2016 Kinygos II Blog

[Kinygos]

She is on her legs waiting for her bottom to be painted.

Off to Halki today to try and sort out the mooring. I need to be sure I am able to use the pontoon. Initial contact involved arm waving and Greek shrugs "Problem". Second contact (Indirect) "No problem". Situation normal in Halki, Total confusion! Anyhow I am hoping that I can a) resolve any problems and b) lay the mooring c) rehydrate and relax with chums. This will be another short, possibly overnight, trip before I return with my beloved once her bottom is bright and white and her turbo is unstuck. Launching will be at Kamiros Skala since, as usual, Fanes harbour is now Fanes lake and no funds are available for dredging. In a way it's a pity as I quite enjoy seeing Halki come into view as I round the headland and eventually enter the harbour. A magical moment! Only to be followed by me scrabbling about doing a solo mooring stern on. The rule is: When it goes right, nobody sees; when it goes wrong, the entire island is watching!

[Deleted]

Best of luck with all that Matey.

[Kinygos]

I realise she's a bit small for you captain! You are really needed to teach the new skipper(s) of the Prevelis how to moor stern-on without taking up all of the Imborios bay!

How's the peg-leg coming along? Did you go for English oak with silver trim? I know you passed on the parrot, tricorne hat, and the eye patch, you have to pay privately for those! Hard luck on the male physio, I know you would have preferred a dominatrix.

"Sticks and stones will break my bones,
but cruel physios excite me!"

[Deleted]

Be fair - they are mostly very good ship handlers. Newly appointed ones have to learn somehow. We all did.
Clips out of the knee in about two hours so we will see how it goes from there. Seems like I'll survive for another spell on Halki eventually. When you see me without sticks and running for my ouzo, you'll know its time to subject yourself to the scalpel. Say hello to all.

[Deleted]

Dominatrix? Somebody been telling tales!!!!

[Kinygos]

01/08/16

I had another 24 hour trip to Halki ostensibly to lay a mooring. However the pontoon was full, so I decided to explore a “Plan B”. I will bring Kinygos II to a swinging mooring and stay on “The Rock” to wait for the space to appear. At which point I could lay my mooring and move K2 straight onto it. This should prevent the mooring being interfered with before I brought the boat over. Of course, from last year’s experience, it can be interfered with after I bring the boat over!
It would seem that the yachtie tourism is increasing. If the Greek islands could provide better facilities in the form of real marinas, this could be the way forward for Greek Island tourism. Quite whether the rest of you enjoy the yachtie types is questionable! En mass they can be a bit raucous. Quite unlike our refined fish feasts!
Perhaps it is a bit like the dislike of the day trippers, I make a plea for tolerance; live and let live!

[Di]

I agree with Simon, we've met some very nice yachties. It's just like caravaning but a bit wetter (unless you go caravaning in this country)

[Kinygos]

Aug 3, 2016 18:24:48 GMT Di said:

I agree with Simon, we've met some very nice yachties. It's just like caravaning but a bit wetter (unless you go caravaning in this country) :D

... and you don't have a long queue of irate motorists behind you!

Unfortunately there was a flotilla of yachties on "The Rock" recently and it was a bit like a post rugby match party, with much singing late into the night. (early morning?)

...but only one night!

[Deleted]

How is the mooring situation ?

[Kinygos]

05/08/16 Friday: I started off to Fanes with a well loaded car with the plan of getting the car serviced and the boat launched. Of course it was hot! I unloaded the car by the boat in the yard, and took it back to Tsampikos to be serviced in the garage. I was dripping with sweat already! The next stage was to put the goods onto the boat. Finally it was a case of taking stuff out of the cabin and putting stuff in the cabin. None of this was exactly heavy work, but in these temperatures it was quite enough! I put the fenders in the baskets, installed the electric outboard (the egg whisk!), and then I started to try to gain access to the turbo to ensure it would spin freely. Unfortunately I had had enough by then so stopped and re-tightened the bolts! My time would have been better spent doing something else (more on this later).
The car arrived back and I went to the petrol station across the road. The boat soon joined me and I filled her up with diesel, together with three containers.
Then we set off for Kameros Skala in convoy. A longer journey than the more usual one to Fanes harbour, but at least the car would be in “the right place” the next time I needed to use it. On the way I noticed that the drain plug was out! I once launched with it like that and once was enough! I was hoping that the batteries would be OK as, rather foolishly I had not charged either of them. We replaced the drain plug and launched.
The engine started with no problem. The electric outboard got me away from the rocks, and the engine warmed up nicely as I cleared the harbour. The trip to Alimnia was lumpy and Halki was invisible in the haze. I could just make Halki out as I cleared Alimnia. The sea was flatter and it turned out that I need not have worried about the turbo. I easily got 4000rpm and approached Halki at 20 knots rising at one point to 27 on the log. I was so dehydrated that I had to call in to Kania for… water! Followed by a couple of beers and lunch with Mark and Kay. I then used the allocated mooring way out by the hotel. With Mark's help I got my case over to terra firma. I then returned later to pump up the dinghy (a time consuming task!) and bring a few more bits ashore.

As you can see they have a policy of no large boats on the pontoon with the aim of avoiding damage!



I am moored on a swinging mooring until I get permission



Zoomed in!

