Poros

[sailaboutvic]

I sure most will know this and I should had known better after the years I have visited the town .
but in case your new , if your on the quay in Poros town , make sure your boat is well away from the Quay and the passerelle is kept clear , as the ferrys make a hell of a wash .

Mistake leaving the passerelle lower while out shopping , not much left of it . Luckily no damage to the boat .

 

[Mr Cassandra]

Not the best place on the North Quay expecialy when the flying cat comes in .

 

[sailaboutvic]

Not the best place on the North Quay expecialy when the flying cat comes in .

Yes I know it was a moment of lack of judgment,
PM tou again by the way

 

[Mr Cassandra]

I am further up by the Woodern pontoon.
Also have a car in Galitas.

 

[OldBawley]

Sorry to hear about the damage done, the Poros sea lake is no good place to be as those big wave makers enter.
In winter the waves made by the ferry´s and tripper boats are even worst.
Then the big shiny super yachts are in Athens and the ferry´s speed even more. Nobody to be afraid of, damage to a super is not as good for the captain.

I was just pulling my dinghy back into the water at the little beach by the Galata camp-site when one of those flying cats passed. Indian summer, a women was taking a sunbath on a towel on the beach. She must have fallen asleep.
First the water pulled back, then came up with the first bow wave. At that spot the waves get one meter high and run about 5 meters up the beach. The women was pulled into the sea by the wave running back, then the next wave caught her. A wile later a saw her crawling out of the water on all four.
Her coiffure was totally ruined, her pants had 4 pounds of sand and gravel in it, towel, handbag, phone, all gone. I heard her muttering “ malaka “ after a lot of coughing.

On an other occasion my boat was launched from the little boatyard a bit further west. The yard normally takes shallow keeled Greek boats on sledges. Old style wharf, sheepgreese on wooden planks and a old fashioned sledge. ( that sledge weighs 30 tons ) Our boat has a 1,5 m keel, stood on top of a 3 feet high sledge. That was a bit to much. The sledge stopped its way down when our boat had still about 2 feet of air to the waterline.
I stood at the tiller and saw the Apollon, a car carrying ferry approaching. Both chimneys bellowing black smoke, he wanted to show who had the biggest …
I realised that his waves would lift our boat from the sledge and then throw it back on again. Eight tons of 80 year old wood, no way our boat would survive that.
Our prop was just below the water surface, the water intake also. I started the engine and literally pulled our boat of the sledge. Fifty horsepower full astern. An awful screeching, splintering wood and then our boat fell of the sledge.
I had just coated our boat with coppercoat. The splintering wood ware the beams and wedges holding the boat upright, the screeching was the result of two very deep scratches in the coppercoat.

Normally the yard owner would have changed the cables pulling on the sledge and pulled the whole shebam a few yards deeper with the yard winch. Now with that approaching monster..... panic and not just me. Everybody was yelling and saw what was about to happen.

I still have lots and lots of goodwill from the yard brothers, had saved them ( and me ) a lot of trouble. Not sure if they are insured.
The yard owner knows the ferry schedule, his wife sells tickets for them. Only sometimes they throw in a extra ferry. Or some super yacht passes. Some of them bigger then the big car ferry´s.

 

[Mistroma]

We were anchored off the same little jetty at the old camp-site when a biggish power stormed past very close to us. No reason to be there other than he felt like it. I saw him coming in time to start the engine and bring the boat forward and around into the wake while my wife closed the fore hatch.

No damage and little drama. Then we looked at the little jetty where someone had tied up a dinghy on the "sheltered side". The wave made the jetty vanish, as you already indicated, then the next one almost swamped the dinghy. We decided that we'd never take the dinghy in there even on a calm day unless planning to lift it well ashore.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Back on the quay yesterday to sort out a ladder to make a new passerelle , while there the same ferry came roaring in and another boat passerelle got wrecked and a boat stern got damage .
You real got to be well off the quay and make sure you anchor is well in .
It seen that it's only one ferry that's causing the problem .

 

[OldBawley]

The Apollon is the worst one, his captain must have a small dick problem. The two other big car ferry´s pass the lake at a much lower speed, are no problem.
The old trusted Flying dolphins are now slowly been replaced by more modern flying cats, one of them using 21.000 HP and polluting the air in a way that is no fun for the people living in Poros town. Docking and boarding takes those big cats about 20 minutes, their turbines blasting all the time, now that is air pollution.
The old Dolphins have had it, very old and often have mechanical problems. Back when I was working on a shipyard, I have worked on the foils of the same boats. Was in the 70 s and they ware old boats then.
My last trip to Pireaus on a Dolphin, we had a fire in the engine room and it took the flying Dolphin 4 h to reach Pireaus from near Aegina where the fire started. Airplane gone. Had the pleasure of walking a few hours trough Pireaus at night which is a unique experience. A harbour town full of extremely poor people, beggars, homeless, druggies en what more. Could have taken a cab but in my eyes that is a worse kind of town venom. OK, some cab drivers have to be honest men but the places and times where I could have used a taxi those honest ones ware sleeping.

The blue catamaran tripper boat used to have a captain that loved rocking the boat. The waves of that boat did real damage. I hated the boat, had broken glasses, spilled out lockers, his waves ware much worst than sea waves, their speed is a lot higher.
One day I was shopping in Poros town, rode my full size mountain bike with 25 kilo´s of mostly vegetables on the luggage rack.
As usual I did a quay trip, just looking who was in town. Have a chat.
The blue catamaran had just docked and released his passengers for an hour of shopping and the extremely overweighted captain came down the gangway to claim his daily coffee in one of the cafe´s.
He was so fat he could not regulate his speed down the ramp and I could not brake in time.
We collided. My head and right elbow ware half way buried in his soft belly, my sunglasses and cap sat crooked en he had mountain bike tire marks up to his nipples. As you know those captains wear a white uniform. Up to the shoes. Looks like an ice cream seller.
No one was hurt, up to today I cant stop laughing thinking about his face when he tried to look below his belly.
Must be some other captain now, no more speeding in the lake. Hope his lose of job has nothing to do with his ruined uniform.

