Back Home/End of Mega Jouney

Yes ladies and gents, Zoot Allures is all tied up on his mooring in Kalo Gialo…. back at the home dwellings of swans and old ladies (I’m telling you, these old ladies swim alot starting 7am and make a racket gossiping.  I’m back in the know!)

So last Saturday morn I took off bright and early for the first leg to either Spetses or Porto Heli. In the beginning their was apsolutely no wind, nada, glass.

But after an hour a breeze crept in, I had all day so I hoisted the sails and proceeded rather slowly, sometimes only doing a knot. Of course the wind was against me but I started getting around 3-4 knots and did a lot of tacking, albient always too early as you can see from the bottom left track

The bay in Spetses was full of super yachts so I ended up back in Porto Heli next to the old pirate ship as I did previously. Nothing to write other that is was freaking sweltering hot. Plus the boat taxis are assholes just like the land taxis, doing their best to rock you off your seat with their wakes.
Sunday morn off to a bay at the tip of Peloponisos before entering the Saronic sea. (aarrrg! Navionics lost the rest of my tracks back home!)

Glass seas again in the beginning,  found a nice big fender from a super yacht (he he he), the breeze came up and I sailed slowiy till I pasted the island of Dokos. The the wind died completely. I tried the spinnaker for awhile with the last breath of wind but after an hour baking in the sun I gave up and fired up the Perkins. My brother and Co. was heading back with his RIB and past me half an hour before the bay/island Soupia where we met up and had a picnic. They took a bunch of pics.

Autopilot love

Soupia island

They took off for home which would take them and hour and a half (WTF?) and I hunkered down for the night. Monday morn I was off for Sounio

A 30 mile hike,  strong wind in the beginning, reefed sails but then it died. Motoring again and a mile out of Sounio I felt a clunck, lost thrust and rpms and got smoke comming out the exhaust. And guess who was comming at me

Kept cool, did some reversing and forwarding and whatever it was cleared my prop. Probably a nylon bag.  A nice welcome back to civilization!

Sounio, the tip of the peninsula of Attika where king Aegean walked to every day from Athens awating the arrival of his son Theseas to return from killing the minotaur in Knossos, Crete. The dummy was partying to much and forgot to change the sails from black to white, dad thought he was dead and jumped off the rock…. hence the Aegean Sea (look it up yourselves, long story, even has Ikarius the son of the architect who designed the minotaur’s labyrinth yada yada yada)
I don’t have black sails but after I anchored and was diving on it, the wind shifted to north. Within an hour it was blowing over 20knots. After a sleepless night it was blowing 30! Refusing to beat back home, I stayed another day in Sounio for the forecast wind to die down. It did and Wednesday morn I head up north back home.

It was a beautiful day to sail but the wind was always againt me. Only  18 miles to go. F-it…. I’m not going to tack all day long, I floored tne Perkins and was on my mooring by noon, tired and relieved. Thus ends my first mega jouney with Zoot Allures.
450 nautical miles
80 engine hours (ouch) and about 160liters of diesel (ouch ouch ouch!)  Its been an unseasonal windless summer. Normally the prevailing winds are the dreaded Meltemi northerlies. Rough stuff…. so I have no complaints.  Only the fact that my TMP tranny was seeping water in the oil (which I changed 10 times) and I had a constant knot in my stomach while running the engine.  But it held, life is good
Stay tuned….. to the next exciting adventures of Zoot…. Al……Luuuuures!
Capt Pete
Ps …. it was nice here a couple of days, now it’s blowing force 7 and I’m rocking and rolling again. Somethings never change!