If you read the last post, about our family’s visit with us in Crete, you know that we braved through nearly two weeks of daily rain and wind. After the family left, we saw even worse stormed predicted, and we caught a break in the weather to shoot out of Chania. In an overnight sail, we traveled north to Poros, not far from Athens. This city has a harbor that is protected from all sides, as well as a lot of charm. It was a good place to be when the expected epic blow came in from the southwest. We had never seen our software (Predictwind) show conditions so severe; I forgot to capture an image at the storm’s peak, but the picture above gives an idea of what it was like.
We experienced strong winds in the harbor and the water was crazy, but not the roughest we’ve seen. In the morning, the water behind the boats was filled with bamboo and flotsam. We were congratulating ourselves that the rain had washed the salt off of Quintessa… until we went out and found the entire boat covered with fine red dust, which we knew to be from the Sahara.
A little research showed us that Crete was hit really hard by this storm. The sky turned red with the dust, and the winds were at Beaufort 9, nearly as high as it can go. Wow. And whew.
kateandjohnsail.boats 
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