Sunday

The high winds had been forecast but we honestly felt we didn't really have anything to worry about. We'd been in Kassiopi now for several days and had barely felt any movement of the boat with the usual afternoon winds. Yesterday we could see the white water on the sea outside the bay but inside all was calm.

Around 6pm the boats in the harbour started to dance about a bit but nothing more than that. So it was out of the blue when the bow of the yacht on the end of the breakwater suddenly started to swing into the entrance as the stern headed for the wall with great force. Neil was the first to react, leaping off Seren Môr and yelling for the stricken boat's crew. The other neighbouring men also ran to help hold off the stern as the crew started the engine to try to get control.

Unsurprisingly, the boat wasn't really in a position to head out to reset the anchor - the passarelle was still hanging over the side and the crew were also rather panicked. More importantly the lines weren't all on slips and as the assisting crews tried to release the stern lines one remained tied to the wall. As the boat tried to move forward this line whipped across the wall with Neil on the wrong side of it.

He was forced into the churning water between the wall and the propeller as the rest of us watched helplessly. Somehow he managed to make his way around the edge of the breakwater into the harbour entrance and around to the side, climbing over the rocks back to safety. He had escaped with a massive bruise to his shin where the rope had struck. It was not to be his last injury of the night.

As the freed boat headed to the next bay, anchor, ropes and passarelle still dangling, it became apparent that damage had been done by the dragging anchor. Seren Môr was the next in line and she was noticeably much too close to the wall. Engine on and anchor tightened she seemed to holding.

Dave and Isabel on the adjacent boat seemed unaffected but the young family on the fourth were in trouble. With great difficulty they managed to get out and back into their space resetting the anchor. However, the efforts had put great pressure on the other two boats and again Seren Môr's anchor was dragging. The only solution was to take her out too to reset it.

Having seen the struggles of the other boats I didn't feel I could handle the situation and Dave agreed to come aboard to deal with the anchor while Neil took the helm. It was truly scary. Time and again we battled the wind and current only for a gust to blow us off course at the last minute.

Isabel was fending us off their boat and the family on the other yacht was still caught up on theirs. A couple of passersby offered to help catch the lines with a cheerful "We're enjoying ourselves!" They soon changed their tune when they were struggling to hold on to Seren Môr with no real idea what to do with the ropes. A local guy came along and casually tied one of them off, suggesting we go on the wall by the fishing boats, where he said there was less current running and also plenty of water He also just as casually walked off again. As we were still not secure it seemed sensible to follow his advice.

Again it was a battle and this time no one was waiting to assist us. Naturally there were spectators in the bars so I yelled at them to come and help. Three women in heels and an elderly man came to the rescue. We'd learnt our lesson from the previous attempts and gave them precise instructions what to do with the lines. Even so they were still struggling. Neil felt he had to get ashore and as the passarelle was still on the breakwater where we'd left it, he risked life and limb again leaping for the land.

It was only when we were (relatively) safely tied up that anyone noticed the depth gage reading 0.0. As we still appeared to be afloat presumably it was shallower under the gage than under the keel but we're talking millimetres here.

As you can imagine we had a pretty sleepless night. Checking the internet again this morning, a similar wind was forecast for this afternoon. The decision to leave Kassiopi had been made for us. But it was not going to be that easy.

We slipped the lines and started to raise the anchor. It was well and truly stuck. We did all the usual things to no avail. At this point the skipper of the tripper boat started yelling that we were blocking his way and couldn't (or wouldn't) understand that we had a problem. So what did we do? We rang Vivi, of course. Yes, she knew a diver and would be right with us. She sweet-talked the tripper skipper into helping us get back into the previous night's position. This time we touched the bottom and now we were worried we were stressing the keel. As the tripper boat had left and the diver had still to arrive Neil decided to don his mask and investigate himself.

As he could see the obstruction we decided to get into the deeper water again and let Neil have a go at freeing it manually. It took several exhausting attempts for him to keep diving down and lift the two big old anchors (not attached to anything) that were holding our chain. It was with some relief we finally left Kassiopi.