Weekend sail to Fig Tree Bay

Approx 60 nautical miles

This was to be out first weekend sail, leaving early Saturday morning and returning Sunday evening. I have prepared a passage plan, which meant we should leave by 09:30 to arrive by 16:30 and allow a couple of hours leaway in case of problems before we began to lose light.

This meant we needed to start around 07:30 to prepare the boat. There were two small jobs to do: Fix some extra marine ply on the outboard mount for the dinghy and fix the stern light on the stern! Surprisingly both jobs went perfectly and we left only about 10 minutes late.

The wind predictions were for light airs in the morning with stronger in the afternoon, with a repeat for Sunday. In fact the light airs on Sunday were almost non-existant.

By 10:40 we were sailing close hauled towards Cape Pila.

By 11:44 the wind was 7.7 knots and Tim and Sidney decided on a little fishing.

This was the first time the tackle had come out and there was some discussion about lures and rig. Never having fished I had no idea.

An hour later we were at Cape Pila - almost exactly on schedule and changed the waypoint to Cape Greco.

This was the start of the voyage proper. We had sailed the Wayfarer round Cape Pila but never to Cape Greco as it was too far for a day sail.

Tim and Sidney had caught no fish.

We started the generator to recharge the batteries and keep the freezer cold.

Yipes... when I open the sail locker there are exhaust fumes pouring out. It turns out that because we were on starboard tack, both the generator exhaust and the old engine exhaust were under water. The old engine exhaust was not fully closed and the exhaust gases were coming out of the generator and bubbling back into the engine exhaust!

At 15:00 we passed Cape Greco and turned into a dead run, then jibed in towards Konos Bay.

By 16:15 we were close to Fig Tree Bay so we started the motor and looked around the bay, decided that all night disco was not our scene so went the other side of the promontory to Panayia.

This was a beautiful bay with a couple of small sailing boats and a gullet moored. There was a someone snorkeling in the middle of the bay and an almost deserted and minute beach.

The sea bed was rock but we dropped anchor hoping to catch in a rock crevice. We watched the shoreline carefully and realised the anchor had not held and was dragging. So we moved out to the mouth of the bay where there was sand and the anchor held.

Anchoring is an art we need more practice at.

A catamaran came in with a wedding party dance on board. I must say I have never seen a wedding party in swim suits and bikinis before. Imagine the bride... yes she had a white net skirt... but a white bikini on her top.

Then later a second catamaran arrived, both of which moored alongside the gullet.

We hoisted our anchor light and I prepared dinner and we sat on deck as the sun set over the hills behind the bay.

The fear of dragging anchor woke me three times during the night with the sound of the anchor dragging... I would leap off the bunk and stick my head out of the hatch only to find I was disoriented because the boat had changed by 120 degrees and the shore was no longer where I expected it.

Each time it wasn't dragging and it was just the chain dragging across the rocky sea bed vibrating up the chain to the locker in my cabin resounding like a drum, each time the noise concerned me.

The following day we managed to get the Spot Satellite Messenger working better so below is the map of our route back. It didn't work quite correctly, as it should have plotted out in real time on the map at the top of the page. Oh well... next time.

As the sun rose over the sea we all woke and made espresso. Freshly brewed coffee to wake you up... nothing like it!

Then I found out that I had not been the only one up during the night: Tim woke and went on deck thinking he heard people climbing on board to try to steal our dinghy!

It was only the ropes chattering against the mast.

Looking round the bay we saw the catamarans from the night before and then brought up the anchor and motored northwards for a look at the coast.

Would have been trouble free except the windlass wiring got hot and the windlass stopped working so we had to pull the final 5 metres of chain up by hand.

There was absolutely no wind.

When we got a couple of knots of wind we raised every square inch of sail we could: Asymetric Spinnaker, Mainsail, Mizzen and Mizzen Staysail... and we got... 0.9 knots!

We tried the spinnaker pole and decided that our asymmetric didn't need anything as heavy as that and that pole would be a hindrance rather than a help with the sail. We did at least try it.

No wind meant... time for motor sailing. By 11:00 we were still motor sailing. Wind was up to 5.3 knots. Big deal! 

We tried turning the engine off and the navigation computer calculated it would take 20 hours to be back in Larnaca Marina!

By now we are just north east of Cape Greco again on our way home.

By 12:56 the wind is now 5.4 knots and we are south of Agia Napa, still motor sailing.

Just before 14:00 the wind was nearly 6 knots and we decided to try the Mizzen Stay Sail again. Instead of following instructions that we had read on the Internet we decided on following sailing intuition.

This time with some trial and error we set it beautifully and got an extra knot of speed out of the boat. 

It felt really good and enjoyable sailing across Larnaca bay with all sails set. Somehow a ketch with all sails set is an inspiring sight to a sailor.

Tim decided lying in the shade along the deck looking up at the rig... admiring the sails was the place to be.

I sat for a while on the shady side dangling my feet over the side. We were not heeling enough to cool them in the water though. But the shade with the wind was good and made us realise we need to get the bimini and spray hood finished to give us some shade.

Now with all this it must be time to catch some fish to take home for dinner? 

Sadly no luck today. It was a good job we were not depending on fish for supper!

We arrived back in Larnaca Marina between 16:30 and 17:00... almost on time again.

We took a first load back to the car... a quick beer and then we tidied and cleaned the boat and left for home.

Definitely the best weekend for a long time.