Monday 29 June 2015

Monday 29 June 2015 - Amorgos

Up fairly early with a view to sail to Amorgos as soon as possible.  It is a nice day.  I go out to buy bread and a few extra bits for the boat.  When I get back R has made the boat ready to go.  The sun is shining and the wind has abated.  So off we go.  We put up the mainsail just outside the harbour.  We still have a reef in it from when we came in, but we don’t bother to shake it out as it is gusting 19 knots and we are going nicely.

We have quite a nice sail to Amorgos.  The wind died a bit and was mostly just force 4, but it was a beam reach and we kept up a steady 4.5-5 knots bringing us in to port just a lunchtime.  The only slight problem was the sea state.  Although it wasn’t at all bad in absolute terms because the waves are so short we rolled about a lot and I even had to take a pill.

So we get to the port.  This is a harbour where we have to moor using our anchor.  We dread this.  On top of everything, the wind picks up to 17 knots across us as we try to reverse into a space.  We put the anchor down, but find when we get to the quay that it is not straight ahead and we are moored at a bad angle.  So we have to go out and do it again!  This time the man in charge of mooring seems to think we are fine.  So we finally tie up and have some lunch.

The harbour is cute as is the town, but it is small.  We are waiting for our friends Jonnie and Marion Lurie to arrive.  We have been trying to meet up with them for nearly three weeks now.  As we are about to go around looking at the town we see them come in.  We can’t understand what they are doing.  They haven’t approached the town quay.  We later find out that their anchor windlass locked into the up position and they couldn’t come in to moor on the quay.  Eventually they manage to get an anchor down in the harbour and will remain there.

We buy some wine to give them drinks, as we are nearly out of the stuff here on board.  We are pleasantly surprised to find that the shop is willing to take our credit card for us to pay.  That saves our cash supplies.  We have been taking money out regularly to have ample cash in case of Grexit and we have brought a fairly large sum with us as emergency supplies.  So we should be alright, but the more money we can get for the moment the better.  So we are pleasantly surprised to find that the local ATM allows us to withdraw 300 euros

In our tour of the town I find a laundry service.  So I take in two large loads for them to do.  That puts me a bit ahead of the game again.  The laundry will be ready after 11 am tomorrow.

We have a drink on board with the Luries, a wander around the town and then a simple meal at a local restaurant.  We are a bit disappointed to find out that we have to move tomorrow.  A rally is coming in and they require all the berths.  Richard has spoken to the port police who say we can stay until noon, to get the laundry.  We shall have to anchor out with the Luries in the afternoon.  That means will shall finally have to blow up our dinghy and see if our outboard works!


It is now fairly late.  Richard is sound asleep while sitting at the chart table.  The town is fairly lively, but we shall sleep I am sure.

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