In this episode of Sailing A B Sea we begin our journey to our winter haul out destination, but before we can get there we need to find a refuelling dock. Lu...

Closed Captions (CC):
And I set it up pointing downwards and

of course the cap fell off into the

water and I had to dive in and retrieve

it. It was quite pleasant in there though 24

degrees in the water at the moment so

it's warmer in the water than it is out

here. And where is here? Where are we? Don't know

We don't know where we are

But we know where we're going

How good's that? Christmas is coming and it's my list.

I'm not sure about the electric wakeboard

for Christmas Baz, sorry, but I do know

that in last week's episode we left you

guys and gals wondering if we were going

to get to Sounion without any more engine trouble

... but we do have a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust. Yeah. Which is more than usual

How far have we got to go?

We've still got twelve miles. Okay

Let's go from here to here without incident. Yeah

That's cleared up now hasn't it? Relieved?

Well yeah, I mean I know what it is, it's something that I've suspecting for a long time

that's why it was on the jobs list for this winter. Definitely needs doing.

Coz we're actually getting deisel soot inside the engine bay at the moment

So it must be some sort of crack in the exhaust elbow

Or something. Or a rusty part of the exhaust elbow

so it's

just a big job that needs to be done

this winter

We are back in the anchorage at Sounio

for the third time and what a difference

a day makes

well it's not really a day it's probably

more like three or four weeks isn't it? Yeah

Last time we were here there were just

yachts and yachts and yachts. Today we've

arrived it's five past three in the

afternoon and there is us and one other

boat here. That's it. Yeah. So we had the

choice of where we wanted to anchor but

we decided that seeing as we anchored

here twice and had no problems we'd do the

same thing again and anchor in

the same spot because I think if

something's working yeah, just stick with it

Coz there doesn't seem to be anywhere else that's better sheltered from any swell that comes in

from the ferry so here's as good a place as any

Actually it's all right at the moment

we've got about five knots of wind

coming out of the west there and

so that's pointing as out towards the

opening which means that we're bows to any swell that's coming in anyway. Should be good. Sweet!

So you're gonna go and dive the anchor?

I am. Just in case. Yeah and I

know that I won't get run over today

no chance. It was a bit dicey last time

Okay going. All right

The anchor, you can just see the roll bar

and most of the shaft is covered so the

anchor is firmly set. What about the prop

and keel any signs of any stuff around

either of them? No nothing. So more than likely that

issue is the exhaust elbow getting

sooted up [Loud voice comes over VHF Radio]

Yeah and just

like he said, yeah. Yeah. Whatever the man said. Whatever the man said

Wednesday morning, another mostly

windless day, it's pretty calm out there

We're off to fill up the fuel tank today

as we do another three-hour hop to Porto

Rafti we will go past a marina and

they've got a fuel dock which is fairly

easy to get onto and off where we can

top off all fuel tanks and I'll give you

a breakdown of why and our reasoning

behind topping off our fuel now

You might find this interesting.

As we left Sounion we were 117 nautical

miles away from our haul out destination

at Limni

If there was no wind that would

be 24 hours of motoring which would

consume 120 litres of diesel. Our fuel

tank was less than half full at 82 litres

therefore we needed to stop

somewhere soon to fill up the tank

I can't get in there

As there was another boat at the fuel dock Baz

turned A B Sea around in the confined space

and we headed back out to wait our turn

When we get up close you ask them out how

long they think that they'll be there refuelling

With 20 knots of wind on our nose we

decided we may have a better sail if we tacked

however the wind gods had other ideas

So much for tacking. You've just don't know do you

The bow is all over the place

The wind can come and go

and you can see out there that it's probably less than 10 now

1.3 knots of speed

Motor sail?

Well that would defeat the whole object of sailing.

It would wouldn't it! Coz we're actually sailing

to save fuel so motor sailing is the same thing so

if we put the motor on we might

as well just go straight to where we

want to go. Yeah. I've not got enough

head way to keep the bow in line. Yeah

What you want to do captain?

