Ag Marina, Simi Island
25 July 2022 | Ag Marina, Simi Island
Dierk and Sabrina | Hot
Ag Marina
After leaving Panormitis we had decided to make for Simi Town and stay for a couple of days, but on the way we passed this amazing little bay called Ag Marina. Very small, but was awash with white sand and turquoise waters. We altered coarse and decided to see if we could fit in. There were a couple of boats in there with anchors and lines ashore. This simply means you must drop your anchor and reverse toward the shore. Once the chain is taught, keep the power on and someone jumps of the stern and swims in securing the back of the boat to a rock. In effect the boat is secured from the the front by the anchor and a rope from the stern and it cannot swing. It is commonly used in tight spaces to control the movement of the boat. To our port side we had to take care not to interfere with the tripper boats that come in and out of the bay. There was a small beach club where numerous guests would be dropped off throughout the day.
Anyway, we have always said this blog reveals the good and the not so good aspects of sailing operations. We have a fair amoint of experience in setting lines ashore, so saw it as no issue. I was on the engine, Sam up front. When about the right distance from shore I yelled out to her to let the anchor go freewheeling the chain whilst going in reverse. After guessing the right amount of chain she locked off the chain and the boat pulls up the slack in the chain and stops, so far so good...cool bananas. Sam comes to the helm, and I jump off and swim to the shore with my mooring rope, swimming like a one armed bandit. I get to my chosen rock and the rope is 1m short...and the a cross wind has caught the boat dragging me across the water like a fishing lure.....comedy capers here. Totally misjudged the length of the rope. No good this time, lets do it again. Sam went up front and we reset the anchor, and this time increased the length of the rope, substantially. Repeat step on above, jumped off and made the shore. The wind caught us again, but just manage to snag a rock, but unfortunately I had to overlay our line over another boat's line. This is not good practise, because if the other boat has to leave in the middle of the night, he would have to release our line to prise his off. The other guy saw me use "his rock". I beckoned to him using semaphore code (just joking) "that I will fix it. We simply set a second line and took up the tension of this line with our winches and swapped to an adjacent rock. Bugger me, I'm a bit out of practise, think I'll blame it on Covid....The guy went back to Mythos beer.
We stayed here for three amazing days. The nights was black and we saw numerous satellites and shooting stars against the feint loom of Rhodes in the far distance. There was also amazing snorkelling. On the second day another sailboat pulled in next to us. He was with his family from Istanbul. We got to know them quite well. He was quite a pro spear fisher, giving us two fish. How lucky was that. We met them again in Simi during the following days.
Of note, there was also a quaint little church on the adjacent islet. Check the blog photos, it was sensational
Talk soon