A hard life on the hard

With “Rampage” safely back in the water for another year, we’ve now got time to pause and catch our breath and for me to sit down and pen a blog entry.  I don’t think we’ve mentioned it before but when we arrived here in Messolonghi, I sat down and wrote a long “to do” list for the winter.  It had about 45 lines, each one of which was a job to be done over our time here.

The list has been getting shorter as jobs have either been completed or deleted (mainly because of cost!).  Inevitably, the odd new job has also made its way on to the list, so as we lifted out we went to the extent of hooking up the printer and running off a copy so that we could see where we stood.  It was quite comforting to realise that we’d actually completed the majority of the jobs and only had those things marked down as “Wait until lift out” to do – apart from the one job we have left to finish, but more of that later.

On Monday 19 March, we rose early, as we knew that our next door neighbours, Brenda and Hugh on “Scotia” were also due to be lifted out.  At about 0830, Willem the marine manager appeared, asked Hugh and Brenda to make their way round to the crane and asked us to follow them round in about ½ an hour.  Shaking out the cobwebs from “Rampage’s” engine we moved her for the first time in nearly 6 months round to the crane to be lifted out.  That was at about 0930.  We didn’t actually get out of the water until about midday, a bit irritating as we had a lot to do and couldn’t get on with it.  By the time the crew had pressure washed the hull and got it all propped up it was approaching mid afternoon.

Always a heart stopping moment as the boat comes out of the water - did the riggers put the strops in the right place, will they break????

On inspection, the keel looked as if it had a bad case of chicken pox; all nasty little pustules of red rust poking their way through the paint.  Although I spent some time working on it with a wire brush, it quickly became obvious that we needed to take the whole thing back to bare metal and repaint if we were to banish the rust an at least a temporary basis.

Luckily, Hugh appeared and offered the loan of his angle grinder and sanding attachment, which made the whole thing possible.  I spent most of Wednesday and Thursday grinding away at the keel, making the most indescribable mess and gaining the award for ‘filthiest man in Messolonghi’ 2 days on the run.  Meanwhile, J had a productive time with wet and dry sandpaper taking the top layer off the copper coat on the rest of the hull.  We’d decided to do this so as to expose fresh copper to the sea, which will help slow down marine growth.

The filthiest man in Messilonghi - also pretty tired as well! The pox ridden keel can be seen in the back ground.

I also took time out from grinding to remove the outlet sea cock from the aft head.  The valve had seized in the ½ open position and needed to be replaced.  Quite a simple job but nerve racking as it involved using a cutting disc to cut through the old hull fitting – one slip and I’d need to rebuild the hull round the mistake!  Many thanks to Lee from “Wishbone”, who held spanners and offered helpful advice as the new sea cock was fitted.

Once I’d cleaned all the old paint off the keel, I treated it with rust converter and then applied 2 coats of primer, followed by 2 coats of epoxy paint, then anti foul primer and finally 4 coats of anti foul, which should see us through for a couple of seasons, as there are no plans to lift out again until 2014.  Whilst I was beavering away at this task, J was not idle.  She spent her time bringing out the shine in the hull, polishing it back to a gleam with tins of Brasso; it was a daunting task, working above head height from fairly unstable step ladder.  A scaffolding platform would have been a better proposition but the yard charges a small fortune to use theirs and we are still implementing an austerity programme.

J polishing the hull to bring out the shine!

Now, one of the things that has given us something of a problem is the fact that “Rampage”, like most liveaboards, is somewhat lower in the water than her holiday companions.  This means that there is a constant ‘beard’ of green slime round the water line as the water level is just about the same as the top of the anti foul coating.  To get around this, we decided to extend the anti foul so as to cover the bit of the hull that grows the ‘beard’.  We did this at the same time as applying the anti foul to the keel, giving the waterline a nice 2 tone blue effect.

As we’ve told you before, living on board a boat on the hard is not a lot of fun.  The loos are disabled, only one sink works (hose pipe leads from the hull fitting to a drain) and everything has to go up and down a ladder at the back.  So it was a great relief to us to have invites to eat with friends most nights we were ashore.  Very many thanks to Pam and Roger from “Cap d’Or”, Sheila and Patrick from “Shecat”, Joan and Lee from “Wishbone” and Jane and Clive from “Jane G” for their wonderful hospitality.  It really does make a difference coming to the end of a long day knowing that you only have to have a shower and walk over to someone else’s boat to have your evening meal.  I can only apologise if we weren’t very good company!

Duncan polishes the bits J can't quite reach.

Monday 26 March was when we planned to return “Rampage” to her natural element, so J and I rose early in the hope of an early launch.  Willem told us that he planned to return boats to the water in the order in which they were parked ashore, which would have seen us back in the water second or third.  We were therefore somewhat put out when our neighbours to were launched before us and even more so when the crane moved away from its usual location to lift out a catamaran.  On telling Willem what was going on he was, to put it mildly, a bit upset.  It seems that the chain of command has not yet been nailed down and Yannis, the Greek marina manager, had changed Willem’s careful plan and told the crew to lift the catamaran without lifting us back in.  Suffice it to say that Willem appeared with the boat lift trailer about 10 minutes later, lifted us off the cradle and supervised our relaunch.

After a quick check to make sure that the new sea cock wasn’t leaking and everything was OK, we motored the short distance back round to our old berth and started getting “Rampage” sorted out after her week ashore.  Whilst everything below the deck level was sparkling clean and polished, the deck, cockpit and sugar scoop were indescribable – covered in dirt and bits of stuff.  We though that it would be a simple matter to get the decks cleaned up with the pressure washer but it turned out that there was a thin gray/black film all over the topsides.  Thinking about it, this was the residue of the keel grinding, which had then been soaked in a thunderstorm, turning it into a nasty stain on the fibreglass.  The pressure washer wouldn’t touch it, scrubbing with Cif did shift it but only with a lot of effort so I tried using a rust removing acid; that did the trick!  Not very environmentally friendly but the topsides are now reasonably clean!

