10 Aug 06 - 12 Aug 06 - Zakinthos and crossing to Italy

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10. Aug. 06

We hoped to depart from Zakinthos early on, but increasing wind speeds and warnings from fellow Greek sailors made us decide to stay and wait it out. At 20:00 the harbour authorities came by and wanted us to pay for yet another day of stay which isnt too expensive (around Euro 20). However the paper to be allowed to moore in Greece is quite expensive, around Euro 70 and in addition we were charged Euro 20 for about 300l of fresh water... would be cheaper to go to Lidl to buy it ;)

At 21:00 we departed as the food was ready. We decided to eat when out of port and sail straight to the bay of Laganos to anchor for the night. A good distance away, we could see thunder and lightning, but never heard anything so we knew it was far away.

At 22:30 we anchored at Lagonos just North of the small island of Marathonis. In our anchoring procedures we went reverse to ensure the hold of the anchor... unfortunately we (I) forgot the dingy's extended line, which made us have an unvolunteer nightdive to peel out the line from the prop.

First I went down and got some of it untangled... but boy.. my fitness isnt too good. Afterwards Nikolai went down and got the remaining stuff untangled and brought up some pieces of rope for all to see :)

Soeren was holding the diving light for us to be able to see anything, and Katharina was shouting all sorts of good advice to us... like... DAD MAKE SOME BUBBLES !!! COMON DAD... MAKE ME SOME BUBBLES!... while I was trying to catch my breath. But Nikolai earned a big star from Katharina being the hero of the day. She wants to be just like him when she grows up... hope she will refrain from the beardy looks.

We were falling asleep to the med's southern waves pushing us around despite our effort to hide behind the island.

11. Aug. 06

We anchored at 37N41,05 20E52,07 just next to the Marathonis island in search of turtles which this area is famous for.

However we didnt see turtles... except of the human kind, laying on the small stone rubble beach on the island and going in and out of the small seacave. We decided to put an engine on the dingy and go into the cave to see whats there. Its a rather small cave, but nonetheless an interesting trip.We decided to let Katharina play a bit on the beach afterwards.

Even out here you can buy icecream and sodas... a small icecream boat came by... unfortunately we didnt think of bringing cash so we had to pass.

Next stop from here is Messina. We have decided to skip the other sightseeing trip to wreck beach as everyone was happy having had their swim.

23:00 37N23,6 20E07,3

12. Aug 06

Nikolai and Soeren had the two 3 hour watches until 04:00 in the morning after which I was woken up. In the dark, but moon lightened sky I saw 2 shooting stars and in the far distance some quite heavy thunder and lighting. There are absolutely noone around us here, in the middle of the Ionian sea between Greece and Italy.

As the wind is not on our side, we have had to go on engine for a couple of hours. Mostly the wind is W and light or very light which means we almost dont move. Our speed record by sails on this part of the trip is 4.5kn true speed and was set before my watch.

19:00 37N39,9 18E50,5 Distance traveled since Zakinthos: 144 nautic miles.

The hoist line for our Genoa broke today... fortunately we had a spare hoist line which we could use, but its also slightly worn, so at port we must expect to get a new hoist line. Stuff to do in Messina when we get there.

 

 

 

Zakinthos 1	Zakinthos 2	Zakinthos 3 Esmeraldas shop	Zakinthos 4	Zakinthos 5
Zakinthos 6	Zakinthos 7	Zakinthos 8	Zakinthos 9	Zakinthos 10
Zakinthos 11