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| Methoni |
Alma's log, 1 September 2022
We are in Methoni, and we have been here for the last 3 days, a forced stop due to a ripped jib, and the need to repair it before crossing to Italy.
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| Methoni |
Well, there are many places worse than Methoni to be in a forced stop, in fact we love Methoni with its huge Venetian fortress, laid back tourism and excellent, not expensive restaurants. In fact we would recommend the place to the ones that would like to have a holiday in a quiet, beautiful, non expensive place.
You can also rent a small motorboat and sail around, exploring the nearby islands.
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| Methoni |
There are some small hotels and there is one whose owner is a very nice guy. He works also as taxi-driver and today he went to Kalamata, early in the morning with Isabel to take the sail to a sail loft for repairing.
It is going to be ready today at about 8 pm and when he realized that Isabel would have to be there all day waiting, he offered to take care of it alone. Isabel was back in the boat before mid-day. He has the sail-maker's telephone number and will be there for picking the sail when the job is finished, delivering it at the beach.
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| Methoni |
Well, it cost the same as any other taxi, 70 euros for each 70km ride (Methoni Kalamata and back). 140 euros is expensive, if compared with the sail repair (250 euros) but we could not find a car for rent many miles around. The only one that we could find was in Costa Navarino, 26km way for 120 euros a day (all cheaper smaller cars were rented), plus 60 euros for delivering the car here.
We still thought in doing it by bus, but the weather is unstable, the boat is anchored and I want to be in it or nearby, that means Isabel would be travelling alone with a huge bag, the bus stop here is 750 meters away from the beach (we would have to carry the bag there) and Isabel would have to pick a taxi from the train station to the sail-loft and vice-versa plus we would have to carry the bag from the bus station in Methoni to the beach….at night.
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| Beach, south of Koroni |
Maybe if we were younger, but it is just too much work and on top of it the bus to Kalamata was at 6.25 am and the last bus to Methoni was at 7.15 pm. Probably the sail was not ready in time to catch it and that would mean a taxi from Kalamata to Methoni…if Isabel could find one.
But apart the sail transport everything went extraordinarily well. I contacted the Naval club of nearby Pilos and a very helpfully guy pointed me to Michael in Kalamata (0030 6932378737) that in two days repaired the sail. Great guys!
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| Porto Kagio |
But let’s get back to where I left on the last post, to Milos and the thunderstorms. We were in Agios Dimitrios cove (Milos) intending to make a passage to the continent. We got up at 5 in the morning on a black night illuminated by lightening, but after checking with the weather radar we could see that the thunderstorm was already to east of our position. There was another one on the route but it should get out of our way before we reach there.
We decided to sail away and before the sun rise we were already motoring and motoring we went almost all the day, doing motorsailing. From the three different weather forecasts I have told about on the last post, the one that was right was the one that announced less wind, 4 to 6kt, no more.
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| Porto Kagio |
In fact we could sail, but doing only 3,5kt knots and that was no good for the 82nm we had to do to reach the continent, meaning that we would arrive late at night. We had to do motor-sailing, with the engine doing 1500rpm, for doing 5 knots or a bit over to be sure that we arrived with day light.
Not all was bad, the forecast gave 3 hours of raining and the rain never showed up, the sea was flat and the day beautiful.
Due to the direction of next day's wind we decided to go for the east coast of Kithyra instead of Elefonisos. It would be a better place for sailing to Porto Kagio, with a better wind angle. From there maybe we could make it all sailing hard close to the wind. From Elefonisos we would have to go tacking against the wind.
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| Porto Kagio |
We arrived at Diakofti, on the east coast of Kithyra, at 7 in the afternoon. Diakofti is a big and very sheltered anchorage but unexpectedly we had some trouble to set the anchor. The anchorage is huge and on the setting sun all bottom looked like to be sand, or sand with small sea weed, but it was not the case as I found out at the second try, with the anchor not being able to set.
In fact there is some sand but most of the bottom is covered by a flat yellowish rock that has on top some sand and sea weed. You have to look for white sand, and there is some that we could find after knowing what we were looking for (more details on anchorages, at the bottom).
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| Porto Kagio |
Apart from that it was a very quiet night with no rolling and almost no wind.
Next day we had a nice day sailing to Porto Kagio, always as close as we could get to the wind, even if the second part of the journey was too muscled for Isabel. With jib and a second reef on the main we were going fast on a bumpy road, over waves about 1 meter.
Porto Kagio is another excellent anchorage, an old pirate nest, with sand and weed on the bottom, with good to reasonable holding, but very deep in the middle of the bay. It is a very popular anchorage and it tends to be full.
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| Ripped jib |
I knew that those weldings needed to be remade, and probably all the forward balcony reinforced, but I thought it would resist till Crotone. The problem is that the forward sail is lower than the balcony and when hard against the wind it goes inside the balcony and outside if I open a bit.
That makes for a lot of lateral big forces on the balcony, and not always the sea conditions allows to go forward to put the sail inside or outside the balcony. The result, after 14 years of use, a broken balcony…and the other one will not last much longer.