A gleaming propeller - note the nice shiny new anode at the centre.

Once we’d finished the cleaning, we started in on the last winter project to be tackled before we set off again: reupholstering the saloon.  With fabric brought out from UK and foam supplied by an English lady with an upholstery business in Nidri, we were all set.  I say we but it’s really J doing the work, as I’m not really much good on a sewing machine.  So the saloon is gradually getting new cushions with lovely blue fabric covers; we’ve decided to stay for an extra week so as to complete the work alongside with the benefit of mains electricity and a stable boat!

And that’s about that.  We continue to have a fairly busy social life – yesterday for example stopped at 4pm when Joan and Lee came round bearing a bottle of local wine made by the family of the hairdresser used by J and Joan.  They’d been given it that morning with the instruction to share it with us.  Well, I suspect that I managed to have a little more than my fair share, as I retired to bed the worse for wear by about 8.30……

Local visitors to "Rampage": J's Greek teacher Yannis (centre), Kyria Dasia who is learning English (left) and Yannis' wife (right).

Before I sign off and get this posted I think its worth doing a quick recap on our plans for the year.  We leave here next week and we’re going to head into the southern Ionian area, visiting places we didn’t get to last year.  From there, we’ll go to Corfu to book out of Greece before heading to Italy and the Aeolian Islands (just off the north coast of Sicily).  From there the plan is to head to Sardinia and on to Mallorca, aiming to arrive on or about 4 June to meet Naomi, Ken and the grandchildren who will be staying on the island for a holiday.  After that, we’ll  bimble round the Balearics, northern Spain and the French coast before heading south to Cartagena for the winter.

J surrounded by foam and fabric as she makes yet another cushion cover. We now know why upholsterers charge so much for their services!

Now, if any of you feel like coming to visit us, it couldn’t be simpler.  As you can see the plan, we’ll be in the vicinity of north Spain and the Balearics for most of the summer.  Because the distances aren’t great, if you’d like to visit, drop us an email and say which airport you’re thinking of flying into and when; we can respond with a ‘go ahead’ or ‘think again’ message before you book your flights.  Airports that make sense to us include: Gerona (northern Spain), any of the Balearic islands, Barcelona, Reus and at a push, Valencia.  Later in the year, say mid September onwards, we’ll be heading south so adjust your airport accordingly!  You’re welcome to arrive at one airport and fly home from another joining “Rampage” for the intervening voyage – just give us your ideas and we’ll let you know if it’s feasible!

Right, that’s it for this post.  I’m being called to fit yet another new cover on to yet another new cushion!

Winter Maintenance Jobs

Well, we live in the part of the world where the ancients used to ascribe all natural events to the will of the gods. If that still holds good, then all I can say is that, just now, the god responsible for wind has been eating a high fibre diet for the past few days, as we’ve had a constant gale from the north east. The wind has, at times, been so strong as to make moving round the boat uncomfortable and required us to raise the gangplank to prevent damage to it and the stern of the boat.

Snow on the mountains northeast of Messolonghi this week.

It makes going into town a real effort, as the town lies to the east of the marina and means cycling into a head wind which has on occasion exceeded 50 knots. However, coming back from town is a breeze, (forgive the pun) needing no effort at all, other than on the brakes to stop you running out of road.

There’s been a lot going on since we last wrote a blog but only now that we’ve once more been forced to seek shelter inside the boat has time offered itself to sit down and write something for our readers. So, where to begin?

This year we’ve started to use an A4 diary to keep a day to day record of what we’ve been up – we may also use it for a log when we start sailing again but we may find that the lack of a proper set of ruled columns (for details of time, wind, heading etc. etc) will work against that idea. Why on earth am I telling you this? So that you can understand that I’m not making things up but using the new diary to make sure I have things in the right order. Efficient or what?

Now, having read back through since 7 February when we last published a blog, I can see that we’ve actually accomplished quite a lot. When we put the last post up on the blog, we’d rather run out of things to do on board, as we were waiting for ‘white van man’ aka Vernon, to arrive with various bits and pieces from UK. We’d ordered fabric to make a new shade tent and bimini, had taken the sewing machine out of storage and had a heap of other little bits and pieces delivered to my brother, Mike for dispatch to us. Vernon, who lives in Nidri, arrived in Messolonghi on Saturday 11 February with all the packages for us, plus deliveries for Bob and Lesley on “Moon Rebel” and Lee and Joan on “Wishbone.” It was like Christmas all over again as we unpacked boxes and examined all the ‘stuff’ we’d bought.

Our neighbours, Hugh and Brenda from "Scotia" test out their dinghy after finishing repairs to it.

All around us people are working on their winter maintenance programmes: Bob has fitted a wind vane self steerer onto “Moon Rebel” and Hugh has been repainting all the wooden toe rails on “Scotia.”  Our delivery from UK meant that we too could start on various new projects as we now had the materials we needed. I’ve fitted a new split charge device, which prevents the engine battery being flattened, put a security bolt on to the companionway hatch and done various other little bits round the boat, including some more LED lights in the galley area. J has been almost causing meltdown in the sewing machine as she has made a new bimini, new shade tent, 2 rope tidies for the cockpit and various other little bits and pieces. With some alterations to the way the framework is set up, we now have a bimini which will cover most of the cockpit area for the summer – a great improvement over the bare 1/3 that the old one shaded.

J's new rope tidy on the port guardrail.

On 22 February, I left the boat at 0330 and walked up to the coach station through torrential rain to catch the bus to Athens. I flew back to Manchester arriving mid afternoon to be met by Mike. I then spent the next 9 days in UK visiting my parents, discussing care plans for my mother (father is already in a residential home), catching up with my brother and sisters and buying yet more ‘stuff’ for “Rampage.” I also got a new right hearing aid, which was actually the main purpose of my trip! I could have had a new aid fitted here in Greece but it would have cost about twice as much as the airfare, so it was an easy decision.

