Khios - Chaos

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Thu 14 May 2009 20:32
38:22.0N 26:08.5E

Wednesday 13th May
Left our lovely bay and planned for a nice sail round to Khios Town, but the
wind dropped away and we ended up motoring all the way.

Arrived at Khios harbour and found it both huge and almost completely empty
of boats. Despite this, there is some confusion as to where you can moor
with any degree of safety from the elements and the depths are rather
uncharted as well!

We decided to moor pretty much next to the only other boat on the quay,
which is a smallish gin palace and fortunately one of the crew came to our
aid by taking our lines and helping to pass the lazy line to us. We picked
up a buoy/lazy line which was not really ideal, but with evidence of so much
ground tackle we were reluctant to drop our own anchor for fear of fouling
it.

A very busy place this with lots of traffic (when I say lots, it probably is
not much, but it seems a lot after the last week!). Actually after a walk
along the quay certain things became obvious. There are loads of waterfront
bars (not tavernas) and everyone is under the age of 25! There is a
university here and clearly the immediate population is all based there in
some capacity. This meant a loud and late nightlife and as it happens a
strong desire amongst most of the young men to show off their recklessness
in riding motorbikes at speed and frequently on one wheel only!

The island has suffered and prospered, as so many around here, from various
events. This was another island that was doing very well for itself when it
sided against the Ottomans in the War of Independence and so for its pains,
in 1842, the Turks razed all the towns on the island and massacred 30,000
inhabitants. They then enslaved a further 48,000 and the echoes of this
slaughter reverberated around the world, drawing attention to the plight of
the Greeks. Remarkably the island was recovering from this but was dealt a
second huge blow in 1881 when a massive earthquake destroyed most of the
buildings and killed 4,000.

It is also widely believed but entirely unproven, that Christopher Columbus
came for Khios (Chios) and there certainly is some interesting data to
support this, but I am not about to expound all that here!

Tried to get a fairly early night, but it certainly did not help that there
is an election under way here and lots of vehicles (largely the ones not
speeding or showing off) are equipped with load speakers urging everyone to
vote one way or the other! However, all this was nothing compared to what
was to follow. We should perhaps have taken more notice of the fact that
although this harbour is nearly half a mile long inside, there were only
three boats including us, moored on the south quay with the north quay
reserved for cargo boats etc. and nothing at all down the west side. The
reason it turns out became clearer at 2.00 am when the first big ferry
(think 'cross channel' ferries here) came into the harbour at full speed,
slowing and turning very late to reverse up to the north quay. The massive
displacement of water resulting causes a huge surge in the harbour, followed
of course by the effect of the bow wave that the boat was pushing in front
of it. Serafina tried first to tear her mooring cleats off the back deck as
she strained against the ropes holding her to the quay and then suddenly she
was surging back towards the quay wall. The ground tackle that we were tied
to was plainly not up to this weight and we immediately dragged it
backwards, putting our stern up against the concrete quay. We were up on
deck in a flash and with use of engine and fenders etc. we were able to stop
any more damage in this instance, but were then unsure of what happens next!
Well the next stage is for the same ferry to turn round and leave, which it
does by putting full power on as soon as it is facing the entrance and so
there is another surge, but fortunately a lesser one. We adjusted all the
lines and retired to bed, but now could not really sleep as were concerned
in case another ferry might appear......which it did just 30 minutes later.
Whilst this one was smaller and less of a problem we decided that we could
not continue like this and resolved to cast off and lay our own anchor
(risking snagging) so we could then lay further off the quay with longer
lines and all should be well. (well at least better!)
This manoeuvre was trickier than usual as it meant leaving Sarah on shore
with our ropes, whilst I took Serafina out, then laid the anchor, reversing
up to the quay so Sarah could then throw me the ropes back to secure us
again. Fortunately all the bars and street lights gave us enough light to
make this pretty easy and all went well, allowing us to finally return to
bed around 3.30am.