It was a very productive day when we arrived in Vonitsa on Sunday afternoon. We got the mainsail back on with Todd up top doing the reconnecting and me in the cockpit handling the “spaghetti”. A few other boats were taking theirs down as their season was over but ours was just getting started, we were that late!
Monday morning Todd got the remaining port winch parts installed and it responded with enthusiasm! More boats arrived throughout the day, and our once comfortable spot became decidedly uncomfortable when this fella anchored on top of us (see photo below). We all knew that 30 plus knots of wind were due after midnight. In situations like this we always just re anchor. If anything happens we like to have a bit of sea room to sort things out and not have to worry about other boats. Unfortunately, the new location had spotty holding due to it being at a river outlet and the silt was soft. After 3 tries we had a solid hook.
On Monday evening, we got to watch an impressive 3 hours of lightning which was gradually getting closer, and finally around 1 am a ferocious blast of wind arrived with torrential rain and we had the opportunity to re-anchor! (We also got our hair washed and most of our clothes, bonus!)
We took turns on anchor watch as the storm wore itself out, and in the morning, were greeted with some cool cloud formations.
