Bob & Eds voyage: Cephalonia to mainland

Cephalonia

So another taxing day had on the crossing which gave me a good stress test. Started off brilliantly sun, wind easy departure then half way across the wind picked up to 23 knots but exactly from the direction I was headed . Tried a couple of long tacks but really wasn’t worth it so put the motor on and at least was heading in the right direction at 2.5 kts!! Big winds picked up after sunset the waves weren’t massive but the boat was riding up and slapping down which slows it down .

Decks already awash but not really started yet.

11 hrs later I arrived at a lee anchorage , no point bashing on in the dark. As always I give the anchor button a blip to test it. 100 meters off shore swell reduced but 28 kts of wind blowing, the bastard thing didn’t work . What to do ? I dug out the sea anchor a big nylon cone then let the boat drift while I tested the easy options. I whipped out the switch box and took that to pieces nothing wrong there. Ran up stairs to check position then back down to check the other end of the wire . Sure enough salt ingress, corrosion and two wires snapped. Up top again then down to repair. Obviously this worked .Allah be praised inshallah and all that tosh. Had it not worked I would have had to mooch around till sunrise no point in heading off on course . Military zone to the north south was wrong and wind still 28.By 11.30 the anchor was set and I watched the thunder storm lighting up the clouds, no noise so must have been some way away. A good nap was had and anchor did a great job again.

Next day conditions were the same but at least I could sea the waves coming for the next 6 hours and using my precious diesel!

Arrived Patras harbour which turned out to be pretty

sheltered but no one to help moor. Not a problem, pretty straightforward. Speaking to the dutchies on their fancy plastic, their skipper said he lost his nerve and decided to bolt for Patras like me. Nice dutchies borrowed my fuel container and donated a can of beer to my fridge. I’d already donated one of mine to some funny little bloke who tried to help me arrange diesel. Can you believe the last place before canal selling diesel, through an agent who wasn’t getting out of bed before 10 and wouldn’t deliver less than 150 litres. Wanker. Had a quick yap to the dutchies again seeing if they needed 50 which they did but this wasn’t going to work so went for a moped backy round town with funny little bloke in my crocs who showed me where the petrol stations were. Brilliant , one was 7 mins away so two 20 ltr loads later and I’m all juiced up.

To cap the positivity I washed the boat with free water and didn’t have to pay for the mooring😀.

After harbour first non obstacle is a big span bridge . Lots of radio jabber. Not really necessary but must try to comply. Given a clearance for southern span then I mile out have to call to confirm at which point he tells me Northern side, for once I trusted my ears and told him he’d said southern and he corrected. All unnecessary.