Anchor to be or not to be?

by Chantal & David · August 18, 2022

So morning came on the 29th July and despite a wind direction change, which of course means a swell direction, which made our overnight anchorage a little uncomfortable, we set about trying to find an engineer to help us with our anchor problem. You might ask why, when we hadn’t even tested it again, but things on boats don’t just go slow without a very good reason, and then fix themselves! The anchor is a crucial part, not so much for when, like last night, we are anchoring in a bay, but when we are in a harbour and have to drop the anchor and reverse onto a quay in spaces as tight as a car parking space, particularly with a cross wind… you HAVE to trust it will work properly. Same deal when you come to pick it up!

We made contact with the nearest marina to us and they put us in touch with a German mechanic by the name of Stefan. He answered his phone within 2 rings, a miracle in these parts, and better still, he said we could come to us, so long as we had a dinghy to pick him up from the shore with, which as you all know, we now do.

With that and the swell that would made working on it quite hard, we decided to test the anchor and move round to the other side of the tiny peninsular that was Ermioni and drop it again in shelter. So with fingers and toes crossed, David went up to the bow to press the button, and thank god it worked. Better still, it also worked when we came to drop it half an hour later. Phew!

We had to wait an hour for Stefan to arrive, and David then jumped into the dinghy to go an collect him. The engine, which up until this point, started first time, another Phew. Short lived however as half way to the shore it conked out and would not start again, so with the onshore breeze,(but not in the direction that Stefan was) David started rowing to Stefan, and then with this no joy on the engine, back to Seaclusion, but not before Stefan fell into the water, trying to get into the dinghy, not a good start!

So whilst Stefan set about looking at the windlass, we set about looking at the outboard engine and soon worked out that it was the fuel from the external tank that was causing the problem. Filling the engine’s tank with spare fuel soon fixed the problem, much to David’s relief as he really didn’t fancy another row!

Half an hour later, Stefan reappeared from down below with our windlass motor in his hands and announced he had to take it ashore to his electrician to open it up and look inside, and hoped to be back later in the afternoon. So off David went with Stefan and motor back to the shore, a bit quick this time, and all we had to do was wait!.

With time to kill we took the dinghy back to shore to have a wander around Ermioni. Again we have been here before, so were interested to see how it too had modernised itself to cope with the many charter boats that come in here.

Ermioni

We also thought about getting some laundry done, hahaha, back to last year’s problem, yes there was a laundry service here, but they were far too busy! So we had a lovely freddo cappuccino & banoffee pie (well David did), did a bit of a provision and waited a while hoping to hear that Stefan was on his way back, to avoid another trip in the dinghy if we didn’t need to. No joy so we soon headed back before our groceries spoiled in the heat and chilled on board.

However as the sun was starting to set with still no sign of Stefan, we called him and he said he was really sorry but he was waiting on his electrician, and that in all likelihood it will be the morning before he can return. Yikes, that evening was a bit of a squeaky bum night, it is somewhat unnerving being on anchor with no ability to lift it should the winds get up or someone else came in and dragged your chain, particularly when a starch reminder of how quickly things can go wrong was on the beach …..

Our anchorage.. clock the boat in the middle, in the distance…

The sunset was beautiful though… watched with some vino in our hands, well what else is one supposed to do!

With relief, the next morning, we received a text from Stefan saying he was on his way. An hour later, the motor was back in its right full home, the mechanism full of new oil and all seemed to be well, except our wallet, which was now devoid of cash all bar 5 euros! David then dropped Stefan off to the shore, and we picked up our anchor and sailed around the headland in lovely calm seas with 12-15 knots of wind, how perfect, to the almost landlocked bay of Porto Heli for the night, on anchor.

Port Heli

Again, having been here before, we didn’t venture in town, perhaps we should have… more on that a bit later. We just boat watched, marveling at the balance of a four legged friend, Daisy would never in a million year’s have done this…

After a peaceful night on anchor we set sail again, not that it lasted long as the winds soon dropped and as a novelty, we motored further around the headland to Kolladhia, a very sleepy fishing port we knew well, or so we thought…..in desperate need now of a launderette which we knew they had!

Kolladhia

So having laid our pick without any issue, we jumped in the dinghy again to get some cash out and lots of change for the laundry machines. On arriving we asked a friendly waiter if there was an ATM nearby and trying to be funny he answered, of course, and we have electricity and water too!! Cheeky sod, but when we asked him where it was, he then said it was about 10 miles away in the next village. Thinking he was still joshing we laughed and asked him seriously. This time he said he was being serious and asked if we wanted a taxi! Durr yes, but after a 20 euro return fare, we have to say that was the most expensive cash withdrawal we have ever made!

Next obstacle was getting 30 euros in euro coins, given any one shop would only give us 5 euros change at time, well you can do the maths, it kept us busy for a while!.

Finally loaded up, we went back to the boat, collected our laundry and headed off to the opposite end of the bay, where the launderette was… and spent the next couple of hours watching the Hungarian Grand Prix while our clothes finally got clean!

That evening on anchor was probably our first since Lesvos, that was peaceful without any wind gusts and the water dead calm, how wonderful!

The next day, not quite having got all the laundry done, we returned again with another bag and were grateful that we did the bulk of it the day before on Sunday as now there was a queue! We whiled away the time in the “sweetie shop” as Steven calls it, aka the yacht chandlers buying a few necessary bits for the boat and chatting to a couple also doing their laundry, Steve and Siobhan, Scottish and a Kiwi respectively who were anchored next to us. They were going in the opposite direction so we picked their brains and they picked ours!

The rest of the day we spent chilling and for the first time all holiday, the paddle board came out, using muscles I nearly forgot I had…

The following morning we set about leaving for Astros but as soon as we started to lift the anchor we knew we hadn’t fixed the problem…a distress whatsapp to Steve for any advice saw him coming over in his dinghy and spending the next hour dismantling our clutch and there we found the culprit, string!!! Very grateful for saving our bacon and the lesson on how to service it ( you might ask how we did not know this having had our boat now for 10 years… but you never learn until things go wrong do you!), we decided to stay another night and go out for dinner ashore with Steve and Siobhan as a thank you. We had a fab night and got thoroughly pissed, suffice to say the dinghy journey home was a giggle, the hangover the next morning not so much!

2nd August we finally set sail heading for Astros, which is the start of the Peloponnese, although it is not the first time we have visited the place. It was a fab sail across and we found a spot on the quay. Sadly we had to reposition as we had nicked a large catamaran’s spot… we really wished we hadn’t…. as an hour later, this monster of a powerboat came in, and I mean a monster.. she was at least 36 metres long, and with that the generator and aircon running all night, right next to us!!!

We had to go to the Port Police anyway to show our papers so we asked the lovely lady there if there was a rule in Greece that generators couldn’t be run after 11pm.. she said yes and that she would have a word with them. OMG did that cause an absolute stink, suffice to say even she didn’t have enough power to stop them… despite everyone on the quay getting involved! We sat quietly watching it all, only because we didn’t understand a word, just the gist.

Lit up like Crystal Palace, overcome with diesel fumes. eating on board no longer an option, we wandered into the village, watched the sunset and had a not so great meal, but some nice vino!!

Astros

We then returned to the boat, closed the hatches to stop the fumes gassing us during the night, donned earplugs and our little fans and did actually sleep surprisingly!

The following day we had time to wander around the town, do some provisioning and of course grabs a few shots!