I also took the opportunity to pop up to Carlisle to visit Andy and Susan off “Curly Sue.” Susan has been diagnosed as having a brain tumour and they have not been able to return to their boat as planned because of her treatment, so I went to see how they were and to talk about anything they wanted doing to their boat, which is moored alongside us here in Messolonghi. They live in a lovely flat in Carlisle, which has views out over the hills to the east.

Meanwhile, J was continuing the sewing back on “Rampage” and did other nasty little jobs, like cleaning the oven, which I was grateful to escape!

Our first solar panel. This one on the cabin roof is semi-flexible. Next winter's project will be to build a gantry to hold a couple of larger, rigid ones.

The return journey also required another very early get up – we left Mike’s house at 0330! But at least there was no walk through the wind and rain as there had been when I departed, just a trip in the car. The rest of the trip went well and I arrived back in Messolonghi by about 1800, accompanied by the biggest case I’ve used for some time. I’d bought it in the Chester Oxfam shop for about £2.50 and it was just the right size to take the solar panel was bringing back with me. Once unpacked, the case was put into the laundry here and had been snapped up within minutes by someone else who needed a big case! (Few of the cruising community keep a large suitcase on board as they just take up far too much space.)

Please click on the photo to enlarge it and enable you to see the frame for the outboard hoist which D is currently working on.

Since my return I have been concentrating on building a hoist for the outboard as lifting the thing on and off the back of “Rampage” is a real struggle for J when she’s on her own and is starting to wreck my back. We’ve now just about finished most of the jobs on the ‘winter to do list’ apart from those which have to wait until we lift out next week, so we’re feeling a bit smug. (He’s forgetting that we await the delivery of new foam in order to completely remake all the saloon seat cushions – a big and, for me, extremely daunting task! J) We have lots of new bits and pieces, some of which were simply a case of buying things and fitting them; others are a result of a good deal of hard work and clever design. Of course, we now have to wait until the season starts before we can see if the designs will really work…….

Well, that about brings you up to speed on things “Rampage” and so I’ll get the boss to read through this and see if there’s anything she’d like to add before we put it up, along with a few pictures. Sadly we haven’t taken any of the new bimini or boom tent and frankly, with the wind as it is, we’re not about to put up either, simply to photograph them for the blog. However, we’ll endeavour to provide pictures with our next post.

Meat bottling

J here: One thing the Skipper has not mentioned is our meat bottling trial. A fellow cruiser, Jane from “Jane G” was telling us how she bottles meat to preserve it for such occasions as when stuck in an anchorage miles from the nearest shop and unable to move because of the weather, as happened to us last summer in the Peloponnese. We thought this was a good plan and conducted a trial bottling of some mince before D went back to the UK. On his return couple of weeks later we tested one of the jars and found it to be okay, although having been in the pressure cooker for an hour and a quarter the meat had lost some of its flavour and texture. We made a cottage pie with it but another time I think I’d go for a recipe with more “kick” – probably our favourite chilli con carne for mince or a curry for other meat. However, I do now plan to do a few more jars of chicken, pork and mince to have in reserve. The instructions, courtesy of “Jane G” – for anyone who may be interested – are given below:

Use mason jars or old jam jars etc. Any jar will do as long as you are satisfied that you will get a good vacuum seal.

Sterilize the jars in the pressure cooker by steaming for 10 minutes with the lids loose.

Cut the meat, (any meat) into 1 inch chunks (or use mince or sausages) and pack in the hot jars, leaving about 1 inch headspace.

Add ½ tsp salt or 1 bouillon cube (optional)

Add no liquid. Screw lids on tight and place in the pressure cooker on a rack or trivet.

Fill to about ½ way with water and place lid on without the weight.

Heat and then free steam for 10 minutes before placing on the weight. Once up to pressure, process for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Remove pressure cooker from heat and let pressure release naturally. Remove weight and leave for 10 minutes before removing the jars. Place them on a towel and cover away from draughts.

After 24 hours test the seals by checking that the lids are concave and do not pop up and down when pushed with a finger. Any that fails the test must be used straight away.

BEFORE USING, CHECK SEAL, SMELL CONTENTS AND IF IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT.

Winter in the South.

A cold wintery walk in the wind

We came to Greece because it was even further south than Spain and then we moved here to Messolonghi, which is south of Corfu where we spent last winter, all in the forlorn hope that we would escape the rigours of northern winters. Well, if the recent weather is anything to go by, all we have done is to exchange the rigours of the northern winter for the seemingly equal rigours of the southern winter instead.

Having spent the Christmas/New Year period in a fairly balmy (if damp) UK, we made our way back to Greece and found that the weather was a deal colder than the UK, although it was a dry cold. So the thermal underwear came out, the large woolly hats made an appearance and we added another layer to the bedding. Oh, and we ran the heating more or less constantly.

J well wrapped up against the winter chill at the weekly Sunday barbecue!

At least, with the dry weather we could do some work on the outside of the boat and spend time in the cockpit tent (or conservatory as it is known). J has been keeping the decks well cleaned (we’ve had un-metered water recently as the pay-as-you-go hose reel has been broken), whilst I have been making them very messy by making a new bracket to carry the outboard motor. I managed to find a few bits of plywood left over from concrete mouldings for the new loo block and have used them to make a replacement for the original plastic one which had begun to disintegrate. We’ve also been redoing the teak oiling of what little external woodwork we have – the cockpit table and the platform in the pulpit.

The new outboard bracket

Then the weather changed. Instead of being merely cold and bright it became cold and bright with a bitter east wind blowing at about force 6 – 7. Then it started to rain as well. It became impossible to sit in the cockpit, as with no sun (hidden by the rain clouds) the conservatory has become too cold, so we have had to retreat inside the cabin. This has put a stop to the outside activities; doing woodwork in saloon is an absolute no-no!