We arrived at Porto Kagio at 7 pm (we sailed from Kithyra at mid-day having waited for the wind) but with all the work to remove the balcony (that had the port position light attached) and to think about and mount a system to substitute it, using what we had at hand, the night fell and with all the stress I was really tired. Fortunately we had a very good night, with no wind and no rolling and the next day, well rested, we sailed away at 9.30, towards Koroni with head winds.
We had always wind till Koroni even if we had to tack several times, but it was nice sailing with one metre waves and only the last part of the voyage was a bit too hard for Isabel's taste. It was not very different than the previous day, with the wind becoming stronger in the afternoon, but with stronger gusts. We sailed Alma first with full sail and then with a full jib and second reef on the main.
Just near Koroni beach the wind veered dead ahead and we took the opportunity to take the sails out and made the last two or three miles motoring, charging the batteries. For the night it was forecast some wind and we preferred to take it on the beach than in front of Koroni, where the bottom has sand and mud but also lots of rocks.
Diakofti (Kityra)
Near the beach the wind increased even further, due to the high coastline and we could see that an anchored cat had plenty of wind. Further away to the south, one or two miles away, along the huge beach, it looked like to be less windy and I could see half a dozen of small boats there, obviously the place chosen for locals to have boats in moorings. I decided to go there and see for myself and bingo, 1/3 of the wind that we were getting where the anchorage is marked on the map and in Navily.
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| Beach south of Koroni |
We anchored there, in sand, on a large flat platform that had between 4.5 and 4 meters, just behind the mooring boats. With 30 meters chain and our reinforced rode system we would be set for the night, that turned out to be lot less windy than previewed, at least in that place. No roll also. We will be clients of that anchorage.
At 10 we set sail from Koroni towards Methoni. We waited for the wind to sail out. Perhaps 10 knots of wind on the stern that allowed us to go over 5 knots, but when we turned cape Akritas all changed, the direction and the strength of the wind.
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| Methoni |
Seeing at distance the white caps and waves I reefed the boat, maintaining full jib and main on the second reef, but I was not expecting the wind intensity that became a head wind towards the direction of Methoni. The wind was blowing 30kts, maybe more in the gusts and I was clearly overcanvassed.
Because Methoni was not far away and it was easier I reefed the jib instead of running a 3rd reef on the main. It worked, we were sailing fast (6.5kt) and very near the wind. The other boat that was sailing nearby, an over 50ft classic yacht, was not going faster and pointed at least more 15 degrees out of the wind.
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| Methoni |
I was having fun, with waves of over 1m, sailing on a heeled but responsive sailboat, but I should have taken into consideration that, contrary to the main, the jib was an old sail and that because the forward car was not designed for a reefed jib, even all forward, for having a decent and needed pressure on the leech line the foot of the sail was submitted to a huge pressure, pressure that was just too much for the old sail that ripped by the foot.
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| Methoni |
Bad luck also because when that happened we had already sailed the rough patch, the tack to open seas, and where already on the other tack heading almost to Methoni in almost flat waters, under the protection of the two islands that stay out of the coast.
And that was it, the problem that made us stop in Methoni, that I sincerely never thought that could be solved so rapidly. Last time this happened I waited for more than a week in Preveza for the sails to be mended.
I am waiting for the sail and if all goes as planned we will be sailing before sunrise, unfortunately without wind, slowly motoring and motorsailing for 7 or 8 hours and will be only sailing for two hours or so. We surely can make it to KataKolon, maybe to Zakinthos.
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| Methoni |
I hate it but I need to recover the time lost and I cannot, as usual, sail waiting for the wind. Besides we are on the Ionian where much of the time there is no wind in the night or morning and where it only picks up in the afternoon, becoming moderate to strong.
That’s what makes many cruisers love the Ionian and that’s why I am not very fond of it, preferring by far the Aegean where you have wind all day and sometimes all night. Sometimes too much, but at least you can sail and sailing is what a sailingboat is about.
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| Methoni |
Anchorages: we love the one in Methoni (continent), the bottom goes very slowly down and between 5 and 8 meters there are hundreds of meters, meaning a large number of boats can anchor there. The bottom is sand, with very good holding but when the wind is strong, like this time, there is some swell and just a bit of rolling, nothing that matters much to us. We just love Methoni.
Diakofti in the east coast of Kithyra has a big natural protection, from almost all sides but the bottom is a bit tricky and what seems sand is flat rock. You have to look for the white (not yellow) stuff. You can find it near the second beach (low for big drafts) or faraway from there in the alignment of the outer ferry pontoon, but far away near the coast (150m). There you can find lots of sand that allows for a good holding.
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| Methoni |
Porto Kagio is a classic and a very popular anchorage, very often crowded. Kind of closed cove, used in old days by pirates, it is very deep at the center but near the beach and along the shores the depth for anchoring can be as small as 6 meters.
The holding depends on the place you lay the anchor, there is sand but if it is crowded and you have to anchor in 10 meters, you will get weed and the holding can be unreliable ( I have dragged there in those conditions). Beautiful place but often with strong gusts.
The beach south of Koroni (near the small boats in moorings) was surprisingly good, no katabatic wind and a big sand plateau between 4 and 5 meters. The landscape is nice but apart some hotels no place to enjoy a meal.
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