Sailing Day 6: When the sea gets rough
Sailing the waves
It was already Charlie’s last day of the sailing trip in Greece, this week had passed so quickly! This day, they really had to leave Kythnos to get Charlie to another island closer to Athens from where she could take the ferry the next day to catch her flight back to London. Originally, Vangelis had planned to take the crew to Poros, but another lockdown because of a Coronavirus outbreak had been announced. The new destination was Aegina.
The plan was to get up at 6.30 and leave Kythnos at 7am. As a good crew member, Charlie had set her alarm. But before the alarm went off, she heard the others walking on deck preparing the boat. The next thing she heard was Vangelis shouting “Close the hatches, we’re ready to go!” Wait, what? Charlie hadn’t even got up yet. How could they be ready to leave? She quickly got dressed and walked up to the deck to see if there was anything she could help with. She felt bad about not helping them, but she had no clue either how they could have been up so early. Daria hadn’t received the memo either. There was no time for a coffee, and they were ready to leave the harbour of Loutra. It was a beautiful sunrise that day, but Charlie didn’t want to go to get the camera in case there was anything she could help with on the boat. She still felt bad about the others having done all the work while she was sleeping.
Stormy conditions without a storm
The first thing Charlie noticed was that Vangelis would not leave the helm to anybody else and he asked Pablo for his big, red, waterproof jacket. Charlie remembered that they stayed in Kythnos the previous day because of the bad weather at sea. She would soon understand. The further they went out, the more agitated the sea got, and water started splashing in from all sides. Charlie also knows now what the sprayhood is good for. Don’t get this wrong, it was still a beautiful, sunny day with blue skies, but with a lot of wind and waves. It could be described as the conditions of a storm, just without the actual storm. The wind has a strength of 7, the waves were up to 4m high. Vangelis clearly enjoyed it whilst Charlie regretted to not have stocked up on those seasickness pills the day before.
At the same time, Pablo had noticed that there was water coming into the boat via the anchor locker. The front bathroom was flooded, and they had to start the pump. Due to the strong winds, there was also a part of the mast hanging down that Pablo went to fix. Charlie wished that she could have helped in any way, but her body told her to just stay put…What a day!
Blue skies, seasickness and cold winds
Charlie started to feel really sick and she sat at the side of the deck, looking at the horizon, both hands on the railing hoping for the dizziness to stop. The water kept on splashing in the boat and every time the wind had dried her clothes, she would get wet again. As her trip was quite spontaneous, without being prepared for a sailing trip, she did not have a waterproof jacket or wetsuit for that matter. And the blue sky can be very misleading. You easily underestimate how cold it could get when the sun is shining. Vangelis mentioned that those were conditions to get hypothermia, but they still thought that it would all be fine.
Charlie stopped thinking that it would be fine when she lost the feeling in her fingers and toes. She kept them moving, but still trying to hold on to the railing. She was feeling really cold by now. She asked Vangelis if there was any way to get the boat to slow down, to reduce the movement and be able to go under deck to change into some dry clothes. Down there, it would be warm, but going under deck is a very bad idea when you’re suffering from seasickness. A few minutes later, Vangelis gave her a sign that it would be a good moment. That was Charlie’s sign. She went downstairs to change. There was still a lot of movement and changing clothes was not an easy thing to do. Charlie’s stomach didn’t like the movement either. She made it back upstairs, and just as she sat down, her stomach turned upside down. Her whole body leaned now against the railing and it was lucky that she hadn’t eaten anything that day. This was not how Charlie had imagined the last sailing day. She also felt a bit embarrassed. Fortunately, she wasn’t alone in her suffering. Julio was also seasick.
How important is it to catch that flight?
At some point, Vangelis asked Charlie how important it was for her to catch that flight. Charlie wasn’t entirely sure where he was heading with that question, but she knew that she had to at least make it back to Athens by Tuesday to be able to attend her online meetings. Vangelis made a quick phone call and changed the plan. Instead of Aegina, they took now course towards Poros. The island was under Coronavirus restrictions, but the harbour was accessible. People were just required to constantly wear a face mask. That was acceptable.
As they approached land, Charlie’s seasickness got better, but she was still feeling cold, had problems keeping her eyes open and she had episodes of microsleep. She was already wearing a shirt and two hoodies, but she still felt cold. Vangelis brought her another jacket, a proper winter coat. Who would have thought that that was necessary?
As she slowly warmed up and her stomach had calmed down, she tried having a sip of water. Dehydration was the last thing her body could need now. Her stomach was okay with that and she started to feel better.
The island of Poros
They reached the harbour of Poros at 2 in the afternoon and Charlie was amazed by such stunning beauty. The water was light blue and you could not only see, but smell, the pine trees. Due to the Coronavirus restrictions, it was quite empty and quiet in the harbour. This time, they had no trouble finding a spot, the side mooring that Vangelis had preferred anyways for this harbour was possible. In all the other places they had always used the mediterranean mooring where the back of the boat is tied to the land and the anchor let down in front.
Charlie was by now at least able to help placing the fenders on one side of the boat. She had gradually taken off some layers of clothing, her body was back at a normal temperature and her stomach started to feel hungry. It had been an adventurous trip with seasickness, hypothermia, the mast falling apart and water entering the boat – all of that before they had even had breakfast!
The taverna was only 3 steps away from the place where they had moored, and they ordered a hefty meal. Pablo and Julio spent the rest of the afternoon trying to fix the boat. It had been more water entering than they thought, and it affected the electricity. There wasn’t anything Charlie could do to help, and she went to the coffee shop opposite to reply to some emails.
Later that afternoon, they went for a swim to a nearby beach before Pablo and Julio kept on working on the boat to fix the power supply. There still wasn’t anything for Charlie to help with and she took the opportunity to take some photos of this beautiful place. The sun had just disappeared, and everything was covered in a golden light: the harbour, the water taxis to cross the bay, the empty cafes and restaurants and the tourist shops. It seemed a bit like a ghost town, but a beautiful, colourful one. Charlie could have stayed in this place a little longer…