So, what do we do to fill the time until reasonable weather returns? Well, there are some little tiddly jobs that we been doing. I’ve been taking the cabin lights down, polishing them and coating them with clear nail varnish in the hope that I won’t need to repeat the process again next year. J has made new mosquito nets for the hatches as the ones I made 2 years ago, which have become rather battered and horribly discoloured from the ultra violet.

The amazing Byrne prototype mosquito net for hatches - this season in tasteful blue!

Apart from that, there is little to do other than play games, watch movies or have folks round to drink warming comfort drinks. We make the odd foray to town for shopping or to do battle with Vodafone.  It’s a long ongoing saga in which we desperately try to give them money in return for an internet service and they steadfastly decline to debit our card each month!  It has yet to be satisfactorily resolved!

Our alternative residence in Messolonghi. We're thinking of taking sleeping bags, sandwiches and flasks of coffee next time we visit!

Or we go to the bar and have hot chocolate which we do fairly regularly with resultant additional inches to our girth but ah well, the extra blubber should help to keep us warm!

Shipwrecked in the storm yesterday

Then yesterday the winds really kicked off – a neighbour measured 65 knots; according to the Met Office this counts as a Force 12, hurricane with sea state 9 i.e. waves of 14+metres.  Well it certainly wasn’t that bad in the marina but it was quite bad enough frankly. A number of us retreated to the bar for most of the afternoon as it was so uncomfortable on board the boat. In between games of “Quiddler” we watched in awe as the spray soaked the pontoons and all the boats rocked and rolled. Then a small yacht that has been at anchor just outside the marina all winter, broke away and wound up on the shore so we had the entertainment of watching it being recovered. In addition to the wind we had torrential rain and a tremendous thunderstorm. Water started to work its way round the window and door frames of the bar. They are not really suited for such weather but instead are more designed to be folded open through the hot months of summer. Finally at about 7pm the wind abated somewhat and swung round to the south making the marina more comfortable as most of the boats lie north/south. We all decided to make a break for it back to our respective boats and supper. (Had Dimitri been able to provide hot food I think several people would have remained in the bar all night!)

Being rescued

I had an uncomfortable, wakeful night while J snored like a sawing machine but this morning things are a lot quieter and having inspected our own boat and “Curly Sue” next door, I am reassured that we have managed to escape without damage although there was a small barracuda on the deck of “Curly Sue” – impressive since the deck must be nearly 2 metres from the waterline (she’s a Nauticat motorsailer and a very different beast to “Rampage”.)

Well the barometer is still hovering around the 992mBar mark so we expect more winds to come. Oh deep joy! Now where are the chocolate biscuits ….

Duncan and our neighbour Pete remooring "Shindig" after one of her mooring lines broke.

The Social Whirl

Since returning from the UK, I have been back on board “Rampage” for nearly four weeks and the time has just flown by.  We set off for UK next Saturday so it is time for a catch up on life in Messolonghi marina.

Well, it is quite a busy social whirl here.  Aside from anything else there are several regular weekly events:

Sunday lunchtime, most of the liveaboards gather for a communal barbecue.  Russell, of whom more later, has been organising this for at least a year, buying charcoal and supplying a number of dilapidated, old deck chairs although most people bring their own, along with meat, something to drink, plates etc plus a dish to share.  It is really good fun, the salads and puddings have been delicious and it’s a chance for everyone to get together.  It usually means that you have to write off the rest of Sunday, as after a large lunch and plenty to drink, no-one ever feels like going back to do any jobs!

Sunday Barbeque - mid November!

Monday evening is usually games night in the marina bar.  Those that wish come along with cards, backgammon, scrabble, rumikub etc.  When I returned from UK Duncan was full of enthusiasm for a new game called  Quiddler to which he’d been introduced in my absence.  This is a cross between a card game and scrabble and has now made an appearance on his Amazon wishlist – so much did he enjoy it.  I was not much use when I first tried to play but am gradually beginning to get the hang of it.  (This is just as well as far as D is concerned as I am a very poor loser and am inclined to sulk.  It’s not that I have to win all the time, you understand, but it is very disheartening to lose consistently!)

On Tuesday mornings, at my suggestion, we now have a Ladies’ Coffee Morning; we used to have coffee mornings in Barcelona which I enjoyed and generally tried to go along.  Russell christened these ones  “Stitch and Bitch” so I decided to live up to this and took my knitting along as I have a fairly large knitting project on the go and time is starting to run short if it’s to be ready for Christmas.  Indeed my knitting has started to go with me where-ever I go – not that I am in any way eccentric these days!

Tuesday night is music night as mentioned in a previous blog.  I’ve been amazed to discover just how many cruisers have a guitar on board and it has been great to get together and both listen to them play and also try to sing along to some of the better known songs – thanks to songsheets produced by our friends, Lee and Joan.  A group of the men, including Lee, have got together to form an informal band, calling themselves – inevitably I suppose – The Messi Men.  They gather on the back of Lee’s boat, “Wishbone” several afternoons a week to practice new tunes.  Meanwhile next door to us aboard “Scotia”, Hugh and Brenda also practice through the week and it’s really nice as we are working or sitting (knitting) in the cockpit to hear them although some of the Scottish lyrics are completely incomprehensible to us ignorant English folk.

On Wednesdays there is a photographic group who meet in the bar (all of our social events apart from the Sunday barbecue are held in the Marina Sunset Bar.)  D & I have not gone along to this as we just feel we are involved in enough already ‘though I am sure our photographs for this blog would probably improve as I know we have much to learn.  Thursdays we also tend to stay away as this is film night and D finds it very difficult to hear because the acoustics in the bar are pretty dreadful.  However, generally speaking, we try to eat fairly early on Fridays so we can be in time for the weekly quiz night.  Personally, I sympathise with those who stay away, refusing to be ritually humiliated but I myself am OK since I am always in a team with the Kipper whose general knowledge is fairly comprehensive so we generally do fairly well and even managed to win one week.  We happened to have formed a team that particular week with a Dutch lady called Marionne and a Greek friend of hers, Lilian.  Our reward for winning was a bottle of wine, presented by Mimis, the bar owner, plus the honour of devising the quiz for the following week.  We shared out this labour, with Lilian and Marionne coming up with some of the questions and we then got together aboard Marionne and Wim’s huge catamaran for a final planning session.

