On Monday 29th July Kai had a great time with his Italian friends, Alexandr, Katerina, Katerina and Katerina2's sister, fishing and jumping off the bows of the boat.
Kai offered one euro of his spending money to anybody who dived off the boat, which could have been expensive. They all tried
but only Katerina's sister was brave enough to do it.
We decided to leave for Arki on Tuesday morning as the weather forecast was favourable. We didn't leave until about 11. As we brought the anchor up, the chain snagged on a fishing boat's grappling hook and we could not get it untangled. Meanwhile we drifted down on the wind and got the mooring lines of another fishing boat caught between our keel and rudder as we drifted on to the fishing boat and the Coastguard boat. Lin and Kai fended us off while Simon went over the side into the water to push us far enough off to get free of the lines, while Lin had to manouvre the boat as Simon called up forward, back, stop from below. Fortunately it was not too windy and Simon managed to lever us free and Lin to drive us off, which left just the anchor to untangle. Just as we went back to the anchor the anchor control broke. Fortunately Simon had just fitted a new foot switch so we could pull it up electrically, but had to let it down manually. We pootled around, as fishermen shouted at us from the shore, trying to drop the grappling hook back into its original position. When we had got it roughly right we dropped our anchor and it came free.
That was not the end of the saga, because when we pulled up our anchor it hooked on two more mooring lines of fishing boats. Simon went over the side again, while Lin drove slowly backwards and forwards, and we finally got free.
We had a fast motor sail over to Arki, where we wanted to get on the quay. There was space on the west end, but we were told that that is now reserved for tripper boats. There was also a space further along the quay, which would have been wide enough if one of the boats had moved over a bit, because he had plenty of space on the other side. He flatly refused to move and we did not feel like barging in. We went to pull up the anchor, but the windlass jammed - Lin had left the handle in and it had locked. The only way to release it was for Simon to dive into the fore peak locker and hot wire it, which he did.
We eventually went back on to the jetty where the fishing boats go, avoiding the rocks with Nicolas's help.
Kai had a great time in the evening playing Rally 123 with a Swedish family.
On Wednesday morning we watched a fisherman feeding his tame cormorant.
Apparently the cormorant catches fish and brings them back, with a neck ring so that it cannot eat them, and is then rewarded with some of the catch.
Kai's Swedish friends left on the ferry at 11 and he played for the rest of the day with his Belgian friend Elliot, whom he has met the last two years, of course most of the time on the ipad together.
We are leaving early tomorrow, Thursday, morning, probably to an anchorage on the eastern end of Amorgos, depending on the wind - the forecasts as usual are conflicting, some offering strong winds. We will see.
We decided to leave for Arki on Tuesday morning as the weather forecast was favourable. We didn't leave until about 11. As we brought the anchor up, the chain snagged on a fishing boat's grappling hook and we could not get it untangled. Meanwhile we drifted down on the wind and got the mooring lines of another fishing boat caught between our keel and rudder as we drifted on to the fishing boat and the Coastguard boat. Lin and Kai fended us off while Simon went over the side into the water to push us far enough off to get free of the lines, while Lin had to manouvre the boat as Simon called up forward, back, stop from below. Fortunately it was not too windy and Simon managed to lever us free and Lin to drive us off, which left just the anchor to untangle. Just as we went back to the anchor the anchor control broke. Fortunately Simon had just fitted a new foot switch so we could pull it up electrically, but had to let it down manually. We pootled around, as fishermen shouted at us from the shore, trying to drop the grappling hook back into its original position. When we had got it roughly right we dropped our anchor and it came free.
That was not the end of the saga, because when we pulled up our anchor it hooked on two more mooring lines of fishing boats. Simon went over the side again, while Lin drove slowly backwards and forwards, and we finally got free.
We had a fast motor sail over to Arki, where we wanted to get on the quay. There was space on the west end, but we were told that that is now reserved for tripper boats. There was also a space further along the quay, which would have been wide enough if one of the boats had moved over a bit, because he had plenty of space on the other side. He flatly refused to move and we did not feel like barging in. We went to pull up the anchor, but the windlass jammed - Lin had left the handle in and it had locked. The only way to release it was for Simon to dive into the fore peak locker and hot wire it, which he did.
We eventually went back on to the jetty where the fishing boats go, avoiding the rocks with Nicolas's help.
Kai had a great time in the evening playing Rally 123 with a Swedish family.
On Wednesday morning we watched a fisherman feeding his tame cormorant.
Kai's Swedish friends left on the ferry at 11 and he played for the rest of the day with his Belgian friend Elliot, whom he has met the last two years, of course most of the time on the ipad together.
We are leaving early tomorrow, Thursday, morning, probably to an anchorage on the eastern end of Amorgos, depending on the wind - the forecasts as usual are conflicting, some offering strong winds. We will see.
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