I left Vliho at almost exactly 1pm. I had to drive over the anchor three or four times to get it out. I motored out of the bay and through the chicane, and then got the genoa up and turned off the engine. the winds were extremely flukey and eventually I ended up having to pass the first of the islands on my port side. I tried several times to get the mainsail up but failed as the wind kept changing direction and the sail got caught in the rigging etcm Eventually in the lee of one of the islands I got the sail up double reefed and then sat there waiting for the wind to come I had occasional puffs from the starboard side but I knew when I cleared the island on my port side the wind would come from there, ie down the Lefkas channel. After what seemed an age I made it into the wind and had 20-23 knots just forward of the beam and a little bit of a sea. Rather than try to pinch too much in those conditions, I sailed pretty much straight across pinching when the wind and waves died down which I expected them to.  once I reached the other side, I tacked forwards and back with lots of local conditions affecting the wind, eg, there was more wind near land and the directions were slightly different also. When the winds were down to mainly 12 - 14 knots I shook the reefs out of the mainsail and the Genoa, although as the wind fluctuated I did reef the genoa appropriately. I did have a full Genoa and double reefed main in 20 knots apparent going upwind and the boat didn't feel over canvassed. the most flukey winds were right up at the north coast where I expected to make a tack to take me into the anchorage but got circular winds for a bit. there did seem to be quite a lot of wind coming from the anchorage itself but when I reached about half a mile from MollyMoo I turned the engine on and motored in. the anchor grabbed first time (in sand I hope but can't be sure) and I put out 40m in about 8m. The wind is still blowing 10-15 knots at 11pm.

Vliho To Pogonia

Crew: 1

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