Sailing Ellen MacArthur Style

Now we'll bet that all our readers have been imagining us having a sedate sail in tranquil waters, with the sun shining and a mere hint of a breeze to ruffle the waters and most of the movement on the boat being us moving in and out the sun to even up the tan.

Two years ago when we did our first flotilla, it was very like this for much of the time and our engine got quite a lot of use. This holiday, however, was a bit different. Although we thought it was very pleasant, for Greece it was quite extreme weather and we did have some strong winds. This was great for sailing and it was very exhilerating to fly through the water at speeds of 6 knots or more. It did mean we had to be very vigilant in our look out for hazards, such as the handful of dangerous shoals in the area, as we were moving so fast that we could have come on them before we knew it, and a collision at speed would have done quite a lot of damage.


As you know I (Eddie) always wore a safety harness while out on deck, but George & Yorkie were a bit small for a harness. When it got a bit rough, and Spetses was heeling over, for safety, they both took up residence in the cockpit cubby hole. This was a great arrangement as it meant they could look out easily and didn't have to miss anything, yet they remained safe and dry.

There was one particular day when, with 2 other boats, we sailed off in the opposite direction to the port we were heading to that night, as we wanted to do a bit of exploring. It was a lovely day and took little time to cover the 13 miles to the bay we were aiming for. We had lunch and a swim in a sheltered bay, blissfully unaware that the wind had got up some strength. As we emerged into open water, the mainsail was not even raised, and the genoa was reefed to the maximum! It suddenly dawned on us what an adventure getting to Preveza, over 20 miles away, was going to be. It is a good job we are not easily scared and always up for an adventure.

We soon had to give up sailing as the direction we wanted to travel was straight into the wind. Under engine then, we had to drive our brave little boat Spetses, straight into some enormous waves. Every time we hit a wave the spray flew right to the back of the boat and our minders, in particular, got very wet. We imagined we felt a bit of what Ellen MacArthur must feel when sailing in big seas, although, in reality, she'd probably laugh at us calling these waves 'big' and say they were just tiddlers.

After about an hour the wind dropped enough for the voyage to become almost sedate.


As we came into harbour and tied up, the drying off process started. Fortunately it was sunny so I was able to dry my wet bottom quickly by baring it to the sun. It was all quite decent I assure you. We discovered that as the forward hatch had not been properly latched all our bedding has got very wet. The fact that we had to wait for it to dry, provided us with a good excuse to linger at the taverna having an extra glass of wine. Mind you we were all so tired after our adventure that we'd no doubt have slept well even if the bedding hadn't dried.

Lots of love, the intrepid crew of Spetses xxx