Wollombi II: Rhodes to Malta/ Roccella Ionica

Day 1 - 8 Oct

We set off from Rhodes early in the am, with the weather forecast for the next 7 days looking good, there was a slight area of concern. The forecast called for some nasty weather forecast for Sat/Sunday at North of Latitude 37 Deg and since we were going to stay south of N35 30', that should keep us south of the weather..

Day 1
The wind had died down, from the previous day, fortunately for us as it was directly in the direction we were heading and it would have meant lots of tacks, with some choppy water. We motored, pretty much most of the length of Rhodes. Our initial route would have us cut directly across westwards to the west end of Crete, but by lunch time, we altered course, to hug the coast of Crete. We received a Navtex message, that the area immediately north of Crete, is used as a firing range for missiles, Wed - Sat, so instead of chancing an escort from the grey boats, we altered course. As we altered course, the wind picked up. We were on a beam reach in 15-20kts of winds, we were doing a nice 7-8kts. By sunset, we were at the the north tip of Karpathos. After a BBQ, we reefed the main and Genny and it was the first night's watch.

Route day 1 - altered course midway past Rhodes

Sunset day 1

Under way - UN boat

Gunnar in the cockpit

Three photos, courtesy of Tim

Tim on the foredeck

The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful and by sunrise, we were on the eastern tip of Crete, we ha covered approx 120NM, which was pretty good..

Day 2 - 10 Oct

The wind died down shortly after 06h00 and I had the motor on and we motored for pretty much of the entire day. I put fishing lines out the back and I noticed one of the lines twitching, so I reeled it in... Shortly before, I got the hook on the boat, the line went limp.. I looked at the hook and I had caught an Octopus or squid - the only thing left on the hook, was the beak (yes I know a tall story, but true).. Shortly thereafter, the other line started twitching and I brought that in.. I had caught another fish, the unfortunate critter had been snagged on the tail by a hook, and he managed to get awat... On the third time... Fresh BBQ'd tuna (or so we believe) sandwich.

Get in mah belly!

This guy went straight from being gutted to the BBQ in less than 5 mins.. The wind picked up late afternoon and after reefing in the sails night fell and we were heading for the end of Crete..

Sunset day 22

Crewmember Evan

Day 2 took us from the eastern tip of Crete to the first western lump of Crete.

Day 3 - 11 Oct

We had made good ground over night and had covered about 140NM. We motored the first art of the day and the wind was expected to pick up to twenty, as per the forecast. It generally held true to the forecast. It was blowing from our port rear quarter and we only had the genny up, doing a nice 6-7kts. By 22h00, I was awakened because the wind was blowing to mid 30kts. I put in a couple of reefs and waited a while.. It was hardly more than 1/2 and hour, when the winds were blowing almost steadily up to 40 kts and was almost off the rear. I had reefed in the genny past the fourth reef and we were still doing 6--8 depending on the gusts.. I thought that would be the worst of it.. Boy was I DEAD WRONG.. It continued blowing up to the 40's. At one stage the companionway was not closed properly and one of many waves broke over the boat and we took on about 2-3 buckets... At midnight I asked Gunnar to come up so there were two people in the cockpit. I came on deck at 01h00 and the winds were constantly blowing between 40-50kts..

Long story short, not much sleep was had by anyone, we were in the cockpit in the darkness. I set the Otto Von Helm on a course that was most comfortable and that we weren't pitching straight down the wave and weren't parallel to the waves. Otto was the *HERO*.. At one stage, the winds died down to 8-14kts, much to our relief, but then all we needed was the pair of animals... It rained a LOT. Just to brighten things up there was a touch of lightning all around, which gave a nice view... We were not able to turn off the navigation equipment as then we would loose Otto and since it was pitch black that wasn't an option.. No sooner had the wind died down, than it picked up again, fortunately now it only peaked at lowly 40kts, much to everyone's relief.

The fun took place from the vertical dotted line. The calm that we had with the lightning was the vertical bit of track in the NW section of the track. Needless to say, we covered quite a bit of ground that night....

Day 4 - 12 Oct

We started the day with a might upset and confused sea, with winds blowing 20-30 and waves of 5-6m from random directions... This felt remarkable pleasant, after the previous night's excitement. I decided to bring in the Genoa, which had stood up to the excitement in one piece(much to my relief). We motored for a couple of hours and everyone was able to get some sleep.. The sea continued to calm down, but waves were still 2-3m and from more a general direction, but with the occasional surprise... We listened for some time to a PAN PAN - a 50foot boat got demasted the previous night and they were under motor power and another motor boat that developed engine problems that night.. This continued much of the day, their general position was further north than we were and they were closer to the pelopolanese. By late afternoon after some tacks, we figured that Malta was not going to be a good choice, so we altered course to Roccella Ionica, which had the winds being more favourable and so we altered course. We put up the sails and off we were. The sea was still confused but much calmer and every other wave had the boat slamming down hard... That night I was trying to get some sleep and was woken up by the bilge pump alarm - it had been running longer than 2mins.. I looked in the bilges and we had some water... Not a good thing far from land. We emptied the water and determined that the bilge pump had given way at some point (I test it once a month). About 5 hour later we noticed that there was less water in the bilges, but way too much, so we emptied it out... After we emptied it out, no more drama for the rest of the night.

Sunrise to a less upset sea

Day 5 - 13 Oct

I woke up to go on duty at 06h00 and the sea was perfectly calm, with a nice 5kt wind (we had motored most of the night, well from 03h00, when the wind died and I decided to motor). It was really nice to be in that state after the previous day's drama. The bilge had a bit of water, but it was a tiny amount and I reasoned it was the last of the water that entered through the companionway.. By mid day, the wind picked up to 10 off the beam and up went the sails and we were doing a very nice. The wind continued to build up to a very nice 15-20 and we were moving at 6-8kts. This was perfect sailing, no significant swell and wind on the beam... With about 25NM to go I radioed Roccella and asked them for a berth for the night (it was going on 18h00). They did not respond. At about 20h00, with about 15NM to go, we were hailed by Roccella, who apologised for not being able to respond earlier (they had received our radio message, but were unable to respond as their set didn't have the range). I told them we would be there in about 1.5hrs. The wind picked up just a touch and we reefed in both sails as it was dark, but we were doing 7-8.5kts. At about 2NM to go the wind died down from 25 - 10kts and the swell calmed right down. We were guided into Roccella entrance in the dark by the harbour master. By 22h00 four weary and extremely greatful souls were stuffing their faces with pizza by the meter and beer!!!! That night we were awakened again by the automatic bilge pump - we had about 0.5l of water in the bilge, from 0 earlier on in the day..