SV ICE BEAR

The next port was Poros an island separated from the Peloponnese by a small shallow channel. When we arrived the channel side quay didn't look very busy so we picked our spot. The docking went well the owner of the boat we tied next to helped with the lines then this guy appeared and started to tell us we needed to shuffle down the quay. This didn't really make and sense if we shuffled our anchor it would be skewed which is one of the best way to cause anchors chains to cross. The gentleman that helped us with our lines was getting annoyed with him and informed us he was a guy from a restaurant and we didn't need to listen to him. He just wanted to squish as many boats as possible onto the quay so he could fill his restaurant. Poros is a busy place there were shuttle boats taking people to and from the mainland fast cat ferries from Athens and really big day trip boats promising to visit three islands in a few hours as well as car ferries. Add a cross current and an ever present wind and the canal could prove to be a very difficult place to tie. There was some mention of these obstacles in the guide books but when we arrived none of these things seemed to be in play. When the temp cooled in the evening we did some exploring before settling down for dinner. Day two however took a strange turn of events when a twelve
boat flotilla full of Russian 20 somethings arrived. Every boat was crewed and there were camera men and event planers. They rented quads did group exercises and photo shoots with fruit? it was a little surreal. The next morning at 6 am they started again :( a few hours after that they left to terrorize a new port. This experience would sorta repeat itself but this time a older group of people. The big flag flying on their boats called it a tango the med flotilla and they were tangoing all over the quay. For a small island Poros had a fair bit to explore we wandered around the back streets and marvelled at how some of the residents manage to get their cars down them. We peeked into beautiful little courtyards and climbed stairs lots of stairs to get to a clock tower that overlooked the harbour. The hillside was held together with huge cables and the tower had big windows so people could look in and see the workings of the clock. We couldn't help but notice the weights of the clock were actually casings for the biggest bullets I have ever seen. Best guess was 120 mm artillery shells. The longer we stayed in Poros the stronger the current along the quay
seemed to get it wasn't long before there was a group of us tied to the quay fending off boats and untangling anchors. In a one hour time frame one of the boats in our group had two boats cross anchors with him. His calm handling of the situations definitely helped keep a trying afternoon from becoming a expensive one. The next few days the anchor follies continued we saw a boat actually slide down an anchor chain while leaving. The sound of prop on chain was horrible. We even managed to catch a boat but we threw it back. The learning curve for how to remove another boats chain from an anchor was steep and the people we were working with to get boats tied with minimal damage did an amazing job. I bet you could make a fleet of boats from the amount of gelcoat sitting on the bottom in that harbour. When the weather window we were waiting for opened we made a run for Hydra. It felt good to get away from Poros and the docking nightmare in the canal.
Hydra was unique in that the residents have decided that the only vehicles
on the island would be emergency vehicles and garbage trucks everything else was to be moved by donkey or mule trains. We had been warned that the town of Hydra's quay was a difficult place to park especially for a catamaran so we chose to stern tie in Mandraki bay and walk to town. It was a good choice the bay was quiet with few boats. There were workers renovating a resort that had closed due to the economic down turn. The walk was about 20 minutes mostly up hill the view was amazing.
Hydra's port was a busy little place ferries and day tripper boats dumped off their passengers and way too many boats jostled to find a place to tie in a very small space
hehe There were donkey trains tied to rings at the edge of the quay side. They all wore a sort of saddle and at first glance it looked like they were waiting to take a tourist for a ride.
We stood and watched for a moment and realized this wasn't the case. The donkeys were waiting for their turn to load up with what ever product needed to be delivered from the barge tied to the quay food, fridges, air conditioners, mysterious
brown boxes and the odd train of luggage. Our tumys grumbled for lunch at about the same time as the town clock rang 1 pm so we picked a restaurant and sat down. while ordering lunch a donkey loaded with luguage walked past us through the restaurant then we noticed that the land in the distance was disappearing behind a black wall of cloud. hmm that cant be good. Then off in the distance we could hear thunder and the restaurant people started to roll up their awnings. aahh ya that's really not good. These were big fabric awnings the one we sat under for lunch had to be 40 ft long and 30 ft wide they had metal rings down the length that were strung on big cables and it took several restaurant staff to secure them. We figured the black cloud must have been bringing some ugly wind with the way everyone was reacting. the relaxing afternoon was taking on a sinister feel
and the boats trying to scratch out a placing in the harbour started to become a little less understanding. We took that as a cue to leave we had lunch boxed up and crossed to the front of the restaurant and hopped into a taxi boat. The driver spared no ponies in the less then 10 minute trip. We paid the 20 euros and started running towards the dingy the rain drops where huge in seconds we were soaked but there was no wind? Once on board we ate our still hot lunch had a quick swim and headed off. By the time we passed in front of Hydra on our way to Kheli our port for the night all the awnings were back in place as if nothing had happened.