Sailing with the family Robinson

15 nautical miles

No, not Swiss family Robinson, but Northern Irish family Robinson were are guests today: Peter, Rachel, Sam, Bella and Naomi. 

The wind was low, 6-8 knots coming from the south east so we raised as much sail as we could - new gennaker, main, mizzen and mizzen staysail and headed south. Aim was to tack round sailing over the Zenobia, wave to our friend Chris who runs Alpha Divers, and then head out towards Cape Pila.

The Zenobia was a Swedish build roll-on roll-off ferry that got into difficulties and then capsized and sank on her maiden voyage in 1980. She now rests on her port side in approximately 42 metres of water and has been named as one the The Times top ten diving sites for wrecks in the world.

Chris, who, as I said runs Alpha Divers, is a friend of ours and the Robinsons and was out diving the Zenobia early in the morning. Early morning is a good time to dive and a bad time to sail due to lack of wind. Diving doesn't excite me, but Sam, the eldest son of the Robinsons has dived down to, but not into the Zenobia.

Alpha Divers do a lot of diving of the Zenobia and depending on diver experience and capability can even take divers inside the wreck: It's like a tour of a ferry - the bridge, the restaurant, Duty Free shop, chain lockers, life shaft, engine room and even the vehicle decks where you can see over 100 trucks still full of sunken cargo!

Last year Alpha Divers were dive support for a film crew making a film about the Zenobia wreck.  The Official Zenobia Documentary looks at the ship and its history - why did a modern ship on its maiden voyage sink? Was it sabotage from Mossad, the Israeli Secret Service, was it some sort of insurance issue or was it just a plain old technical failure? The documentary that Chris acted as dive support for asks and answers these fascinating questions. Well... I guess it's more fascinating if you dive the wreck!

Summer has finally arrived. It's hot and somewhat humid, though the humidity hasn't risen to its normal dripping wetness of the summer. That, no doubt, is to come.

Replete in live jackets the crew and guests lounge around the deck enjoying the shade of the bimini and the cool breeze coming of the Mediterranean Sea.

The wind picks up to around 12-15 knots and Bella and Sam are given a chance to steer the yacht, since we have dropped the gennaker and are now sailing on just genoa, main and mizzen.

Relaxing for Rachel is lying with a book, preferably a book resting on the stomach of her oldest child!

Lunch off the Dhekelia Power Station and it's time to head back. Well... not back, but to a mooring north of the port where a lot of yachts drop anchor and let their crews swim.

At 12-15 knots Tim and I are concerned about our anchor holding. We have two anchors - one that fits in the pulpit and the other that we have in the sail locker for overnight mooring. The one in the pulpit is a plough anchor. It is both slightly small for the boat size and tends not to set too well on the sandy bottom around Larnaca. 

We drop anchor in just over 3 metres of water, with 20 metres of chain. This should be plenty for a good catenery and hold firm, but strangely King Malu will not settle head to wind, but almost continues sailing without any sails up, dragging the anchor as she goes. There are yachts all around this anchorage and we are concerned about hitting them. We try three times to set anchor amongst the other boats and fail. 

Eventually we set the anchor in 2.1 metres of water but much closer in. This time the boat comes head to wind, but in 2.1 metres Tim and I are concerned about any anchor slip as we only have about half a metre under the keel and the last thing we want to do is ground the boat.  So everyone who is swimming is told the must come out of the water quickly if told to do so and I set an anchor alarm at a few metres. Everyone except Rachel and I jump in and cool off. 

A minute later and the anchor alarm goes off. I reset it. About 3 minutes later it goes off again. I cannot see a slippage - I am watching points on the shore I have lined up, but nevertheless it's enough to worry us so we call everyone in and head back to the marina.

We will need to find some way of securing the bigger anchor close to the pulpit so we can use it for day sails I think/

After the Robinsons have left Jacob, Tim and I fit a new bilge pump which is vey much smaller and will go right down to the bottom of the bilge and hopefully keep out bilges a bit drier.

We also fit the new table we have bought for the saloon. This is the first step in the interior cosmetic upgrade. I know a table is more than just cosmetic, but it certainly is a start to making the interior more habitable.