The Greek Navy to the Rescue – Again

We had sailed from Sounion to the island of Poros  to do some repairs and await the arrival of our friends, Colin and Wendy (more on that later).

The fabulous sunsets of Poros

In the middle of the night the day before our friends were due to join us on Songster for a week, an unpredicted wind blew up.  We got up around 3am to check that everything was all right, tied off some slapping halyards and took the seat out of the bouncing dinghy.  We stayed up for awhile to watch how things were going.  By 4 am the wind seemed to be easing a bit so we went back to bed.

The next morning the wind had shifted direction and was no more than a gentle breeze.  We were busy all morning cleaning up and making space for our guest due to arrive the next day.  Around 11 am, I just happened to glance over the stern of the boat and the dinghy was gone.  There was nothing but a frayed painter (rope to landlubbers) dangling off the rail.  Disaster, absolute horror and panic!  Here we were at anchor with no way to get off the boat, friends arriving for a week holiday in 24 hours, a holiday which will be totally ruined if we don’t have the dinghy to go ashore.

The frayed painter

What to do?  We got onto the VHF radio and called the Hellenic Coast Guard but no answer.  Then we thought about the nice man in the Chandlery who recommended some people to do some work for us earlier in the week.  We had the business card of the Chandlery and rang up Spyros.  He gave us the phone number of the Coast Guard.  Sadly the Coast Guard woman who answered had limited English and could not do anything for us until we came ashore and filled out a written report.  But we had no dinghy and could not get ashore.  Then Spyros rang us back and said he had a diver friend who could take us around the bay to look for the dinghy.  Although we thought that if it was blown away 10 hours previously, we would have Buckley’s chance of finding it in the large bay around Poros.  We assumed some fisherman thought it his lucky day to find a 3.1m Carrib dinghy with a 15 HP Yamaha outboard and we would never see it again.  But we were desperate and had to search.  

Fifteen minutes later Noulis comes alongside in his runabout.  We grab binoculars and head out to circumnavigate the bay.  

The search route

We intensely scanned the shoreline, staring so hard I thought my eyes would pop.  I had to remind myself that it didn’t matter how hard I stared, I could not make our dinghy materialise on an empty shore.  After over an hour searching every nook and cranny of the bay, we had almost the circumnavigation when we ducked into the small cove where the Hellenic Navy had a little base.  There tied up to the wharf, only about 300m from Songster was our dinghy, safe and sound.  The Navy had found our dinghy in the early morning and tied it up waiting for someone to come and claim it.  

Our blue rib tucked amongst the Navy runabouts

I was so relieved, I burst into tears.  Bob hopped on shore to talk to the Navy guys and Noulis, in typical Greek fashion, told me all was okay and to be happy.  Bob took the dinghy back to Songster, admonishing it to never do that to us again!  Noulis took me back to the boat. After a big hug, heartfelt thanks and a generous reward, we returned to the boat and attached the dinghy to Songster with two lines.  

Bob returning the dinghy to Songster

A few minutes later the Coast Guard rang us asking if all was okay.  We assured them that we were very happy that the dinghy had been found.  Then when we went to the Chandler to get new line, Spyros gives us a big hug, having been briefed on the whole episode by Noulis.  You have to love Greece.  The Navy rescues us again, a local diver spends his afternoon helping us and the owner of a Chandlery treats us like family.

Our Saviour, Noulis