The Tuesday coffee mornings originally came about because we wanted to get together to plan a farewell party for Russell – mentioned above.  Russell, an elderly Australian reprobrate, has been living aboard boats and wandering the world playing his guitar most of his adult life.  However, he’d made the decision that the time had come to return to Oz and since he has been a key figure among those wintering in Messolonghi we all thought a party was called for.  Someone  had picked up that he was especially partial to Indian food so, while I knitted furiously, the evening was planned.  One Monday evening a couple of weeks ago we all gathered with our various curries and a splendid party was held, the rowdy element even cleared a space among the tables later in the evening to do some dancing!

Delphi with Brenda and Joan

Another day I took two ladies, Joan and Brenda, on a trip to Delphi.  Yes, those of you who are regular readers of our blog will exclaim that this was my third visit to the oracle in less than six months, having gone initially with Andy and Susan and then again later when Jonno was with us.  One of our new friends here, Joan, had asked us how she might get to Delphi from Messolonghi, to which the reply was “by bus, but it’s a long and involved journey.”  Since her husband, Lee, had less than no interest in going with her, my original suggestion was to have a ladies day trip there whilst Maggie was with us.  Maggie, however, had other ideas.  Having already “done” Petra and any number of piles of old rocks the previous week, she made absolutely sure I abandonned any such plan by throwing herself onto the pontoon (see previous blog entitled ???) thus rendering out of the question, any long and inessential car journey in our somewhat minimalist Fiat Siecento.   However, having raised Joan’s expectations regarding a jolly jaunt to Delphi I felt I could hardly let her down, so we invited my neighbour, Brenda, to join us (really 3 adults in that car is quite enough!) and off we went.  D had taken the precaution of replacing a couple of the tyres (a fresh challenge for my knowledge of the Greek tongue) plus the rear windscreen wiper, and thus ready for anything, off we set.  The day was without incident, although I amused Brenda by restricting my photographs to a couple of herself and Joan plus a series of a group of very appealing small kittens that we came upon.  But you have to remember that having been there twice previously I already have any number of photographs of the temple of Apollo etc – frankly more than I need or will probably ever look at again.

Other events in the last month?  Well there have been a number of meals and drinks with friends, a couple evenings of canasta with Pam and Roger, first aboard “Cap d’Or” and then a return match aboard “Rampage”, plus a guided visit to the Garden of Heroes in Messolonghi.  This last was extremely interesting and worth doing since I now have a far better appreciation of the dramatic history of the town, the terrible seiges during the War of Independence and the appalling hardships and self-sacrifice endured by the townspeople.

Another day we were informed by friends that there was an olive oil factory in the nearby village of Agios Thomos where you could go to watch the olive being produced and buy some for a very reasonable sum.  D and I made two visits in the end as the quality of the oil is fanastic and we decided it was worth taking some back to UK to give people as presents.   The sum charged per litre we discovered to be completely arbitary, according to the whim of whoever you happened to speak to on the day of your visit.  We paid two different sums on our two visits (less on the second visit,) and other people, we later learned, were charged a different amount again.  However, even at its most expensive, it was of a better quality and half the price of most olive oil available in the UK.

It don't get no fresher than this - olives to oil at the local oil press

Well, I think this covers most of the highlights of the past month.  In between times there have been a number of winter maintenance jobs completed included a new facia for the binnicle plus several sewing jobs.  These included a special groundsheet-cum- backpack for climbing ropes, made of bright orange ripstop nylon and commissioned by my son during his visit in September.  As his December birthday approached I felt I had to get on with the task and it became the subject of much chat among the Messolonghi Marina community as to the best way to make it.  Having successfully completed the prototype, further commissions – for a small consideration – will now be undertaken on request.

One of the couples over-wintering here this year took the initiative and established a daily radio net for the exchange of news and information, pleas for assistance etc.  Among other things this enabled me to find bright orange sewing thread for the climbing bag mentioned above and a companion to join my Greek classes.  This latter has proved excellent since I now have the pleasure of David’s company on the cycle to and from class, a reduced cost for the lessons and the opportunity to revise some ground I had already covered.  So while for me, the language is slowly starting to make sense, poor David still feels he is drowning as he struggles to get to grips with the Greek alphabet and the appallingly complicated grammar, (even the proper nouns decline – aghhh!)  Our teacher, Yani, is delightful and very enthusiastic and the class invariably runs well over the prescribed hour, for which he never charges extra.  I always feel churlish interrupting him to say we probably ought to finish for the day – sometimes 40 minutes after the official end of the lesson.  However there is only so much I can take in, or attempt to learn before the next lesson so I always feel I have to draw a halt to proceedings.  One day it poured with rain so Duncan drove us to town and arranged to pick us up at 1.15, (the class is officially from 12 to 1pm.)  At 1.25 pm I heard my mobile announce that I had a text message and even then it was another 10 minutes before we were able to extract ourselves, despite explaining that my husband was waiting.

The bread man visits - Pam and J buying the staple of life.

You will have gathered from all of the above that we are thoroughly enjoying life in Messolonghi and we may well spend another winter there next year.  This blog was started before we departed and we are now with my sister in Kent on the first stage of our winter progress around England.  However, the tale of our long trip back here plus all the excitements of Christmas and the New Year celebrations must wait for another time.

A look back at 2011

Click to see full size image

It seems like no time has passed since we got the engine fixed in Gouvia and set out to explore Greek waters but it has and I thought that perhaps now was as good a time as any to pause and try and sum up the 2011 cruising season for “Rampage” and her crew. The summer, as they say, has been full of incident and excitement, we’ve made a lot of new friends and been to places visited by few other folks. And now we’re working at making sure “Rampage” is in good shape to tackle next season’s adventures.

