On the 9^th July we anchored off the small fishing harbour of Ligia. The anchorage is fairly well protected and the sea state never gets too rough because there is an ancient breakwater which extends out from the shore to the entrance to the Levkas canal. The breakwater is clearly marked in the pilot book and the end of the submerged breakwater ‘wall’ is marked by a red buoy and green to the other side of the channel.

Ideally there should be further buoys but as a busy area for transiting yachts the pilot book is very clear. When we arrived to anchor off the village we saw an up turned hull of a yacht approx. 36ft long.  With the binoculars we could see that it was holed. We anchored well away from it and not downwind of any floatsome.

Later when returning from the shore by dinghy we circled the yacht to see what had happened. It is a sad thing to see a yacht submerged and possibly to think that someone’s dream end has ended.

We knew the crew would have been ok as the yacht was close to shore in a busy sailing area and with many local eyes seeing everything from the shore.

A yacht recovery team arrived from the Levkas marina and so we went over to see if they could save the yacht. The keel had been completely ripped off the wooden boat in the impact. The yacht had sadly clearly driven straight over the ancient submerged wall, hit it at speed and fell back into the deeper water and sank.

Sadly whilst this is a well charted danger, many yachts see others anchored in the bay on both sides of the ancient wall and head at speed to the anchorages oblivious to the submerged danger. When we circled the yacht we saw the wall under the dinghy. It is quite wide with big blocks of stone. The depth is around 4-5 ft. suddenly reducing down to approx. 3ft, followed by a vertical drop off to about 15ft.

The red buoy marks the beginning of the Levkas canal heading north but unless people check the charts, they wouldn’t necessarily think to go from the bay around the first red and back into the bay……which appears clear at water level.

We asked the diver when it had happened…..’yesterday’ he said.  He continued the shore up the open hole where the keel had been ripped off in an attempt to re-float it.  The keel must have been on the bottom somewhere.

We headed back to Tioram and as we neared the boat a 38ft-40ft Hallberg Rassy yacht steamed past us at about 6 knots heading straight for the breakwater only yards to the left of the upturned hull !! Why??

We watched thinking he was going to come to another abrupt stop….. the diver watched amazed…… we shouted as loud as we could to tell them to stop.

They suddenly slowed looked across at the hull…..and continued over…….. what must have been a low spot…… over the submerged stone wall.   They continued happily into the bay and anchored oblivious !!

We got back to the yacht and another small 28ft yacht did the same and then circled the up turned yacht to have a look….. duh!! The yacht was sunk…had hit something ????….. so let’s circle it closely and have a look duh !!

They then came back to the bay with us and happily anchored for the afternoon !!

The shore team and diver eventually managed to float the hull  and with powerful  rib boats they made their way to the entrance to the canal across the bay. We watched as a top tricolour masthead light floated by us……….…. eerily.

We thought the recovery team were going to attempt to take the yacht up the Levkas canal to try to lift it at the marina by crane.  The canal is narrow and the mast and sail appeared to be floating on the surface….far too wide for the canal river.

The ribs and yacht on its side stopped at the mouth of the canal in the distance and the ribs pulled the yacht onto the beach shoreline. Eventually a mobile crane arrived and the yacht was unceremoniously dragged and lifted up the beach…. the rudder was still on it, but we thought it may have suffered more damage by being dragged.  The yacht was left on its base, slightly heeling on the shore.

At a distance through binoculars we could see the ensign, a Dutch flag which seemed to defiantly begin flying again.

To their credit, the team saved the yacht and by 10am the next day it was gone. Collected and transported somewhere. Let’s hope the owners were going to get their boat back and that it wasn’t salvaged.

A simple mistake which could happen to anyone, a lapse of concentration or a lack of planning. Either way let’s hope the sad looking yacht sails again…… and with its owners.

Photos of the upturned yacht……..

Love to all

T and T x x x