Crossed anchor advice - Fiskardo

[Bertramdriver]

I know you won't believe this but it's true. In Poros a couple of weeks ago, nicely moored up on the town quay just up from the old cinema. Bit of a westerly blow running. 50' charter yacht rolls up beside us crewed by 5 Dutch guys. Clearly inexperienced, they bump and grind their way in beside us and need lots of help tying on. I get talking to them and warn them of the morning anchor lifting ritual, made worse by the cross mooring going on in Poros now. Next morning they say they've chartered for three years and never had a lifted/crossed anchor. What do they do when it happens, they ask. So I fetch my boat hook and a length of rope to demonstrate. Almost finished my explaination when I notice another big charter yacht circling, looking for a landing place.....with his anchor dangling below water level. Sure enough he takes my chain and to add insult decides that his best solution is to motor in reverse as hard as possible, my chain now visible on his stretched anchor. So my anchor goes for a trip around the harbour. The only option I had was to fire up my engines cast off and follow the idiot into the middle, shortening the chain as we went. I think the sight of my vengeful mobo stalking towards his yacht spurred his crew into adrenaline fuelled panic because as soon as we got close a crew member got a rope around their chain and pulled it over mine releasing me. He speedily gets out looking for pastures new and I watch as the recently arrived Dutch crew pack up in record time and bail out, waving and wishing good luck as they go. Meanwhile a circling catamaran (Russian charter flag) sees this now large space left free by us and the Dutch and lines up to land his space machine into our place. What do you do?
From experiance we know that there is no civility or consideration from the East Europeans, so we head over to the pontoon and squeeze precariously into a small space. The pontoon is packed with Northern European boats moored beam on. After a couple of days a pattern emerges. As soon as someone leaves the pontoon, within minutes a northern euro will slide in glad to escape the madness of the main harbour.
Sad to say that Poros has now joined the ranks of chaotic harbours with Perdika, Idra and Egina. That means that you can never leave your boat for more than a few moments and can never relax whilst on board. I'm beginning to wonder why I do it.

 

[vyv_cox]

We are anchored off Poros now and were on the pontoon for a couple of nights. If boats berthed stern-to on it the crossed anchors would be ten times worse, as they would be at right angles to all the boats along the quay. Someone told me there is a sign saying that boats should berth alongside, although all we found were saying the opposite.

 

[jimbaerselman]

Sad to say that Poros has now joined the ranks of chaotic harbours with Perdika, Idra and Egina. That means that you can never leave your boat for more than a few moments and can never relax whilst on board. I'm beginning to wonder why I do it.

Lesson for the day . . . visit popular places out of season!

 

[Steve C Cronin]

We are anchored off Poros now and were on the pontoon for a couple of nights. If boats berthed stern-to on it the crossed anchors would be ten times worse, as they would be at right angles to all the boats along the quay. Someone told me there is a sign saying that boats should berth alongside, although all we found were saying the opposite.

Coupled with that, on said pontoon, a local sailing school practises berthing manoeuvres repeatedly. Whenever I've been there the pontoon has always been configured with alongside mooring.

 

[Bertramdriver]

While we were relaxing on the pontoon a couple of officious behaving blokes wandered along inspecting the boats. Stopping at our boat he pointed to our dinghy, slung off the transom and began a rant to his oppo. I'm not a Greek speaker but he was obviously offended that we were all broadside instead of stern to and didn't like the way my boat set up.
In the afternoon the very fragrant water lady came down the line telling us all that that the council had ordered us to moor up stern to. Most upped and left.
That's what I can't get about the Greeks. On the one hand they do something smart like stopping mooring fees which massively increased trade to Poros and then they do something dumb by trying to enforce 3 way stern to mooring to accommodate the extra traffic.

 

[Chris_Robb]

While we were relaxing on the pontoon a couple of officious behaving blokes wandered along inspecting the boats. Stopping at our boat he pointed to our dinghy, slung off the transom and began a rant to his oppo. I'm not a Greek speaker but he was obviously offended that we were all broadside instead of stern to and didn't like the way my boat set up.
In the afternoon the very fragrant water lady came down the line telling us all that that the council had ordered us to moor up stern to. Most upped and left.
That's what I can't get about the Greeks. On the one hand they do something smart like stopping mooring fees which massively increased trade to Poros and then they do something dumb by trying to enforce 3 way stern to mooring to accommodate the extra traffic.

Stopped mooring fees? I thought that they had just taken it away from the waterman - and port police were collecting! ah - they cannot be bothered probably. As to why the waterman was stopped - I was told that I should see the size of his house!!!! But what a shame - as the old waterman at least kept order on the quay. When its totally free - all hell breaks out without some order.

