Almost sinking on first week
By: Mat
What happened???
Did we hit the bottom? Another ship? No, we did not hit anything! You have to read to know more! (or skip to the bottom for the impatient)
We just got our paperwork & insurance solved, and after being stuck at anchor for 1 month we are MORE than ready to head out. The plan is to go around the "Argolic Golf" for a few hops for a sea trial of the boat.
The Plan was: Porto Cheili to Plaka (1 day) and back to Porto Cheili to assess the boat. But we had so much fun and we looked at the weather and we decided to keep going down to Monemvasia since we had a good weather window with lots of wind Downwind to come back from Monemvasia to Porti Cheili.
Before we start, let's talk about our sailing experience. We both learned to sail via Bluewater Sailing School Jan-2021, 1 week at sea with a captain learning ASA-101/103/104. We also rented a Sailboat for 2 weeks to go from the Florida keys to Dry Tortuga, It includes a few full-day sails of 60NM, but never any overnight passage. You might say it is NOT a LOT of sailing experience 馃檭 and you are right 馃ぃ, but we are far from clueless, we have our carte bateau du quebec did study a lot and tried to learn as much as possible from books and Youtube sailors out there.
Plaka 螤位维魏伪, Greece
Plaka was great, lots of places to anchor if the wind is southward. We did spend a few relaxing days in the bay before heading to the local marina.
Mitropoli 螠畏蟿蟻蠈蟺慰位畏
Head south to Monemvasia... but the mountains are so big so we did not move much south and we anchored around 螠畏蟿蟻蠈蟺慰位畏. We also saw tuna swimming next to the boat on crystal clear water... yes TUNA nagging us while we had a fishing line up the back 馃槖. It was the first time we Med moored, let's just say with crystal clear water we found the rock & cliff super close by.
Monemvasia 螠慰谓蔚渭尾伪蟽喂维
We finally arrived at 螠慰谓蔚渭尾伪蟽喂维, another gorgeous day as usual. We had 2 great days exploring the city waiting for the storm back (Yep... more on this later). Relaxing day of drinking, hiking, shopping, sweating, swimming...
The Story
We were with my parent and they had a flight scheduled somewhere in the next week, so since it took 3 days to go down to Monemvasia we could have returned earlier when we were around Mitropoli, but the wind prediction was of a really GOOD wind of ~20N/h (> 37km/h) from the back all the way from Monemvasia to Ermioni. If you go 7km/h against a 20km/h wind it will feel like a strong 27km/h wind, but if you go 7km/h in the same direction as a 20km/h wind you will only feel 13km/h wind. This is a HUGE difference. This means going with the wind is MUCH more relaxing. So this is why going against a storm would be a no-go, but since it was in the direction we wanted to go it was an opportunity to cover 50NM (~90km) in a day (daylight).
The Plan was to start early in the morning ~6am as the wind rose and have a medium relaxed day of downwind sailing. So as we proceeded we saw bigger and bigger waves, we had a few whirlwind gusts and also wind shifts and no wind from the massive mountain, it was a day with a few mistakes including an accidental jibe but nothing broke. So lucky!!! Nobody was sick, but everyone was a bit stressed since the wave was around 2m wave from the back and it was really impressive to see.
So wat?
I see no problem here!?! Fun adventure and a bit of a storm??? That's it? No, this is where 馃挬 hit. At some point, we were in a dead calm, with no more wind... It was supposed to be a STORM!?!? with heavy wind??? The problem is that the waves keep going and rocking the boat like a wine cork, super unpleasant, so we started the engine and ran for about 30min. When the wind started again we stopped the engine and we started to hear a "Touf touf touf" pause for 6 seconds and another "Touf touf touf" and so on... after about a minute trying to figure out what was we heard a loud alarm Beep from the inside. But it cannot be, the only thing that has an alarm is the Bilge pump, so what could it be??? I Go down the stairs and open the engine compartment and see 30cm of water just under the engine!?!?!? WTF??? We are sinking??? I open the shaft area behind the engine and... we have an engine... but no more shaft!!! This means a 3cm hole in the boat is pushing water in. I did put my hand to stop so we at least now stop sinking 馃槀. Every boat carries a few cedar plugs exactly for this reason so we plugged the hole and move to the next problem. This means we cannot move the boat with the propeller anymore since it is GONE!!! Now we have no choice but to Sail! No more motors. The Good thing is that it is supposed to be a STORM so we had proper wind. We changed direction to Porto Cheili since we know the bay, dropped the Genoa and took out the storm sail. So we went from downwind to Broad/Beam reach and coasted along at a good pace for a 2.5 hours. During that time Cesine was downstairs removing the water out of the boat by the bucket. My parents were upstairs with their lifejackets and passports in a ziplock bag. I was upstairs enjoying a good relaxing sail.
Arriving
We contacted the previous owner that still lives in the bay so they met us at the entrance, worried about us. We dropped the sail and they helped us to push the boat with the dingy all the way to the mooring ball. As soon as we were attached a lot of stress went down.
What happened?
What happened is that the shaft unscrewed from the engine and went out of the boat. By chance, we have an anode that was blocked by the chair that holds the shaft. it could have been wayyyyy worse.