Fri 13 Sep to Sun 15 Sep – Storm in Rhodes marina

The sailing world is infested with all kinds of myths and superstitions, especially around Friday the 13th. One is not allowed to leave on any sail on a Friday, and don’t you dare have banana’s on board. Needless to say that this is all nonsense, evidenced by the calm and quiet day we enjoyed on Friday, 13th of September 2019. 

We had a lazy day in the marina, getting a few chores done, and trying to stay out of the scorching heat. We managed to do our laundry, how exciting! Towards the afternoon we spotted a somewhat heightened activity in the marina. The marineros, who are usually quite attentive and can be seen walking up and down the pontoons frequently, seemed to be extra hard working today. At some point I overheard one of the marineros talk to a Swedish boat that had just come in, and I thought I heard something about a storm. When I asked him, he explained that there was a northerly wind forecast, and that it would get a bit uncomfortable in the marina. That, and that we should pull the boat as far from the quay as possible, “at least 1.5 meters”. Ever the diligent seafarers we put on an extra slimline, and moved Bini a bit further from the pontoon. That should do the trick! 

Towards the evening the wind picked up, and we were sitting in the cockpit, as well as all the other sailors around us, ready to jump into action if need be. And as we were sitting there, a swell started to roll into the marina. First the boats were rocking a bit from side to side, then a bit more, and then all of a sudden a surge went through that had the boats move back and forth. Bini was getting dangerously close to the pontoon, bringing back nightmares from when we damaged her in Syros. 

We quickly turned on the engine to keep Bini pulled off the pontoon, as the marina around us exploded into chaos. A few boats down the pontoon, boats were smashing against the concrete quay with a deafening “BANG!”, the two big motorboats next to us were rolling violently, and all over the marina boats and pontoons were colliding. The water was surging backwards and forwards and crashing into the concrete wall, it was unbelievable that something like this was possible in a marina! To our luck the marineros decided to move one of the big motor boats next to us right out, at least 3 meters from the pontoon. This gave us a bit more space on the starboard side, and inspired us to move Bini even further from the pontoon. It also meant that we could not get off the boat anymore without having to climb into the dinghy, but getting off the boat wasn’t an option in this weather anyway. Camilla revved the engine forward while I was pulling in the slime lines, and this way we managed to pull Bini into a safe distance from the pontoon. The rest of the night we sat in the cockpit watching the carnage around us. The big motor boat on our port side got smashed into the wall a couple of times, and the ball fender dangling off the stern did nothing to soften the blow. The wind had picked up, and all over the marina we could hear crashing sounds and saw boats rolling to 30 degrees and more. It was unbelievable! Every now and then one of our stern lines got caught under the sugar scoop of the massive boat next to us, threatening to either snap the line or rip the cleat right out of the deck. Luckily Camilla came up with a genius contraption using bungee chord to keep the line at a better angle. This madness continued through most of the night, and at some point I think we managed to get a few hours of sleep. 

The swell had calmed down the next morning, although the boats were still rolling left to right, masts kissing here and there. We managed to scramble onto the pontoon and went for a walk around the marina. There were a whole lot of snapped mooring lines and scraped sugar scoops. One boat was damaged so badly, it was taking on water, and the owner apparently jumped in the water and managed to stop the leak by squeezing some fast drying putty around the hull. That must have been an absolutely terrifying proposition, getting into the marina water between the boat and the concrete quay while the boats are basically all trying to destroy themselves. The craziest thing that we saw was a cleat that got snapped in half, it broke right through in the middle! I guess Friday the 13th is an unlucky day after all!

The rest of Saturday we mostly just hung out and wandered about the marina to see if we can help anywhere. Oh, and we did manage to get haircuts in preparation for the interviews on Monday!

Sunday was Camilla’s birthday! We started the day rather slowly, still a bit shocked from the horrible night on Friday. We went for a nice long walk to the Rhodes beach club, had a nice meal and chilled on the sunbeds for most of the day. They have one of those diving platforms in the beach club, and Camilla showed off her backflip as well as her fearlessness diving down from the 8 meter board!