Reluctant Night Sail

Although we would have still liked to visit Salonika we couldn’t really be bothered with the slog back up. So with the forecast for NW winds we thought we would begin our journey back towards the middle finger and then beyond perhaps to Thassos or Limnos with a short hop back through the canal (again!) and anchor for the night just off Potidhaia.

Air Photo of the canal from the Pilot

Our initial planned anchorage just beyond the bridge to the right just off the beach.

At 18:10 according to the log we left Nea Moudhania heading for the canal. This time we had to negotiate the two big boats, normally berthed just past the little harbour, leaving for their night’s fishing. All good though and again very friendly , laughing and shouting across to us.

No sooner had we put the anchor down at the other side of the bridge the wind swung to the SE, light at first, but by about 20:30 it was up to 23 knots blowing straight up the gulf. This was not going to be our anchorage tonight. Again I see from the log at 20:00 we motored south to Fokia where we thought we might get some respite from a bight of land. We anchored at 21:00. We had just enough light for me to dive in and check our anchor. It was in but I wasn’t overly happy with it. We were on a lee shore with shallows nearby of 2.0 meters quickly shoaling to nothing.

With the wind steadily increasing, at 22:00 we gave in, it was up with the anchor and headed across the gulf to Porto Koufo. It was going to be a long and bumpy night sail.

There is nothing worse than an unplanned night sail when you have just settled down for tea and looking forward to a good kip! Hey Ho that’s sailing for you. We reached Porto Koufo and anchored (in the south of the bay this time) at 07:15. We had been underway, and some of it good sailing, in total for 13 hours. Time to sleep.