 

[Mr Cassandra]

I am sorry to go against you O B .but it is the fast catamaran that causes the problems on the North Quay.

 

[OldBawley]

You are probably right, we anchor out so have a different situation to cope with.

Our boat is an old style long keeler, could even say extreme keeler. Our keel is a solid wall in the water when those waves come rolling by, especially anchored in shallow water that really is no fun.

I see modern style yachts with fin keels and floating on top of the water just nudging a bit, the wave rolls by without problems, our long keel has to move or break when a big wave with lots of speed passes.

I normally leave Poros because of the diesel imposed waves as soon as season starts, only come back to winter. This year left in March, had to come back last month because of breaking a chain plate.

When I bought the boat fin keelers ware non existing except for small day boats. A lot has changed.
Wished I could start all over, the old trusty long keeler which was “The” boat back then is no longer my dream boat. ( Think I would build a big fast catamaran )

The north quay is a nono to me. In winter I moor from time to time at the floating pontoon, just for shopping. Always keep a eye on the west end of the lake, if I see thunderstorm clouds I leave.

Had two occasions moored on that floating pontoon when we ware surprised by winter thunderstorm. From flat calm to one meter waves in no time. Our boat has a low freeboard, bobbed on those waves in a different rhythm as the floating pontoon. The deck was caught under the wooden rubbing strake of the concrete pontoon. Snapped the thing clear off. Fenders exploded.
Walking on that pontoon is impossible then, the segments wriggle like a snake and the connections between them often break. One inch steel cables as flexible connection between the segments and they break.

South quay is fine. Safe, no waves. Even the ferry´s pass slow.

 

[alexsailor]

Poros, Poros, Poros... in my eight summers in Greece, I’ve never moored there (due to reasons above+rats).
Been there once- with a bike.
Shitty place.

 

[Mr Cassandra]

And which Poros have these rats?
I have only had 26 years here.

 

[AndrewB]

Shitty place.

It is, but it's a place that is just in the right place. A very convenient overnight stopover if travelling either south or north from Athens or the Corinth canal to the southern Cyclades or Peloponnese. So despite disliking the place I seem to pass through most years.

I anchor in Russian Bay if possible, tying back. Last year I arrived early and was minding my own business when a palatial Athenian gin palace showed up. The professional skipper motored over: his owner had told him to tell me I was in his regular spot and would I move. I gave him a blast of my opinion, and the skipper, plainly embarrassed by the message he had been ordered to give, went back to his superyacht to report.

Too late I realised I should have said "How much?"

 

[OldBawley]

I love Poros as a wintering place. Lively when every other place is dead, friendly people and safe.
Not the north quay, that is completely empty all winter.
As to rats, they are everywhere, some years they even flourish on isolated uninhabited islands like Dokos. I had rats running over our deck in Holland, Belgium, France, Italy Greece and Turkey.
Never had one inside. Thank God and our cat. Did have a miniature mouse on board two years back, it took me more than a week to catch it. Normal mouse traps ware way to big for it, so I adapted a trap complete with honing and oiling the release. Our cat ( buried on Simy island ) would have taken minutes to catch it.

That cat brought me a live rabbit on the Canal Du Midi.

The Poros diesel generated waves are a pain, guess the biggest concentration of super and smaller mobo´s and ships I have ever seen. ( Except for the Messina strait )
In summer that is. In winter.... just a few ferry´s, tripper boats and three fishing boats with owners that inherited the business, who are now wasting lots of money for diesel. Money their grandfathers earned. The other 30 fishing boats make no waves, guess they have no money to spill.

Just that you know, in winter the water is much cleaner, and when the ferry´s strike for some days ( very regular ) the bottom is visible at 10 meters. Seen dolphins and monk seals, the lake refreshes itself as soon as the big boats are gone.
Even the sewer stench on the town quay vanishes in winter, the town has 4000 in stead of 30000 people to cater for.

 

[sailaboutvic]

Poros, Poros, Poros... in my eight summers in Greece, I’ve never moored there (due to reasons above+rats).
Been there once- with a bike.
Shitty place.

Alex , I think we talking two different Poros mate , your think of t he one in the Ionian right ?

 

[alexsailor]

aaaaaaaaa! true!
I am sorry! ???

 

[RichardS]

Is this the right Poros, Vic?

This video is not selling it to me. :ambivalence:

Richard

 

[sailaboutvic]

that a every day thing ,nothing usually .
and now we going to get tax for putting up with all that too

 

[alexsailor]

Q: so if I stop in Poros it should be the S-quay?

 

[sailaboutvic]

Q: so if I stop in Poros it should be the S-quay?

NOTE
This thead was started 2018 ( not meant for you Alex)


If I not going to upset any one by helping out here .
Personally Alex I would anchor off or get a berth on the quay In the channel ., just pass where the taxi boats are Most of it is used by the charter company but if there are out , they will let you moor up , or at less they use to .
Don't use the west quay and if you do keep well away from the wall as there a couple of ferries that make a hell of a wash and I seen many back of boats damage .
Enjoy it a nice town but very busy , there some good anchorage close by . Near the naval base and some time in between the moorings in the Channel .then there the bays further down , but expect speed boat , skis, and jet skis