At first light, donning our life jackets, we prepared to leave. And now the worry was, is the anchor caught in rocks and unable to be lifted? With luck, the anchor came up smoothly, Peperuka, Bob and I left – whatever awaited us on the open seas had to be an improvement on this.

During the voyage south to Chania on the north shore of CRETE, the wind was still strong but we could sail on the genoa. I took another anti-seasickness tablet. Unfortunately, a strong gust of wind blew away Bob’s expensive spectacles. He was not happy but I said perhaps his glasses insurance would cover it –they were newer than mine and I had paid £25.00 for insurance cover and told ‘whatever happens, come back.’ I lost my glasses in the Med at a lunch stop in a Turkish bay when our anchor dragged, and insurance wasn’t even thought about. I was glad it was only my glasses, and not me, that had ended up in the water.

Mooring up in Chania was a bit fraught, although the fact that I’d had experience of using anchor as a bow holding line, was helpful. My mistake was that I stopped letting the anchor out when I thought Bob was getting close to the quay. The boat then veered to his left and he had to push it away from the large catamaran moored there already. After that we reversed smoothly in except that when I was returning to the stern to help tie the lines, the captain of the boat on the right said that we’d crossed his anchor. He wanted to know how long we were staying to which I replied a couple of days. ‘Before Friday?’ ‘Oh yes.’

Bob had to call me to help at the stern. So instead of being helpful, I suppose he thought there were people on the quayside. I had been surprised to see so many people walking along the side and the wall of the port – all holidaymakers. I was worried they were only bystanders with no knowledge of tying a boat. Turns out the one who threw me the line was Kurt who we’d known in Kalamata last year. I took the line only saying thanks quietly then wondering where Bob wanted it tied, then he sent me to the anchor again to let it out a little bit. But, Kurt’s shorts registered with me, brown with little triangles of orange at the side, so that when I saw them a day later on the third boat along from us, I said, ‘that’s who helped us’.