I don't believe it can be as bad as Skiathos - which is just a fight with the locals to get any place ashore, even down the end of the quay. Just a horrid experience.

 

[Bertramdriver]

Any body know what the rules are for mooring on the Galitas side. The main harbour is too much hassle but I like Poros. Is Galitas a better option?

 

[Bertramdriver]

Of course Galatas is a better option - it has a Lidl! Poros and Galatas are like chalk and cheese. If you want to be a tourist then go to Poros but if you want to do some shopping or see real Greece then go to Galatas. Personally I would avoid any quay in either place as the wash will ruin your enjoyment of either. Best just to anchor off and dinghy between the two to fulfill all your needs.

Yep, no brainer.
Absolutely tired and fed up with incompetent charterers, lunatic Bolshevik cat drivers and petty Greek officials.
Jim B says stay away from popular areas in summer. In other words forget the Saronikas, Argolic and most of the Cyclades and Sporades. Have I missed anything?
I'm tempted by the warm weather to stay here in the UK until mid September and trust the weather in Greek stays reasonably good until November.

 

[1bobt]

Yep, no brainer.
Absolutely tired and fed up with incompetent charterers, lunatic Bolshevik cat drivers and petty Greek officials.
Jim B says stay away from popular areas in summer. In other words forget the Saronikas, Argolic and most of the Cyclades and Sporades. Have I missed anything?
I'm tempted by the warm weather to stay here in the UK until mid September and trust the weather in Greek stays reasonably good until November.

+1... The water taxis take up most of the top end quay

 

[vyv_cox]

I was in Poros last summer and the quay was a sensible mix of stern to moored boats out at the end where crossed anchors were less likely and alongside moored boats nearer the root as here anchor crossing with boats on the quay would be a certainty. Signs said that alongside mooring was not allowed. At the time I found myself with no reverse gear but as I had a spare broken gearbox on board from which I could make the repair I decided to take a space alongside (reversing to the quay was obviously not possible). I was promptly told by the water man that I had to go stern-to even when I explained my situation. After much pleading he allowed me to stay for two days. I noticed that the waterman was never around when all the boats were picking up their crossed anchors!

About three weeks ago.

The water man was a young girl, who made no comment about the berthing.

 

[BobnLesley]

"Lesson for the day . . . visit popular places out of season!"

Going back to the original post, we've twice managed to be the only boat in Fiskardo - once mid March, once early April. That said, we always thought Fiskhardo in July/August was a must see/do highlight whenever we were in the 1-onion: Arrive Saturday evening, when the charter/flotilla fleets were all back in their home ports ready for 'changeover day'; anchor and tie back to the lamp-post on the wall immediately below the ferry quay - the ferryman knew what he was doing and nobody else could get in upwind of us; also, make sure the anchor itself was laid to the west of you (under the ferry's berthing position) thus ensuring nobody else was likely to drop their anchor that far up to trip ours. Do whatever on Sunday morning, but by mid-afternoon, be back in the cockpit with chilled beer, wine and peanuts/crisps readily to hand. A high proportion of that week's charterers who felt they simply 'must' visit Fiskhardo, also said 'lets go there first' so began to arrive, in their new/unfamiliar yachts, just as the afternoon breeze picked-up and blew side on to them as they tried to anchor/tie back; it has to be one of the world's great free shows!

 

[Cardo]

it has to be one of the world's great free shows!

As I keep advocating: Mooring is a spectator sport!

Though, seeing as I have the "Helpful" gene, I can't help wandering over and helping out those who are struggling. I've discovered a lot of charterers are quite eager to take directions from someone on the quay who appears to know what they're talking about.

 

[Cardo]

Although I have noticed that charterers take your advice then throw you a huge tangle mass of rope, which usually reaches you at the third attempt then once you've untangled it and wiped down your salt water splattered face they expect you to pull their boat towards the quay whilst the person on the bow is pulling the anchor up for all they're worth and the person on the helm has left the engine in forward. Once you've got them moored up I've also noticed that you rarely get a 'thank you'. Based on this I personally don't help charterers unless there is imminent danger to my own boat. I must have a selective helpful gene!

Ah, yes, the pulling game. That's always a fun one. "NEUTRAL! NEUTRAL!"

I'm pretty sure I've always been thanked for my help, and on a few occasions been handed over a couple of beers for my trouble.

 

[Cariadco]

Helping??

