Agios Nikolaos to Poros

Peter Robinson

I wanted to wait until the wind started before I left Zakynthos. it was due around 2pm but at 1ish I saw a gulet leave the nearby wall and raise it's mizzen immediately. it seemed to fill and was still full as it passed the little island on the same track as we were going to go. I decided to leave then which in hindsight was an error. Once out in the bay it was clear there was basically no wind at all and so I had to motor for just less than an hour including getting the anchor up, etc. the wind did eventually just about start from the west and we bobbed along between 2 and 3.5 knots. the promised increase in wind never materialised. When the boat reached the Cephalonian coast, I avoided the shallows at the south eastern tip of the island but the combination of swell and no wind meant that the engine went back on. as we headed to Poros the wind got stronger from the north (where we were headed) and the waves became fairly steep until we were bashing into a nasty chop. at this point the wheel literally came off in my hand. We quickly.got back on course using the inner helm and then while I fixed the wheel we stayed on autopilot. basically the nut had worked loose. we came into Poros with a strong wind and after some confusion as to the location of the berth and Naxos' ability to reverse in a straight line we went bows in. unfortunately the bow line slipped and the stem got a few scrapes against the port wall. other than that, all good. the engine held up pretty well with the oil pressure warning light only coming on during manoeuvring.