Trawler Blogs

In Crete the wind increases again with large breaking swells in the open sea so we use the almost perfect shelter of Soudha Bay to leave Envoy safely anchored and visit the town of Chania, just about 20 minutes away by road. On arriving we see large seas breaking across the north-facing harbour entrance with tourists dodging residues of waves and spray coming up over the footpath and boats in the harbour surging back and forth to their mooring lines – we’re glad not to be moored here.
Chania is a great town, probably the prettiest in Crete with very quaint narrow streets and the ever present reminders of the Venetian fortress which once protected the harbour. Much of the fortress walls remain, and many more recent buildings are built into them.

One of Chania’s many stunning open-air dining areas

Chania’s quay for visiting yachts quiet now but bustling by night

Tourists view Chania by romantic horse-drawn carriage

We also drive along the coast to the village of Kolimvari and again find large breaking seas about two metres high right where we had anchored Envoy during 2010. How the sea can change!

Rough seas pound the shore at Kolimvari

In 2010 Envoy was anchored right here for several days

It’s from here that Sharon and Doug leave us after three great weeks together and then we cruise back eastwards a little to Rethymno, mooring stern-to in the harbour to meet our daughter, Amy, joining us for two weeks. The mooring cost is a very reasonable 120 Euros (about NZ$200) for six days including water and power and close-by is a great ocean-facing sandy beach for our daily swims. Rethymno has an ancient harbour – filled with tour boats and local fishing boats, ringed with tavernas, and dominated by the 16th century Venetian Fortressa.

Rethymno’s Venetian harbour

Panorama of Rethymno

The Fortress viewed from seaward

While awaiting Amy’s arrival we meet Australians Kevin and Diane Horne from yacht Monastrell and share a couple of enjoyable nights. In fact nearly all the people we’ve met from other boats this year have been Aussies and no Kiwis so far. We always find Aussies to be very friendly and ready to enjoy some lively discussions about sport and social issues.

A large planing  motor vessel moored nearby uses 700 litres of diesel per hour!

We’re asleep aboard Envoy when we hear a Greek lady shouting “excuse me, excuse me”. We awake and go up on deck to hear that she’s from the boat opposite and has seen a mouse crawling up one of our mooring lines and on board Envoy. So we search around with a torch and a couple of times I see the mouse, which is in fact a large rat, but we can’t catch it or chase it off. Then we see several more rats running along the jetty. We put some rodent stoppers on our mooring lines, close all the windows hoping the rat can’t get inside the boat (there are horror stories of how much damage rats can do to boats) and lay some poison that the Greek lady gives us. In the morning the poison is untouched, but I find a couple of rat poo droppings on the foredeck. Our herb garden has also been attacked, not surprisingly since this is the only vegetation close by, so we put this ashore on the jetty until our departure so as not to attract the rats aboard. Next day we buy two rat traps and for the next few nights we bait them with cheese and leave them out overnight also leaving a few pieces of cheese around the boat. But we don’t catch any rats or see any further signs of them on board and the cheese is untouched, so hopefully that issue is resolved.

Di and Amy enjoy shopping in the atmospheric Old Town and getting lost in the usual maze of narrow cobbled lanes while I find a particularly atmospheric Irish music bar to enjoy a cold beer in.

A great bar in Rethymno