In this episode of Sailing A B Sea Baz has to make a sudden U-turn in a narrow channel when the chart depth was showing 11 metres but the depth sounder rapid...

Closed Captions (CC):
The wind prediction websites showed

sustained winds of 25 knots with gusts

up to 37 knots. The next three days were

going to be a wild ride at anchor

Luckily we'd just invested in a huge

stainless steel Mantus chain hook and

with that combined with our faithful

Mantus anchor we reckoned we were as

ready as we could be for whatever the

wind gods had planned.

This is our new Mantus

chain hook that we bought in a chandler

in Athens yesterday and today we're

going to prep it ready for deployment

and the first thing we've got to do is get

it attached to the end of our snubber

line, get rid of this tackle that we've

been using for quite some time and as

you can see there's a lot more strength involved

in the Mantus than there is in what

we've been using so that'll make a

couple of our viewers happy who said we

were quite naughty and potentially

putting ourselves and our winch in

danger and we'll get it sorted for you and us

Once we've got this attached to the end

of the snubber I will be using thread

Locker on it and also putting some

seizing wire on it too. Better be safe than sorry

When we were in the chandler's in Athens

yesterday we also bought ourselves a new

Aussie flag because as you can see the

Meltemi wind has just wrecked our original one

That was the only size Aussie flag

they had and it's just a tad bigger than

the Greek courtesy flag so following

protocols we're just flying it a little

bit lower than the Greek flag

We've deliberately chosen to anchor in

Varkiza Bay because we've known for

some time that the Meltemi wind would be

blowing fairly strongly from the north

from Friday right through to Monday

morning. The wind slowly built in

strength and did indeed reach the

predicted high of 37 knots the big gusts

whipped up mini sand storms along the

beach. With our Mantus anchor and new

Mantus chain hook A B Sea was safe and sound

throughout it all and she didn't budge an inch

Here are our postcards going out to our

patrons and Boston and Piper Elmore as

you've gone up a tier, you get one as well this month!

On their way to you! If you'd like to

know more about getting a postcard as a

Patreon head over to our

Patreon site which is just down there

It's a beautiful Tuesday morning and we

are up with the birdies because we have

finished hiding from the Meltemi

winds in this beautiful little Bay at Varkiza

on the Greek mainland and we're

going to head back down around the

southern tip where we will end up on the

East Coast at Porto Rafti where we will

meet up with one of our subscribers and

longtime viewers and he's invited us out

for a beer. That's always good.

After that we're gonna head further east

again because we're meeting up with a

couple of Aussie mates who are doing a

little bit of a tour of Turkey and Greece

at the moment so I'll be good to catch up with them

There was little wind that day so we

motored from Varkiza to our destnation

I was taking some footage of the

beautiful clear water inside the passage

between the mainland and the island of

Arsida when I noticed that Baz made

a sudden u-turn in the boat. Why? Too shallow?

The chart is incorrect.

Oh!

The chart says we should be in 13 metres

but we were down to 3.9

Oh I don't like that no.

No I don't like that at all thanks very much

It was a bit dodgy wasn't it?

Yeah that's why I always have the

when I'm going through something like that

was that the chart really zoomed in and I

also have the depth gauge showing over

here and if the two don't match up coz this

was saying that we should be in about 11

metres we actually up down to 3.9 and

it was dropping rapidly so I've decided to

bail because the chart is obviously incorrect

yeah - and I have no way of knowing whether we can get through there or not so

I'm not taking a chance. Thanks captain

You've gotta make decisions

That wasn't the only

near miss. As we passed Sounion a yacht

cut closely across our bow and headed

straight toward the cliff under

Poseidon's temple. He was too far away

for us to get his attention so all we could do was watch

Luckily the skipper noticed just in time

and veered off to starboard narrowly

avoiding a catastrophe. That was so close! Yeah!

Wow. You see the strangest things. That yacht was heading full steam head to the rock

and then somebody noticed obviously on

board and they did a quick right turn and

they've managed to avoid very nasty

accident that would have sunk their boat

right under Poseidon's temple

I was absolutely gobsmacked! I thought ... because when he cut across our bow

yeah, I saw someone in the cockpit and I'm thinking he's gotta know that he's heading for the rocks

yeah he's not pulling out a sail or

putting anything away. No!

That was bloody close! Yeah it was. Jeezus

Keep watch at all times! I don't know

whether it's safer to go around him and

be in front of him or be behind him.

If we see him in our anchorage tonight we're

moving - we're staying well away from him!

We turned into the Evia

Channel just past Sounion. After about

half an hour we stopped for a chat with

Alison and Jim Golt on their yacht

Moondance who were coming in the

opposite direction. It's always great to

physically catch up with people that

you've met online in sailing groups

It's weedy. She'll go in

Oh this is sand. Alright. We're in 6 metres so drop it and go to 30. Yep

Ready? Yep. Now?

How long did that take us? Six hours? Five and a half hours. Not bad but we were motoring

all the way and we did stop and have a

chat - oh yes we did! In the middle of the channel

There's been absolutely no

wind until we arrived here, now it's

picked up to 10 knots and where is here?

Porto Rafti that's where we are. We've come in

here for two reasons. One is to see a guy

called Nikos who is a longtime follower of

ours and he's invited us for a beer so

as soon - We'll go anywhere for a free beer! - We will!

as we've finished this conversation

we're gonna drop our dinghy and head

around the headland to the real Porto Rafti

coz we're kind of just on the South side

we're on the south side of Porto Rafti

It's just less crowded and it's a better

anchorage, we've been told by certain

yachties. So we'll stay here for a couple

of nights, tonight and tomorrow night I

think and then hopefully the wind should

slightly veer around and come from the

south

west - Do you know what you're talking about? - Yep - Okay - and

that will get us some

sailing in hopefully to go across to the

big island over there called Evia. Evia. And the place we're going to stop at is Marmari.

Because we're gonna meet some other

people there - Aussie mates! Yay! Our Aussie mates are coming. Yay, can't wait!!!

Alright let's drop this dinghy. Alright. See ya!

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. How are you doing?

Good to see you. Funny because I think I know you but I don't! It's funny because when we meet people

who think they know us we feel we know them anyway. You know?

Yeah it's very funny.

This is Nikos - Hi - and

he's invited us out for a beer so we're

gonna get a guided tour of Porto Rafti

and see what it's all about

Here is also a protected marsh. Marsh so

- wildlife - a wildlife preserve

They cultivate things as well here

Oh wow yeah.

Well Nikos has brought us to a

beautiful little spot where we're going

to have a beer. Check out this view

Next week on Sailing A B Sea we catch up

with our Aussie mates Ian and Shelley over in

Marmari but on the way there we have a

few problems with our GPS and AIS. Once

again here's a couple of ways that you

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