Sat 27 Jul and Sun 28 Jul – Koufonisi

Saturday

Let’s try again – Koufonisi here we come! The wind and waves looked much more favourable so we set off at around 09:00. Our destination was Pori, a bay at the NE tip which we’d heard was beautiful. The trip was easy enough for the first 8 miles but during the last few the sea state worsened and the wind picked up to 20 knots. We’ve been sailing in these waters for a little while now so we’re starting to understand how the wind and sea behave. This (we think anyway!) was a funnelling effect of the strong weather piling around the corner. Determined to make it we continued on and turned into the bay. The water was absolutely stunning and luckily for us one boat was just leaving as we arrived so we hopped into their spot next to the only other boat in the bay. Time to get the GoPro out!

The bay really was stunning. The water was a florescent blue, the low hills were dotted with trees and the beaches were beautiful golden sand. This almost made up for the fact there were day tripper boats speeding in and out every 10 minutes, and that the wind was blowing like mad! The rocking boat combined with the howling wind made life on board rather uncomfortable, so once we were sure Bini wasn’t moving we went ashore armed with the camera to take some photos and to have a little break. We walked to the other side of the bay and it was only then that we truly appreciated how protected our bay actually was. The waves were huge and the wind was blowing even more fiercely, suddenly that made things seem much better 🙂

In the evening the wind dropped so we went ashore for dinner. Back on the boat, without the wind to hold her into the waves Bini was sitting side on to a sizeable swell – we were in for a rocky night.

Sunday

Beautiful as the bay was the forecast had the wind blowing again all day so we decided we’d move and anchor off the town. We squeezed in an early run which was lovely and took us along the coast, although not being used to running in sand I managed to face-plant about 5 minutes in! We squeezed in a few drone shots then made a hasty exit at 08:30 as the wind started building.

We found a nice spot and anchored in the bay in front of the little town. It was peaceful for about an hour and then the day tripper boats started backwards and forwards. Annoying as it is we just try to remember that they’re commercial and running a business, whereas we’re here for pleasure so we’ve no right to complain. If we don’t like it we can go elsewhere.

We went into town for lunch and had a wander around. It’s a really small place with a few pretty back streets and a whole load of quaint bars and restaurants which we can’t imagine ever get full?

As we were overlooking the water we noticed a big yacht on a mooring with no mast; it looked in really bad shape. We wondered what had happened to it? On the way back we went by for a chat with the guys on board. The bow of the boat was badly damaged, all the metalwork at the front was broken and twisted and the worst of it was that the mast, complete with sails was still attached to the boat hanging beneath in the water! We got the gist that it was a charter boat whose skipper had hit something (hard !) causing the rig to come down. We offered our help but they seemed to have enough hands.