Rally and Regatta...

The rain - it did rain!

 Sorry for the late publication this week but I have been on the South Ionian Rally and Regatta all week.  We have raced Tony's yacht, Timoni, which is essentially identical to ours, a Gibsea 302.  On Sunday afternoon Tony and I took it down to Sivota to be nearer the start on Monday afternoon at Poros bay just around the corner.

The rest of the crew LtoR Tree, Mike, Bruce and Skipper Tony.

 Late on Sunday it became apparent that a storm was in the offing and during the night a serious wind got up.  Next morning while Tony was still snoring away in his pit I decided to go for a walk to stretch my back a little and got just nicely out of the village when it started to spit with rain.  Before I had got back to the boat the had opened and I got soaked to the skin.  This persisted most of the day with increasing and variable winds.

In Little Vathi, Meganisi after the second first day of racing.

We toyed with the idea of going around the headland to what the weather was like out in open seas.  In the end Skylax (Rod Heikell) decided to take a peep out and within minutes all the guys who had made the effort to get to Poros were streaming into Sivota with tales of mountainous seas and up to fifty knots of wind across the decks. The racing for Monday was abandoned!

Vying for position in the start at Vasiliki.

Tuesday Morning we had to first sail around to Vasiliki, were we should have finished Mondays race, before setting off for day two, around the bottom of Meganisi and the to little Vathi in the north of the island.  Big swell and fairly strong winds still but we all arrived safe and sound.  We had evening entertainment in the taverna from the band Lemonade who came down for Thessaloniki especially for the regatta.

 Day three was around the cans north east of Meganisi.  We had three separate races and some really terrific racing in strongish winds, however a couple of over zealous boats resulted in damage to some boats.  We ourselves had been in several near misses over the last couple of days due to people not really understanding, or abiding by the rules.  Cracking sailing though!  Onto Dessimi bay for the evening at anchor and a BBQ in the beachside taverna.

Away with a flyer

A ferry decides he has the right to bust up the party.

Liz, waiting for us at Sivota after the final race.

Day Three was the actual regatta race rather than the rally and involved perhaps 150 yachts of all shapes and sizes.  The course taking us around Arcoudi island and back to Sivota.  Again some unbelievable sailing although the wind did start to diminish before the end and within about a mile of the finish line we managed to get the spinnaker flying, we had been hoping for about a five mile homeward run with it but this wasn't to be the case.  We passed the guys we needed to beat to keep ourselves happy and that was the main thing.

After the race finished we managed to get a pontoon mooring in the bay and readied ourselves for the party, three bands playing including Lemonade who we had enjoyed earlier in the week.

Then today home for a much needed shower, I'm sure I must have stank not having had a shower since since Sunday but it was all well worth it for a wonder week of sailing.  Thanks to Tony for allowing his boat to be used and for putting up with me for the week and cheers to Mike, Bruce and Tree for the entertainment as well as the sailing.