Rampaging Again!

A Rampaging Skipper – aka The Joys of Keel Grinding!

To be fair, this expedition will be more of a minor skirmish than a full blown rampage since our time in Greece is very limited on this visit. The reasons for this are tedious; suffice to say we are trying to move from Cheshire to a new home some 350 miles away down in Cornwall. Regrettably this must take precedence over prolonged marauding on the high seas.

 

Inevitably, after more than six months on the hard in a boat yard, we needed to spend the first week of our precious month here waking the boat up and doing necessary maintenance. I will not trouble you with the detail as we’ve been here before many times and nothing much changes.

 

The one thing we did do, that we have never before attempted was to put the sails back on before launch. Usually there are too many other jobs to be done and besides the skipper has always been very wary of getting caught unexpectedly by the wind whilst a sail is up. (A nautical variation of getting caught with one’s trousers down, I suppose.)

 

Actually to get caught out like that on dry land that would be very worrying, indeed potentially dangerous, so this is no light concern. However, on this occasion we had the time so, having having repeatedly consulted the weather forecast, we thought we’d give it a try.

 

Bending on the foresail (genoa) is pretty straightforward and quick so we achieved that without too much trouble. Duncan had also prepared all the running rigging (i.e. all the bits of rope) for the mainsail but by then the wind had picked up so we were obliged to wait until evening to finish the job. Even after having done this so many times before, it is still awkward and a bit of a struggle feeding the huge mainsail and stackpack simultaneously into the groove along the boom. Having done this though, the worst is over and the rest of the process went very smoothly. However we had arranged to go out for a meal that evening with our friends Mike and Sandy so there was no time to sort out the reefing lines.

 

There was some delay with the actual launch on Monday which was originally scheduled for 1p.m. When the tractor hadn’t appeared by 3p.m. I went to make enquiries at the office. The staff seemed rather startled to learn that we were still on dry land and the chaps then appeared shortly afterwards! It was therefore somewhat embarrassing to realise as she was lowered into the water, that I had failed to remove the masking tape from round the waterline, having redone the antifoul. I saw one of the guys looking at it with a rather bemused expression and felt very foolish.

 

Apart from that though, the launch went well and we made our way round to Hospital Bay and dropped the anchor just off Preveza town. We were sitting in the cockpit having a drink shortly afterwards when a pod of dolphins appeared, swimming all round the boat for about 10 or 15 minutes. We’ve seen them a number of times over the years but then usually come to play in the bow wave. This is the first time I have known then come into an anchorage. It was very special.

Dolphins in Hospital Bay, Preveza. This pair look rather like torpedoes! (Note the grey skies.)

 

Unfortunately we had to spend the next 24 hours hunkered down as wind and rain made going ashore in the dinghy a very unattractive proposition. Thus is was only yesterday that we got our admin sorted out with Customs and the Port Police, did some shopping and finally got the reefing lines in place.

 

Today we set off, heading north for a change towards Paxos and Corfu.  We planned initially to spend tonight at a place known as Two Rock Bay on the mainland. However, as we left the Preveza channel and ventured out into the open sea we discovered there was a significant swell running from the west. This would have made Two Rock Bay, if not untenable, then certainly very uncomfortable so we had a rapid change of plan and headed for Paxos instead. Halfway here the wind had built enough to sail. Not only that but later we were obliged to put in a reef so just as well we finished the job before setting off! It was a cracking sail.

Anchored in Mongonisi this evening.

 

We now have just under three precious weeks in which to rampage about before we are once again back at the yard to be lifted out and everything is once again packed away until we are able to get back here again.