It's a tough call

I need the wind speed to make headway

to keep the bow in line, to keep the sails

pointed high into the wind

but it looks like the wind's actually

dropping quite a lot.

15 knots of apparent wind and

I'm doing 2.6 knots of speed which again

defeats the whole object of what we were

doing in the first place. So now it's

gonna take us four hours instead of two

So I think what we're going to do is

we're gonna say bugger it and put the

engine on, point at Porto Rafti, put the bloody

sails away and damn the wind. It's so frustrating

He feels very strongly about that

Windy said we were going to have less

than five knots of wind today. Windy was

telling porky pies wasn't it Baz? Oh very

big porky pies. We had 20 knots of wind

on the nose today. Windy sometimes I just

don't know what you're thinking

Anyhoo we're here, we're at Porto Rafti again,

it's about nearly three o'clock in the

afternoon, it took a little bit longer

than we expected so we're glad we left

early. We did manage to refuel on the way

so that was always good and we got here

with enough light so that we could miss

the weed and find a sandy patch. Yeah

So we're in. We've moved slightly off

where we usually anchor because a lot of

people swim there and as you saw in a

previous video we had a few difficulties

last time with a guy who was snorkeling

too close as we were trying to leave. Yes

So we've come off there and gone into

slightly deeper water but that's fine

we're expecting the wind to drop and

just like the camera. Did you say that?

Camera's gone [nods]. Camera's had enough

So we are expecting the wind to drop and we

might stay here for two days. Yeah get a

bit more work done before we do the next

thing although I think it would be wise

to check the other wind prediction sites

just to be sure to be sure. Yeah. So, off we

go. Off we go. I'm gonna have a cup of tea now

and a slice of cake. Slice of ... that'd be

nice

Lovely to see you again too and

thanks. Maybe see you up the Channel. Yeah yeah

Next round's on us.

Have a good trip!

Good morning! It's Friday and we're just leaving

Porto Rafti and we're making our way over

to Evia island and we going to an

anchorage called Strongilo

It's about 20 nautical miles away so at

our speed it's probably going to take

about four hours. There's not really very

much wind, we haven't come out of Porto Rafti itself just yet but there's no wind

predicted. Well we how accurate they can be!

But the sea looks very calm

and flat out there so we figure we'll

probably be motoring most of the way

Anyway when we get there we'll have

another little chat and tell me how long it took

Haha! It seems my calculations were a little

bit out because we've been going a bit

faster than we thought

Oh yeah, it's been quite good

We've been doing about 5.9, 6.1 knots, it's just dead flat, I think the wind is probably

around about five or six knots so not

really an issue and it's been a very

easy three hour hop really hasn't it?

Yeah it's been lovely the sea is so calm

Yeah. There's a bit of traffic around but

not much. We're the only yacht we've seen

I reckon this time of year any yachties

that still out are probably going south

because I have noticed today that there

is a bit of a

chill factor in that breeze isn't there?

We've both got our hoodies on

Hoodies, slippers ... Winter is coming

Aye, winter is coming

You know nothing Jon Snow

So we're about an

hour away from our destination and

hopefully there'll be nobody else there

and we'll just be able to anchor where we

plan to anchor. Yep apparently it's 45 metres of sand. Sand!! We love sand

Yeah looking forward to it actually.

It's been a nice kind of

relaxing, cruisy. Chilly like chilled chilled

Chilled and chilly. Yeah. Alright when we get

there we'll show you what it looks like

Absolutely no need to dive the anchor

because the water's so clear here we can

actually see the anchor and she's

definitely dug in

Well I just had my early morning bath

I was setting up the

GoPro at the bow to film the anchor and

anchor chain coming up and I'd forgotten

to take the little protective cap off

the outside cover of the housing and I

set it up pointing downwards and of

course the cap fell off into the water

and I had to dive in and retrieve it. It was

quite pleasant in there though, 24 degrees

in the water at the moment so it's

warmer in the water than it is out here

and where is here? Where are we?

Don't know. We don't know where we are.

We know where we're going.

We're going to Eretria. We are going to Eretria

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