We were up at a sensible time. Stew on the go ready to go in the thermal cooker and be dinner for the next couple of evenings. Just needed to fill up with diesel before heading off for Greece. Only when we got to the diesel pump there was nobody there. A couple of phone calls later and we ascertained that nobody would be there until 12:30. I took the time to catch up with the crew of Dizzie and eventually decided that I thought we should leave departure until tomorrow morning. I thought the trip would be about 52 hours which would leave us arriving late afternoon which I wasn't too keen on. We prefer to enter new places in daylight.
Back on the boat Patrick agreed and so we decided to delay our departure. We filled up with diesel, motored out, and dropped our anchor. Esmé went for a swim while the rest of us chilled out for the afternoon. We ate some of the stew before watching the sun set and getting an early night ready for a reasonably early start in the morning.Friday 11th May
We left at about 8am, doing a quick drive past Dizzie to wave goodbye (although both kids were still in bed). Then motored out of the bay.
The sea was a little more lumpy than we anticipated but we hoped it would die down eventually. We decided to put the mizzen up to lessen the rolling and to our dismay the halyard shackle failed and the halyard disappeared up the mast without the sail. We don't have another halyard on the mizzen so we had no chance to send one of the kids up the mast to retrieve it. I was kind of glad as it would have been a tricky decision to send one of them up there in the lumpy seas. Over the next few hours we tried numerous home made gadgets to try to retrieve it and finally Patrick's invention worked, however we had lost a fair bit of time slowing down periodically to try each iteration. Our speed was much lower than our usual 5.5 knots motoring and we had also tried a few hours sailing but this was even slower.
AJ was unhappy with the sea state and nervous about the length of the trip. I was glad when he disappeared down below to take advantage of our agreed policy of unlimited screen time on this trip. Esmé on the other hand was absolutely loving it. By tea time both Patrick and I had had some rest but not nearly as much as we had hoped. I took the first night watch with Esmé joining me for most of it, however as it was still lumpy I was hand steering so had to send her down below as soon as she looked tired as I couldn't leave the helm to carry her down as I had on the night passage from Malta. Esmé was a real asset, fetching and carrying things while I steered so that we didn't have to wake Patrick and I was sad to say goodnight. At about midnight I was joined by a pod of dolphins leaping and diving in the phosphorescence... it was a truly magical experience and I felt bad that the kids were missing it. By 1:30 I was really tired so woke Patrick to take over and then got my head down, and by 7am I was up on watch again while Patrick tried to get some rest.
Saturday 12th May
Patrick was struggling to sleep so at 10am when I was really hoping to catch up on some more sleep I told him to pass me a can of coke and try to get more rest. I was feeling guilty that I have the relatively easy night watch and he has the horrible getting up in the middle of the night one. It works best for us as he is a morning person and I am a night owl but I still think he has the harder job, however by lunchtime tempers were fraying and I needed more sleep. I got a couple of hours and we discussed our options. We were both exhausted and it was looking marginal as to whether we would get to Greece before nightfall the next day. We looked at our bail out options and we couldn't get to Cortone before dark so decided that we would head for Santa Maria di Leuca, arriving in the morning rather than risk arriving in Greece after dark. Patrick went down to try to get sleep again, the constant engine noise was really getting to him. Esmé sat up in the cockpit with me, trying to hide from the sun, finally choosing to sit under the table with a silvered sun shade over the top. After yet more stew I started the night watch again with Esmé but also joined by AJ for a while too. Some dolphins came by for a little while but didn't stay long and then AJ disappeared to his cabin while Esmé stayed around for yet more hot chocolate and night watch munchies. She eventually disappeared for the night at about 11pm, and then at midnight again the dolphins returned. I quickly went down to see if she was still awake and helped her into her lifejacket. We then spent a lovely 1/2 hour watching them dance in the phosphorescence before they finally disappeared again.
At 1:30 I woke Patrick again and got my head down, waking at 6 to take over and let him have a couple of hours sleep before we arrived at Santa Maria di Leuca.
Sunday 13th May
We were hoping to find a transit berth but in the end we called the marina for a berth. It took 3 or 4 goes for me to back Laurin into her space, even then messing it up so that we needed help from the Marino's rib. We were both exhausted. Went to the office to pay and then I collapsed while Patrick pottered around the boat. We cobbled some lunch together and then went to the beach where AJ and Esmé played in the water. There were some other kids there but I don't think AJ and E had the energy to initiate conversation. Back on board for pasta and I think we were all grateful not to be eating stew! Kids were allowed yet more screen time so that Patrick and I could crash!
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