Kingfisher Yacht Cyprus

There are rarely photos of me sailing, but on Saturday we went out with some friends and they took photos of me! Helen came along as my 'crew' since they haven't sailed before. It was a wonderful gentle sail, then lunch and a swim. One of the nice things about sailing in weather that is calm is that it's 50% sailing and 50% socialising! Liza is kind of the ideal boat for this. A day boat that means you can take small kids who might need the toilet and safe for them but not too large so the sailing is a bit more than setting the autopilot and leaving it sail itself. Fishing? No, we don't do that.

A gentle sail with Rod and Marianne… and Helen. Then lunch behind the port. Then Helen swims... well lots of things really. Just for fun here's a few slo-mo cannon balls and jumps.

Today is Kataklysmos Monday. (Whit Monday in English). I offered to take the Lange girls to bring their lunch onto Liza and swim. Elisabeth gets slightly seasick so the plan was to just motor to the anchorage behind the port, have lunch and swim and then motor back. There were a few more boats anchored today than Saturday. Sheila was looking after the young daughter of a friend and she went in with gusto -- wearing a buoyancy aid for safety! Helen complained the water was cold… but insisted on smiling for the camera! Elisabeth decided the water was cold but didn't smile for the camera! Both of them swam around deciding it wasn't cold when they got in. I really don't like swimming so just stay on the boat. Of course, once they were in, they were in and out and jumping in. Then it started to rain… in June… in Cyprus… so we went into the cabin for lunch.

We sailed from 10:30 till 14:30 then anchored behind the port for leisurely lunch and motored back to the marina. We were the only yacht out in Larnaca Bay that we saw today, despite being absolutely ideal weather for sailing. Katie is maybe not the most avid sailor…  but certainly enjoys being out on the water! This being Kataklysmos weekend I hope to sail at least one more time! 

What a wonderful relaxing day. We left the marina at about 10:15 and sailed out into the bay. Wind perfect. Sailing Perfect. There were at least a dozen other yachts out sailing, quite a few spinnakers in evidence. Anchor for lunch Then off to behind the port to anchor. Quite a few other boats there, some rafted up, others anchored.  Wind was south-east so the port breakwater protected us nicely.  Traditional lunch on board…  Fried Halloumi in pitta bread with salad. Lukas added an extra to this today with salami. Now that was a really brilliant mixture -- Halloumi with salami! Then time for a swim!  Lukas dived in… Helen jumped in! That is Lukas and Helen went swimming…  …I prefer to remain on board. Playing with slo-mo for when they jump in… Finally back at the marina we take the dinghy out and check it. It needs some repairs but the electric outboard worked well.

The plan for today was to go out for a two and a half hour sail, come in, swap crew and go out for another two and a half hour sail. The wind was light, Bft 2-4, the weather was forecast as cloudy/sunny spells. We went out for a sail and everything was fine... till suddenly there is a gust and significant wind shift for about a minute then settled down again. Then another one, but this time we're suddenly knocked about 15-20 degrees... again the significant wind shift… when we'd moved all the crew to the weather side of the boat a few seconds later we're flat again. As I say the wind was light, about Bft 3 by this stage. The Kingfisher K20+ displaces about 1.5 tonnes and has about 500kg ballast. So we're a light boat. Then we notice a small spray ring moving across the sea at probably 10 knots. Wow... the start of a water spout. By the time we'd seen the third spray ring and another sudden gust/wind shift, I decided that maybe being out in a small light sail...

We went out for a sail on Friday. Little amount of wind, but a glorious day out on the water. Helen came as crew with Chris and Judith who didn't really sail. We had a wonderful time just pottering around Larnaca Bay.