"Rampage" with her new sails, earlier this year

We’ve sailed over 1600 nautical miles this year or 1830 land miles or 2925 kilometres for those of you unable to cope with them. In doing so, we have visited a host of places, anchored for much of the time and made use of little village quays when not at anchor. Occasionally, we’ve had the benefit of shore power but for most of the time we’ve been reliant on our own resources to make electricity, which has meant running the main engine to top up the batteries. We never did fit the gantry and solar power that we’d thought of before leaving UK and the little generator we have as an emergency backup is just that – too small to do anything other than keep pace with the lights and navigation instruments, not enough for the fridge!

Making new friends

So that’s the first thing we’ve changed this winter. We’ve bought and found room on board for a decent petrol generator so that we can keep pace with the demand for electricity. Yes, I know that it’s not very eco friendly but it is more so than running the main engine. Next winter may yet see the arrival of solar panels on “Rampage” but the budget is maxed out just now.

The new sails we bought earlier this year have proved their worth, we can sail much closer to the wind and it’s easier to balance the boat now that the size of the sails is better matched than the old set. However, we’ve relearnt old lessons about the need to reef early and often if we’re not to be suddenly overpowered by the wind. The old adage of Mediterranean sailors that there’s either no wind, too much wind or it’s straight on the nose still holds good in this part of the world; it’s magic when you get a wind that lets you go where you want to go and suddenly all the problems of the world fade away as the boat comes alive and charges over the sea reliant only on the skill of the helmsman and the wind!

Ken and Lily aboard "Rampage" in May

The northern Ionian was our cruising ground last autumn and early this year. It is dominated by the island of Corfu, which provides shelter from much of the northerly winds in that part of the world. We had a fabulous time there this spring with Naomi and her family and made a slow progress southwards from there once we had bidden them farewell. We may return there next summer to explore the inland sea from Preveza; we shall see how things pan out.

The amazing coastline of Levkas in the Ionian

The Sothern Ionian is a cruisers paradise. It has a bit of everything along with reasonably dependable winds which blow up most afternoons from the northwest, so you can get some sailing and then disappear in the evening so you can get a peaceful night at anchor. There are literally dozens of little places to anchor or moor; food and water are easy to come by and there are loads of tavernas selling food at reasonable prices. What more could you want?

Fiskardo, Northern Cephalonia

 

Kastos harbour

Well, in June and early July, you could want for little more than to be there, bimbling about the place and enjoying the people, the scenery and the weather. However, by mid July it has become a little less perfect, as other folks arrive to take advantage of what make it so nice. In a word, it becomes crowded. A place where a month earlier there was one or two other boats is suddenly full with 15 or 20, most of them crewed by people who aren’t, if truth be told, very good at boat handling (or Italian, same thing really). It’s all very well, and often amusing watching the antics, but can be more than a little worrying when you suddenly realise that the idiot skippering the approaching yacht has chosen your bow as his aiming point and isn’t going to change course because he doesn’t know how to…… Equally funny are the attempts made by folks trying to get their anchor to hold; we did see the wonderful sight last year of German skipper finally losing patience with a charter boat crew who were trying to anchor close to his boat. After they failed to take note of his shouted instructions, he leapt into his dinghy, went across and boarded their yacht and gave them an impromptu lesson in the noble art of anchoring!

Sailing with "Curly Sue"

We had had the vague aim of going round the Peloponnese as we left Corfu; the crowding in the Ionian made the decision easy. In the event, we had met up with Andy and Susan on “Curly Sue” (their tender is called “Andy Too”….) and we decided to cruise in company for a while. This was actually the best decision we’d made for some time! There’s nothing quite like being able to gossip knowledgeably about the mess the holiday makers are making of their boat handling whilst sharing a cold beer of an evening. We also got to play a lot of Scrabble and other games as well. In company, we explored the Gulf of Patras and Corinth, both of us deciding in passing to over-winter in Messolonghi before heading south.

Andy and Susan

Cruising in company is a great way of living this life. You get to talk through your plans with your cruising partners, reinforcing each other about difficult decisions and generally bolstering one another’s confidence about the next steps to be taken. We really missed Andy and Susan when we parted company in late August, as they headed north whilst we carried on round into the unknown.

The trip round the Peloponnese stretched us a little, as the area is the most remote we have cruised through so far. It is wonderfully uncrowded but there’s a reason for that – there isn’t much in the way of life support there, just mile after mile of deserted, rock coasts. There are some lovely bays and wonderful little sheltered anchorages but not much in the way of human habitation. This means that us cruising folks have to really plan ahead and make sure we have enough provisions to last out the trip; not something we’ve had to think about really since we did the Biscay crossing right at the start of this adventure. The other thing lacking in that part of the world is easy access to water and that has made us think quite hard about fitting a water maker to “Rampage”, so that we wouldn’t need to keep looking for a tap whenever we were ashore!

The castle of Methana, one of many Venetian castles in the Peleponnese

We also encountered our first real weather problems for a long time, as we waited for the “Meltimi” winds in the Aegean Sea to die down enough for us to round Cape Maleos. This wind, in combination with the lack of places to buy any fresh provisions, left us eating tinned food and wishing for a greengrocers! Ah well, we did find out that the local tinned meatballs are actually quite tasty. Next year we must remember to provision properly before setting off to isolated places. Indeed, one thing we are looking at doing over the winter is doing some bottling; veggies and meat to our own recipes. We were given a jar of ratatouille in the Peloponnese, which is what has set us thinking.

The eastern coast of the Peloponnese was spectacular and also a slightly more populated, making life easier for us in terms of getting stuff; food, water and fuel. We took our time making our way north and enjoyed visiting yet more Venetian castles – they got everywhere didn’t they?

Athens, when we arrived there (well, the port of Piraeus actually) was just about what we’d been led to expect. Noisy, dirty and very expensive. We won’t be returning there if we can avoid it! It is a good place to collect visitors but frankly not worth the effort.

