In this episode of Sailing A B Sea we explain why this wasn't part of the plan and that sometimes you have to work with what you've got. Anchoring here... We...

Closed Captions (CC):
You can make as many plans as you want

on a boat but sometimes when you get

there you find that the bays are already

full with other yachts, the forces of

nature working against you and you end

up somewhere where you didn't think you

were going to be. Where should we be?

Fourni. Where are we?

Patmos. It's a nice place though!

We've just spent the last three weeks

doing this, working on our computers in

the summer office of Sailing A B Sea and

it's not a bad office I'm gonna be fair

with you, we've got cold beer downstairs

we've got a great view whichever way we

look here, oh and cold wine of course but

the reason why we've been working non-

stop for three weeks is because we

wanted to buy some time and Aannsha's

just working on a final video which will

mean that we've bought ourselves

approximately five to six weeks of time.

They're all uploaded, they're all done

they're all completed, they're all

scheduled for release and that means as

soon as the wind starts blowing in the

right direction we can then go off on a

sailing adventure and just chill out relax

because that's what this is all about

really. Not sitting in front of computers

every day.

My eyes are like this

We're in Patmos and we left

Pythagoria in Samos at 10:30 a.m.

yesterday hoping to go to Fourni

Yeah let that one go

Yeah, it wasn't too bad the wind was with us

most of the way and at one point we

actually got eight knots of speed, yeah

At one point we actually got I think 27

knots of wind, yeah, it was pretty good

yeah, maximum 30 gusts every now and then,

yeah. Well we got two Fourni, we did, and

there are several little bays that we

could have anchored in if everything was

going well. A couple of them were already

full and one of them had bad holding

didn't it? Yeah we tried to drop the

mantus twice but it obviously was very thin

sand over rock so it just dragged and of

course the wind was still blowing at 25

knots at that point. Yes it was. So it was getting a

bit hairy yeah getting pushed around

while getting the anchor back up yeah and had the potential to push us into some

other boats in there so we ditched that

cove went to another cove. Yeah another

little cove which actually looked like

really nice place to stop and it had

cemented posts that were on the side of

the coast yeah so you could actually do

stern to and then swimming across and

tying a line ashore. But 25-knot winds was

coming right on the on the backside so

yes would have blown us before Aannsha

would have had a chance to get a line

ashore (from the anchor) we'd have been all over the

place. Yeah, so it was just not possible

so we actually sailed across the cut

which is where the wind tunnels down which wasn't actually that bad.

Well it was still gusting to 30 there - hoping that one

of the little bays that we saw on the

chart plotter would be good holding. But

that turned out to be all rock so at

this point we're losing light - around

about 5.30-5.50pm we ended up making a

decision because we had no options left

really except go back to Samos which would have taken hours

So the decision was made to come to Patmos

which was only a two-hour trip away, yes

And of course the wind which had been

blowing like billy-o all day...

We got the headsail full out we were all gonna to go whoosh ... Nope! The

wind decides it's giving up for the day,

it's done its job, it's going home - yes. So

we had some motor because we needed to

reach this anchorage before it got dark

because you know one thing I certainly

don't want to do is come into an unknown

anchorage in the darkness. So we got here

with about an hour's daylight left yeah and dropped

anchor in this nice little day here we're in sick

meters of water, it's very clear water, the

bottom is sand with some weed patches

but the Mantus just went straight in and

boom! Wasn't that a relief? It was. That was

about eight o'clock at night. So it was

quite a long day for us actually. It was a

huge day. Yeah and it was an adventure

chock-full of different scenarios that

we hadn't expected... which is why we doing this. Yeah

So of course Patmos is further south

than we anticipated we were gonna go at

this stage of the journey because really

we wanted to head west and slightly

north so we've sat down this morning

with Google Earth, the pilot guidebook

and also the chart plotter and mapped

out roughly where we're gonna go next

which surprisingly is a little bit south

again. A little bit South but also West

Mmm, but the direction that we're going

to go in is going to open up a lot of

islands for us. Yeah, so it feels like a

really good choice yes doesn't it and I

think the biggest hop we've gotten is

like 26 miles, which we like the idea of. That's

easy to do, because as well that means

that if one anchorage is full then we

haven't got far to go before you know we

can find somewhere else

sort of thing so. Leave early enough

in the morning and you still leave

yourself plenty of daylight hours. Yes. So

today I'm gonna download footage from

the cameras, recharge all the batteries

because already our batteries on the

boat are full and we are producing much

more power than we need from our solar

array. So we're gonna get hot water. We've

already got hot water. Basically just make sure

that when we're ready to move everything's good to go

It's a nice little bay. I'm happy

that we actually found here, I mean it

seems to me that, you know, the universe

has got better plans than we had. Time to

chill out I think. Yeah

From 30-knot

winds just a day ago we've woken up to

this this morning almost zero wind, just

a light breeze but dead calm seas, dead

flat, really really comfortable to sleep

when it's like this.

