Sail Crete

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Monday, October 25.
The morning dawned as calm as glass, and it was really absolutely gorgeous. So we pulled anchor and left. Hahaha. Ah well. The goal today was somethingorother starting with a “th” and we made it, smooth motoring all the way, which is good but still puzzling. Nix that, the harbour is called Agio Nicolaus...I think. Crete is gorgeous from the water. I really wish I could spend a bit more time on land exploring, if only to prevent this nasty habit of getting wobbly knees every time I step off deck. They have proper showers here, free to marina users! Yay! I don’t feel dirty hiking or camping for two weeks in a row, but there is something about being half damp all the time that makes me crave a hot shower. Preferably one with more than eighteen square inches of floor space, a generous estimate. Regardless, I am having a fab time. It was warm enough to remove our sweaters for the first time in a couple of days. And that must seem a little whiny to all of you out there in the snow, but hey, I’m in Greece! Come on! We got in around five and wandered into town for a while, had something to eat, and wandered back. I’m not sure that Mike had left the boat in several days. He keeps saying that he’ll get something later, so we brought him back an oven-baked pizza. Karleen is making noises about leaving the guys, renting a car, and driving around, but I don’t think she wants to do it alone, so I told her that if she is really sick of sailing I’d join her. We’ll see. I’m pretty happy either way, providing the weather cooperates. And that could be iffy. As soon as we returned to the boat and settled into reading, or sleeping, or whatever, the wind picked up. And man, in a harbour full of yachts with wind meter things at the top of the sails, a high wind makes the creepiest, loudest wail you can imagine. And then the boat started getting ricochet waves from the beach so we were hopping up and down and back and forth, the fenders were squeaking against the quay, the bucket on deck blew over, and empty coke cans were smashing around. It was loud! And really, it felt a bit like I imagine being on the far reaches of a hurricane would feel. Wow. I didn’t get to sleep until about one in the morning, mostly because I got lost in a book.

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