The surrounding area, the Saronic Gulf, is, however, well worth spending time in. It is also a great place to pick up visitor and sail round for a week or two. Athens airport is the best place to fly into from northern Europe and there are frequent fast ferries from Piraeus to all of the islands in the southern part of the Gulf. These little ports are great to hang out in a yacht and what better way to start a visit to Greece than to get on the ferry and escape from the overcrowded city of Athens to a quiet seaside town? We will be suggesting this as an alternative to visitors instead of flying into the Ionian islands.

Waiting to go through the Corinth Canal

Our final cruise through the Corinth Canal and on to Messolonghi was interesting and slightly challenging. We coped well with the weather, which turned very windy, and had a great time with Jonno on board. The final leg into our winter home was quiet and a little subdued but I think we were both quite glad to be in a sheltered harbour as the winds continued to blow hard over the next couple of weeks.

Work is now well under way on the long list of winter jobs, although more do keep getting added as we find things that need improving, replacing or repairing or simply would make good additions to “Rampage’s” outfit.

Messolonghi Marina

Well, there you go. Our cruising season in a couple of pages. We’ve had a great time, seen some amazing sights and met some great people. We’re now making plans for 2012, so if you would like to come and visit and have a yen to see somewhere, now is the time to put in a berthing request and get your flights booked! We can cope with a pair of adults and a couple of small children to live on board; more than this and you’ll need to think about booking a hotel room where we’re going to meet up!

A fun time was had by all!

Going Postal

The following blog is mainly for the benefit and interest of fellow cruisers who may possibly encounter similar problems.

Last Sunday after the weekly barbecue, there was an informal liveaboards’ meeting to discuss issues over postal deliveries because a number of people, including ourselves, have failed to receive items of post, be they parcels or letters, sent to them at this marina.

There are a number of problems:

1.       There appears to be no proper postal address for the marina, despite it having been established for three years now.

2.        Post received at the marina is not sorted or held securely but is dumped in an unlocked cupboard in the laundry room.

3.       The unsorted post in the laundry room goes back months, even years and maybe 80% is monthly bills from Vodafone and the other mobile companies for people long since gone.  It is therefore a bit of a nightmare trying to see whether you actually might have any post in amongst it all.

4.       If a letter or parcel is sent by recorded delivery and/or there is any import or other charge to pay, the item must be collected from the post office in town. This is fair enough and in these circumstances, the post office issue a notification slip to the marina, however …it would seem that most postal workers here in Messolonghi cannot (or will not) read the Roman alphabet (or at least they are not confident about it) so when something needs to be collected but is not addressed in Greek they simply write “Marina” on the notification slip.  Quite a number of these totally anonymous slips were in among the accumulated post in the laundry. 

 

The postal backlog in the laundry at Messolonghi

Even for Greece, I find it quite astounding that such a haphazard arrangement is in place.  Most liveaboards depend on their winter address for the delivery of important items from home eg. Things from the bank and boat parts which are frequently much cheaper or only obtainable to buy at home & have sent out.

One couple here have tried to sort things out.  They took all the notification slips up to the post office and were told that those parcels/letters had all been collected.  Mind you, this  was slightly unreliable information since they speak no Greek and the people at Messolonghi post office speak absolutely no English.  Later they sat chatting about the problem with the marina bar owner, Demitri, and he offered to collect the parcels once a week and we could collect them from him, paying him 2 Euros per parcel for his trouble, having first signed a disclaimer form. 

When this became general knowledge quite a number of people were not impressed with this arrangement for various reasons:

1. it had been made without general discussion and agreement from the liveaboard community
2. those expecting a lot of parcels would find the arrangement unacceptably expensive
3. it is insecure and a huge responsibility for Demitri – but most importantly …
4. it should be the marina’s responsibility to look after our post and is part of the basic service we expect to be provided when we pay to stay here.

The meeting last Sunday could possibly have become very heated and chaotic but thankfully one man took command of it from the outset, calmly detailing all the issues and dealing with them one at a time.  Thus, thankfully, a fairly amicable agreement was reached without too much discussion or heartache. 

It should be explained here that the marina is jointly owned by Jo, a Dutchman and a Greek guy, Yanis; Jo seems to run the finances whilst Yanis is responsible for the operational side.  It was generally felt however that Jo was more likely to appreciate our problems with the existing arrangements.  One of the liveaboards, Dutch herself, offered to email Jo, explaining the difficulties and asking whether a couple of liveaboard representatives could meet up with him to discuss possible solutions.

Several people were fairly pessimistic about our chances of actually managing to improve things; those who were here for a second winter gloomily said that the matter had been raised before, to little effect.  It was therefore something of a surprise when Jo responded within 24 hours saying that a PO Box was to be set up for the marina and one of the staff would collect the post from there every day.  Of course we are all delighted but it remains to be seen when or if this will actually be implemented.  Even then, I personally feel that several of the issues itemised above have still not been resolved.  Still, it’s a step in the right direction.

It has to be said that, on the whole, there is little interest here in providing very much customer service either by the owners or the staff, who of course take their cue from their employers.  Once you have paid they very largely lose interest.  For example, there have been quite a few problems with the washing machines taking double payments from people’s payment cards.  Initially they would recredit cards, albeit rather begrudgingly.  Lately however, people have been told that the directions for the use of the machines are clear and therefore any difficulties in this regard are their own problem; further reimbursements will not be made.

This unhelpful attitude is not as unusual as you would hope.  We have now encountered it to a greater or lesser extent in all three of the marinas where we have over-wintered and in a number of other harbours and marinas that we have visited during the summer months.

Despite all of this, I have to say that we absolutely love being here in Messolonghi and these small irritants are completely outweighed by all the plus points, viz:

• great liveaboard community and lots going on including tours of the local area available with an English speaking guide
• beautiful countryside around
• well located for cruising the Ionian, the Gulfs of Corinth and Patras, the Peloponnese and access to the Aegean via the Corinth canal
• a busy, very-untouristy Greek town just 20 minutes walk away (& even quicker by bike) and best of all …
• the price is right!

