Monday 6^th September – Messolonghi (Catastrophe)

38:21.668N 21:25.004E

We spent the day stocking up with supplies and packing as we plan to go off sailing for a few days aboard Blue Elephant; Kath is battling valiantly against the MND but not so mobile now so we are going along as crew.  The marina guys were busy with the crane, lifting more boats onto the hard and putting a couple in.

Early evening, as we were sitting on Blue Elephant sorting out our plans, we heard a strange rumble over on the hard.  As we looked, we saw the mast of the boat on the far right start to topple and the boat fall over onto the boat next to it, which then fell on to the one next to it, which then caused that one to go over…  Fortunately the domino effect was bought to a halt as a gap had been left in the line of boats and so the third boat landed on the ground rather than against the next boat; its aft mast, though, caught the forestay of the boat the other side of the gap causing that boat to spin and topple against the boat beside it but the next boat held and everything stopped.

It was an awful sight; we went straight over to check if anyone was injured as all the boats had been lifted that day and likely to still have people around.  Luckily only the third boat to go over had anyone on board; one lady from it was suffering shock and a bit of whiplash but nothing serious thankfully.  All the marina workers rallied round, an extra crane was bought in, and Yiannes and his team spent the night righting the boats and ensuring that they were safe, finishing at around 2am.