Milly Floats Away...Without Us!

Milly, still sitting pretty after the first leg of our hike.  

We chose our first anchorage on the north side of Corfu based on the forecasted south wind.  A beautiful, wide bay lined by a beach, park and a few houses, with hiking paths on one headland and Calliope, a tourist town with a cute harbour on the other, each within walking distance.  The bay was deep and, according to the chart, had a bottom covered in weed.  In the still north wind, we set the anchor by gradually pulling back in reverse to 1400 rpm on both motors.  We set our anchor alert system which alarms if Milly moves outside a set radius and had a sound sleep. We were in good company with a couple of sailboats, a motor yacht and a huge 72 m superyacht, Axioma. 

The next day the wind had changed to a gentle south as forecast.  Peter and I blithely set off in to the headland on a hike through green tunnels opening to blue views.  We circled back to the beach and met an older Brit who had come to Corfu twenty odd years before to run a sailing centre.  He advised us on how to walk to town, commented on the chance of rain by flapping his arms about and questioned whether we had left anyone on the boat, suggesting that if he saw Milly floating away he would watch being unable to do anything more.  And we followed his directions to town.  Calliope was full of tourists with a pleasant harbour and fort which we walked the long way around.  At one point we had a view of Milly in the next bay.  She seemed to be in a different place but, then again, we were at a new angle and about 3 km away.  She was still tucked well inside the bay.  A bit more exploring and some grocery purchases meant our way home was a bit of a steamy trudge.

Our view from the fort at Calliope.  Milly is in the bay in the distance.  Our perspective was out of whack so we didn't trust our view that she had shifted.

After being on land, we always look for Milly as soon as she is in view.  We came out of the tunnel of trees to find that Milly was not in her place.  Several panicked expletives later, we spotted her way outside the bay.  We broke into a sprint over the beach.  TomTom was beached at the other end of the very long pebbly beach.  The groceries suddenly seemed weightless.  The old Brit tried to stop us with an “I told you so” type statement.  But we were not to be waylaid.

Finally, got to TomTom, pushed him into the water, jumped in and sped out to Milly who was being towed back into the bay by Axioma’s enormous tender.  Four young men had saved Milly.  She was securely tied to the tender, anchor weighed.  Even though the tender was essentially a large ski boat about 35 feet long to our 44 feet with two powerful motors, it was having trouble guiding Milly who’s freeboard is so high, it actually acts as a sail in 18 knots of wind.  Without dilly dally or time for heartfelt hugs, just heartfelt words, we quickly turned on the motors and released our saviour.

We anchored again in the bay but didn’t leave the boat except to quickly dinghy over to the enormous Axioma.  Luckily her tender was out guiding her out of the anchorage and we could again thank the skipper, a young Aussie, who said, “No worries!”  I think the Milly episode was actually a bit of an adventure for them.  

For us, though, it was a heartstopping, stomach plummeting lesson.  An OMG moment!  Our home was on her way to Albania.  If Axioma had not been there with able crew aboard, no other boat in the bay would have been able to do anything. 

The wind had done a 180 and was about 10 knots higher than forecast coming from the south.  The water was flat in the anchorage but the wind was still enough to tug on the anchor without being strong enough to reset it.  Because the anchorage was deep with a narrower shelf where we had anchored and our rode was only the usual 1:4, Milly quickly floated into deep water until her anchor was hanging without bottom.  (It makes me cringe to write it!)

We were damned lucky and have learned our lessons for weedy anchorages well:

• With any change of wind, especially a 180, pull up and reset anchor.
• Put out much longer than usual rode (or length of chain)
• Pay attention to local wisdom, even if oddly put.  (Do not assume your anchor has held for 3.5 years in all kinds of changing conditions and will hold in thick weed.)

Thank you, Axioma!!  https://www.yachtcharterfleet.com/luxury-charter-yacht-22231/axioma.htm  Just in case any of you want to charter her, we can vouch for her crew!