Fiskardo revisited

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 18 Aug 2008 14:49
Sunday & Monday 17th & 18th August

Spent the days alternating between working on things on the boat and
watching the excellent floor show which is the masses of yachts and motor
boats trying to moor up in the harbour. This spectacle was added to on
Monday by the presence of a fierce cross wind, which made it hard enough if
you knew what you were doing.

At one stage on Monday around 1.00pm there were 12 yachts simultaneously
circling the inner harbour plus several motor boats and catamarans. It is
frightening how little so many of them know about what they are supposed to
be doing and I thank my lucky stars that I am no longer a flotilla skipper
trying to make all this happen safely! Nevertheless we do have an
involvement as we are sitting on our lovely boat, ready to jump into action
when, inevitably one of these boats attempts to moor in the gap between us
and the boats either side. It tends to concentrate the mind when it is your
own boat as opposed to a charter yacht you are sitting on!

At one stage a small charter yacht full of Italians attempted to moor
between us and our friends on Targa Star. They started badly by laying the
anchor at the wrong angle and far too late, so it resulted in their boat
'sitting' on ours (we were the downwind boat) whilst they tried to sort out
lines and things. They had not thought about fenders or much else, so they
benefited from some well chosen words of advice from Sarah! It was when the
lady on board tried to push their boat away using a boat hook that Sarah's
diplomatic skills deserted her and her loud and determined shout would have
been instantly understood in any language! In the end they came to
understand that they needed to go out and try again at which point they left
and selected another spot to moor in altogether.

Sarah spent a fair part of Sunday splicing an anchor warp onto our anchor
chain so that we have a lot more scope to play with. She has been avoiding
this little task for the best part of two years mainly by being in denial of
its need, but finally she has reluctantly accepted the need and did a
fantastic job, although I suppose the proof will be when the wind blows VERY
hard one day.

We were planning to go to Nidri on Tuesday, but unfortunately Sarah has
cracked one her temporary crowns and so we are going to head for Lefkas Town
and see if we can find a dentist. We have an old friend who runs a marine
business there and so he should be able to point us in the right direction.