Skiathos, Greece, August 2014

Fortunately, Lesley was able to be a crew member on this trip, and Bob was able to join her, Ian and me from his home in Brittany again. He was the crew member who spotted the porpoises (we think).

However it was while our lead crew were back in Skiathos during the changeover for crews who finished or started their trips in the middle of our fortnight that we had our most distinctive and memorable occurrence. We were anchored in the small fishing harbour of Platania (at the junction of the blue and purple tracks in the first map above). For once we had not catered for ourselves but had launched the dinghy, fitted the outboard and eaten ashore. Since we might well decide to return ashore for shopping in the morning, and in any case it is not wise to attempt to recover the outboard in the dark, we left the dinghy tied on by its painter. In the morning, we still had the painter, but no dinghy or outboard. The large loop in the purple track is where we motored round in an unsuccessful attempt to spot the dinghy floating downwind. Dinghies and outboards are typically excluded from insurance cover which of course only includes unlikely losses!

The prospect of a considerable surcharge rather overshadowed the second week of the trip. This was only partly mitigated when we returned to leave the boat at the Skiathos base. The next yacht to our berth contained an outboard and dinghy very like our own! It was explained to us that it had been found 12 miles from Platania, upside down. We still had to pay a “finder's fee” and to service the outboard after its immersion. Needless to say, we found the whole episode rather suspicious. After all, the knot connecting painter to dinghy had been used numerous times to haul the dinghy on board the yacht, since we were instructed not to tow it. Thus it was well tested and tightened and unlikely to come apart accidentally...

Google Earth "KMZ" multi-coloured path files first week (36Kb); second week (29Kb). Alternatively use these links to display via Google Maps: first week; second week. The colours go brown, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple for the first week and then brown, red, orange, yellow, green and blue for the second week. Zooming in to the first week will show our excursion in search of our dinghy!

Below is a collage of some of the few photos I took on the two weeks. Click to view them in Picasa web.

Back to the list of my yachting trips.