Smashed by the Meltemi.... and a dollop of ignorance

Each day we had to check with Marina staff as to whether we could stay another night, the last conversation went "yes, but you must be out by 10:00am tomorrow"
So, 10:00am sharp, the wind was already up and the pilot boat thankfully arrived. We were tightly moored alongside at the end of two full rows of expensive looking boats and the wind was coming across the rows. The pilot had a big bumper on the front of his boat which he used to spin us around point us in the right direction and bid us farewell. He'd done this before, I could just tell....

The Meltemi blows from the North here and it swings from the NW at waypoint 3 so we were in for a great sail with the wind up the clacker for most of the way. We were aiming to get to Palamut where you see the red arrow, which is where we are now, but it was not to be on this day....

Mobile speed App

The sails went up before we left the bay but seemed to slacken off a bit initially.

Then slowly but surely it built. By the time we got to waypoint 2, we were firmly at 8 knots and enjoying the ride. That point you see to our left is the point at waypoint 3.




By the time we reached waypoint 3, we were surfing the swell travelling at 11-12 Knots and loving it.

Then we reached the point.... We knew the apparent wind speed would increase by a good 10 knots, so in came the headsail. We had been sailing on the first reef (reduced sail area) all day and were confident that we were not overpowered..... That is until we turned East. The wind simply howled around the point to around 50 knots, the sea bucks wildly and Houston we have ourselves a problem...

In hindsight, there were a few options, but the only option at the time seemed to be to reef the main again to de-power the boat a little more and continue on our course.

Turning 180 degrees to get the wind on the nose in these seas as one way to achieve the reefing was not an attractive option so the plan was to get the wind directly behind us, centre the boom and secure it to avoid a massive jibe, loosen the main halyard while tightening the second reef line.... Good in theory, but in practice the main came down a little quicker than the reefing line could bring down the bottom of the sail. This caused the main to blow out and snap the lazy jack lines on the starboard side. These lines are there to guide the huge catamaran sail into the bag on the boom when you bring it down (under controlled circumstances). Without it the sail with all its heavy batons simply flails uncontrollably either side of the boom.

The main then blew out across to the port side and did the same to those lazy jack lines......

Soaked Sal Selfy 

Options limiting, wind howling, kids "put your life jackets on" Sal and I soaked at the helm. sails flapping wildly with no possibility of lashing them in this mayhem, the only option now was to face the wind, bring the sail all the way down and make for Knidos, a small, windy anchorage under the point about a mile away.

Although windy, the sea would be calm, we could anchor and with boat bell weathering into the wind, we could deal with the problem.

Ancient Knidos is renowned for two things: The statue of Aphrodite, the first ever sculpture of a naked woman, and the scientist Eudoxos. (Feel free to Google these)

It is now renowned for one more thing... saving our butts!

This is Knidos anchorage...

As you see, there is little to stop the prevailing wind from coming through the gap from the other side, but once in the bay the sea is a lot calmer and we were very happy to finally get anchored and get onto tidying things up.

We would have looked a sight coming in, we'd clearly had a problem, but not one person in the fairly crowded bay offered any assistance of any kind. When a neighbour lost then their dingy in the wind, one of them dived in to swim to it but he had Buckley's. We  retrieved it for them before it blew out to sea. We had to drop our dingy whilst others, with dingys already in the water simply sat and watched...

Strange?.

After two attempts we managed to get the anchor to bite. We got busy tidying things up but I was anxious to dive on the anchor to make sure it was in properly. The wind was aggravatingly persistent and if we dragged in the middle of the night, we would have been on the rocks behind us in no time. The anchor was only half in, jammed behind a tussock which looked as if it could come away, but by the looks of the bottom, we were lucky it bit at all. On testing it was more solid than it looked so we decided to leave it be, but with the howling wind buffeting the boat all night, it made for an almost entirely sleepless night.

We use a Wind App called 'Predict Wind' which is pretty accurate in forecasting wind speed and direction over a period of a week. It showed that even when it is backing off elsewhere, it continues it howl through here.

So even though the Meltemi was predicted to persist for the next few days and we were relatively safe and secure, we resolved to move on to our original destination under motor and headsail the next morning and get to where the wind had a modicum of sanity to it.

As for Knidos? Without the wind, it would be a very pleasant and interesting anchorage. A great little Taverna, the ruins are fairly intact and kept the kids happy while Mum and Dad 'settled the nerves' so to speak.

Will on the IPhone

As for options in hind sight?

We probably should have sailed straight into Knidos leaving the main where it was, reefed in calm waters facing the right way and continued our journey. or; Dropped the main and anchored for the night. Instead we'd set our sights on Palamut and hadn't thought of stopping in Knidos until it was the only option.

They say you can't buy experience, but we could do without it being rammed down our throats. We have reefed or attempted to reef twice now....

Inelegant was the way I described the first time back in Lakka, disastrous and expensive on the second attempt here! With a little more experience, perhaps it will be third time lucky on the next occasion.... stay tuned.