Monday, June 29, 2015

Herzliya to Kos again. The 2015 version



After several years I decided to revive the blog and write a little about the sailing trip from Herzliya to Kos.
This time was special because it was the first time I sailed with Naama who’s already a skipper, Michael and his daughter Naomi, a 16 year old sea scout guide, also David, who’s an X navy, and my old sea scouts friend Shay, who’s sailing Princess Nayeli for the first time from Israel.
The forecast was for West winds, at part of the time relatively strong. It meant going close-hauled to the wind most of the time.
I used some new planning software that calculates the best route given the forecast and the boat specs (PredictWind). It also shows you the wind strength and direction throughout the route.
The plan was to leave on Thursday morning, motor part of the way a little more West than usual and when the wind picks up, start sailing close-hauled for two full days.
We left Herzliya at 7:30AM with a nice side wind, so we hoisted the spinnaker.
A couple of hours later, 15 miles from the shore, while sailing with the spinnaker, we caught this Tuna fish:



The bate Pavel gave me worked nicely this time.
We rolled in fishing rods because we had enough fish for the whole trip.
While hoisting the spinnaker again, the first incident happened. We had to go down wind for that. We needed to turn 40 degrees away from the wind. Doing it with the auto pilot caused a big overshoot that flipped the sail which in turn went all the way through the sun awning. The zippers were heavily damaged. The team used some extra ropes to tie it back to its place. Not perfect, but it worked as long as the wind was not too strong.
As we got closer to Cyprus the wind picked up (as planned). We started sailing close hauled, with a significant list, night and day. If you add to it the 2-3m waves, that the boat was hitting with loud bangs, it made the experience a lot more challenging.
Living on the boat for a couple of days with a steady list, banging waves, and sprays of water, was not easy.
Naomi couldn’t go in, so she slept all night on the cockpit floor, wrapped with cushions, so we always had an extra crew member in the cockpit if needed.
David got it really bad this time. As our main cook, he sat in the cockpit and gave us cooking instructions. With the help of Shay and Michael we had good food even if the boat’s list was a little aggressive. We still had a hot meal once a day and sandwiches otherwise. We made sure everyone eats and drinks.
Michael felt relatively well, given the circumstances. He was able to go in and even do some cooking. Making tea and coffee in those conditions was challenging.
The rest of us (Naama, Shay and myself), shared the best bed in this situation. The stern starboard side bed. This is because the stern doesn’t jump that much on the waves, and because we could put some cushions on the topping (bedroom’s wall) and just sleep on it…
The boat was not happy with the sea either and at some point the living room table broke and fell aside, missing Shay by just a few centimeters. Don’t worry, we fixed it as soon as the weather calmed down.


This is Naomi, in the 2nd sunrise at sea:


After 48 hours at sea, the wind calmed down and so did the waves. We furled the jib, dropped the mainsail and started motoring our last 70 miles to Kastellorizo.
We arrived at around 6PM.



The weather for the next day was not any better. Head wind of up to 23 knots was expected in Rhodes channel. We checked PredictWind’s suggestion. It suggested we motor up along the Turkish coast, then when the wind picks up start tacking, starting with a long leg south towards the coast of Rhodes and then tack straight to channel. It looked smart, so we decided to follow it. Just before the wind picked up again, we got a short dolphin show





This was a long day. We started at 5AM, tacked against the wind the whole day, raised and reefed the sails many times, tacked many times, but crossed the channel very nicely.
We used the opportunity to practice manual steering while beating against the wind, so everyone had hours on the helm, trying to make the best out of the wind.
At sunset, we were about to enter the channel between the Turkish coast and Symi



Once in the channel, the sea dropped, the wind calmed down and turned to out back. At this point, David went down to the kitchen to prepare a “royal” dinner.
We entered Symi in full darkness at around 9PM. With Naama doing a great job on the anchor, we moored in Symi town, and sat down for a late dinner. This was a nice ending for a very long, adventurous and tiring day.
Symi to Kos was a piece of cake. Only 40 miles, some on engine with not much wind and some on sails, till we made the final approach to Kos marina.
So finally, I’d like to thank the great team for doing with passage with me. It was a great experience.