Wednesday June 15, 2016

Photo: This island at the entrance to Porto Rafti is their Curtis Island. It has a navigation aid but the similarity ends there. There is an ancient statue from Roman times that is supposed to be a tailor. Rafti means tailor.

Yesterday as we departed Ormos Vourkari on Kea, I was snapping photos all around. When I looked at them and zoomed in on the photo I eventually used for the blog, Paul did an Internet search and learned all kinds of very interesting information.

U Boat Navigator will be doing – today – dives and exploration at the site of the world’s largest passenger vessel on the seabed – the Britannic. She is a sister ship to the Titanic, built at the same Belfast, Northern Ireland yard in 1913 and launched in 1914. She had design changes that included additional watertight compartments and an outer hull or second skin. She was, like the Titanic, for transoceanic passenger cruises but with the start of WWI, she was made into a hospital ship with a capacity of 3,309 patients. She was on her way to the Eastern Mediterranean to take on sick and wounded war victims. Crew aboard included medical and nursing staff—about 1065 in total. She was 882 feet in length and had 9 passenger decks. On November 21, 2016, she was sunk by a single torpedo and massive explosion. Analysis of the incident attributes the sinking to the fact that the nurses had opened many portholes to air out patient areas. Thirty people died and 1035 were rescued. No sick or wounded were aboard. She is lying on her starboard side in 400 feet of water just to the NW of Ormos Vourkari on Kea. Jacques Cousteau found the ship, which is apparently in excellent condition, in 1975. The UK and Greek governments protect the site as a British war grave. The BBC is onboard the U boat Navigator apparently doing a story on the 100th anniversary of this ship.

Today we departed Nisis Xero at 0900 after a very peaceful night. We could sail initially 4 -5 knots of wind from the SW. Then it died and later came back but still light. We anchored in the NW section of Porto Rafti in 5.8 meters after a 19-mile trip. Five large fishing boats leave the harbor for night fishing. Anchorage has a large number of small boats on moorings but plenty of room to anchor in sand.

We make arrangements from shore for a taxi to pick up Ann at 0925 Thursday morning. Picked up some provisions and go back to Canty. It’s HOT and at least she is out in the air on her anchor.

As with Jon, it’s sad when our guests leave. We will have to remember how to do various procedures with just the two of us.