Common wisdom is that its a bad idea to go North up the Cyclades in July or August, due to the regular northerly wind called the "Meltemi".
Here's the weather forecast for today, typical Meltemi stuff:
We wanted to go fifteen miles to the North. "Fine", we thought, "We'll reef and put in a couple of long tacks. We'll end up going 25 miles through the water, but that will only take 4-5 hours".
We set off, reefed down, ready for a good sail. To start off we were storming along at 6 knots in the right direction, but about a mile out of the bay, the wind died. The sea state was very confused, with large swells coming from several directions and many white horses. It certainly looked as though there was wind, but there was only 6-7 knots, changing direction through 100 degrees every ten minutes. With the swell, we didn't have enough speed even to steer in the right direction.
Yesterday, the same conditions had caused us to abort a similar plan to go North. Today, we stuck the engine on (gently, we're still paranoid about the wobbly transmission) and ploughed into it.
Three hours later the wind finally turned up, and we had a gusty sail into a beautiful anchorage on the island of Rinia, right next to Delos.
Today we learnt that the problem of going North against the Meltemi is not the strength of the wind. Rather, when its weak, it will have left the sea in a right mess.
Here's the weather forecast for today, typical Meltemi stuff:
SOUTHEAST AEGEAN IKARIO
WEST OF 26.00 NORTH NORTHWEST 5 LOCALLY 6 OVER NORTH PART 6 LOCALLY 7 AND EAST OF 26.00 NORTH NORTHWEST 5 LOCALLY 6. MODERATE
We wanted to go fifteen miles to the North. "Fine", we thought, "We'll reef and put in a couple of long tacks. We'll end up going 25 miles through the water, but that will only take 4-5 hours".
We set off, reefed down, ready for a good sail. To start off we were storming along at 6 knots in the right direction, but about a mile out of the bay, the wind died. The sea state was very confused, with large swells coming from several directions and many white horses. It certainly looked as though there was wind, but there was only 6-7 knots, changing direction through 100 degrees every ten minutes. With the swell, we didn't have enough speed even to steer in the right direction.
Yesterday, the same conditions had caused us to abort a similar plan to go North. Today, we stuck the engine on (gently, we're still paranoid about the wobbly transmission) and ploughed into it.
Three hours later the wind finally turned up, and we had a gusty sail into a beautiful anchorage on the island of Rinia, right next to Delos.
Today we learnt that the problem of going North against the Meltemi is not the strength of the wind. Rather, when its weak, it will have left the sea in a right mess.
I think I had borrowed the wind on Saturday. Did a double-handed race around the IoW and it was gusting 40kts at the Needles when we left Cowes, thought it dropped a little by the time we got there. Got round in under 8 hours (14kts through the water helped down the back of the island) and third over the line :).
ReplyDeleteThen Sunday almost no wind (I think you'd taken it back) first of the line and second by 57 seconds on corrected.
Impressive results.
ReplyDeleteBut we're yawning at your 40kt gusts. Real wind lasts at least a week.