Meltemi Madness

24 hours in a small harbour on a Greek island… Grab your popcorn kids, the charter circus and Meltemi madness has begun!

Long feared & respected by sailors, the Meltemi is that notorious wind that regularly blows across the Aegean every summer. It can last for several days, and at 30+ knots it plays havoc with sailing boats.

In Koufonisi, we came home from the beach one afternoon to find a local water taxi using our aft cleat as a mooring; it’s a busy harbour and the charter boats were in town. No big deal, we weren’t going anywhere in a hurry anyway. A short while later as a catamaran docked in front of us, they tried to pop their dinghy on our bow sprit. The winds were strong, but no damage was done - all good.

As another boat left the marina, some shorts that were drying on the line blew loose. We picked them up with our boat hook, ready to return them to the passing yacht. But before we could, one of the crew thought it would be wise to leap off the boat in the middle of the harbour entrance to retrieve them. Once we passed them down over the breakwater, he then proceeded to swim out of the harbour into open water & passing ferries to get back on board. The shorts were not worth his life, but thankfully he was fine. 35 knot winds seem to send some people loopy… 

At some point a fender came loose from another boat, and great effort was made to hurl it back onto the owner’s vessel before they dinged into the mooring wall on their way out. We spied another fishing boat clinging on to a concrete wall with just a grappling hook! Someone else fouled their anchor in the harbour entrance as others were coming and going. We saw no less than THREE separate boat collisions within the marina walls. Some leaving more lasting damage than others… 

And just when we thought all the fun was over, a large catamaran was granted permission to tie up on the outside of the marina wall at dusk, blocking the entrance to the harbour entirely. Cue much Greek shouting & gesturing from other captains. But they would not budge. Forget maritime law and access to safe harbour, their guests needed to get to dinner! But before they could disembark we pointed out that we would be leaving at 6am the following morning… They quickly scurried back out to the anchorage in the bay - no one wants to get up that early on holiday!

Summer sailing shenanigans at their best!