Tuesday in Hydra! 😨

This is the follow-up to Tuesday, part one. If you’d like to read about the day cronologically, click here.

Tuesday afternoon, and Coral was waiting contentedly for us as we returned from our lunch-hike. A light breeze from the NW was creating a steady little bounce in the harbour, and by 5 pm it was such that stacking boats was looking a bit dodgy, so we were happy that Monday’s group had wandered away and our bow was clear. As I searched the fridge for a beer, I heard yelling, and a sailboat backed in to stack on our bow. The Hydra Bumperboat Circus began. I politely took their sternline, as did my neighbour, and the friendly Polish skipper and crew proceeded to bounce, jockey, twist and fend their boat off of Coral’s menacing bowroller. No serious contact, but as the surge intensified in the harbour, it was obvious (to me) that our boat geometries were completely incompatible for these conditions. Coral’s sturdy construction threatenened to pull the Beneteau limb from cleat, and I wasn’t willing to deal with dings and scuffs. The Poles thankfully seemed resigned to try elsewhere, but just then another boat took center stage as their anchor dragged and they spent 30 minutes blown around and flailing through the harbour like a rabid baboon. Oh, I know: rarely are baboons used in the circus. But take my word for it.

The baboon boat scraped along the Poles at one point while everyone in the harbour was enthralled, horrified and thankful it wasn’t them. Eventually the harbour diver tranquilized that situation,  and then it was the Poles turn to reel in their anchor and bugger off. But of course, they tangled with my anchor,  which just means they simply needed to snake a rope under my chain, extricate their anchor, and drop my anchor back where they found… HEY! HEY! NO! NOT THERE! WHAAAAT!!

I exchanged bewildered eyerolls with everyone else who had been yelling as my friendly Polish boat sped out of the harbour, having inexplicably dropped my hook 3 aisles over. With my engine now assuredly keeping my butt off the dock, I debated: Should I risk leaving the dock to reposition my anchor? Just snug it and deal with the mess tomorrow? Was I to be the next baboon?

I chose just to snug away, but incredibly, my anchor grabbed absolutely nothing in that nest of chains, and wound right back to Coral’s bow. I wasn’t snagged, but now what? Back in again? Leave the harbour for the night? My neighbour suggested paying the diver or taxi boat guy to ferry my anchor back to a good spot, and that was a very well spent €50 for 10 minutes of important help. The anchor got enough grab to hold me off the dock while dusk fell and the harbour lept and creaked for another pensive 4 hours. Coral seemed to shrug the whole thing off.

When the cruising guide say “dangerous surge in a NW wind”, one needs to pay attention, and maybe plan an early escape.