In this episode of Sailing A B Sea Baz gets a little apprehensive before negotiating the shallows and narrows of the Evia channel in Greece before passing th...

Closed Captions (CC):
On the phone. He hasn't even noticed we're here.

Not much point being the stand on vessel if the other person doesn't see you

Malaka! Yeah, malaka!

There you go Nikos, we used the word, malaka! Yeah!

So we stayed overnight here last night it was

a little bit lumpy as the Sun was going

down its totally exposed to the south

and the west, very exposed, but the

holding is good it is fine sand, the

anchor went in the first time and I think

we're in five metres of water so it

wasn't too bad at all and overnight it

just calmed out completely because

there's been no wind and we had a good

night's sleep. So we're off this morning.

Where are we off from? Strongilo to

Eretria yeah on Evia island in Greece.

Anyway time to get a hustle on, we've got five

hours ahead of us

The chart showed there was a cable fairy

tuned from Eretria and Oropos on the

mainland so we wanted to avoid that and

as we'd never crossed one of these

before we were a bit concerned about

snagging the cable as we entered the

shallow water of Eretria Harbour

Gawd, I can't believe we've left that much ...

that's embarrassing

That's soot

Gawd, it's embarrising. Yeah

All right time of arrival? Ten past two.

Well we're on our

way to get hauled out to fix it aren't we?

We've arrived in Eretria on Evia

Yeah like a mill pond all the way

through. Absolutely zero wind, well maybe one or

two knots of wind but that's about it

We're gonna stay here for one night

tonight and then tomorrow we do a final

push to the Chalkis bridge where we'll

anchor up there for Sunday night and

then either Monday or Tuesday night

we'll go through the bridge

depending on what time it opens. Then

after that it's just a gentle - tootle -

without any limitations or places to get

to until it's time for haul out. Yeah

Yeah it's a really hazy sort of day. Mm-hmm

yeah I've been taking footage but I

don't know how much I'll actually be

able to use. It's a lovely place actually. This is

a great little place. You know if you're

looking for somewhere on Evia in Greece

to come and see and anchor it's very nice. It's picturesque.

Yeah yeah good good sandy bottom for

holding well and fairly shallow I think

we're in six, five / six metres - yeah - so it's

it's great. And they've got a cable ferry

and they've got two one here and one

on the mainland and they cross and

they're pretty constant but there's

hardly any swell at all. Nothing at all

really

I'd like to get off and stretch my legs and

see but we've got work to do. Work

So I'd better go and do it hey? Okay. Bye. Bye

The following morning we lifted the anchor

and began our passage towards Eretria

but I couldn't help noticing that

Baz was a bit stressed

So tell me why you're feeling nervous today Baz.

Well we're going to

go up through the very narrow part of

the Evia channel and it gets quite

narrow and it also gets quite shallow so

I'm a bit - I'm just a bit edgy about it you

know. Looking at the chart it is marked

with channel markers, red and green

channel markers but you know just don't

go I mean I don't know what kind of

traffic is coming the other way. There's

not a lot of wiggle room if something

big is coming and you know

it's got a deeper draught than us so

then we've got to go into shallower

water. It gets down to five metres in some

places, seven metres on average of depth and

while that's fine for us with two metres

of draught, as I say it just doesn't give

me a lot of wiggle room if something

big's coming the other way. We've got to go

underneath a bridge, it's 36 metres tall which

is fine because we've only got a

19 metre air draft so we should pass under

that without any issues. But just a lot

of following channel markers and I'm just a

bit, a bit edgy about it that's all.

Of course we do have an issue with the

engine at the moment, we are blowing

diesel smoke into the engine compartment and

that's got to be looked at, that's a big

job that we've got to do and I'm just

I'm just concerned about the the engine

being able to breathe correctly and

exhaust correctly, so that's another

little thing that's just making me edgy

I'm really really, I just want to get

through the bridge at Chalkis and you know get

to our winter destination and get this

this girl hauled out

So yeah just a lot of stuff going on in

my head. It's probably all gonna be fine

but that's how I'm feeling

We'll be fine.

Yep.

As we approached the cement factory we got

our first glimpse of the suspension bridge

Well we've arrived and my anticipation

was not met

So all the anxiety this

morning and probably last night? Yeah

Yeah was for nothing? Yeah I mean it was

fairly straightforward

I think coming through on a Sunday when

there's probably very little traffic helps

There was no wind there was no waves no

wind so it's all good

I would imagine though if you meet

traffic coming underneath the bridge

itself - the suspension bridge they've

got before the opening bridge here you

would have to stop and make

considerations for who was coming

through first but

today we just had to negotiate four little

fishing tinnies. That was it really and they got out the way. Yeah.

But the buoys are really

clear and you know the markings and

everything so. And the depths are fine as

long as you keep looking at your chart

you can't really go wrong. So today we'll

just chill out and then tomorrow being

Monday we will go in to see the Port

Authority, pay the appropriate fee, show

them all our documents they want to see

our DEKPA, insurance and boat

registration papers and once we've got

all that sorted out we just sit and wait

until the right time at night and then

they radio us and tell us to head on

through as the bridge is opening. Yeah. So it's going to be exciting I mean we can see it from here

it's tiny, it looks like something you

might see in Venice actually. Yeah!

* Baz sighs * I can relax now. Good, now we can have breakfast. And breathe. Breathe!

Next week on Sailing A B Sea we get a great

evening timeslot for passing through the

old bridge at Chalkis and eventually

spend our final night on the water

attached to a mooring ball just offshore

from our winter haul out yard.

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