Although I have noticed that charterers take your advice then throw you a huge tangle mass of rope, which usually reaches you at the third attempt then once you've untangled it and wiped down your salt water splattered face they expect you to pull their boat towards the quay whilst the person on the bow is pulling the anchor up for all they're worth and the person on the helm has left the engine in forward. Once you've got them moored up I've also noticed that you rarely get a 'thank you'. Based on this I personally don't help charterers unless there is imminent danger to my own boat. I must have a selective helpful gene!

A few years ago. me and the missus managed to escape for a month on the boat. we spent most of in and around Levkas and as she's such a nervous sailor, we were spending a couple of days in every port we stopped in.
Come late afternoon, the fun begins.......flotilla after flotilla, would be in, mooring up. We always got up and helped the Lead crews, and every single time, we got a huge thank you, and we're always invited to meet up with them, later in the evening. (Which we did, every time....)
Sailing Holidays, Neilson and Sunsail, and one or two smaller operations, all the same level of gratitude.

We actually began to look forward to it!!

I'm sure looking forward to doing some of that again, soon??
Regards,

 

[Cardo]

Most live aboards or part time live aboards let out an audible groan when they see a flotilla heading into the harbour so you have an unusual outlook on the situation.

I wasn't too impressed when a certain lead boat (belonging to one of the companies you mention) while next to me in Sivota last year decided to play a game that involved dropping eggs from the top of the mast. I wasn't too impressed to find egg splatter coming through my open portlights and landing on me and my laptop. I think I might have told them that but in not so many words!
Even when they are moored up they somehow continue to be annoying. If it's not eggs then it damned engines running for hours charging batteries - why can't they run them while they are out sailing during the day? That way they only annoy themselves.

I may sound a little grumpy but I try to put a lot of effort into not doing any thing that someone else might find annoying and yet others seem to do their utmost to annoy others. Maybe there are just a lot of stupid and selfish people on sailing boats?

To be honest, many of the things you moan about are also done by liveaboards, private holiday boats and bareboat charters. Many people are simply not considerate of those around them. Life in general, really.

 

[Cardo]

Not sure I've ever had a liveaboard drop eggs from the top of his mast into my boat yet - but there's still time. Generally I would say that charter/flotilla boats manage to do something annoying about 50% of the time and liveaboard/part timers about 10%.

An example of the 10% - I had an Italian boat next to me on Levkas town quay the other day who ran his engine for two hours in the morning and then put it on again at 11pm! I asked him to turn it off saying it was antisocial and he said '10 minutes'. I repeated my request and pointed to his array of solar panels and asked him what they were for. He said it hadn't been sunny. It was a blazingly hot sunny day all day! His son guessing that I wouldn't give in turned the engine off but the father put it back on. I lost my patience big time and so selected a tune on my iPod by a chap called Kevin Rudolf that I knew would certainly be something a gentlleman of his age would hate and put it on maximum volume on the cockpit speakers. I then said to him - '10 minutes'! He switched his engine off within thirty seconds but I left the six minute track to finish as his sons seemed to be enjoying it. I apologise to anyone on Levkas town quay who heard the music but it had to be done. He left the next morning so had to use his engine just a few hours later anyway.

I have set my boat up so that I never have to run the engine to charge the batteries and even if I hadn't I would never dream of running an engine at 11pm so why do other people think it is perfectly acceptable.. Selfish or stupid?

Bit of both, I think.

 

[jordanbasset]

I used to quite like helping others with their ropes when they arrived, whether they were liveaboards or charterers. Good opportunity to say hullo and meet new people. Often found help was reciprocated when we arrive some where, a couple of minutes of my life did not cause me any great issues, it was not as if I had to go out to work. Having been on flotillas and chartered boats myself in the past it was good to talk to people to see how they were enjoying it. Got invited to more than one of the harbour side parties before now, free drink and nibbles, good times

 

[Tranona]

Bit of both, I think.

Do you mean the behaviour of both parties?

 

[Cardo]

To be honest, I just enjoy the fact I'm not at work, the weather's great, and I'm doing something I love.

So I get a bit of a git mooring up next to me. Meh, whatever. Good thing about boats is that they move around.

I quite like it when the flotilla boats moor up around us, including the lead boats, it makes life more interesting. It's amazing just what a small world it is when you get chatting to your temporary neighbours.

 

[Tranona]

No he means they are a bit stupid and a bit selfish.

Still not clear who the "they" are. Seems from your account there were three people involved, at least two of whom seem to have been antisocial, so I was just asking for clarification about how many were being stupid and selfish, and if so, which.