Mediterranean Mooring

[DoubleWhisky]

Beautiful account of Med mooring, published in Yachting Monthly, by Susie and David Baggaley (Beneteau Oceaanis 42cc - "Kookaburra")

The Greek island of Simi rises majestically from the Mediterranean, three miles from south-west Turkish coast. Its barren hills hide a unique harbour, Yialos, where international chic meets traditional charm.
Yialos is not fo the faint-hearted. On late afternoons in summer, the harbour is packed with ferries, gulets, megayachts, motorboats, charter fleets, fishing boats and daytripper craft, all berthed stern-to the quay, anchors buried deep in the harbour mud.
You circle, awaiting instructions from the harbour master, who, whistle in hand, controls proceedings like a French policeman directing traffic around the Arc de Triomphe.
Your allocated space looks too small to take a dinghy, let alone Your yacht. But the harbour master beckons You on, so, undaunted, You position Your stern at 90 dgrees to the harbour wall, cross Your fingers and engage reverse. As Your foredeck crew jettisons the anchor, a 15-knots gust wreckss Your straight line approach. Two irate skippers scream obscenities from their bows, convinced Your anchor is over their chain. You ignore their anger, adjust the helm to account for windage, call for more scope and pray.
The harbour master waits, tapping his foot, as Your stern parts the adjacent vessels like Moses at the Red Sea, fenders flying. Your crew is trying to tell You they have run out of chain, but there is no going back now. With a spurt of forward throttle the yacht slows. You grab a stern rope and, in Your haste to make fast, lasso the harbour master. He passes the end through a mooring ring and cling on for dear life, while Your yacht slowly departs her berth. Realising Your mistake, You engage the neutral, throw another line ashore and watch, red-faced, as three beefy line handlers drag You astern.
"O.K.!" You yell to the foredeck. "Take up the slack!"
You can hear the windlass whirring, then a call from the crew: "Now what we do?" You look round to see the anchor appearing above the bow roller. You repair to the saloon, wishing You had never heard of Yialos.

Nice, don't You think so?
At the time You have Your latte or capuccino at quaside cafe, You can watch several such attempts to moor in the Simi harbour

If You ever want to moor there, remember to do it in the corner of the harbour as far as possible from harbour master and his able bodied helpers

And this is a place of real beauty - worth to come nevertheless of the tourist crowd (most of it vanishes - by the way - at the late evening, returning to Rhodes).


Simi photos

Simi 1

Simi 2

Simi 3


Cheers,

Tomasz