Women -- The Boat is Full of Them

Mark and Kym Chernoff were planning to tour Europe with their twin girls Payton and Chloe from the end of June to mid-July. One of the places they were going to was Greece, so we said, “why don’t you join us on Tara.”

We went from no girls to being a minority in just one day.

Ross and I had to boogey to get to Poros by the 8^th. We made it through the Corinth Canal on an 80 mile day from a nice little inlet near Itea. The area around the Corinth Canal is well known for high wind and waves that pile up at the end of the Gulf f Corinth. We made it to Poros on the 6^th of July and anchored out in Navy Bay. The next day we moved to the pier – between two 150 foot yachts. Tara has a lot of chain on board, nearly 90 meters. Our first med-mooring of the year we put the anchor out well in front of the lead boat --  not thinking that the boats beside us were 3 times as long. Anyway we ended up letting out 88 meters … Ross was looking at what was left in the chain locker … I kept asking for more chain but Ross was smart enough to leave enough in the boat that we wouldn’t be swimming to retrieve it.

Poros has two different types of quays, some are concrete, others have a wood frame. As it turns out the wood framed quays are much more comfortable and better sized for boats that are less than 30 meters long. We made the mistake of going on the cement quay the first night. We fixed that mistake and, in the process, only let out 30 meters of chain this time. :-)

Some of our neighbours at Poros

We also used this time to have our engine-driven fridge repaired. I called a Vangelis from Vikos marine in Poros and had a refrigerator guy out to fix the boat that afternoon. Cold beer … it’s a good thing ... a very good thing.

Ross and I were looking forward to company. While we get along well and truly enjoy the  other’s company, two weeks alone together and I’m pretty sure that Ross was looking forward to some new people to talk to.

The Chernoff’s ferry from Pireus was at 17:30 and we watched for it. At around 17:40 we wandered up from the boat just in time to get a call from Mark “Hey, where are you guys?” It turned out we were busy helping other boats dock (also known as protecting your own boat from the wankers that park by feel) and missed the arrival of the ferry. Anyway, they had gone the opposite way from Tara but sat down at a shady spot and were having a beer. Ross and I arrived with the luggage cart and after a few Fix beers we  all made our way back to Tara.

We gave the obligatory tour of the boat, and the all-important marine head discussion –“ only human waste, no paper, floss or girly stuff. If it gets clogged, you’ll fix it, I’ll supervise. Worst case is you need to haul the boat out of the water to fix it and that costs 1000 euros.” Living on septic at their lake cottage has them ‘on the program’ anyway … and living in Greece for any time you get used to throwing your TP in the garbage instead of down the toilet.

We settled in and then went out for dinner, the rest is pretty foggy. Anytime that you start out with a couple of liters of beer and then keep going … it gets a bit hazy.

The next morning I woke at 7am to catch the ferry From Poros to Pireaus to meet Marina. At Pireaus I walked around, ate a cardboard sandwich, checked out a couple of chandlerys and wrote a consulting report (always working it seems). I was looking for the girls, sitting outside, and I got a call from a nice guy who offered his phone that they were at the terminal. I looked up, walked 50 meters left and there were my girls. They had been travelling for 15 hours so were a little bit tired but they looked great and happy to see me.

The Flying Dolphin

We boarded the Flying Dolphin – a 1960 vintage hydrofoil that we nicknamed a “Bug” because they look like waterbugs, and made our way to Poros. We were some of the first in line for the hydrofoil because we knew the boat number and queued up. We had a laugh as this lady with a very large bag walked to the front and butts right in front of us. You must experience queuing in Europe to get an appreciation of it.

The lot of them picked us up at the ferry and hugs were all around. We took the girls to the boat and got them settled in. Marina and the kids went for a swim, we had dinner and made plans for the week.