Sunday 8 October 2017

Ormos Skoutari 36:39.7N 22:30.3E

Well what else do you do at 3 o'clock in the morning with the wind gusting 30kn or more? Answer is "Update the blog!"
We came here, just couple hours south of Vithion knowing the bay is quite a big one, with a sandy beach at the head of the byte, and big mountains to our west and north, giving us good protection from wind and weather from west and north. The pilot book does, however, mention the possibility of strong gusts from over the high mountains. As we enter the bay last Friday and explored possibility of dropping our hook in each of the smaller bays we passed. 'Storm Cove' is quite narrow and no room to swing, necessitating us tieing back to the shoreline using long stern lines. Not necessary and not particularly desirable if needing quick-getaway. 'Fishermans Cove' looked more tasty although depths were greater than we really wanted until fairly close to the shoreline. Also would have meant us being on a lee-shore over the coming days. So we kicked that option into touch too and proceeded towards the north-westerly head of the bay. A few minuted before reaching the area and depth where we'd planned to drop our hook we'd had virtually no wind and had been on the donk the whole 2 hours since leaving Vithion. Suddenly we had it. 20kn coming over the highest part of the mountains directly ahead. With no other yachts to be seen we dropped our hook in 8m depth and decided to let 75m chain out, testing how well the hook grabbed a hold along the way. We held well with only 30m chain out so the extra 45m would give us the desired confidence if the wind became nasty overnight. Towards Friday sunset we were seeing 20-25kn quite regularly and during hours of darkness slightly less, coming back with more gusto on first light. During the Saturday morning, a promising start turned into black clouds and lorra wind.Topside 30kn regularly between copious rainfalls. By evening we could see patches of blue overhead and by time it was dark the moon came up bright. The night certainly looked promising. Until just before 3 o'clock. Since then we're back up to 30knand more of wind, no moon and clear skies. We persist in swinging like a ballerina pendulum and our hook is thankfully staying firm. By now, we guess our hook has been spending the last day and a half gradually digging its way deeper and deeper into the seabed? We know there are storms to our west and south and the forecast indicates winds should reduce in next few hours. We've just enjoyed our ritual cup of tea, reserved for these occasions, and might consider trying to accomplish bit more shut-eye soon as I finish this.
At a more convenient time this morning, we'll be taking a look at the weather prospects and considering our next move south, towards our next windy-watering hole. Not complaining because we've enjoyed mostly settled nights getting plenty ZZZZZZZs.
xxx