Sailing Calista30 June 2023 – 3 July 2023
Around 6.45am we untied the stern lines and motored out of Aretsou Marina, Thessaloniki. There was no wind and we ended up motoring for eight hours up along the Thermaic Gulf to the sandspit of Possidi. The water at Possidi was unbelieveably crystal clear and a gorgeous turquoise colour due to the vast sandy bottom.
We dropped anchor in the early afternoon in front of one of the many beach bars along the bay.
The anchorage was sheltered from the current light southerly wind and calm, and we decided we would stay the night as there was very little wind. Normally the anchorage is exposed to prevailing northerly winds and it isn’t viable to anchor overnight.
We enjoyed swimming in the gorgeous water temperature of 25.6 degrees. The music drifting across from the beach bar was enjoyable, our kind of music, easy listening.
The following morning we furled out both the main sail and genoa and when we lifted anchor we were able to sail away. We rounded the cape and tacked several times up along the coast with gentle winds around 8 knots. It was lovely to be sailing.
Around 5.30pm we approached the bay on the second finger of Sithonia where Tipheret was anchored, Uli came out in the dingy to guide us to a spot where we dropped anchor. There were a number of pleasure launches anchored closer in which left us anchoring further out.
As I was deploying the anchor I noticed that it slipped a couple of times on the windlass, it was somewhat freaky as it was something I hadn’t encountered before. Maybe the anchor had been sliding on the sea floor before digging in …
We dingied ashore with our friends and their guest. We were greeted by restaurant staff on the pontoon who helped us disembark from the dingies. We wandered up to the restaurant, and as we had a reservation we were led straight to our table. It was a popular restaurant and people were queueing at the door waiting for a table.
The food was superb and we enjoyed a wonderful selection of dishes which we shared together.
We were the only two yachts in the anchorage for the evening, all the power boats had left to go back to the marina further up the peninsular.
The next day, in the afternoon we lifted anchor and had a slow gentle sail up the peninsular to Paradisos Beach where we anchored just out from the swimming bouys. We dingied ashore for dinner then had a walk along the beach front afterwards.
At 12.30am in the early hours of the morning, we were awoken to lighting nearby, and it got very windy in the anchorage with a swell coming onto shore creating quite a rolly uncomfortable swell. We lay awake and watching the “live lightning tracker” on the Windy App and thinking whether we should lift anchor and move. We could see that the storm was passing over and by 2.00am the storm had gone and we tried to get some more sleep.
After breakfast Paul went to remove the snubber from the chain and noticed that the windlass was broken. Was it caused by the swells during the night? How were we going to bring up the anchor? Paul calmly and methodically proceeded to use the halyard and I was on the winch, bringing the chain up onto the deck in sections until the anchor was finally up. Just as well we didnt try to leave during the storm in the middle of the night. Paul radioed the marina nearby and requested a berth so we could get the windlass checked out and repaired as we could no longer use the anchor. As our friends had already left the anchorage and were just a few miles up in another bay, we thought we would cruise by and tell them of our predicament before heading into the marina.
Just as we were circling their boat informing them of our intentions, the bilge alarm went off. Paul lifted the floor to the engine room and noticed diesel swirling around in the bilge. Panic stations! We immediately shut off the engine and diesel supply and Paul hoisted the sails to get away from the shore. Luckily there was some wind and we managed to sail and tack our way towards the marina. When we approached the marina we radioed ahead for assistance of a tow in.
We got towed in to the marina, which was a very protected and we managed to glide onto the alongside berth which they allocated. There were several guys ready to help with the berthing lines and in no time, we were safely attached to the berth. Such a relief….
Over the coming days we would investigate why the diesel spill had occurred, as the engine had recenlty been serviced and we had motored for several hours with no leaking. It was quite strange for it to start leaking for no apparent reason. And secondly we would check out getting the windlass repaired.
The joys of boating …
