Myrina, Limnos
Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sat 25 Jul 2009 15:15
Friday 24th July
Turned out to be quite an eventful day.
Started to get the anchor up around 8.00am as the wind was very quiet, but
this took some time as we had to first recover our anchor angel, which was a
lot harder than setting it!
With the anchor stowed finally we open up the engine only to hear a very
unwelcome rhythmic metallic banging sound. Carried out a variety of
inspections and tests before discovering that the culprit was the aquadrive
cv joint that had come slightly loose (bolts had vibrated loose) and the
earth strap across the cv joint was banging on the galvanised plate above
it. It required a lot of bits and pieces to be removed and replaced to
resolve a temporary repair, but good enough to get us the few miles to
Myrina. The worry was that two bolts were completely missing and at this
stage I could not see them anywhere in the engine room. Whilst all this was
going on, Sarah spent the hour and a half sailing Serafina gently back and
forth across the bay(actually 4.5k in 14k of wind - quite presentable I
felt, whilst endeavouring to keep the boat flat for Rob!) under the jib
alone. She could have set off to Myrina, but felt that I might have been
more than a little unhappy at trying to work in the furnace heat of the
engine room with the boat bobbing up and down as well.
Arrived at Myrina to find the anchorage very full and likewise the town
quay, but as luck would have it a yacht came off the quay at this moment and
so we were able to reverse into the slot. The Greek owner of the yacht next
to us was however most insistent that we had crossed his anchor and we
decided that in the spirit of friendship (and in keeping with wanting to
keep a low profile here) we would go out and re-lay it. As it happens, our
anchor was not over his, but it at least made him very happy.
I now turned my concerns back to the aquadrive and the missing bolts and
armed with a searchlight, I spent some time crawling around trying to sort
where they could have gone. I took another look at the unit and saw that the
bolts were all in pairs but the two missing ones were not paired. I opted to
phone the guru and so made a call to James Grazebrook, MD of Halyard marine
whose product it is. James predictably was not answering his phone so I left
a message and called his factory. The abridged answer was that sometimes
these bolts are not used where they foul the ones coming from the adapter
plate on the reverse of the unit. All was well and I just need to do them up
tightly and use loctite as well. Shortly after this I got a call back from
James who was actually in India and he confirmed all of this and felt sure I
would be monitoring their tightness more frequently in future!
Reported to the Port Police and got our transit log stamped and then set off
for a wander around the town to see what there was and to locate an internet
spot. Very good shopping here (clothes and supplies) but internet proved a
little harder to track down. There is an internet cafe on the quay, but the
woman running it today had forgotten the password! Finally found an internet
games cafe and sat down in a room where everyone else was aged between 8 and
12, wearing headphones and yelling competitively at their neighbours.
On returning to Serafina, we decided that the town quay was not a great
place to be as they are developing the whole waterfront and so there are
clouds of dust and grit in the air. We upped anchor (yet again) and went out
into the bay, which was now a lot emptier and picked a good looking spot and
dropped the anchor onto sand and dug it in. Hopefully we have done this well
as we are due for some 30 knot winds on Sunday.
Went back into town in the evening and had a very nice meal at a taverna on
the beach in the bay the other side of the headland that has the very
impressive remains of a castle on it. The castle is beautifully lit at night
and we will endeavour to get a picture tonight. Sarah talked me out of
taking the camera ashore today and so we also missed the fantastic sight of
the sun setting in all its glory behind Mount Athos, away on the Greek
mainland.