Short of sleep after a night rolling in a SW swell in Valtos, we up anchor at midday and head up the mainland coast to Platarias. We’re on a broad reach under Genny making 5 knots.
By 1420 we’re making 5.7 knots, still downwind. Normally the prevailing north westerlies would make much of this trip an upwind struggle, but the upside of the southerlies is great downwind sailing.
The wind’s picked up by the time we enter the deep bay with Platarias at the far end. With 2 reefs in the Genny we’re on a fine reach and make a couple of big tacks nearly to the head of the bay. As we furl the Genny in, the wind gusts 19kts. Our best sail so far!
The easy mooring option in these conditions is the new (now partly sunken) mole. The most convenient is on the town quay, which means mooring stern to in a crosswind. Aware that I’m already anxious about mooring in Gouvia marina, I decide to challenge myself and go for the town quay, in the hope of building my confidence.
It goes fine and our lines are taken by a group of young Irish lads on a charter boat to starboard. They go back to their lunch. We’re not sure our anchor is holding. Engine on, out we go. This time I misjudge our approach so that our anchor’s being laid across that of the boat to port. We abort and go out again. The next approach is fine, but the anchor gets stuck on the windlass and starts going out too late. Finally, we get in and the anchor holds. We apologise profusely to the lovely Irish lads who’ve been up and down like yo-yos taking our lines.
Althoughit took several goes, I’m pleased with our mooring and feel more confident about Gouvia. It wasn’t perfect, but we handled what went wrong until it was right. A few years ago, we might’ve hoped the anchor would hold, rather than go out and reset it. We’ve learned that lesson. We open the beers and relax.
Tempting fate! Italians on a Maltese flag yacht come in alongside and manage to get their keel stuck on our chain! We let out our chain so it drops below their keel and they motor clear. We tighten our chain again. They seem oblivious as they say hello. We check our chain and the anchor still seems to be holding well. When they leave the next day, they somehow manage to repeat the whole keel across our chain thing again! And still seem oblivious 😯