The Meltemi taught us a lesson the hard way yesterday which we won’t soon forget, and gave Benji some real excitement on his first day of sailing. We left Ermoipolis on the east side Syros in the morning and headed west towards Kythnos. We had prepared for high Meltemi winds (30 knots) meaning our storm jib (sail) was flying while our full size jib stayed rolled up on the furler. We were surprised to find no wind going around the south of Syros so we unrolled the big jib for some extra power (running both jibs at once). When the Meltemi winds re-appeared after we left the shelter of the island we made a critical mistake. We rolled the big jib back up onto the furler but failed to jam off (secure) the jib sheets (the ropes that are used to adjust the sail). The sheets were thus free to flap about. The reason was simple – we had removed the main jib sheets from the jammers so we could use the jammers for the storm sail’s sheets – there is no extra set of jammers for a second jib. With no jammers available we didn’t think to secure the lines for the rolled up jib by tying them off to something else, and that was the serious errata we are determined not to repeat in the future.

In normal wind conditions an oversight like this is meaningless. But as the Meltemi winds cranked up to 30-35 knots, and as we plowed into it at 8 knots (making the “apparent wind” speed over 40 knots) the forces on the rolled up jib became huge, and because the jib sheets weren’t tight it was able to unwrap backwards just a tiny bit, which exposed a
small piece of the sail surface to the wind. That small surface caused it to unwind further, until after a few seconds nearly half the jib came streaming out into the wind. When the sheets then bound up because of the flapping our jib was stuck with a dreaded hourglass shape (see pic) that was impossible to fix in the heavy winds and seas – we could’t roll the sail back up. In an attempt to save the sail from being shredded to pieces by the Meltemi, we turned around away from the wind to reduce the apparent wind speed and sailed back towards the shelter of Syros. Over the next two hours we watched in horror as our jib slowly ripped apart in the wind.

As we spend the next day or two getting the sail repaired we’ll ponder our mistake many times. We have been humbled by the power of the Meltemi and have been given a new fear of 35 knot winds. I’m starting to sense that a humble and fearful sailor is probably also a better sailor, and that silver lining is exactly what we’ll be thinking about when the sailmaker hands us the repair bill tomorrow morning.

Here is a video of how things unfolded.. literally..

The Meltimi winds arrived as expected so we’ve spent the past couple of days in Syros in defensive mode. Just yesterday two huge ferry boats ran aground here, which has the entire marina in a state of mild pandemonium. The winds regularly gust to 35 knots, which makes it very difficult to keep the boat moored on the dock safely. Already we’ve broken two dock lines and are constantly making adjustments to fenders and lines as ropes stretch, winds shift, and as the French ram the side of our boat. That is not a typo… we were rudely interrupted during lunch yesterday when a French couple on their 40 foot sailing boat accidentally slammed into the side of Tamarisk while trying to tie up to our starboard (right) side. It turns out they were uncomfortable on the dock on the other side of the harbor, and came our way seeking a calmer place to spend the night. The problem is that the skipper seemed to have no clue how to go about this parking maneuver in the windy conditions. Instead of putting the nose of the boat into the wind and slowly inching towards us sideways, he decided it was better to come straight at us with the wind to his side, then have his wife jump onto our boat and try to secure their bow line to the nose of our boat before the wind blew him down onto us. The first part went to plan (wife was able to jump onto our boat), but then everything went pear shaped quickly from there, and his boat collided into the side of ours a few seconds later. His next step was to attempt the same maneuver again, which to his surprise (and only his surprise) failed again when his bow slammed into our anchor. As we scrambled onto the deck to assess the situation, he was lining up for a third attempt using his same technique and it was clear a third collision was imminent. At this point we took the rope from the wife, which she was still holding and hoping to secure to our bow, and we threw it into the water. We instructed the skipper to stop and reverse away from our boat as we were not permitting him to tie on next to us after two collisions and in light of the dangerous wind conditions. He insisted on trying again, so our instructions became louder, shorter, and easier for him to understand, pardon our French. After we repatriated the wife back to the French ship using our dinghy, they went motoring off into the distance and the episode was thankfully over.

Benji arrives tonight, which means we’ll be on our way first thing in the morning heading for Kythnos, around 30 miles west of here. The Meltemi winds will be in full force all week, which is keeping many of the more timid sailors in the harbor. For us it means we’ll have our storm sails up for the first time (except for our practice runs with John Burnie a few weeks ago) and we’ll be playing it safe.

We‘re already reaping big rewards for publishing updates to our blog regularly. One benefit is that we receive continuous feedback from experienced sailors and travelers who follow our adventure and give us information and tips about things to do, and not to do. For example, Gibby (the prior owner of the boat) noticed we were not securing our anchor properly during our passages, which probably saved us learning a lesson the hard way (anchor popping off on a wave and slamming into the front of the boat). Spyro (an experienced Greek sailor) noticed we were moored in an unsafe area in Paros, where heavy winds are known to cause serious problems because of the angle of the bay. Spyro’s tip was important to us because the weather conditions are changing quickly now, with heavy Meltemi winds (30 knot northerly winds that occur regularly in the summer months here) expected in the next couple of days. To make our progress north easier, and to avoid being in Paros for the first Meltemi of the season, we decided to alter our itinerary and head up to the safer and more sheltered Ermoipolis harbor on Syros, the next island north from Paros. As we headed up yesterday the Meltemi started to blow and we got our first experience with some 25-30 knot gusts. We sailed the last hour with just the mainsail, which we had reefed down (reduced its size) and no jib, and were still doing 8 knots at times.

We’re now moored in Syros and very happy to have found some great mechanics to help us with our latest round of fixes. We’ve had two big days of travel since leaving Santorini, so we’re happy to have a couple slow days to explore while repairs are completed. The sight of Mr. Stamatis fixing the alternator (see pic) may not look beautiful to you, but I promise it does to us.

Our cousin Benji is coming to join us tomorrow and we can’t wait for that. The wind will really be howling by then and it will be his first experience sailing in a full force Meltemi wind, which should be exciting for him… partially because it will be our first experience with it too.