Tick Box Athens 2: And then I broke the boat...

[davidgillon]

 A longer post to follow when I'm home and in reach of a better keyboard, but we finished the sailing portion of my holiday on Friday and today was back to Athens from Poros.  Itinerary was Poros to Ermioni to Tyros to Navplio(n) to Navplio(n) to Ermioni to Poros. The double Nafplio(n)/Navplio(n) leg should have been to Astrous, but was diverted because we had a slight rudder casualty with me at the wheel* that necessitated the owner of the yachting company driving 4.5 hours to get to us, doing running repairs in the dark and then sailing us on the emergency tiller back to Nafplio and mooring us at first attempt (impressive stuff) ready to get parts rebuilt the next morning - whoops.

* Me: We've lost the rudder!
Everyone else: No, we're turning just like you want
Me: We're turning to port, I've got the wheel hard over to starboard.
Everyone else: Oh shit! Oh fuck!

We also got a lot more use of my wheelchair than I'd anticipated, but not for me...

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

Trained in the fine art of cliffhangers, you.

Is an emergency tiller the old fashioned kind with a handle at the stern?

I am so jealous of you boating in Greek August.

[davidgillon]

The emergency tiller is basically a T-shaped metal pole that slots into the top of the rudder shaft, the top bar of the T is about stomach height, pointing sideways across the boat. You stand behind it and use it a bit like the handlebars on a bike. We did so much damage we needed emergency repairs before we could even use it! (It would move the rudder to starboard, but not to port).

Boating: Great. Greece: Gorgeous. August temperatures: not so much!

[davidgillon]

And the wheelchair cliffhanger was that Angie, the very useful half-Greek, half German girlfriend of our skipper, slipped climbing aboard the second or third night, sprained her ankle and couldn't put any weight on it, so we just popped her into the chair whenever we went ashore and I made do with sticks and AFOs instead.

I reclaimed the chair once we got to Athens, but at that point she was only a taxi-ride away from her apartment.