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.
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