Med mooring and anchoring dramas
17 April 2014 | Aegina harbour, Saronic Gulf, Aegean, Greece
Our days of sunny bliss came to a rude ending yesterday afternoon. As the wind was beginning to pick up, Lati began bouncing and straining on her stern anchor. She was holding fine. The biggest worry was the boats coming in trying to anchor. We watched tensely as they wavered around close to Lati’s anchor rope. Libertine II, the Dutch boat next to us was moving too close to the wall. Their anchor was not holding very well. They decided to move out to try and anchor again. This is where the problems started. The wind was blowing 30 knots by now and as Libertine was driven out, she motored far too close to our bow. I yelled out ‘Neutral!’ as he went over our anchor rope. Too late. Now he was almost on top of the Greek boat on our starboard side. Lati began moving towards the quay and against the Greek boat. Libertine II had chopped through our anchor rope, our worst fear. The guys on the Greek boat were on board luckily and assisted fending off. Lati was in trouble. Bill tied Lati to the first Greek boat. I tried to stop her ramming against the quay with a fender. Crash! Too late. Another ding on the bow where Bill had just repaired her from last years ding in Messolonghi Marina (also not our fault). I called for the Greek guys to push her off the quay while Bill pulled in what was left of the anchor rope then started the engine. Untying ourselves, we drove out into the middle of the harbour working out what to do. Meanwhile Libertine II had reanchored and tied up a few boats down. Meanwhile the wind was blowing like crazy whipping up the waves.
As Lati has a long keel, she doesn’t steer well in reverse. But we had to do our best. Bill got the big bow anchor down and she held. First the chain went down then the rope got tangled in the anchor locker… I got the ropes ready on Latis stern and began driving her towards what I hoped was the quay, as Bill fed out the anchor rope. Fortunately the wind blew us towards the Greek boat where the guys were on deck ready to fend off. The Dutch couple were waiting for us to straighten up. I heard ‘Bravo!’ from the Greek captain as I threw the stern line to the waiting hands of the Dutch couple. Just missed and landed in the water. They immediately crawled on their bellies and grabbed the line. Phew! Lati was now in the right position to be tied up. Now our cockpit faced the street. No privacy any more.
Just as we were recovering and watching Lati’s anchor, a large Greek yacht began coming in closer to anchor. We watched with horror as they picked up our anchor rope with their anchor! With a boat hook they got it off and Bill pulled the anchor rope in and thankfully it reset. We’d had enough of this and weren’t enjoying Med mooring any more. I thought of anchoring in Australia in a deserted bay with perhaps one fishing boat a kilometre away….. The wind strengthened even more and I saw later on the grib files it was force 6-7. Lati was tied up at an angle hugging the 2nd Greek boat. They were very apologetic and didn’t mind. The Dutch captain also offered to pay us for a new stern anchor and chain. For the rest of the day the wind blew hard but we stayed in one spot. Now that we have 2 big boats either side there is less danger of someone severing our last remaining anchor rope.My mood was no longer relaxed and I felt a bit shell shocked. None of these events were our fault and the stress caused made me very anxious. I couldn’t finish my dinner and just wanted comfort food such as a hot chocolate and a piece of baklava.