Continuing Eastward (Kasos, Karpathos and Rhodes)

Rising at dawn (as usual) we prepared to leave Spinalonga Bay – the wind was already starting to blow as we made our way out of the bay and the seas had built up a chop.  As we motored out towards the sea, we were joined by another Fountaine Pajot catamaran from New Zealand.  Surprise, we hailed them on the VHF radio to find out if they were headed our way. As it turned out, they had just come from Turkey a couple of weeks earlier and were just out emptying their holding tanks and making water before welcoming guests on board.  We wished them well and headed on.  The predicted winds were blowing well by the time we exited the large bay and we had good winds with which to sail along the north coast of Crete.  As we approached the first strait, between Crete and Kasos we knew that we would be in for a bouncy ride.  The winds were blowing 30 – 35 knots and we had 2-3m seas but they were on our stern quarter so Bisou handled things nicely.  We had planned to try and get to Karpathos on that first leg, but by the time we reached Kasos, and noticed a sheltered bay, we decided to take a look to see if it would do as an overnight stop.  We entered a beautiful fjord-like bay with a lovely sand beach at its head – our pilot guide said that the first time he entered this bay it was rather creepy as there had been scarecrows all along the cliffs – no sign of these now!  

Our safe place in Kasos

The wind was still howling through the bay at about 25 – 30 knots, but there was no fetch and the anchor held well in the sand bottom so we decided to stop for the night.  The water was beautiful and clear and it would have been a really nice place to stay for a couple of days if the wind hadn’t been so ferocious!

The meltemi continued all night and we rose early the next morning once again to continue on our journey eastwards.  The plan to stop at Karpathos was soon blown out of the water (almost literally) as we made our way along the cliffs of Kasos with 60-70 knot gusts coming off the cliffs! 

This was one of the wind speeds captured!

The windy cliffs of Kasos

Our starboard engine had once again decided to crap itself (ie. Not work) after running fine the previous day.  So with only the port engine working, and no scrap of sail up, Tad had to fight to keep Bisou on course.  His decision to remain close to the island was to avoid the high seas further out, but it meant we were getting the katabatic gusts instead, but less waves.  It was a scary couple of hours as Bisou battled her way north and across the next strait between Kasos and Karpathos (still windy and good-sized waves, but at least working with us).  By the time we reached the next place that we had planned to stop, the wind was blowing so strongly offshore that we had no hope of turning in to get shelter.  In addition, looking through the binoculars, the wind wasn’t any lighter closer to shore so we made the executive decision to keep going to Rhodes.  We knew this meant that we would be motor-sailing until quite late (normally we try to anchor by about 4pm) but we just couldn’t see beating against the wind to  try and get into the anchorage that didn’t look worth it.

So on we went, crossing the strait between Karpathos and Rhodes, with 2-3m seas and 35- 40 knot winds.  We were able to put a scrap of headsail up to help steady Bisou through the waves and keep us moving forward at a good pace.  As we neared Rhodes, a huge warship (no flag and no AIS) went across our path.  The first signs of the ships that patrol these waters looking for boats with illegal immigrants.  Fortunately they did not concern themselves with us (although I am sure they were wondering what on earth we were doing out there) and moved on.

As we reached the southern tip of Rhodes, we noticed a fairly large town ashore –there were a huge number (40 or 50) of kite boarders and apparently this area is famed for its wind sports.  No wonder as the wind (in spite of the land) was still blowing at 35 knots!  We carried on for another 6 miles or so, keeping an eye open for possible anchorages (looking at our charts, our pilot guide and the shoreline) until we found what we thought would do for us. A large bay with not much in it except for a large resort-like group of buildings, sandy bottom and fairly shallow water (3m).  We dropped the anchor and although the wind continued to blow at 25 knots, we felt safe.

We ended up staying in this bay for 3 nights – mostly because the weather forecast predicted strong winds to continue and because it was a good anchorage for the time-being.

We did go ashore to explore and found that the resort was only a year old and was a TUI Magic Time Club (like Club Med) – all inclusive and that the guests were mostly German, Austrian and Swiss.  I had a good look around and was amazed at the facilities. A lovely area but very windy and no village or town anywhere nearby.  Great if you like wind sports (they had Hobie Cats, windsurfers and all manner of water sports) but you would have to use the pool if you wanted to get out of the wind!  Luckily I had stocked up on fruit and vegetables in Crete so we had enough to last but by the time the weather looked like letting us go north, we were running low.