In this episode of Sailing A B Sea we are hiding from the Mediterranean hurricane Zorbas in an unfinished marina, helping other yachts get tied up safely and...

Closed Captions (CC):
The wind is now steady at 30 knots and

gusting up to 35 and we've had quite a

few boats coming to this unfinished

marina

It is Tuesday the 25th of September and

we've got a bit of weather coming in.

I know it doesn't look much on camera

but about 45 minutes ago I came up on

deck and saw the the weather developing

to the north and said to Aannsha, Oh take

a look at that storm that's up there. And

within 15 minutes the the wind from the

storm had actually reached us. Right now

it's probably blowing around about maybe

18 knots something like that. So not

knowing exactly how this is gonna pan

out weather-wise whether it's going to

get stronger or not we decided to come

into the unfinished marina here. There's

no electricity, there's no water but

there's lots of concrete and lots of bollards so we can just tie up in relative

safety. And because the wind is is

blowing so much rather than try and find

a place further inside the marina we've

just come straight in through the marina

entrance here and just tied up alongside

this wall. We might get a bit of spray

coming over if it picks up but hey we're

on the inside and that's all that

matters. We're in and not a moment too soon! The wind just ... yeah. It would

have been hard getting in any later. Yeah absolutely.

Now that we've tied up in this

unfinished marina we're going to take

the opportunity to have a stroll around

and have a look at some of the vessels

tied up here. Some of them are obviously

used and some of them are obviously

disused. Some of them are well abused by the looks of things!

There's some really fascinating stuff here so we're just gonna take a

walk, have a look and show you and show you.

Looks like this one hasn't seen some

antifoul paint for a while.

It's just lovely meeting

so many people. Baz and I went for a

walk around this little marina that's

actually unfinished

and we met about three or four English

and Canadian and Australian owners of

boats. After that you know we've helped

two or three boats come in and tie up

to a mooring and just to see everybody

banding together and helping each other

out here is wonderful. Winds are in the

thirties at the moment gusting to 35

They'd be... they have been rising for a

while now so

apologies for the unstable camera but

the the gusts are blowing the camera out

of my hand! I'm going to show you the

white caps on the water. I don't know how

much you'll actually get to see on this

camera. White caps and sort of you know

pointy waves are a good indication of

what the wind's like, if you can't hear it.

I must admit sporting a broken arm

I feel really useless at the moment because I can't

help and there's you know a big community

here that's all been helping all the

other boats to get in, to doc, to tie up when the wind's really pushing

them away from the dock and

all I've been able to do is film it.

I suppose it's better than nothing coz at

least you get to see what's been going

on. I kno I complain about having a broken

wrist and everything and not being able to

do much but I don't feel alone in this

marina. There's one lady who I was

talking to and she's just had a cast taken off her wrist after she

broke it six weeks ago and

there's another lady on a catamaran and

she's got her ankle strapped up because

she hurt it 10 ten days ago so I'm kind

of not feeling too bad now!

Everyone's running in here because it's

getting really really choppy out there.

The wind is now steady at 30 knots and

gusting up to 35 and we've had quite a

few boats coming to this unfinished

marina. It's a little bolt hole basically

and I'm glad we pulled up the anchor and

came in here ourselves early this

morning. So far we've helped four or five

boats get tied up here so it's really

mental at the moment.

As extra protection as well as the boat's

fenders Mike had a great idea and found

some old ship's rope that had been thrown

away which he tied together and pushed

down between the fenders to help protect

A B Sea's hull if the wind changed direction

and blew her on to the dock.

This is our

final night in Kefalonia in Greece

because what's happening ...now now the big

the big wind system has passed south and

east of here

we'll be leaving here tomorrow.

The plan is that we're going to do a

8-hour sail up north to, I can't even

remember what the island is called but

Where are we going Mike? Ithaca.

Ithaca.

That's right we're going to Ithaca. So an

eight-hour passage for us is a

fairly short trip! It's a walk in the park! Yeah, all

right okay one glass of wine and then

bed. Zeds yeah.

We've also encountered a lot

of fantastic other yacht people during

this hideout in this hidey hole. Everyone

helps everybody. Everyone's willing to

offer experience, offer advice, pull a

rope, help you tie off, help you get in

when the odds are against you. It's

really heartwarming, it really really is!

I also think that tomorrow, Sunday or

Monday at the latest, most of all of

these boats that have come in here to

hide will be leaving

along with us.

It's been good. It's been slightly

unnerving but it's been good, it's been a

great experience being here and hiding

from that storm that was just a monster

absolute monster.

