We arrive in Patmos on 6 August and we settle in. This is the first Greek port that we have been in that the city wall is full nearly 100% of the time, and stuffed come 1800 every night.
When we arrive, we laid out some 100+ meters of anchor and chain, thinking that we had laid it between our neighbors' chain. We were half right. Our port side neighbor was able to retrieve his anchor without touching my chain, but he got tangled up with his neighbor to port. LeeZe's chain was laid over three gulets' chains and one left after we arrived and the other two left the next day. (They all had the old style fishermen's anchor which has a so-so holding factor so when they anchor, if they are anchoring in NY harbor as an example, their drop their anchor in San Francisco Bay (or so it seems!))
Later in the week, two other boats fouled my chain when they landed their chain on top of my chain.
I have never had so many fouled anchor chains, ever, even in Symi!
And the boats that come also side are not small. I currently have a 70' to starboard, but I have had 105', 85', a gulet that had to be over 80' long and three stories tall, a 41' go fast boat, as well as the usual suspects of sailing vessels.
We had an altercation with the 85' who wanted to run his generator overnight but the exhaust was getting into the master cabin. We asked three times for him to go on shore power but he refused, saying the shore power he needed was not here. Finally, in desperation, with the owner present, we pleaded with the Captain to shut it off and even offered to come to the cabin and take a whiff. Guess what? Within 15 minutes it was off and the crew was pulling out their shore power cord. (Liar liar pants on fire!)
So, it seems to be as busy as Grand Central Station especially after 1600 until about 2100. When things get tight or when a really big boy comes in, out comes the "rodeo master" who with a very loud and shrill whistle, directs the big boys to the spot he wants them in. If room can be made by shifting boats left or right, he starts barking orders so room can be made. Once he came to LeeZe and was about ready to "ask" me to shift sideways, but when he looked at my 4 doubled stern lines, he decided not to. Wise man. (We were once asked at dinner time in Lemnos if we could shift, and we said, sure, in the morning. Nope, the guy wanted me to shift in the next 15 minutes! That is just not going to happen.)
So, on Thursday, 11 Aug, my Aussie neighbor to port and I were discussing the upcoming blow, where the wind was predicted to reach up to 50 knots from the N/NW. He has a 42' sailing vessel and he dug out his springs. Ugh! If he thinks he needs springs, then I sure as heck do also.
So, I dig mine out, and decide to add two additional lines from the stern to the wall, crossed at the back, but one cleat over from what my normal stern lines are using. I wish to say that this is a quick step but it is not, as one has to slack the anchor chain, pull the lines tight (after shackling them to the cleat) and then take the slack out of the chain. That whole process took three hours, but at least the day was calm with no wind.
Thursday was also the day when the clamp that I use to attach my snubber line to the chain was repaired and returned to me. I had bent it in Samos somehow and wanted to get it repaired because while I have three, when a big blow is coming, I put two snubbers out in case of failure. I learned this lesson the hard way when I had a clamp come undone in a 45 knot wind and installing the backup, I had to verify that I still had all 10 fingers when I was done. So now, I do this when it is calm.
So, I am moored opposite the Blue Fin marine store. For those that ever come here, the repair person is north of that store, north of the supermarket, and just past a superb boat electrician's shop owned by Skios, make a left and walk 10 meters down that road. The repair shop is on the left. I gave them the clamp on Tuesday and thy fixed it for no charge by Thursday. Nice people. Only speak Greek. Store name is in Greek soooooooo, hard to name it.
But, with the help of another customer, when I noticed that this place stocks all sizes bronze screws for boat building and repair, I inquire about metric size nuts and bolts. Nope, they do not have them BUT there is a hardware store near to the Alpha Bank that does.
I get excited because I have been looking for about 3 years for metric bronze bolts and have been quite unsuccessful.
Get on my trusty bike and with a sample in hand, rush off to find this hardware store.