Now how many of you are old enough to

remember a kids TV cartoon from 1971

called the Hair Bear Bunch? I do I think

it was probably about nine years old at

the time. I think with my hair at the

moment I qualify for a leading role if

they ever decide to bring back the Hair

Bear Bunch. But today we're going to fix

that. Just over here off our starboard

side is a small cove and we're going to

take the dinghy over there and Aannsha's

going to turn it into a hairdressing

studio so I look fabulous again

Well this is probably one of the most

interesting places I've ever had a

haircut. Thank you. You're welcome!

Quite a few of our regular viewers have

asked us to explain how we go about

passage planning, so I think we'll use

the Greek island of Amorgos in the

example here. The first place we look is

the pilot book and in our case it's the

Greek Waters Pilot book and we're

looking at the island of Amorgos

and so we read all the information that

the author has given us on the island

itself, the approaches, mooring facilities

and all the different anchorages and

then we work out which one that is our

preferred anchorage. In this case it's

Katapola because it's got the best

holding and he's even got a photograph

of it here and then we also chose two

other anchorages, Plan B and Plan C just

in case Katapola was full or it didn't

turn out to be what we expected. Our

Greek Waters Pilot book is quite old but

the essential information that we

require from it really never changes.

These are things like, what is the bottom

is it mud, is it sand, is it weed? Are

there any obstructions? What is the

prevailing wind? And are there any

submerged rocks or reefs that we should

look out for? Of course it does mean that

the facilities that are reported in the

book are usually a pleasant surprise

when we get there because they've been

upgraded since the book was written.

After gathering all the information we

can from the pilot book we then go and

have a look at our chart plotter because

it is the most up-to-date information we

have on the area that we're planning on

anchoring. This is basically just to

cross-reference the information that we

found in the pilot book and make sure

that nothing major or dramatic has

changed. Generally the chart plotter also

contains photos of the area we're

thinking of anchoring in which is very

helpful and it gives us the water depth

at the anchorage of choice. Depending on

the details of the information it may

also tell us what the bottom is. The

prevailing winds for the time of year

that you're visiting also play an

important part in choice of anchorage

Throughout the summer months here in the

Aegean Sea the Meltemi is the wind

that we have to take most consideration

of and it generally blows from the north

northwest or northeast,

depending on exactly where you are in

the sea. Once we've decided on our plan A,

B and C for preferred anchorages, we put

those waypoints into the chart plotter

and then we head back down below to the

computer and open up Google Earth. In

here we can actually see the most recent

aerial photographs of the preferred

anchorages and we also get to plot out

exactly which path we're going to take

to get there. This gives us the distance

in nautical miles and from that we can

generally estimate how long it's going

to take us to get there

based on five knots of speed. The final

thing we look at are the wind prediction

websites. We use Windy and PredictWind

In particular we're looking for wind

direction, wind strength and also the

predicted gusts. Based on what we see

here we are the go or we don't go and

that's generally how we plan our

passages while we are here in the

Mediterranean Sea.

Good morning people it is Friday

and we've just up anchor to

try and get another anchorage closer to

town because we wanted to grab some

internet, we're having internet issues

again. The solution we thought we had

is not working out because of rules of

regulations and small print and we'll get

around to that.

So we went into a little bay back there. The mantus just would not go in so we've

decided that we're going to another island

where we're actually going to anchor in

the big bay right next to the town and

that will allow us to put the dinghy in and

dinghy over to town and look for a Greek

Cosmote store to get internet data... mmm

Where are we going was it Lipsi? It's

not too far, we are sailing, we're doing

six knots at the moment which is nice.

It's pretty good isn't? Pretty good - yeah with 17

knots of wind. Sweet

Time of arrival 1:30 - then we're gonna

put the dinghy in, yeah, then we'll head

over to the little town, yeah, and see if

we can find somewhere to buy some

data for our internet. Yes coz we're

running very very low. Yes. I'm gonna do

this Ship's Log now. Okay. See you soon.

Well we did think we had the

internet all sorted and done and dusted

but unfortunately the fine print reads

that with ''3' from the UK the SIM card

even though we're paying for a hundred

gigabytes of data per month when you use

the SIM card overseas you can only

access 19 gigabytes of data per month and

you can only be using it in Europe for

four months out of the year. Internet woes.

I'm sure every yachty has them but of

course when you work on the internet

like we do then you really need a lot of

data. There's got to be a solution out

there somewhere. There's got to be.

Next week

on Sailing A B Sea, our mission to find

Internet data takes us over hill and

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