[Kinygos]

06/08/16 Saturday: Inquiries about mooring on the pontoon resulted in the solution that I would have to go to The Dimos to ask permission. The Dimos was closed until Monday. One thing puzzled me; Ken, captain of Mamma Mia had been told, by The Dimos, that he could not moor on the pontoon because his vessel was too big for the pontoon. I have to say that I would agree with that, and yet there were no less than two Princess “Gin palaces” moored on the pontoon today. Later that evening I was advised to move her from the mooring as it was too close to the course that the Prevelis was going to take that evening. So I set off in the little dinghy and moved her. By now the pontoon had acquired another “Gin palace”. I am at a total loss to explain the logic of all this!

This one makes three!



This one makes four!

[Kinygos]

07/08/16 Sunday: This was the day of the swimming gala.

They're off!



One of the first arrivals.

[Kinygos]

09/08/16 Tuesday: When I went for my morning Frappe I saw that a “Gin palace” next to the place I wanted to use had gone. Once I had consumed the said beverage I moved Kinygos 2 to the space mooring alongside. I then set about attaching the mooring buoy to the anchor chain, at the correct distance, and arranging the bow and stern mooring lines. A young lad who did not appear to know me told me I should be bows-on, or stern-on just as I started the procedure and I had to explain to him that, in fact, that is what I was doing! It is a funny thing that it is too easy for me to under, or over, estimate the length of a rope when it is coiled. Also I never seem to get around to marking the coils to ensure that I use the same ones in the same place each time. This results in a few false starts, frustration and further stops for frappes. Metaxas then informed me that my stern chains would damage the unsecured water pipe dangling beneath the pontoon. Using my trusty cable ties (where would we be without cable ties, gaffer tape, superglue, and WD40?) I secured the pipe to the pontoon.
The final task was to go round wiring up the shackles with stainless steel seizing wire taking care to leave sharp ends to cut interfering fingers. I do not want another debacle like last year.
These tasks had taken up most of the day and now the incoming yachts were arriving. I helped Metaxas get them moored up. There is a paucity of cleats due to the policy of allowing large vessels to moor on the pontoon. These cleats have a plate running in a channel on the pontoon and the cleat is bolted to them. The heavy vessels use the cleats and then wind their anchor chains in until you could play tunes on the stern mooring lines. A little but of sea movement and the bolts snap loosing the cleat and leaving the plate unusable with broken off stubs of bolt in them. The solution appears to be to attach short rope loops to the sub structure of the pontoon. Naturally these loops do not have metal thimbles inserted, so once one yacht has used it and cranked in the anchor chain the loop is collapsed tight and another yacht cannot share it. Metaxas had other ideas and attempted to help me open the loop to get another line through. It seemed that he was leaning on me to keep his balance. Consider the difference in size between me and Metaxas! I thought that I was in for another swim, or going to be squashed into the pontoon like potato through a ricer! In fact it all turned out right in the end.

Phase one complete!

[Deleted]

Keep drinking the frappes old pal.

[Kinygos]

10 & 11/08/16 Wednesday and Thursday was spent sorting the rest of the boat out. I had bought diesel in cans and, of course these were on the deck as was the deflated dinghy. I got the dinghy off and all the rods and boxes out of the cabin. Then the cans went in with the rods and boxes on top. It is surprising how energy sapping such simple tasks are in the current ambient temperatures and humidity. The next task was installing the centre and outriggers. I put the fighting chair on board in order to stand on it to install the centre rigger. The centre rigger is not telescopic and becomes quite unwieldy!
11/08/16 I went back to "The Big Island" to enable me to collect Lord Lucan and Melissa on Friday and return.
13/08/16 I had an early start, cleaned the boat and we had a small group going to Kania for a swim, lunch and live music.
14/08/16 A yacht had moored next to me and had utilised the cleat on the far side of my boat. I did get on board but the rope trapped my leg against my transom and it was painful. I attempted to free up a plate with fractured bolts in order to create another cleat, and failed. The whole procedure of getting on and off my boat was made too dangerous because of that rope. Once again the "Gin palace" mooring had destroyed the cleats. The replacement rope loops failed because the "I" section of the beams beneath the pontoon cut them through. The fact is that if these links do not break the pontoon will be torn apart. The afternoon saw me going back to "The Big Island" for a return airport run, and to enable me to miss the festival of 15/08/16! I am sorry to say that I do not enjoy the all night music. This denotes a flaw in my appreciation of arty stuff. Guilty as charged!

22/08/16
An official from the Dimos turned up and told me that my stern moorings (using chain round the substructure of the pontoon) would damage the pontoon. I had used this method the previous year to no ill effect; my boat is light. The "Gin Palaces" had been snapping off the bolts holding the cleats to the extent that The Dimos was now providing more of the rope loops. I found some damaged pieces of this rope and decided to comply, as asked. This rope was if the woven sheath variety and I do not possess a tubular fid to do the eye splice. I settled for a whipped splice and a thimble. The rope was secured to the structure with a bowline.

Whipped eye splice with thimble and bowline.


On the starboard side I have included a line to pull the boat in using an eye-bolt.


Well we wouldn't want me to damage the pontoon like this! There were two cleats here at various times until the bolts snapped.


This how they retrieve the plates!


Imagine the damage my massive boat could cause if I used chains onto the pontoon!


Ho-Hum!