Sail Crete

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Friday, October 22
The wind was whistling over our heads when we pulled out this morning, listening to Chris’ complaints of slipped disks and ripped neck muscles. They think our alternator is screwy. The sails filled as soon as we left the channel, the motor was cut, and we cruised today. It was probably the fastest we’ve gone. There are huge, gorgeous, rolling swells out in the open. I getting the hang of anticipating when the center of gravity of the boat will shift at the crest and we begin the slide down into the trough. I actually spent much of the morning inside writing away, by hand, as my computer is not starting. Not sure if it didn’t charge in Tilos or if getting wet has fried the whole thing… Just after noon there was a shout of “Dolphins!” and Kar and I raced up on deck to see them. We sailed through a pod of over 30 dolphins. Two of them played at the bow forever, dancing and weaving under the boat, leaping out of the swells as they passed, flashing their white bellies as they rolled. IT was sublime. I must have spent an hour up at the prow, laughing and trying to touch them with my toes as they played. Then I went back to work. Fri, the harbour for the night, is a funny little place on Kassos, an island right below Karpathos. I can’t quite decide what to think of it. The breakwater (the mole) is very new, and very long and protective, which is nice, and the dock is so new that the blue man (the hookup to electricity and water) at our site isn’t connected yet. Chris nearly carried it on deck as a joke when Swen asked him to hook up. The town is laid out beautifully, but it is totally dead. We walked around for a couple of hours and saw about 15 people, most of them fishermen untangling their nets or guys toodling along on their little motorbikes. One café was semi-open, mostly as a hangout spot where the local men go to escape their wives, so we went up and Chris and Kar had a second lunch. Swen jokes about them being like our battery; if they aren’t plugged into a meal often they get really slow and eventually just stop. After our walk we stopped, again, at another café for coffee and preserved grapes, which were really good, by the way. Chris asked the one other patron a few questions about the town. Turns out he is running for mayor in the next election, so he gave us a rather one-sided rundown of the island at present. He is convinced he can revitalize this old-school, “backwards” place into a hot tourist destination, which he may be able to do, but he seems a bit extreme. He is an ex-pat of the Rhodesian army, and heaven help you if you correct him on the country’s name. In his opinion the government of Rhodesia sold out when it became Zimbabwe, and the current mess over there is the natural conclusion of what happens when you turn the government over to “the blacks.” If he wins he plans on inviting all of his ex-pat buddies to the island to help him remake it. Poor Kassos. We ambled back to the boat to wait for something, anything to happen. It sure stared hopping when Chris asked one of the fishermen moored near us how we could reach the power hook up 50 yards up the dock. In no time we had four or five guys running back and forth on foot and bike, hauling extension cords around, carving up our cord to splice it onto the right plug and checking the cords with a cell phone charger. Alex, the leader and original fisherman, worked on both ends of the cord, as the end we had plugged into the boat started smoking! It stopped once he did whatever he did, but we’ve placed the fire extinguisher with in easy reach and are keeping a close eye on the socket. Swen needed some quiet time, I think, so when we headed to dinner he stayed behind. Alex joined us, however, which was terrifically amusing. We used the paper tablecloth as a translation device and got lots of laughs through our clever use of pictures and impromptu hieroglyphics to communicate. He especially loved the donkey drawings. Dinner was incredibly good, and very Greek; dolmades (that were “as big as your baby finger”), lamb chops, and potatoes. Delicious. The big group sitting close by broke out their instruments and started singing, playing, and dancing, which was quite awesome, and very amusing, as they had all been drinking ouzo all day, making the jumping around of Greek dancing a little more difficult than it has to be. A force 8-9 on the Beaufort scale is blowing in tonight. I have no clue what that means in terms of mph, but I gather that it’s really really windy, so it’s a good thing the cove is so protected.

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Photos

Photo 3
Karleen

Photo 8
Boat at dock in Kassos

Photo 10
Kassos