Distributing the anchor chain covered in shite!

After a couple of days in Levkas, we decided once again to sail to Nidri. Somewhere familiar so I could do my thing while the boys took Sall through her paces.…..and it all started with the anchor chain.

So imagine how many centuries of human waste is sitting at the bottom of this ancient harbour. Remember, this is very close to where Cleopatra, and I mean the original Cleopatra and Mark Anthony lost the naval battle at Aktio against Octavia Augustus on September 2^nd 31 BC.

The boys had put out a particularly long anchor chain because it had been windy when they moored. The most important job when bringing the chain in is to distribute the chain around the chamber by hand or it will pile up very quickly and jam the windlass. Sally is not good with human waste. I’m at the helm, we have untied from the dock and I’m letting the windlass wind in the anchor chain which pulls us out to the anchor. 

Sally is on hands and knees, gloves on, boys instructing, Sal distributing chain. The first few metres of chain are clean having not come in contact with the aforementioned ancient excrement…. and then it all arrived attached to the chain, a stench you cannot imagine and Sal having to distribute it. My poor girl! I could hear her heaving over the clanking sound of 70 metres of anchor chain but she stuck with it until the anchor was snugly in place and we motored east through the Levkas channel and out into clean water. Welcome aboard Sal!