Since the party went so late, yesterday we slept in late and were really out of it all day. We are normally in bed by 2200 (10:00 pm) kind of people, and we just don’t adjust well to the late nights.

Eric was up earlier than Christi, and he went for a swim. There was zero wind outside and it was roasting hot. The kind of heat where, when you are sitting still, your clothes become sopping wet from sweat. We had lunch with Maria, Costas and Koralia. After lunch, Costas, Koralia and a couple of their friends came to see boat. Later in the afternoon, we went to beach and spent a little time with Koralia’s family.

About an hour before sunset, we said our goodbyes. Our passage to Katacolon was expected to take 2 ½ days, and it is better to leave at sunset and arrive in the morning than to leave in the morning and risk arriving after dark. It was hard to go because we had such a good time with them, but we were eager to get west. One, this was an unusual calm in the normally painfully gusty Aegean weather pattern, so we needed to take advantage of it. Two, as we moved west, the winds would become significantly better. We were so ready for better winds. And, three, we have so many more countries yet to explore!

Normally, we’d try to leave while there was still some night out. But tonight the moon was completely full and was giving off as much light as a cloudy day does. The bottom was pure sand, so we didn’t have to worry about issues with the anchor. And, the tourist boats were done for the day, so with no boats and no wind, the bay was as calm as a swimming pool, so bringing in the paravanes and dinghy would be easy.

We were excited about this passage. We love flat seas, and with no wind, that is exactly what we were expecting. The forecast had predicted more wind than we had experienced in Bali, which was odd. Almost always the forecasts underestimate wind, not overestimate it.

As soon as we were out of the bay, we realized the forecast had off. There was 17 19 knots apparent of wind on our nose. Somehow, Bali had been blocked to the wind. The waves were, once again, short, steep, lumpy, and coming at rapid intervals. The ride was rocky and unpleasant. Sigh.

The wind slowly but surely picked up as the night wore on and by 0800 this morning, the wind was at 26 29 knots apparent on the nose. The seas followed suit, getting bouncier and consistently spraying the front windows as if it were a hose. While most of the waves were short and steep, we still got smacked by the occasional bigger wave, too. Conditions were bordering on “miserable”. It did get slightly better in the afternoon, with wind dropping down to 17 22, but it didn’t help reduce the wave velocity by much.

The adverse conditions were making our speed abysmally slow, doing between 4.5 and 5.1 knots at 1600 RPM. And it was too rough to pick up the RPM’s, which would just make the ride rougher. It is ironic that in nice seas we move fast (relatively speaking), and in rough seas we move slow. When it is nice, we could be happy at sea until all our food runs out. When it is ugly conditions like these, we become somewhat eager to get off the ship, and of course, the more restless we become, the slower we go.

We had another gorgeous fiery red sunset tonight, as well. The sunsets in this part of the world are dramatic.

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