Season 2005

 First Race
Phaliron-Hydra-Phaliron distance 45 Nm
Date: 25-27 March 2005

This race is popular as it is the first of the new season. The conditions were totally different than last year. No wind at the start of the race so we decided to abandon early and we started sailing again when the wind peaked up a bit near Aigina to 14 Knots and we had a nice sailing with a lot of tacks for fun.

We arrived at around 6 in the evening after 8 Hours. It is always nice to see the Hydra Harbor after the winter.

We had a nice time in the port and we visited many friends and we had a lot of fun as always. On our way back the conditions were the same NO WIND. We sailed with the new asymmetric spinnaker till the small Islands Tselevinia close to Poros but after that we decided to abandon again the race as the was practically zero wind. A little sad we returned by motor to Kalamaki.

Second Race
Phaliron-Kythnos-Phaliron distance 53 Nm
Date: 6-8 May 2005

This race was the worst that we had participated till now. I was suspicious about the weather which turned out to format a gale with southeast direction exactly to the direction that Kythnos lies.

From the first moment when we released the lines from Kalamaki the problems started a charter boat stayed still in front of our boat and the wind took Alma Libre to the mooring lines of the boat next to us. We untangled and left to find out that the wind had picked up even more. During the start of the race we had a collision with another boat that was coming from the right side ( and had priority) although Alma Libre had no room to tack to the left as there was a rock island. Alma Libre suffered minor damages but the other boat had to abandon the race. This was not a good sign. We sailed towards Aigina with the aim to make a tack to go to Kythnos but the wind picked up to 35 Knots true and we decided to abandon the race as the conditions were starting to deteriorate. Night was approaching and we entered the harbor of Aigina. The south east wind was creating bad conditions in the harbor and as I was mot feeling secure enough we decided to continue sailing to Poro but the wind picked up even more and was coming exactly from Poros so we decided to sail to Palaia Epidavros. What a nice decision the wind angle was much more comfortable the wind increased to over 40 Knots and we had a fast sail to the Harbor after 7 hours fighting with the sea and the conditions. The harbor was secure and as always we had a fantastic time swimming and walking in the orange tree plantations. What a smell and we found out a small secret an ancient theatre close to the beach. I promised to come back to Palaia Epidavros some day soon. Just for the record all the ORC boats had abandoned the race and only 9 racing boat arrived in Kythnos with the crews exhausted by the conditions.

 

Third Race
Voula-Kea(Tzia)-Voula distance 33 Nm
Date: 27-29 May 2005

As you remember this is the most favorite race of all with over 100 boats participating. The weather was once again unstable. The wind conditions were challenging for our boat on the first leg of the race from Voula to Kea. We had a good start and we faced all possible conditions a storm with lightning, rain no wind and strong wind later after dark and we were able to sail fast in the night after Makronisos to Vourkari the yacht harbor of Kea. We had one of the nicest races of my life and we were sure that we had a good position.

We found out that we were the second ORC boat to arrive and we were happy after the nice sailing. Our position was 7 in the corrected time which is not bad with the conditions we had. The weather was not very good but we had a nice time with all the friends around The Kea race is the sign that summer is in the air but it was not very warm as we expected for this time of the year.

Sunday morning we started for the return race to Voula. What a race. We were able to pass all the ORC boats and perhaps some of the IMS-N boats . Suddenly we were in the middle of a rain storm and after that the wind died completely. We had to abandon the race. We were disappointed after the nice sailing but we were satisfied with the good performance of the boat.

Fourth Race
Salamis Cup total distance 22 Nm
Date: 27 November 2005

Nice to report about races again. It was the first time that Alma Libre participated in a day race around the bouys in Saronicos Gulf. In the first race the wind was not strong enough and it took us a lot of time but the second race was with strong wind and we had one of the nicest races of my life and we were sure that we had a good position.

The racing adventures of “Alma Libre” will continue………

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment. Login »

/this is for postie Copyright 2010 © Dimitris Krassopoulos