Silke was sitting out a storm in Mykonos.

After Mykonos we went back to Naousa and got storm bound for several days again! After a few days we dared to leave our anchorage and start heading south toward Santorini for the Arbingers. The fight north out of the bay against the steep waves and maneuvering between little rocks and islands to get some shelter on an otherwise lee shore was not fun at all. It felt like someone was under the boat pounding it with a sledgehammer every 5 seconds. Spray was coming over the boat all the time. At one point Silke and I got totally drenched by solid water on the fly bride about 3 meters above the water. Boy, where we glad when we could point the bow down wind and get the waves from the stern. Three reefs in the main and genoa was all we dared to carry with winds gusting over 40 knots in the acceleration zone between Paros and Paxos islands.

Waves pound Next Life

Santorini was a challenge to find a suitable anchorage and we spend over 4 hours going from spot to spot. Next day we picked up the Arbingers and did some sight seeing. We then told them that making it to Catania in time for their return flight would be highly unlikely. We decided that we look for a return flight from one of the Cyclades islands or Athens, depending on where we will end up. 

Santorini

When the weather forecast looked like less wind, we started going towards the island of Anafi, east of Santorini. Well this excursion did not last long. The waves became so big and and steep on the beam that we got scared and turned back toward Santorini. Having given up on our excursion east we decided to get closer to Athens and send them on a ferry to meet their flight there. With some more rough weather passages under engine against the wind we made it to Adamas on the island of Milos. This is where the Arbingers left by ferry and this would also be our jump off point two days later for the start of our return trip through the Mediterranean. But that is another story.