Mama Mia here come the Italians!!
 
Please please don’t think I’m picking on the Italians but when things like this happen they really are just leaving themselves open to comment! We arrived back in Gouvia and were put in the older part of the marina or what I refer to as the Italian quarter. Mooring up went pretty much without incident despite the fact that the wind was getting up a bit. We mooched around for the afternoon (because that’s what you do when your sailing the dream). Later as we were returning to the boat we saw three rather large Gin palaces coming into some spaces along side us. Now it’s not the Italian way to sit back and take it in turns to moor up. Oh no they were coming in thick and fast!! The one directly along side us (50ft) nearly ended up on our chain but Captain Gin (the Italian with all the gear and no idea) managed to sort out his palace. Captain Miles was on shore ready to catch a line for them along with the marina man. There was really no need for either of them to do this because Captain Gin didn’t have any lines to throw. Whilst his poor but rather glamourous wife struggled with the lazy line, he just stood purveying all around him. When asked for mooring lines he simply stared through Miles and Marina man. He had no comprehension of what they might be waiting for. At this point Captain Miles shouted for me to get one of our warps (ropes) to give them. Being the obedient crew member that I am I jumped to it. This is where it gets good, Captain Gin didn’t feel he needed to borrow a warp, he pressed a button on his super duper Gin palace and a locker opened showing one pristine warp sitting on the side. He didn’t get it out though, at this point Miles threw a line to his poor wife who proceeded to hold it. Now the temptation here is to say nothing and see if she ended up in the water. But that would have been cruel! At this point the Gin palace was on our boat, I reached over to fend them off. Captain Gin noticed and I thought he was going to help me, but oh no he had spotted a dirty water mark on the side of his palace, so whilst Captain Miles, Marina man, the wife and my good self were trying to help him. Well he did the only thing he could, he took out his shower and proceeded to hose his boat down. I kid you not!! Chaos reigned around him and he was giving his palace a quick wash down. We reigned them in using one of our lines and they eventually attached their pristine warp to the stern as well. When we asked for our line back they then had to take one off of their dinghy. So readers this rather smart Gin palace that probably had all mod cons only has two warps on board and one of those is on the dinghy !! Just as well really because this Italian for one had no use for them anyway!!! Oh it’s easy to be smug when your stood on the quay side. Ciao peeps Fender Karen & Captain Miles XX
Saturday, 19 August 2006