I love the terminology of this phrase called 'Champagne Sailing', where just all circumstances would be in the range of perfect and even better. When I think about this, then it should be something like, sitting on a gigantic yacht with the finest food and awesome people around me.
The wind would be blowing in a friendly 13 knots of course coming from the perfect direction and for some reason there would be no ocean swell and waves all around.
This is the view of how would think about champagne sailing, but then there should also be wind blowing...but not too hard you know :D
Anchoring would always work on the first attempt and the bite is always so good that you never have to question yourself during the night it is anchor is holding.
And naturally at last...There is never an issue with other boats around you and you can just choose the spot you want to anchor because there in endless place in the most beautiful corners.
And ow yeah, nothing would ever break on a boat.
I guess you can already hear the reality slipping in there right? The couple of hours that the circumstances are like this you should totally cherish, but the reality is always different and you have to build in 10 back up plans for everything.
On my recent trip I got a nice glimpse of how it is why it is a good idea to try to start anchoring the boat at a reasonable time, and not always wait until the sun starts setting and the day is almost over.
It was a beautiful easy going day with some fantastic circumstances and the sails were up. We were all just drifting along and the day was going fantastic.
It feels a bit on how a fairy tale would start right? Well, the day felt like a fairy tale from the start honestly.
Med mooring tied to the back done right
We had a clear goal in mind for the end of the day on where to moor, and as a good sailor does there was also a plan B for when this wasn't working out.
We were on route to a little town that was very buzzing and alive so we thought if would wouldn't be there that late, there surely would be some nice spots for us to tie up the boat to the rocks in the boat.
See in the Meds you often use your anchor as the bow point, and then you tie your back stern lines to either a dock or rocks. That all works fine when the wind is coming from the nose or from the back, but when the wind is coming from the side this is a lot more challenging because you have a lot of things to do at the same time while the wind is pushing the bow to the side.
At that is when the idea of champagne sailing broke down an turned into a more of a quest for getting a place to stay for the night.
The reality kicked in when at the specific bay it was already quite busy and it was also a bit too deep for our anchor. Also the wind was blowing from the side and it was also already a bit too busy in the bay, even though it was low season.
Luckily we had a plan B one bay down, which would still give decent access to the little town so we headed there. In the new bay there were some mooring balls even, and I caught one and was ready to tie the lines to the rocks when I saw that the mooring ball was only for small crafts and small winds which it surely wasn't on that day.
A new attempt with using the anchor instead of the mooring ball resulted twice in a dragging anchor which was a shit show because I was in between two other boats and drifting towards them.
An other bay more south should be the solution and when we got there, a shit show just had played off there were a catamaran caught an anchor of another boat and the cat ran off leaving the other boat drifting through the bay while trying again to tie to the rocks. While this happened th wind was stile steadily blowing a nice 20 knots from the side to it wasn't easy to just lay around and wait.
Time for a new plan in the form of crossing to an island across in a bay over there. Same side wind though. Here a new problem cam with poseidonia sea grass on the ground which are protected but also they make you anchor slip off.
We attempted throwing the anchor a couple of times in deeper water without poseidonia but were then too far from the rocks to tie the boat on to. Same bay different side also we made an attempt but that also didn't hold as we didn't have enough chain for the depth. I just want more anchor chain man.
4 bays with no success and time ticking by and the sun starting to set, we decided to motor around to the other side of the island were there was a bay for free anchor and also a little harbor. This was not a pleasant ride as we were tired, hungry and starting to get a tiny bit anxious and off set because of all the unsuccessful attempts.
The free anchor bay by this time had katabatic winds howling over land and was 28 knots coming from all sides so the harbor was the next stop and a bit of a last attempt for success.
Here in the tiny harbor there was no wind anymore and in two attempts the anchor grabbed perfectly and finally we tied to the public quay.
I think I had never been so happy to be tied up somewhere and just be good for the night but this was a good reminder of to have a lot of options ready (or more anchor chain).
With little snack on a plate and some beers to get the moral up again we were finally able to head into town for a bit to eat.
So a perfect day turned into a very long one in no time. It isn't always picture perfect and the challenges were along everywhere. It is just a matter of how you deal with it, because in the end....this was a good adventure!
