Aegina, Greece
We left Itea with lots of regret. It is a beautiful, little town in the Gulf of Corinth. After sailing down the gulf, we decided to forego the marina and anchor near the town of Corinth in a beautiful spot just off the beach. It was a rock and roll night with the wind piping up to do a job on us, but we were firmly in place. The next morning as I pulled up the anchor I found out why. A huge mooring, and I mean huge, came up with the anchor chain. We had planned on being first in line for the canal, but try as we might we could not get the mooring off. It was a 2 ft. square chunk of concrete with jagged pieces of rebar sticking out like spines on a porcupine. Our windlass had to be very strong to bring this monstrosity up from the depths. We were anchored in about 30 ft. of water, and the chain had snagged it at about 90 ft. fortunately, so we stayed in place instead of drifting onto the beach as we worked feverishly trying to dislodge it. Finally, we got a line on the mooring and another line on the chain. Maneuvering the windlass, we were able to get slack in the chain, dislodge it from the spikes, pull it up and drop the mooring back into the depths from whence it had appeared for some other lackluss mariner to hook.
We have been pretty lucky, though. We watch other yachties trying to get out from hooking others anchors or rodes. This has been our third time and it only took 2 hrs in which we missed our canal time, but we were lucky. If our windlass had not been able to raise the mooring, we would have had to find a diver because Greece won't certify our tank. They do not allow recreational diving because of all the artifacts on the bottom of their waters.
Anyway, we only waited 3 hours for the next canal time. We paid our E169, less than we had estimated, and followed a huge tanker being towed through this beautiful canal. It's carved from limestone, so the water was a wonderful aqua marine.
Six hours later we used our new stern anchor reel. I dropped the anchor over the stern as Jer drove straight into the dock. We stopped the reel just as it approached the dock; it held so firmly that Jer stood and talked to our neighbor without even getting the lines on. He was so proud.!He didn't know that I had torn 1 of my hands on the anchor chain. I am certainly not grace. We have plenty of peroxide, and I have no piano to play. It will heal.
We are now waiting for force 8 to 10 winds to abate so that we can head onward. We are only about 4 days from Kemer, but the meltemi have to let us sail.
xoxoxoxo
- September 4, 2004