We didn’t rush to leave our mooring overnight. The weather seems much better. At least it is sunny.
But there does seem to be quite a bit of wind. The guy who took our money last night did say the weather
forecast for today was for strong winds.
However, Richard has been in the internet and assures me that it will be
just a 4, and we will be going downwind.
So we set off. As it is so
sunny Richard suggests that we go to one of the anchorages we saw yesterday evening
for the afternoon. As we get out
of the shelter of the bay we find that it is not a force 4 wind at all. It is a 5 gusting 6 or more. In fact the gusts get up to 28
knots. We put up the genoa and
sail just on that. It is more or
less a following wind so we go quite nicely. We then take the sail in and find the Cala Coticcio. There are a number of other boats
there. One is a lovely Oyster we
saw going in there yesterday. In
fact, the anchorage is made up mainly of native English speakers. The Oyster is from Australia, there is
us, another smaller British boat flying a red ensign and a larger classic
looking craft flying an American flag!
We set the anchor down and decide to stay for a few hours. The bay is sheltered from the worst of
the wind, but it is still fairly windy especially when the wind swoops over the
cliffs and swirls around. We take
down the bimini, because the wind makes it cool, and we have been out of the
sun for a while. We are waiting to
get hot enough to go swimming. The
water is a beautiful colour blue and crystal clear. Richard goes in first and has a bit of a snorkel. I did not bring my snorkel pipe. I wasn’t going to go in, but in the end
I do have a little dip.
We toy with the idea of staying here for the night, but strictly
speaking, we don’t have a permit because ours runs out at midnight. So we go back to the original plan of
returning to Palau for the night.
Well, that was a bit of a mistake.
We weren’t aware of how much shelter we had at our anchorage. When we get out we find that the wind
is blowing a 5 gusting 7 and then a pretty steady 6. That wouldn’t be so bad, except it is more or less on the
nose! We try sailing on genoa only
to the wind with the intention of trying to find calmer water further in, but
that seems to be an illusion. So
after an hour of bucking waves, we give up and put the engine on and slog into
the wind. Not a nice journey at all.
But worse is to come. When
we get to Palau, and before I can call up the marina, a man from the marina
comes out in a rib and says they are full and the only place for us is a
mooring buoy outside the harbour.
We think he is directing us to the buoy to help us with our lines, but
no. He just disappears back into
the harbour and leaves us to it.
And mooring is a nightmare.
It is blowing 24-26 knots most of the time and we can’t line up to a
buoy to get a line through. I have my special catch buoy machine, but I can’t
latch the top on to the buoy because the wind is blowing my gadget away from
the buoy. After about half a dozen
attempts we decide to try another tactic.
This one I used to use in Brittany. Richard reverses to the buoy and I hang off the bathing
platform and feed the line into the buoy by hand. Once I get the line on, I will walk the buoy to the front of
the boat and secure the line.
Well, in this wind and swell, this is not easy. I do get the line on quite well, but
the force of the wind almost drags me into the water on two or three occasions
while I try to secure it to the front of the boat. I finally get us sort of tied on. Now we want to secure a second line. Richard does that with the hooking
machine. But this all takes over
an hour! We are shattered. Now that we are tied on we find that
this is a very uncomfortable spot.
We are in a bay which should provide good protection from the westerly
wind but it is still blowing a 6 and it is very rolly. I think is may be just about as bad as
Vernazza, but Richard says it is nothing like so bad. Nonetheless, I have to take a seasick pill to make sure of
being able to cope below.
Richard looks up the weather and it is not good. The wind remains strong for the next
day and a half at least. We don’t
want to stay here, so we shall have to make some other plans. Richard is searching through the books
for a solution, while I make us dinner.
The wind is dropping, but the boat is still bouncing around like a
cork. Maybe the motion will put us
to sleep!
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