Launch Day

Having arrived in Greece on Monday, we launched Vega on Thursday. There is no travel hoist at Planaco, so the re launching is undertaken by tractor and a large trailer.  It is always alarming to see the supports for your 10 ton yacht knocked clear as she balances on just two chocks while the trailer positions itself..but all went well and she was in the water in no time.

Just after launching we inspected all our through hull fititngs which were fine, but as we turned the stop cocks on we found that the forward head discharge hose, which was old and a bit brittle, had cracked during replacement of the sea cock by the boat yard. Somehow  they hadn’t noticed the crack and embarrassingly enough we didn’t notice until after we had launched, but at least we checked as water was pouring in at quite a rate and we would not have got very far. We shut the sea cock to prevent water ingress, bought some new hose from the boat yard and decided to head off to Aegina Town and replace the hose.

Aegina Town Quay, was full, so we anchored in the bay just south of the town along with a couple of other yachts. Heather got her teeth stuck into replacing the head plumbing and pipework, Ruth cooked up a fantastic dinner, Peter rested his back and I cracked a beer.

However, with the rush of launching, we hadn’t checked the weather and as soon as it was dark the wind picked up to around 25 knots. As the anchorage was shallow, quite a swell built up and we spent the night pitching and rolling over the waves, it wasn’t the best night’s sleep and not a relaxing way to start the trip, but at least our anchor was dug in well.  At 3am in the morning the yachts nearest to us dragged its anchor and ran aground on the sandy bottom. They had to be pulled  free by a rescue boat.

The next day we got a spot on the wharf in Aegina Town, stocked up with food and beer, picked up a few spares before heading off to Poros to meet our friends from last year on  Calyxia.

Those with keen eyes will notice that these shots are from Vega being hauled out at the end of last season…but given the rush, we got no shots of her being re floated!