Closed Captions (CC):
If you look behind us you'll probably
notice that we're not
at anchor, we're actually tied up in the
port of
the island of Skyros in Greece and the
reason for that
is because on the way over I noticed
that the house batteries and the
starter battery were not getting charged
by the alternator on the engine
We're on the move, we've been here for
two nights
yeah two nights uh hiding from the Meltemi
The first one was pretty blowy
The second one didn't pan out to be much
as was predicted
but the problem with this bay is as
beautiful as it is
you can probably tell uh there's a lot
of rock and roll going on here and I
really don't want to spend the third
night rocking and rolling like this
Oh this is bad
We're in O. Mourtia
on the south end yeah yeah
so we're going to move around the corner
to the eastern side of
Alonnisos. Okay all right Cap'n
I'll go and get the anchor up. Yep
Excellent decision captain very nice
little bay
It is um it was a bit wavy coming around
here yeah it was blowing
15 knots steady, gusting to 20 and
the waves have had a long time to build
up so it was probably about a two metre
swell yeah and coming into this little
place it looked a bit busy
but as we got closer we can obviously
see that
some boats must have left this morning
and the ones that decided to stay
are still in the position they were in
so we've come in and we've dropped in uh
three metres. With 20 metres of chain out and
and then snubbed. Yeah um so it's well
protected yeah there's no rolly rolly here
and there's a little taverna on the
little beach
and we're surrounded by beautiful -
kind of like sandstone
cliffs not very high with pine trees and
it's very
very pretty and the sea is just a
beautiful blue
But I've got to go down below and do
some work now gotta get today's video
uploaded for the patrons
yeah yeah. I've done my bit now it's your
turn. It is I'll make lunch. Okay?
Okay sounds like a plan. All right
This is where we are right now in the
little bay of Milia
on the Greek island of Alonnisos and
today we're going to do a seven-hour
trip to Skyros so it's quite a way out
and by the way this uh chart
representation of the bay
is very misleading it looks rather small
but in reality
this is quite a big bay and there are
you can get quite a lot of
boats at anchor here swinging free at anchor
so from there we're gonna head this way
all the way to
this anchorage in Skyros
Now the forecast did say that we should
have about 15 to 20 knots of wind
coming from this direction so really
it's going to be a good run for us today
if that prediction is correct
uh and if the prediction is correct and
we do get those wind speeds
that'll reduce our trip from seven hours
to five hours
So we'd better pull the anchor up and
get this show on the road
If you look behind us you'll probably
notice that we're not at anchor we're
actually tied up in the port
of the island of Skyros in Greece
and the reason for that is because on
the way
over I noticed that the
house batteries and the starter battery
were not getting charged by the
alternator on the engine
Now there is no alternator light on the
dashboard
so it tells me that it thinks it's
producing electricity
so we've called in here today because
this has now been an ongoing thing that
I've been monitoring for two days
which means that the windlass battery
and the starter battery
have been used to start the engine and
bring the anchor chain up and down
but they've not been getting any charge
because they're also not
getting charged from our solar
so what we've come here for is the
electricity it's going to cost us a
bit because
that's that's the way the cookie
crumbles but the thing is
it gives us at least a day to charge
the batteries completely - and troubleshoot -
and then I can start troubleshooting why
the alternator is not
doing what it says it's doing. Yeah
Meantime this
is a bloody nice place, we got, we
got a great greeting
the harbour master came out in his
little red dinghy
and had a chat with us said what d'you
want where do you want, you know what do
you need? Stayed with this while we got
our fenders together
yeah he also said oh I notice
you've got a bloody great big
dingy on you on your davits would
you like to go outside too
so we said well yeah that'd be really
helpful. So they tied us up at the dock
told us exactly what they needed and
here we are
so it includes i think it's gonna
Steps!
It includes steps, they gave us steps!
I'm so easily impressed
25 euros a night that includes water, electricity
the showers and toilets, the wi-fi and
the laundry
so we're gonna get the batteries
on charge now
and then we're gonna check things out
and we'll show you around. I'm just
impressed with it because the back of
the steps say Welcome to Skyros
It's fantastic
And three of them came out and helped us
with the lines when we actually came
you know, it's well worth coming here and
it looks like a charming village
Okay work.
Okay. Work work!