Well we're off Yayy! we're leaving

Kefalonia after what feels like thousand days

but in reality is only been 10 yeah, yeah

thanks to

Medicane Zorbas,

the Mediterranean hurricane. Medicane

sounds like something

you might take or buy from a pharmacist

Anyway where are we off to captain? We're

going to Ithaca to meet up with

another boat as we are both going to the

same destination in Turkey and we're

going to go through the Corinth Canal. Not today but maybe the day after

possibly Wednesday or maybe tomorrow

we don't know. Well Tuesday, if it's Tuesday

we won't be going through the Corinth

Canal because it's shut on Tuesdays.

Today is Sunday. Did you go to church? Oh I thought it was Monday. There you go. See I told you

it felt like a thousand days.

All right we'll catch you later

It's been another pretty much uneventful

trip over to Ithaca from Kefalonia in

in Greece

The day started off very overcast and we

thought we were going to get a little

bit wet with with wet stuff falling from

the sky but it cleared up and it's not

too bad now. The big mess of wind is way

over there now to the east

you can still see there's quite a bit of

weather out there but it's moving away

from us that's all good and right now

we're about two hours maybe two and a

half hours from where we're going to

stop overnight in Ithaca. It's Sunday and

everybody is out enjoying the

little bit of wind and of course guess

what, it's not blowing our way!

That's life

Dolphins!!

Are they with us?

Well that was short-lived, there was

about four of them maybe. They came and

had a little play for a while and then

they broke it off over there. But it's a start!

So right now I'm doing that! Because I'm about to do my first

Mediterranean mooring and that involves

reversing into the town quay while

dropping your anchor and hopefully

pulling up before you hit the town quay.

Sounds like a crazy idea and whoever

came up with it I want a word with you.

So nice and slow

Coz that's the thing why bother

trying to get so close when you've got all this room.

Plenty of time

The wind's gonna push you that way and you want to stay high.

Lock it there then.

Did you put your anchor out? Yes

Tighten up on the anchor Elaine.

And that's your first reverse mooring! Well done.

How was that? That's the hardest bit judging that distance

It was easy but there was hardly any

wind dead flat and calm like Mike said

probably the biggest problem is judging

the distance so you've still got chain

left in the locker by the time you reach

there.

It was okay

I'm glad the first one was easy

But I'm gonna have a beer now.

Today is Tuesday the 2nd of October and

we're currently in Ithaca one of the

Ionian islands in Greece and we're just

about to set sail for a 24-hour passage

which will take us all the way through

the Corinth canal. Now the reason we're

going through the Corinth canal is

because we've changed our plans for our

winter months here in the northern

hemisphere. We are now going to be

wintering in Turkey. There's several

reasons for this and because Mike and

Elaine have their boat in a big marina

in Turkey on the two weeks it took us to

get from Spain to here we've had a lot

of time for chatting and they persuaded

us that with our small amount of sailing

experience so far it would be easier for

us and safer for us to spend the winter

months in off the Turkish coast rather

than here where the winds and the storms

can get really fierce.

And there's a lot more sheltered little bays

in and around Turkey as well. Yeah. Yeah

Plus the fact that Mike and I have also

spent the last two weeks every second

something was like not quite right on

the boat we put it on the list. So Mike

and I now have a huge list of things to

do when we get to Turkey because he's

got a lock up with a ton of tools and

loads of little spare boat parts. So we're

gonna raid his tool kit. Yep we're also

not making the journey as a single boat

this time, we're going with another

couple Phil and Linda and Mike is going

to be helping them to deliver their boat

to Turkey yeah and Elaine, for the long

passages like today's, yeah is going to

be coming on board so that there are

three people on both boats so that we

can take it in turns to have rest.

Because clever clogs here has still got

another five weeks of that and it's

still very sore so she can't do anything

really... can't even stare a cup of coffee

I know

Yeah so here we are in Ithaca. It's a nice place

um surprisingly now it's out of season

it is still very busy with charter

vessels there's a load of Russian people

came in yesterday. That was a bit mayhem-ish ... doing stern to... doing the Med mooring

thing where you drop your anchor and back into the

quay. So yeah well I guess we'll be doing

a lot of that while we're around the

Mediterranean probably not so much in

Turkey but who knows. We'll find out won't we?

So that's the plan

Yep we'll see you in Corinth! We'll see

you down there somewhere yeah!

Next week on Sailing A B Sea we motor under the Rio

Anterio bridge at night and arrive at

the northern entrance to the Corinth

canal to a beautiful sunrise. If you

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Sailing A B Sea thanks for watching and take

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