Day 2 – A late start, Day 3 – Movers day

Two blogs in one, day 2 was pretty busy with boat paperwork, boat briefing and shopping, Day 3 a long sail to Pano Koufonisia. Day 2 was a late start, after a long day travelling on Friday, we didn’t wake up until 10. After breakfast and checking in with the base manager I spent a whole hour in the charter company’s office doing boat paperwork which seems to get more involved every time. Passports for the boat papers, signing charter contracts (literally had to sign every page of the contract), security deposit, and copies of my sailing certificates etc etc. That done I met the others in what is probably the most delightful cafe in Parikia, they told me they were going to the cafe in the narrow back street (there are dozens), but of course I knew which one. It’s the kind of place you go for a morning coffee, stay for lunch and end up leaving some time later in the afternoon. Guess what, that’s exactly what we did and looking at the piccie it’s easy to see why.

The boat briefing happened eventually at 5 ish after which Les Troyens was ours for 3 weeks. Suffice it to say she’s (still have no idea why boats are always girls) a nice boat and (very exciting), with brand new sails (they’re normally saggy and worn out on charter boats). No piccie of her today I’ll wait until we’re somewhere less crowded with other boats. Les Troyens is a Dufour Grand Large 382. The mainsail has lazy jacks (the sail pulls up the mast rather than a furling main which rolls up in the mast) which I like but does have a self tacking jib (which is the sail at the front) which I don’t like. Rigs with self tacking jibs tend to be less well balanced and are not so good down wind. If I get the chance or run out of stuff to say another day I’ll explain more. Les Troyens also has a chined hull (a flat bit above the water line which makes it sail better up wind). Anyhow all in all a nice boat. So we then did some shopping, moved our stuff on the boat and had a fine evening with our chums. Day 3 was movers day, Neil went home, Dennis and Mel flew in for a week with Bill and Christine and we all moved on to our first stop Pano Koufonisia, about 35 nautical miles away. No big drama as a journey, round the top of Paros, down between Paros and Naxos, hang a left at the bottom crossing the north end of Iraklia, Schinoussa and Kato Koufanisia before arriving at Pano Koufanisia.  You can see the route from the piccie below.

Took about 6 hours all told with the wind on the nose (no time to sail it) for about 2/3 of the way. We sailed the rest to get used to the boat and discovering it’s little idiosyncrasies (they all have em!). The main thing which fooled me with Les Troyens was there’s too many lines the same colour and clutches without labels (see below), so I ended up releasing the jib sheet (piccie 1) which I thought was the topping lift (lifts the boom up, piccie 2) and then releasing the jib halyard (pulls the jib up piccie 3) instead of letting the jib sheet out. Perhaps more about the odd names for lines on a boat another time.

Parking in Pano Koufonisia was pretty good (unlike last year which was a bit of a muck up) and the island is just as beautiful as we remember.

Piccie below is the harbour, Les Troyens is the first boat in.

And what a fine evening we had in a great restaurant followed by a bit of a late boat party. Thick heads this morning I’m afraid! Yamas!