The fun of the New Port gets a whole separate blog to itself.
For starters we decided to go straight from Aegina to Mykonos which was a 22 hour sail. I only had to be on watch from 2:00am – 4:00am and then from 10:00am-noon. I was technically allowed to sleep the rest of the time, but I didn’t get a solid nights rest. It wasn’t terrible weather, just a little bouncy in the v-berth where I was laying down and I just couldn’t fall asleep.
When I was on watch, it was cold. I had on a long sleeve shirt, wool sweater, and jacket. I need to thank my brother for the wool watch cap he gave me and to the vender in Aegina for the basic scarf I was able to pick up there. I was chilly. The best thing to do was hide under the bimini and just try and stay out of the wind. It wasn’t unbearable, but it was cold. I didn’t have much traffic at all when I was on watch, which was nice and that was it.
When we got to the Mykonos city marina there was a boat of Germans on one wall and a man on a boat on another yelling out that one side has power and the other didn’t. We of course chose the place with power and was told to dock side to like the German boat was. Apparently the bow lines that were attached to the dock, weren’t quite long enough for boats our size so that was the best solution. We weren’t quite ready to dock like this and were a little frantic getting a bow line ready and fending off, but we managed and were set. It was just like how people dock in America, how hard can it be? Well they were leaving and offered us their power and water tokens so we saved €30 by mooching whatever power and water credit they had left and all was good in the world.
Then the Port Authority came by and said we had to back the boat in. By then a boat with Italians and a British boat had come in the same way and the British guy explained that the lines weren’t long enough for our boats. The Port Authority didn’t care and said it had to be done. So the Italians right away got lines ready and swung their boat around. We watched how they did it and then helped the British guys (a father and 27 year old son) move theirs. It requires a lot of pulling and fending off to move a sail boat like that.
When it was our turn, of course the wind picked up and our engine wouldn’t start. It’s been an ongoing problem, but this time it took awhile for it to turn over and start. Not a good thing. We wanted it on just in case we would have to put it into gear to avoid running into another boat, and eventually were ready. All of the other people came over to help move our boat too and apparently we were on the part of the dock with the shorter bow lines. After pushing and pulling and fending we had the back of the boat against the dock, but still had trouble finding a line that would hold it steady.
We tried a combination of lines and as Chuck and I were pulling them out of the water at the bow of the boat, we realized they were a tangled knot in the water which is terrible. We eventually chose one and tied it off, but it was going almost straight down and didn’t really keep the bow from pitching left and right. So it kept the boat from hitting the dock and the other boats were far enough that we weren’t at risk of hitting them in the front. It was not ideal, in fact it sucked, but the boat was still there when we would leave and come back so that’s a plus I guess?
Once the marina started filling up due to crazy winds and weather, I understood why the Port Authority made such a fuss about it, but it was such a pain in the ass. The weather got super crazy. It did a 180 (for all my Facebook friends!) and went from a beautiful breeze in the high 70s to crazy gusts that swung the bow of our boat around like a small rag doll. It still isn’t the worse Dad has seen over here but it would go from 5 knots to 20 in a matter of seconds. Not something you want to be out and have to figure out sails in. What was weird was that we were sheltered by the land in a bay. So these winds were by land and I can only imagine what it was like on the open water. No thanks.
The public marina was also where the ferries would let off and all of the cruise ships. It was fun to see all of the different cruise ships come through and I’ve decided I want to go on a cruise when I get back to the states. I know I should be tired of the water, but the food and fun and having someone else clean up after me, all sounds fabulous.
So like I mentioned in my other post I didn’t go out and party in Mykonos, but the ugly Americans in the boat next to ours sure did. They were from Miami and had hired a Greek Skipper and chartered a boat for a week to do the Greek Islands. They came back the first night they were there and were absolutely trashed. We were filling up with water and Chuck ended up helping them onto their boat. They were so loud and slurring everything they said. Talking about buying a helicopter and playing Greek music and ranting about how it’s stupid they can’t break plates anymore. The poor Skipper just sat there and listened and then said he was going to bed. They were up a long time after that and were so loud and talking about the most ridiculous things. Then the second night when they came back, we heard a splash! Their gangplank was wooden slab to walk on, and one of the woman apparently slipped off of it and hit either the boat or dock on her way into the drink because she was complaining about being bruised everywhere the next morning. Dad and I were still up and we ran upstairs with the boat hook to make sure someone was there to fish her out. She was laughing and they were all on board getting her out. Now while falling into the water generally doesn’t matter, at night it can be really bad. There were no lights on the dock, there are no ladders to get out of the water at these marinas, and there were 20 knot gusts of wind that were pushing the boats back. She could’ve fallen between the boat and dock when the winds blew the boat back and it would’ve pinned her and done some serious damage. Crazy Americans.
The other main adventure, thank God didn’t happen to us, was with a German boat as it was leaving this morning. We were getting ready to go too so we saw the whole thing and Dad’s nightmares came true for these guys. They had put out an anchor which we didn’t do because under us was knots of these ropes, chains, and a lot of rocks which our anchor doesn’t do well in. They were pulling up their anchor and it had caught on a rope and chain that was attached to a cement block under the water. They were able to lift the rope off, but it took about 15 minutes to get the chain off. At the same time the guy at the helm was so focused on the anchor he backed the dingy, which was hanging off the back of the boat, into a fishing boat that was docked next to them. Dad whistled right before it happened and the guy glanced and didn’t have time to adjust. There were apparently a couple of guys down below and they came up and were able to fend off which helped some, but it was a mess. There were 4 grown men trying to get the chain off at the bow and three grown men fending off in the back plus a guy at the helm and a girl standing there doing nothing. For starters I am not sure where all of these people slept… and another thing, if this happened to us when it was just Dad and I… disaster. They ended up getting a rope and looping it around the chain and tying it tight to the deck of the boat while they slowly lowered the anchor to loosed the tension created. Once that was done the guy at the helm had to worry about not running the side of the boat along the front of the fishing vessel and they were off!
We luckily had no problems getting out of the marina and were able to get out without any extra lines, chain, or anything else that was lurking below.
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