Sunday 5^th June – Mitilíni, Lesbos

39:06.380N 26:33.485E

Last night we donned ear plugs and went to bed.  They worked fine for Richard, who had a good night’s sleep.  For me it was better but not totally restful as the booming music, vibrating Pyxis, disturbed me into the small hours.

Nevertheless, sleep was had.  Until 8am, that it, when an Army band came marching past, to wake the whole town.  So, we got up and decided to take a bus ride to look at some more of the island whilst we are here.

As we were sorting things out down below, there was a knock on the hull, and a lady from the Port Police told us and our neighbouring two boats that we must immediately turn round so that we are berthed stern to, rather than alongside, as she was expecting some large ships to arrive.

Both our neighbours are lone sailors, travelling together, and they suggested that we go first and they catch lines and then we help them.  That was sensible, so we took off all our ropes, slipped out of our tight berth, and went forward to set the anchor.  We tried three times to set the anchor; each time it felt as if it was taking, but then it simply slid back as we reversed into our space.  As the third anchor dragged, Richard spotted the lady from Port Police walking past and he called across to say we were having trouble getting the anchor to set (I later found out that the pilot book says it is a problem here – the pilot book is right).  She spoke to the officer with her who was in ‘whites’ and they indicated that we could come alongside again.

So, we did our arrival manoeuvre, nose to the quay and warp the stern in, and came back where we started!  The other two yachts then rafted so that between us we are taking up hardly any more space than we would if we were stern to.  Our anchor was covered in silt, a very soft black mud, so I think we must have been simply ploughing a furrow with our hook.  The bow and foredeck of Pyxis was really dirty from it, so we spent ages cleaning the anchor and we also took the opportunity to spray her down with clean water and clean the salt off her.

Whilst this was going on, two Coastguard vessels dressed overall with flags moved up from their berths at the other end of the harbour and came alongside the harbour wall the far side of the large motorboat in front of the square.  At the same time a number of Coastguard/ Navy officers and cadets walked past and assembled in the square in full dress uniform.  There was obviously some official ceremony going on.  A band played on the quay and proceeded to accompany our manoeuvres with music; a pity we were tying up and cleaning off the boat or we could have gone to have a look.

With the ceremony over, the Coastguard vessels then dropped back to their berths and the harbour was once again virtually empty.  One large Turkish ship appeared later for a few hours but there was still plenty of space.  Some more yachts came in alongside later still but they weren’t asked to move so obviously the problem was over.

After our exertions, we didn’t feel like taking our bus trip, as it was lunchtime by now, so we rested in the shade for a while and then went off to the beach for the late afternoon sun (it is just about right 4pm – 6pm).  It has really warmed up since we left Mykonos – there it was long trousers and fleece at times, now it is definitely shorts and t-shirts with temperatures in the 30s; we are slowly acclimatising.

Just when we thought things were over there was another march past by the Army and its band at about 8.30pm.  Then, a little later, another small demonstration assembled in the square and set off to march around the town.

Addendum

Having turned in for bed, we were then awoken again at 12.25 by the sound of fireworks going off nearby.  When we looked they were rising in the middle of town.  Shortly after there was the sound of thunderflashes being let off nearby and we could see another demonstration going on in the square, with protestors carrying flares and more fireworks being let off; the police are in evidence keeping an eye on things.  Apparently there have been a number of demonstrations in Athens recently, with another large one this evening, about the latest round of Austerity Measures and we suspect this was related.  After a while the crowd headed off down towards the other end of town and things quickly quietened down.  So finally we went back to bed; not sure when people sleep in this town!