KEEPING LATI SAFE
22 April 2014 | Aegina, Saronic Gulf, Greece
A safe haven comes to mind when living on a boat. The days preceding the Easter weekend brought more tourists and pleasure boats to the harbour. Each time a new yacht anchored near us we tensed hoping they wouldn’t dislodge our anchor or cut the rope again. Gregory Asprakis, the boatyard manager where Bill had been for 3 weeks prior to my arrival popped by for a chat. Upon hearing of our anchoring troubles and worried about leaving Lati for the weekend, he kindly showed us where we could berth tied to a pontoon among the local boats. So the day before Good Friday we began to extricate ourselves from the town quay. Of course someone else’s anchor chain was on top of ours so we got stuck trying to get out. Luckily the water is clear at the moment so Bill could see how the anchor lay. He gave me specific instructions on which direction to drive to get our anchor out without entanglement. Yay! We were clear so we motored around to the little rickety pontoon and tied up between a decrepit fishing boat and a local yacht.
It’s much quieter over this side of the harbour and we have a nice peaceful view without being on the noisy street. Much safer for Lati too. Thank you Mr Asprakis! However the peace was shattered a few hours later when the wind blew up. We were fine but concerned when a large 45 ft yacht came speeding in with a group of very young people on board. No lines out. No fenders. Then the yacht suddenly turned into the tiny marina harbour. Crash! Crunch! What?!! It ran into 3 yachts getting tangled in the process. By this stage the wind was blowing hard and the yacht was out of control. Local Greek boatmen as well as ourselves ran towards the out of control yacht. One of the men jumped on board the yacht at the end of the pontoon yelling instructions in English:
“ Slowly, reverse. Fenders on your port side!” Someone pulled out a couple of fenders. “Throw me your lines!” A tangled mess was thrown from a locker. With the help of the other Greek boatmen and Bill the yacht was tied up. A young woman in a mini skirt walked on to the pontoon.
“Who is the captain?” I asked.
“Me…” she said, with a French accent.
Spiro our neighbour shouted to her, “What are you doing? Trying to kill yourself and every body else?! You shouldn’t be in control of that boat. You don’t know how to control it!”
“What happened,?” I asked.
“There was too much wind. I didn’t know what to do…”
The boat had 8 young French people on board and the jib was torn. I wondered what charter company had hired this large beautiful yacht to this group who really appeared not to know how to berth or control the vessel. The port police came down shortly and paperwork was exchanged by the young skipper. Early next morning they were gone. Presumably back to Athens.