37:16.865N 26:46.341E
Muskrat
Chris and Alison
Thu 16 Sep 2021 19:35
We left Nisos Marathos in a very slight drizzle and with thunder rumbling in the distance. We set a full main and genoa and sailed the short distance to Lipsi island, gybing once and anchored in Kouloura bay. This is a very quiet bay with one taverna on the beach and Lipsi village a mile over the hill. We dived on the anchor to check the set as we were again expecting a couple of days of strong winds. The anchor was slightly on its side but dug in well in sand, we had 30M of chain out in 5.4M of water. We were happy with that. The sun came out as the wind slowly increased and watched the fun around us as the anchorage started to fill up. The following account is not for the faint hearted, but due to censorship, there will be no photos. We were sitting quietly when a lovely Swedish yawl anchored a decent distance away. As soon as they were settled and had put the sails away a large catamaran came right in-between us and the yawl and dropped his anchor not leaving very much swinging room for us or the yawl. The yawl decided to up anchor and leave for a different part of the anchorage, he was immediately replaced by a yacht who anchored in a more seaman like way leaving plenty of room. We stayed put but watched how they were starting to swing around obviously at a different rate to us. Thank goodness, after lunch they pulled up their anchor and off they went, all was calm again until another catamaran came in and tried to see if he could anchor between us and the other yacht. Well, Chris was not having any of this as the wind was expected to increase over night so he strutted about in his “Rambo” pose (well it worked last time`) on the foredeck to show his disproval. Unfortunately he forgot that he was only wearing his underpants - not his shorts, we had been swimming and he was in the process of drying off and changing, well that’s his excuse. Anyway it worked, the catamaran made a dash for the next bay and after that no one attempted to anchor next to us:) Then there was the next drama. A gentleman in the yacht near to us decided to go out in his rubber dinghy and outboard engine to have a look around the bay we assume. All was well until he was almost out of the bay and his outboard engine stopped. We watched as tried in vain to re-start it and we commented that he would now have a long row back to his mates on his yacht in freshening winds. Well he would have had a long row if he had taken some oars! He had obviously not taken them judging by the frantic arm signals he was making to attract his mates, he obviously didn’t have a radio either. Eventually one of his mates did see him, got into his swim shorts, strapped an oar to his person and started to swim out to his mate in the dinghy, it was a very long way. By this time the man in the stricken dinghy had jumped into the water and had started to swim with his dinghy, not making much progress. Other people in the anchorage had seen what was unfolding and soon there was a flotilla of small dinghies going to rescue of now 2 men in the water. After about half an hour calm was restored with everyone back on their respective yachts. The rest of the day was much calmer and we all settled down for a windy and gusty night and day the next day. The morning saw a small break in the wind so we went for the 1.7 mile walk into the village of Lipsi. A lovely small village with tavernas and a fishing port. We stopped for a coffee before walking back to the bay. When we got back we noticed a yacht had anchored right on top of us and was in danger of getting our anchor buoy fouled around his rudder or prop. After rowing back, the owner of the yacht came out in his dinghy to see us to explain that he had picked up an old mooring, that he knew was there, to use while it was windy and it was right where we had anchored. He explained that there was another mooring a little way back from us that he had dived on and brought to the surface and if we wanted to use that he would help us onto it. I did wonder why he hadn’t picked up that mooring instead of the one under us, but couldn’t stay as we were, so we agreed to move. We re-set our anchor in now 9M of water:( and took the line that was attached to a 12mm chain that was in turn attached to a concrete block on the sea bed. We dived on our anchor and the mooring and it all looked fine so we settled down for a windy night. Just to finish the days entertainment a charter yacht, that after having several attempts at anchoring near us and not succeeding, went into the next bay to try again. Later in the evening we noticed a lot of commotion and searchlights coming from their direction. By all accounts he had ended up on the rocks after dragging his anchor and a rib from a very large super yacht had to go to the rescue in the dark. The wind did come in gusting at 35knts, but we were as steady as a rock all night. Lipsi anchorage |