We had a big debate over the decision when we should start our journey. We were planned to leave on Thursday the 18th, early in the morning but there was bad weather (2-5m waves) expected on Thursday so we kept checking the weather and debating which is the right forecast (as we had a few different ones) and what we should do.
Eventually we decided to leave on Wednesday night, to Haifa, get there in the morning and then make the decision if to keep going or wait for the weather to pass.
The night sail to Haifa was interesting. We had a 15-30kts wind that varied from SW to NW, accompanied by some rain and some thunderstorms. After having the mainsail with one reef and the jib furled as much as possible we had to reef even more. Since Danny was the only crew that was healthy and awake, and since this was his first night on the boat, we decided to just drop the mainsail and not mess up with going forward on deck to prepare the 2nd reef.
With a tiny jib alone we kept doing 7.5kts. The boat went steady, and Danny and I who spent this shift together enjoyed it very much. We were both very tired after a long day of preparations but we were excited.
Before entering Haifa, we called RCC Haifa (Haifa Radio) to ask where we need to moor for immigration and as a response he said: “I don’t think you should leave to Cyprus today, there is a storm with 2-5m waves expected.” He then called all ships and finishing boats to announce the coming storm more explicitly…
So we entered Haifa in the morning as planned and after long debates we decided that the storm is not as bad as it seems and is mainly on the southern part of the Mediterranean and we’re sailing on.
We left Haifa around 2pm. Weather was nice and the crew sent me to sleep.
After about an hour of nice sailing (and a good sleep I had), I woke up to the sound of the jib flapping fiercely. I went out to see that we were caught under a cloud in a 35kts wind, the sea is white and Roy, Oren and Danny fighting with the jib trying to furl it. Fortunately the main sail was already reefed to the 2nd reefing point. By the time the jib was furled, about 3m of the leech line were torn so we couldn’t use the jib any longer. After some debate and failed attempts to call a sail repair guy in Israel, we decided to move on with the storm jib or engine and keep going to Cyprus. If we went back to Haifa, we would have missed our flight back from Kos.
We spent the night motoring against the sea. Roy had some fever and the whole crew was sick (either really sick or just sea sick), but still functioning. Danny even cooked rice for us!
I had about 3 hours of sleep in 48 hours, but wasn’t tired at all till we got to Cyprus.
In the morning, about 40 miles away from Limassol, the wind shifted a little and we put the storm jib on. The boat sailed beautifully with the mainsail and storm jib (as you can see in the pictures).
Entering St. Raphael marina in Limassol (Cyprus) was not easy either. With a 25kts wind blowing, it took us maybe 5 attempts to be able to moor the boat on the extremely crowded marina. I wasn’t here for 11 years, and now the Marina looked so small and crowded. There is not enough room to even turn the boat around.
Anyway, we were happy to find a very nice sail repair guy who took our sail in the evening and returned it as good as new the next day at 7am.
We left Limassol at 10am heading towards Kastelorizo ( Meyistri) in Greece. We had a good close hauled sailing till 4pm when the wind changed instantly to 25kts straight on our nose. We tried to motor against it and made little progress so just before darkness we were able to find shelter in the rocky port of Pafos and with much less fuel in our tank. At least we could have a good rest and a good fish dinner in a local restaurant.
Next day started at 5am with a quiet motoring in a calm sea towards Kastelorizo. We had about 24 hours ahead of us.
The main attraction was a nice dolphin show we had on the way. If you take a close look at the pictures you’d see that one of the Dolphins has a sucker fish (Remora) hanging on its right side. It’s still a debate (with the experts from the Dolphin Reef involved) if it’s a Remora or a baby Dolphin. In any case, the show was thrilling.
The night was much quieter that the previous ones, still motoring against some wind and sea. The weather was still very cold. I had 5 layers on, including a winter coat and a storm suite to warm myself up in the nights.
We entered Greece through the island of Kastellorizo early in the morning. The sleepy island has only 150 inhabitants, most of them are over 80 years old. But it’s still a nice place to visit. We skipped the blue cave this time. It was too cold to even think about swimming, and we still had a long way to go.
So, once we finished the entry procedures (immigration, customs and port police), we went on to Rhodes. The wind was on our nose again and we started tacking. We had little fuel left, so we tried to sail as much as possible. The boat sailed nicely, making about 3.5kts towards our destination, with the beautiful scenery of the Turkish mountains covered with some snow.
At 6pm, Roy encouraged us to furl the sails and start the engine. We don’t want to get into Rhodes at 2am, he said rightfully.
So, motoring against wind that’s increasing as you get closer to the Rhodes channel, we finally reached the entrance to the port of Rhodes at 11pm.
It was amazing to see the usually crowded port with tons of boats, empty. Only some wintering charter boats and a lot of room for us…
In general, the Greek islands we visited were still sleepy, preparing for the summer with almost no tourists. The Greeks were all extremely nice to us and always very helpful.
From there on, the sea was calm, almost no wind till the last leg from Simi to Kos where we could use some Spinnaker and could even try some combinations of jib + spinnaker or main + spinnaker. Eventually the best combination was to have just the spinnaker on.
On Wednesday afternoon, we made it to Kos!!!
Thanks to the great crew. Row, our frequent sailor, who hasn’t missed a single cruise, was key to our successful trip specially even though he had fever most of the time, and of course he was a great cook as usual. Oren was always ready to help and was with high spirit all the time (well, he did use some help of beer, cherry brandy and limoncello). He allowed everyone to sleep well as he was taking long night shifts.
Danny, who was the least experienced of all, was strong and positive all along, and was a very helpful crew and a great mate for the night shifts.
Click the link below to see all cruise pictures:
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