Friday 20^th May – Mykonos

37:27.872N 25:19.524E

Today we stayed at the marina to catch up with some admin and I caught up with the outstanding blogs.

The wind is still providing strong gusts on the beam so we kept an eye open in case anyone tried to berth next to us as we thought they might need help.

First, a 52 foot motor boat arrived and tried to berth up-wind; the marinaro had a lazy line ready to pass to them to tie to their bow but as he pulled it up it fouled one of their props.  We were very impressed with the skipper and the boat.  The boat had very powerful bow thrusters and the skipper was able to use them to keep himself from falling straight down onto us whilst they sorted out what to do.  He eased himself forward enough to drop his anchor and then reversed again just close enough for us to catch very long lines and secure the boat.  With the boat secured, one of the guys went in the water and cleared the fouled prop.

Having sorted the line and tied it off at the bow they then attempted to reverse towards the quay but the tail of the line was pulled very shallow in the water again; I pointed this out to them, so they stopped.  When they looked, it had fouled again, this time more seriously, and they spent the rest of the afternoon diving in turns, with tools, to free it.  Eventually it was clear and they made it safely in.

Whilst this excitement was continuing on our upwind side, a Swedish yacht we recognised from Aigina and Trizónia arrived to berth on our downwind side.  It was a wide space, enough for three boats, and the marinaro wanted them next to us where there was tailed line, not realising that this would be a difficult manoeuvre for the yacht in the strong cross-winds. They tried the first time but had to abort the attempt.  On the second attempt, Richard passed a line to them from Pyxis as they came into the gap.  The skipper secured the rope to his mid cleat whilst Richard fastened the other end at our bow.  Between them they used it to pull the boat into position and hold it, giving them time to sort out the lazy line and quay lines. 

Their friends, who we recognise from Messolonghi, arrived next and berthed by dropping their anchor and reversing hard into the two-boat gap and then taking the downwind berth, leaving a gap in the middle that another yacht was able to take later.  In this wind, everyone is having to help.

Later, we were invited for drinks and it was nice to meet the two couples, Louise and Karl on Indigo and Lisbet and Mats on Starlight, who have been travelling together for a while now and seem to be going to similar places as us.