Nisos Skorpios 38:41.5N 20:44.9E

Ticketeeboo
Sue & Alan
Wed 27 Jun 2012 17:35
Most miles today this month.40NM from Mongonisi to Skorpios. Firstly on donk, then on genoa using N'ly wind whilst heading due south. During the afternoon responded to a 'worried' guy asking for 'anyone'. Transpired he said he was adrift in a 10m boat, engine failed, 50 people on board including women & children - mid Ionian Sea. At first he claimed they were near Napoli (wrong side of Italy for us to hear them on VHF!). Once we ascertained he was declaring to be "in Distress" and he started saying "Mayday" then fortunately the Greek & Italian coastguard started taking interest. We were able to hear at least one baby crying when he was calling. Our guess is that they were desperate people trying to get into Europe. When we last heard the Italian coastguard were an hour or so away and dealing with the situation. Sad thing is, the guy on the VHF was completely desperate for help and was plainly ill-equipped to have 50 people on board so if the weather had been anything other than settled they could easily have been lost with no trace. On a good note........ our VHF has good for almost 100M, something way beyond normal line-of-sight expectations!
We timed our arrival north end of Levkas bridge so that we would not be waiting round for the O'clock bridge opening. We were, however, not expecting there to be a dredger 'digging' in the channel as we entered! An interesting experience taking a route through the channel, avoiding the red buoys (which mark DANGEROUS ROCKS on one side and keeping out the way of a dangling/swinging dredger shovel on the other side! At least we saw 2.7m minimum depth, not 2.2m like a week ago!
When  we entered this anchorage (the one with Jackie Onassis's beach-house) there were several yachts and one big stinkpot t'other side of the isthmus. Now there is just us, yacht alone on the hook with 50m chain out. Yippee for another quiet over-night. My Lover & me needs to bottle it somehow!


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