Blowing in the wind

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Tue 18 Aug 2009 06:33
Monday 17th August

Very windy night last night and so a good one to be tied securely to a quay!

We got up a bit earlier than usual so that we could go up to the monastery
of St John the Divine (also known as St John the Theologian). Missed the bus
so we took a 5 euro taxi ride up to the top of the hill and made our way
back down by foot, using the Byzantine footpath that is still very much in
evidence.

The monastery was well worth the trip - a very beautiful building with many
winding stairways and balconies at lots of different levels, and a minute
but exquisite chapel - and the views back across the island were stunning
and our photos at www.rhbell.com barely do it all any justice (unfortunately
we were not allowed to take any photos within the monastery).

The potted history reveals that St John was banished here in AD 95 and he
sat down and wrote the Apocalypse (found in the Book of Revelations). For
several centuries the island was a base for Saracen pirates but in 1088 the
Blessed Christodoulos got permission from the Byzantine emperor to build a
monastery to commemorate St John, but because of the continued frequent
pirate raids, it required serious fortifications which is why it was built
to resemble a substantial castle.

Patmos has become the spiritual centre for the Greek Orthodox religion,
second in importance to Mount Athos.

There is a very nice feel to this place which seems to have survived the
traumas of excess tourism and for yachtsmen it provides countless bays and
anchorages, mostly offering good protection from the very strong summer
Meltemi winds that sweep down from the north.

Today was a 30 knot wind day in the harbour which causes a good deal of
grief as the quay is almost exactly at right angles to the prevailing wind.
The boats leaving mostly had to contend with fouled anchors as well as the
cross winds. The anchor problem is of course exasperated by the problems
faced by all skippers when coming in across the wind. It is fairly
inevitable that inexperienced skippers and even quite experienced skippers
will get this wrong and end up laying their anchor across someone else's.
Equally, boats leaving that are slow to get their anchor up and lifted clear
of the seabed, go on to snag other anchors and chain lying on the bottom as
they drag theirs along. Despite there being a few good demonstrations this
morning on how to do it properly, the charter yachts (all Italians today)
failed to learn any of the lessons and so many hours were spent trying to
help them recover from tricky situations, not that they were in the least
bit interested in the main!

Then we had the new arrivals and they like us yesterday were faced with 30
knots of cross wind which soon sorts them all out. The wise folk just keep
going slowly round time and again until they are sure they have everything
right and then in they come. The inexperienced come flying at it and it
usually ends in tears and lots of shouting. Of course everyone has a view on
all this and so the poor skippers who are getting it wrong find that they
are getting a considerable amount of unsolicited advice delivered in up to 4
languages and most of it contradictory!

We, like all proud boat owners have only one aim in all this and that is to
get a boat in alongside us on both sides. By preference you try to encourage
the experienced looking ones to come in beside you as they are obviously
going to be less of a risk as they manoeuvre, but on the basis that you dare
not leave the boat unattended whilst all this is going on, it better to have
anyone alongside rather than no-one.

So we did not get a whole lot of exploring done until quite late today as
the shenanigans were something of a long running saga and there was a very
small gap on our port side which no-one was going to try until all the other
spots had been filled.