The big leap to Crete

A nice early start. The weather fine and an expected northerly to blow us down. It was westerly when we cast off at 10:45 on the 26th July so a choice had to be made....

Looking at the chart, a northerly would mean sailing around the east (right) side of that island you see half way down so that it didn't disrupt the wind in our sails. But it was blowing westerly which meant sailing down the west (left) side of the island for the same reason??

At the risk of boring you, here is the extract from the log to give you an idea of why we call it the Motorterranean...





10:55 Main and headsail up in 6-10k northerly assisting the motors
11:05 Headsail and main down. Wind on the nose. Now southerly
12:30 Mainsail up in 10k northerly
13:10 Gennaker up in rising northerly
14:10 All sails down in 5k up the clacker
14:40 Gennaker up in 4-5k northerly
15:10 Gennaker down in nil wind
16:50 Anchored in Gramvousa Lagoon - Crete.

I guess we should be pleased to got there safely by whatever means, but this boat loves the wind and there is no better feeling than having all the canvass up, motors silent and 8 knots SOG on the log.

Gramvousa Lagoon at the very north eastern tip of Crete was a notorious pirate hangout back in the day. It is remote. It has direct access to anything travelling to and from the Orient and it is safe anchorage in any wind. They were flushed out and destroyed by an Anglo-French force in the late 1800's. Didn't think the French and the English got along back then? or now for that matter!

Ok history Buffs! Explain this on to me. This place is remote, it is not arable. At the top of this 900ft rock is a substantial fort that would have taken a long time to build..... With me so far?

How, with no land based transport. No ability to grow food. No way of raising livestock and no permanent fresh water supply did they house, feed and direct all these artisans to get this thing built??




We are anchored in the northern bay here, protected from all northerly winds, close to a wreck which was carrying cement when it foundered... The petrified bags remain it its hull.

There is an abundance of Aloe Vera, or to me it was Sisal used back in those days for making everything from fishing line to rope.

I learned this on a survival course back in Africa a long time ago and thought it would make a good school project for the kids.

First, carefully cut a 'leaf' of the plant at the base avoiding the thorns along either side with a lethal mother at the point.

Lay it on a smooth rock and bash the flesh away with another smooth rock.








Then tease out the individual strands and wash in sea water.
Done carefully thousands of strands can be harvested from a single leaf.



Role three at a time on the thigh to make fishing line.

Then role three of those together to make string and so on until you have rope or whatever you like

Here, William and Summer are holding the weight of half a liter of wine with a 9 strand string.... or three three strand strings

School over for the day and we still haven't figured out how they got that fort built?

Time for a swim in the most beautifully clear water once again.

I had woken to and change in the wind direction overnight and whilst we'd turned though 180 degrees, which I found very disorientating on a moonless night it eventually became clear that we hadn't really moved? The wind was very gentle, which kind of explained it.

A quick check of the anchor while we swam found that the chain had caught on a rock ledge at the boat end and this had literally prevented us from being blown 'gently' onto the rocks! A cheap lesson..

Sal and I took the dingy for a run across the lagoon to the southern end. This is the safe anchorage in a southerly. There were primitive facilities provided by the council here. The lagoon is a place to vacate by 10ish or be overrun by day tripper ferries bringing tourists by the hundreds....on something touted as... "A Pirate Adventure!"

At 11:00am we weighed anchor and motored in nil wind to Chiania.