It’s a Small World

Everyone felt hugely rested after a good sleep and we were ready to absorb the sights of Patmos. It’s a pretty little island with tall hills and white houses clustered around the harbor. We started up the path to John The Revelator’s cave which, surprise, surprise, had a church built over it. You could still sorta get an idea of how it may of looked, and if he truly did hang out in that cave, the views were unbelievable! There is a monastery further up the mountain that we visited as well, then all headed down to the boat and a bakery lunch. The morning sounds quite nice and easy, but really it involved a lot of cleaning boat, emptying trash, trying to straighten out the teeny living space of nine souls, washing breakfast dishes, refilling water tanks, putting away clean laundry, quick swimming, feeding some fish, nervously glancing at the neighbors boat to see if we were about to be “suggested” to, returning the quad that had been rented for the baby and mama to get places, retying lines that were messy, and finally, without further ado, we cast off and headed out.

The crossing today, over to the small island of Arki, was much smoother. The winds were favorable for sailing and we clipped along at a good rate. Arki doesn’t have much of anything on it, but it’s supposed to have a nice beach and, according to the gospel of Rod and Lucinda Heikel (Greek Water Pilot authors), a good anchorage. The “plan” was to anchor there till 3am, then head over to Samos to arrive at 8am.

Well, the East Aegean guide book let us down, and we didn’t find the anchorage very ideal. During our debriefing afterward, we realized our first mistake had been to not follow our guts and anchor where our brains told us too. But we trusted Rob and Lucinda, and we were in a hurry to get swimming, so we gave it a shot. There were some swells, and a brisk wind blowing offshore, so that was against us. To make a long story short, we got into a tough position of nearly dashing against the rocks beside us, a fouled bow anchor and a stern anchor that made any sideways action impossible. We managed to launch dinghy, mount the engine in it, get a line on, and Zach C and Rob kept a steady pull on the boat to keep it from grinding to bits. Zach P and Forrest tried to manually raise the stern anchor, but it simply wasn’t possible. Our bow anchor and the wind were working against them, so finally it was decided to send Zach P swimming to shore with the stern anchor line so we could free the boat and hopefully gain more maneuverability. Meanwhile, Avril and I were trying to raise the bow anchor, but the electric winch kept overheating and tripping the breaker. Sadly the breaker was located under the bed in Zach n Camilles bedroom, which took a long, slippery dash across the deck, a leap into the cockpit, a dash down the hatch and diving under the bed. This gets really old after about the 5th time. It also gets complicated if Camille is standing there changing a diaper and you have to make a frantic dive at her ankles. Meanwhile, the dinghy ran out of fuel. Swimmer Zach had to stand in chest deep water since his anchor line wasn’t quite long enough to allow him to reach shore, and from his shivering position, watched the drama unfold. It must have looked a teeny bit funny. Someone in the dinghy needed the bathroom. Forrest eventually took up a permanent position by the breaker switch, Rob held the dinghy between the shore and boat, and Avril and I continued to fight the anchor. It did eventually break loose, to the detriment of the main weld. We now are less one anchor. With the immediate danger over, we retrieved Zach and the other anchor. That one also was incredibly reluctant to rise, but they managed to keep it in one piece.

And then we did what we should have done in the first place. We went around the island to the side that looked decent and wasn’t mentioned in the book, and re-dropped the anchor. This time it held after two tries and we were in no immediate danger. It was also black as pitch outside, so no lazy beach visit for this crew!

And what do you think Camille was doing this whole time? Yes. Cooking us an absolutely amazing supper of fajitas that we devoured with great joy. I don’t know if you caught on, but this all took quite a long time. It was a bit like one of those dreams that simply don’t end. You try and try to stay out of peril but it never quite is right. Regardless, we were all one hundred percent thankful to have averted danger, and seriously, it was a spiffing bit of team work. Right down to the gal who dished out food to the bruised and chilly crew.

It would be nice to say we settled down for a peaceful night, but no. Since Heath and Zach were on the 3-5am shift and Rob and Avril the 5-7am, I offered to stay up late to watch the anchor and generally get the boat ready to take off at 3. Put away lines and generally tidy. Well, the anchor started to drift a little, and was jerking a bit in the waves, so it seemed best to rig a snub line on the anchor. The lines were deep in a locker, and as I scrounged around in there, WHAM, the wind crashed the lid against my head. Very. Maddening. After a bit I woke Heath for help and what do you know, we were digging in the same locker and SLAM. It happened again. I had totally had the biscuit then. Totally. The twinkling stars, bright moon and soothing water were as dust. I may or may not have had some frustrated tears streaking my face. Can’t say. But eventually we got it to where it was secure for the night and I quick finished my blog post and fell into bed. And that, my friends, is why that little word bum, instead of bun slipped through the cracks😂. I found it hysterical the next day.

The night crossing to Pythagorio on Samos was rough and crashy. Quite intolerable in the bow cabin, so I ended up on deck for a good part of it. It was truly magical out there, with a lighted cruise ship passing, white caps illuminated by the moon and the bright lights of fishing vessels. Spray from the boat went flying by and when Heath opened our bow hatch at the wrong time, our bed and cabin and he got flooded. When Robs took over we naturally ate, them a large Nutella Bum, no, I mean Croissant, and me a bowl of granola and milk. Yum!