Again, the owner speaks only Greek, but he asks me to wait and he makes a phone call. 5 minutes later, his 12 year old daughter who is studying English in school is there to help.
I explain what I want and he says he has, somewhere. So he says something to the girl and she runs off, coming back a few minutes later with two greek coffees. She hands me one and tells me to wait. Dad goes digging and so does the daughter. To my surprise. He pulls out three very old looking and dusty boxes from somewhere deep behind other boxes. He opens and there they are! The bolts I have been looking for. He has 20 and I take them all. He also has 21 nuts, and 24 very special thick electrical cable washers. I take them all. The price? About $25. He THINKS he got these maybe 5 years ago, maybe longer. The price he paid for them was written on the box so he added 10% and that was the price I paid. He said that he will order them from Athens for next year, but he thinks the price will be quadrupled of what I paid today.
Later on Friday, I went back to that store. He called me his bronze customer. I look around. This is a hardware store that I imagined one would have been in the fifties. Old dusty boxes of nuts, bolts, door fasteners, knobs, hooks, hinges, etc etc etc are sitting on shelves with inch thick dust in some cases, having not been touched for a very long time it would appear. The inventory is in this man's head, and while he is not exactly sure where stuff his, has a pretty good idea of where to start to look. He is a dying breed.
Saturday, 13 August, the blow starts. My Aussie neighbor to port and LeeZe are so far fine. My 70' yacht to starboard is having a devil of a time corralling his stern. It seems it wants to dance all over the place. He is wedged in between me (at 44 gross tons) and a 36 foot sailboat on the other side, which is taking the brunt of his "dance." Winds peak tonight after midnight (recorded one 50 knot gust), die down a little, and then peak tomorrow after midnight.
We did take the afternoon off
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| A view from the path to the cave |
to go visit the monastery and the Cave of St John,
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| The Monastery is at the top. The white boxy building is the cave. The white building below the cave is a school. |
the disciple who dictated the Book of Revelations. The monastery was neat and quite interesting as it is more than 1000 years old and still houses a bunch of monks. (No pictures were allowed. They wanted you to buy their slides from their store. Who still has a slide projector?) The Cave……… well a little disappointed. I was expecting more, especially after the walk
needed to get to it. But a cave is a cave is a cave.
We are now looking for a weather window around 20 Aug. And we find it. We take advantage of the nearby beach,
do some chores, and make ready to depart. But first, there is this restaurant in the middle of town that overtime we go past, it is full. Not a table to be had. It could be 2000 or it could be 2230. It serves mostly fish so, on a Friday night,
with our Aussie neighbors, we arrive at the restaurant at about 2030 and there is one table open.
We grab it and after a wonderful dinner, we walk back to our boats.
On Saturday, 20 August, I awake to a scene that I just could not believe. There is a 78 meter fuel ship med moored to the northern most part of the wall. Just last night, before dinner, we walked that area and it was full of cruisers. I ask around and it seems that sometime around 2300 last night, those moored there were told to depart to make room for the fuel ship. Ugh! I further learn that it is refueling an diesel fired electrical generating station across the street. Per the agents on the wall, it comes in about 3-4 times a summer so its arrival is not unusual for them. When he leaves (and we are all taking bets to see if his anchor is fouled (we all loose, it wasn't)), the three large 80-100' yachts moored at the cruise liner dock all rush in to med moor, because having such a large part of the wall empty just does not happen in summer.
On Sunday, 21 Aug, our Aussie neighbor decides to leave. The wall is mostly empty around us and there are no large yachts moored around him, or me. We have decided to go on 22 August, so we watch him retrieve his anchor without incident and sail off. Very nice people!
Later toward evening, we pay our mooring bill (~ 130 € for 16 days), check out with the Port Authority, and have dinner.
