Preveza - Nasty weather

Sans Peur
Grete & Fred Vithen
Thu 8 Sep 2016 14:13
38 57 40N 20 45 31E Preveza 1-9 September (we hope to leave tomorrow) 

We have been moored at the town quay. Very good location with water and electricity, total cost around 11 E a day.
Some nice tavernas and waterfront bars. Lidl about 5 km:s away.
And in this area there are quite a few Danes and Swedes to socialise with. Nice.
We should have sailed on earlier but then due to a bad weather report we decided to stay on. 
There hasn't been a drip of rain since we left Crete. 
Suddenly the night between Monday and Tuesday (5-6 Sept) it was just pouring down and strong winds and nasty swell pushing the yachts towards the quay. 
What a dramatic fast change.
50 m:s of chain and the "Rock Solid" Rocna anchor, which we learned to trust now, kept us safe in place. Puh!
A lot of worried sailors all around us up in the night. 
There are an astonishingly big amount of yacht owners that doesn't know how to moor safely and set the anchor properly.

Today, Thursday, was even worse. Lot of rain, wind (30-40 knots, gale) and swell again. Like riding a wild horse, a lot of rocking. 
More lines added, at the end all we had. This disastrous (not for us, thank God) day started with that the Polish amateurs (that's mildly)
on our Portside lost their holding and started to bump into us and when then finally took of almost damaged the side of our boat, thanks to 5 very big fenders 
nothing happened. This guy didn't have a clue how to manoeuvre his yacht. Made everything possible thing wrong.
Next the second yacht on our Portside also looses holding and is drifting towards us and hitting the quay. This guy was also lost and the yacht badly equipped.
With help from our sailors we manage to get him out to sea. This is before breakfast. 
The rain is pouring down and the swell breaking over the quay, means now your are totally drenched in not only in sweet water but also in salt water.
We are still safe.
Then the real disaster unfolded ... look at picture number two. 
Our Swedish worried neighbours.
The Polish guy on this beautiful dark blue yacht loses total control of his boat. It's a big one and his alone onboard.
Drifts sideways into the front and chains of three yachts, causing a lot of damage to all yachts involved.
With help of a lot of yachtsmen two of the yachts was manhandled alongside the quay towards our yacht.
Not the best mooring in this weather but better then being smacked in the front and banging into the quay at the back.
Poor scared and frustrated people. Both pairs oldies (means older then us).
Finally a fishing boat manage to drag the Polish, not so beautiful anymore, out into open safe water. Sad.
This is before lunch.
Now the wind picked up again, + 40 knots. Big swell building up, a lot of water and spray onto the quay.
The two unlucky "oldies" getting badly beaten up pushed hard into the concrete. And there are several more yachts 
having serious problems and hitting the quay. 
What a day. 
It's 5 in the afternoon now. According to some weather forecast the wind will slowly die down in an hour.
That's what we are looking forward to. And super duper big GT. Yes we are worth it. 
Very happy we didn't suffer any damages today. 













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