Our AC panel says we are connected to
the shore power so let's
bring that on, great. Now we've got a
reading here
next thing we want to do is switch on
our battery charger and see what happens
Well that's interesting it shows all
three as green
Aha
something dropped out there
Okay we'll keep an eye on that
and see what happens but we're still
going to troubleshoot exactly what the
alternator
is or is not doing
About 30 minutes after switching on the
shore power and the battery charger
this is what the circuit lights look
like now. So circuit one is definitely
getting a bit of a boost
circuit two is kind of in between and
circuit three which is the bow thruster
and windlass battery
is looking good so we'll just pop out
now and have a wander around town
and see what it looks like when we come
back
Crystal clear water
Parked right next to a supermarket so
we're good for beer, hahaha
Another great thing about coming stern to
in the harbour here
is that every berth has a lazy line so
there's no need to drop your anchor
and therefore no worries about getting
anchor entanglement
and anchor rage
That's a brilliant service
also here on the quayside they've got a
book swap
or book-take exchange so
lots of languages represented so if
you've got any books that you've read
and you want to swap them out for
something different
feel free to do so. They tell you all
about the local stuff
they have directions to every facility
there's also free wi-fi in the marina as
well which is
excellent. I've tested it out and it
works and it's very good speed
every bit of information you could need
about taxis, scooter rental, car rental
laundry, disco shower and the disco
shower
every night between seven and eight
with bubbles
fantastic. Just one thing of course you
can fill up your
water tanks here but you're not allowed
to wash your boat. It is an island and
therefore water is limited
The ferry comes in here
and here. Calm conditions today but
I'm always in total awe of the Greek
ferry captains they just handle their
vessels
perfectly. This is the fuel station
and this is the tiny marina here. They do
have mooring balls here
so if you can't get stern to here you
can tie up on a mooring ball there
I love this place it's really cool
They're also very big on recycling, this
is all electronic stuff that's waiting
to be picked up for the next ferry
They're collecting lids
and these are all the recycled two sign
which can all be processed in one go
They have their own crushing machine
which crushes up the plastic bottles and
the aluminium cans
and bundles it all up ready to be taken
back to the mainland for recycling
That's where we've spent our first and
second night on Alonnisos. A bit rolly in
there so we moved around
to here for our third
night absolutely beautiful little
anchorage and today we've come all the
way across here
down here, around here and into here
Tomorrow we go even further that way
I woke up at six this morning here at
the Greek island of Skyros in the
harbour port area
and prepped the boat, had a shave,
had a shower
it's now seven o'clock and
life for me right now is about
babysitting the boat
and the systems, massive logistics
and handling stress
one thing I didn't plan on was that
ferry behind me coming in
yesterday and staying for the night
because the ferry just happens to dock
right next to the fueling station
My plan was to fuel up this morning, hahaha
because we've used probably around about
50 percent of our
fuel capacity in the main tank and
being a conservative kind of person in
case I need to go to a contingency plan
I like to have full complement of fuel
on board
The ferry doesn't leave until eight o'clock
so then we can leave
here and just pop over to the fuel dock
and fuel up
approximately a 100 litres from our best
estimates looking at our
engine hours and distance traveled but
then again
we've now got a
10-hour hop to the next little island
that we're planning on staying at
That's a plan A. Plan B is a further two
hours after that
so if you calculate that time worst case
scenario we'll be pulling into Plan B
around about eight o'clock at night when
the sun is just going
down to the horizon so again it's all
about logistics
but it will be what it will be that's
that's my story this morning
Mine is i woke up at 5:30 hahaha
and kind of lay there thinking oh
okay we've got a long trip
a bit nervous because you know like
because we're sort of like looking at
electrical issues on the boat as well
aren't we
that too - which we'll go into at
another time. But you've just gotta
keep going step by step and
so, you know, close the hatches, close the
seacocks
got all ready, it's ... you just ... I think
I think there's always some kind of
uncertainty or fear or
unknown or issue
when you're sailing or with a boat if
you're living on one
um and I think you just have to
learn to grow big enough so that you can
kind of
encompass all of that ew, worry
and still enjoy the good stuff along the
way. So that that's kind of where I'm at
this morning so bacon sandwiches
always good
fill the belly with something tasty
And I think
on this long trip I will be having a
sleep sometime in the in the middle of
the day
Anyway let's find out what happens when
we get to fuel up and get out of ... get out of town.
Get out of Dodge
It's been a nice Dodge
Yeah it's a beautiful place
oh yeah if I ... if we had time I'd stay
here for a few days and have a look
around the island definitely
It's, I think it's the biggest
of the Sporades islands
Visit here if you're in the area it's good
So our calculations of how much fuel we
used was
pretty spot-on it was 108.7 litres
that we put in and we estimated
around 110 I think
so that was uh 133 Euros
Okay it's just after eight o'clock
it's time to hit the road Jack
Well that was an interesting ride all
round really
It started off with absolutely zero wind
slowly built up to 10 and mostly 15
and by the end when we just came around
the lee of this island
I looked and it was 26 but considering
it wasn't too bad but the waves were
just huge. Yeah on the beam
Right on the beam. It was like a roller
coaster ride. Yeah
and um so we've we've anchored, this is a
basically an uninhabited island
it's called uh Anti Psara and
Anti Psara
We call it Aunty Sarah
and there's just this big bay on the
south of the island
where it's pretty much three or four
metres deep that's it
and it's all sand so we just thought
we'd stay here for tonight because
well why not um a bit of isolation does
you good
and you just dived the anchor and it looks
good? Oh yeah all you can see is the roll
bar and
just the top thin edge of the uh shaft
so it's
like couldn't get in any further in really
Trying to get back on the boat
I kept swimming and the boat kept going
away and I'm like
I could be here forever
That was me with the bow thruster!
So - all right - we're staying with Auntie
Sarah tonight yeah
She's a quiet thing - yeah - shouldn't be
any loud music. And the next hop is
to Chios. Yeah. I want to check the
weather for tomorrow
and I just want to once again
uh look at my plan a, b, c anchorages
I'll join you with that. Okay we'll do that.
Oh
I'll join you with that too. Cheers
Join us next week on Sailing A B Sea
as we continue southeast to Chios island
and then on to Samos to check out of
Greece for Turkey
and also try and solve our anode and
electrical problems
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Have a great week and see you next
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