22 August: We have coffee, and prepare to depart. Here is the moment I am dreading. I have to retrieve my anchor. It has been messed with so many times that I am unsure what I am going to find. As we move away from the wall, two boats down from me to starboard are also leaving, and of course, their two anchors are fouled with each other, and a third's boat. I am relieved to see my 20 meter chain mark so I know I am close. Then the windlass stalls. So, try again and no luck in getting the anchor up. I put back on the snubber and have Zehra very slowly motor forward, which breaks the anchor free from the bottom. When I finally do get it up, it has a brown clumping dirt on it that is very hard to get off. But we are clear and while I clean the anchor, Zehra drives us out of the harbor toward the Northern point of Leros.
After a 3 hour very rolly ride, we arrive are at Partheni, an anchorage recommended by our Aussie neighbors. It is very sheltered and calm. There are two boat yards and an airport nearby but neither are noisy. We anchor in 6 meters of water, and plan to take two days to decompress from Patmos. I also need to replace a rubber snubber that failed in Patmos.
There is not much here if you take away two huge boatyards that straddle the airport runway. This small enclave of a village is where whatever activity that happens originates from.
But there is a little bit of excitement! Just as dinner from the BBQ is was ready, Zehra notes water on the floor by the galley sink, tastes it, and announces that she must have spilled a lot of our homemade lemonade we drink. But then she notices that it is still coming so she opens the door under the sink and sees nothing. Feeling the bottom of the cabinet, she then announces that the anti-skid mat is very wet and soapy. Dinner is NOW done so I take it off the grill, cover it, and inspect the cabinet with a flashlight. There is a water hose that has lost its wire mesh sheath and the rubber hose is exposed. I also note that the connector of the same hose is very loose. Thinking I found the leak, I get out a wrench and tighten it. I have Zehra go turn on the water pump (we NORMALLY have it off when we are at sea, just in case a water line breaks) for 5 seconds which in theory should pressurize the line and I slowly open the valve. No leak so I think I am done! Hurrah! Let's eat.
Ah, but there is a nagging doubt in my mind so with the valve open, I have Zehra turn on the pump for 10 seconds, and sure enough, I get a face full of water from the now found broken rubber hose.
We decide to eat, and then clean up.
The hose that broke goes to the faucet that we get our drinking water from so after cleanup, we decide to leave the cabinet open to air out and dry. Meanwhile, I take some black electrical tape and tape off the broken wire mesh (little slivers are embedding themselves in my fingers!) and use the hose to fill two more bottles of drinking water just in case repairs take a while.
So after two days here, we pick up the anchor and head south toward Leros. The ride south is really rolly, though the wind is light, but on one roll, there is a huge noise from the galley and the drawer under the oven has coming flying out, crashing into the items that are out from under the sink so we could let that area dry!. Great. Super!!! Nothing we can do about it, but I contemplate the repair to that drawer is going to be very much a big PITA!
We arrive in Leros, and here is where confusion reigns. My trusty EagleRay port guide has remarkably little info about Leros. There is a marina on the west side, a marina on the east side, and the city wall is to the east of the marina on the west side. Got that? Yup, confusing. We were told by another Turkish boater that the marina on the west side was cheap. But, looking around, we do not see any way to contact them! None, Nada! The marina on the east side (Leros Marina) has a sign saying contact them on channel 10. So, I try to raise the Port Authority on Ch12 and no answer. I raise Olympia Radio on Channel 16 but they all me to call the Port on Ch 12 or 13.
Seeing a huge space along the city wall, we decide to take that. Now, let me paint the picture for you, because this dumbass should have seen it for himself. To the left and right of this huge empty space are sailboats so tightly squeezed in that there is no room between the boats. But this space is empty! Just for me? So, drop anchor and start back and when we get close enough, another boater tells Zehra that this space is reserved for the Greek Coast Card boat. And, once we are close we can see the words saying that painted on top of the sidewalk. (BTW hard to see then when 100 meters out!) And, my port guide has NO MENTION of a huge orange buoy in the water directly perpendicular from the center of the empty space. Greek Coast Guard uses orange buoys for mooring buoys.
