Pighadi

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 15 Aug 2009 13:39
39:02.1N 22:58.9E
 
Saturday 15th August 2009
 
Slipped moorings mid-morning as we only had about 15 miles to go to our intended anchorage for tonight.  Very little wind again so we motored there, only to find it looked like a ship graveyard with rusting hulks everywhere.  When we looked at the pilot book again we realised it did mention a 'boatyard', but it certainly didn't look like these ships were being worked on!
 
An anchorage or a ship graveyard?
 
Once past them we found the bay to be very calm, with olive groves and a small beach, and decided we might turn a blind eye to the rusty hulks, but when Concerto dropped their anchor they found the bottom to be thick weed, and so we both decided not to stay here.
 
We headed back out and pushed on for Pighadi, just south of the entrance to the Gulf.  The wind picked up the second we left the gulf and conditions were suddenly very different.  We were glad we were heading for a large bay with anchorages both North and South because the wind didn't seem to know which direction it wanted to come from.
 
As we turned into Ptelou Bay the sea calmed and the wind dropped and stayed in the North, so we headed for Pighadi on the North side.  Concerto got their anchor down first, and then we dropped ours - three times before it finally bit and held.  By this time it was 1730 and time for a well-earned sundowner, and as neither we nor June and Geoff could be bothered to lower our ribs, we had them on our own boats. 
 
Next day we stayed in Pighadi and decided to spend the time re-commissioning our watermaker.  We hadn't bothered so far this season as water has been easy to come by, if a little expensive, but we felt the time had come to be more self-reliant as well as to check its plumbing as we renewed both pumps and hoses last year and had not yet run them in situ.
 
As usual, a 5-minute job took almost all day, but by tea-time we were making our own water with no leakages (fingers crossed!)  In fact we are making more per hour now as the pumps we have fitted are more efficient than the old ones.
 
We just had time to scrub up in time to lower the rib and row across to Concerto for a game or two of Okey before a delicious supper of June's egg curry.
 
We stayed a further day in Pighadi for two reasons - one was that it was a very nice place and the other was that Chris pulled a muscle in her back lowering the rib and so wanted a day to rest it.
 
                                
Pighadi anchorage taken from the town quay                                                            Tonight's dinner?