So, feeling really stupid, I pick up the anchor and head off to the marina on the west side.
Now, this is going to be a very new learning experience for me. And when that happens, Zehra gets so frustrated and depressed that she has to sit down in the salon and take a moment to breathe.
You see, this marina, give you lazy lines that you tie off on the bow after you get a stern line over. The marina person reminds Zehra to remind me not to drop my anchor! Never did it that way. All I have ever experienced is getting these lines from a guy in a small boat before putting over a stern line.
So, as per our routine, I get Zehra to get one line over and tied off, when the guy on the dock says he wants me MUCH closer to the boat to port. Zehra cannot help here, and wisely sits down. He wants me to use my bow thruster to get closer. I do but I am cringing. He yells more , and I do more. More again, many more times, punctuated by the words, "go forward a little bit……… good, now more." I envision my bow thruster going up in flames or melting.
Eventually I am fender-to-fender to my neighbor, a few meters from the pier, so he wants some reverse thrust so he can come aboard and help me get the port lazy line on. So, I do, he comes through a salon all messed up from the stuff under the sink on the floor, as well as that drawer that came out during a roll. I am so embarrassed but he says not a word.
Together we get the port lazy line done, he goes ashore, hands me the starboard one, and I put that on. He wants them tighter but I say I need to fix the stern lines first.
He says "OK, let's do it." Normally I do this myself but I take him up on his offer. Remember I am still fender-to-fender to port, and he says "I need about ½ meter separation between the two of you." Since I normally cross my stern lines, he agrees that will do the trick and we cross.
He welcomes us to Lakki Marina (now we know the name of the marina!) and says that after getting settled, we need to check in. So, while I am tending to lines, putting on chafe protection and tightening up on the lazy (bow) lines, I ask Zehra to see what a night will cost us and ask her to see if there is a place in town to get a new hose to replace the broken one below the sink.
She comes back to say that a night is 29€ (not expecting that given our Turk friend said this marina was cheap!) + water and electricity AND she comes back with a new hose, with adapters to connect the new hose with the old hose. (It is about 1230 and its a Wednesday. greek shops close at 1400 or so on Wednesday's and reopen on Thursday morning, so there is a short window to get the hose I need.)
So, remember, I have not yet finished working on the lines, the salon is a mess, but the day is calm with little wind. So, elect first to work on the drawer, Zehra empties it and I inspect for broken parts. I see none, and think that is really strange. Our drawers close themselves once they close to being closed, and I thought I had broken that doodad. But, I carefully put the empty drawer back on its rails, the rails lock in place with the distinctive click, and the drawer closes itself. WOW! I dodged a bullet! I do not have to repair the drawer! Did I tell you that one of us failed to lock the drawer close prior to underway?
Then on to the sink. I hate adapters because they provide one more point for one to leak and now I to deal with two. The directions that came with the hose (remember, this is the EU!; there are directions on everything! The marina installed new toilets and there on the top of the toilets are direction on how to use the toilet!) say that finger tight is all that is needed. Nope, nada. Tried finger tight and the now dry cabinet is wet again! Try moderate wrench tight and still water. Time to break out the big guns. First I dig out my thread sealant "creme" for potable water connections. I liberally apply and using a 22 mm and an 23 mm wrenches, tighten those puppies up until I cannot move them a silly more millimeter. The sealant needs some 15 minutes to seal so I start to clean up, a little. After waiting, I slowly turn on the water, and behold, no leaks!
Onto the lazy lines. After confirming that we are close enough to the pier to get on and off, I take each lazy line to the capstan and tighten them until the water is wringing out of the line. Then I tie it off. Do the other side and now I am done. Welcome to Leros!
That concludes this entry.
If you have any questions, please ask.
Lee and Zehra
MV LeeZe
https://whereisleeze.blogspot.com
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