We are very much thinking about coming back here again next winter.

Visiting Ireland and Cornwall plus what the Skipper got up to!

Part 1: Ireland

Although I love this life we’ve chosen to lead, every so often I just have to go and spend time with the family whom I miss very much. Duncan usually spots the warning signs and suggests it before I have to! My latest visit was scheduled to coincide with when my Irish grandchildren were off school for half-term and Naomi had taken a week off work. So despite being only a relatively short time before we all gather again at the Christmas house, I flew off to Ireland after Maggie’s visit.

Harry Potter - should you be in any doubt!

The plan had been to spend the first few days of my visit in Donegal but this changed when the children realised that they would miss out on Halloween fun with their friends. My flight was already booked however, when the plans changed so dear Naomi drove up to Belfast in the middle of the night (or so it felt) to meet me.

Little Lily was poorly for most of the week of my visit so we never did make it to Donegal but spent the week at home in Ashbourne, north of Dublin. Despite being ill, Lily still contrived to be very cute and her distressed exclamation of “Uh oh!” whenever she threw up was very endearing. Since the family visited us in Corfu in May, she has changed enormously, not only having learned to walk and talk in the meantime but growing a crop of blonde curls into the bargain!

Lily, the curly haired blonde!

The first day of my visit was Halloween, a much bigger deal than when I was a child or even when my own children were small. We all had a lovely time with glitter making Halloween pictures and then Naomi made a wonderful graveyard cake with slabs of chocolate brownie and we had a party in the house before she and I took Charlie and Jess out Trick or Treating with their friends. After bobbing for apples, sticking the hat on the witch and various other games, we set off. I was amazed at just how much trouble everyone had taken to decorate their houses and certainly the children were fully expected at every house and came home laden with delicious goodies. In the meantime Daddy Ken and little Lily had been distributing sweets to all the callers at their own front door and by the time we returned home they had nearly run out of things to give out but the doorbell kept ringing. Jess and Charlie, far more interested in the excitement of it all than in the sweets themselves, immediately handed over a good percentage of their own “haul” for redistribution, thus saving Naomi from the predicament of what to do with such a vast quantity of confectionery and crisps!

and Jessie the wicked witch!

The rest of the week was spent relatively quietly because Lily was not well, spending much of the day asleep or wanting to be cuddled by Mummy. On Tuesday evening, Naomi and I escaped to the movies with her friend Jane and the next day Charlie, Jess and I braved the wind and rain to walk to the cinema and see the new film of the Adventures of Tintin while Nomie took Lily to the doctor. On Thursday, having spent most of the week cooped up indoors, we decided that a diversion from the Wii would be good so there was an expedition out to rent DVDs and pick up MacDonalds for lunch – a rare treat – well, a treat for the children at any rate ‘though I have to confess a weakness for the chocolate milkshakes!

Granny's den-building skills stretched to the limit ...

 

and a much better den out in the sunshine.

Friday, thankfully, was a much better day so when friends came over to play after lunch they were all able to get out in the sunshine and burn off surplus energy making dens outside as a change from in the living room. With Daddy home at the weekend, Naomi and I were able to leave Lily in his care and take Charlie and Jess swimming to a very wonderful pool with waves, slides and a pirate ship. Later we all visited Tayto Park, a cross between a wildlife park and an adventure playground where the family have annual membership. Lily, finally on the mend, was delighted by all the animals and Jess and Charlie had a brilliant time on a something halfway between a seesaw and a roundabout, before we all retreated into a café to warm up!

Inspecting the wildlife at Tayto Park- "Oh I see that fella!"

Monday was my last full day and the children returned to school so Naomi and I were able to seize the opportunity to buy Charlie’s birthday presents. Once school finished for the day there was a flurry of activity with Charlie going to his piano lesson, Jess to Taekwondo (which I was privileged to be allowed to stay and watch) and then later Naomi had singing lessons so Granny was left to put the three littles to bed since Daddy was away for a few days. Lily was asleep when Mummy came home but the others were just cleaning teeth – oops! However, I was forgiven as I see them so rarely and Naomi and I later relaxed with a large glass of wine each!

Jess all set for Taekwondo and Charlie in his new school uniform

Part 2: Cornwall

I made several herculean journeys on this trip; getting to Polly and Tommy’s house entailed Naomi driving me to Dublin airport, a flight to Exeter, a bus journey across Exeter to the railway station and the train to Truro where I was met by Polly and taken to their new home in Mylor Bridge near Falmouth.

They moved in about a month ago and have worked incredibly hard, not simply unpacking and painting just about every room in the house but also finding time to clean the old place before handing it back to the landlord, a trip to the States for Tommy’s father’s wedding, competition gig rowing and working full time. It makes me weary just thinking about it.

Polly is currently competing in her school’s version of the Master Chef competition in order to raise money for Children in Need. As a result I was fortunate to be guinea pig that first night as she trialled an amazing meal including tuna, swordfish, asparagus and roasted tomatoes. Needless to say, she is through to the next round!

Polly and Tommy were both out at work during the week so on Wednesday I decided to contribute to the work effort and armed with a paintbrush, I set to work on the skirting boards and hall cupboards. Thursday was rather more self-indulgent however. They had kindly insured me to drive Tommy’s car so after a visit to the butcher in the village I set out for Truro with a slightly hazy idea about where to go and somewhat apprehensive to be driving an automatic again for the first time in nearly 20 years! All went smoothly however and having had my annual haircut, I went on to savour the delights of Truro’s vast and comprehensive haberdashery before launching myself on M&S. Having braved Asda, I then returned home to prepare supper for the workers. Friday saw me back with the paint pots although I did escape in the afternoon, commissioned by the Skipper to search for various bits of chandlery. That evening Tommy arrived home to announce that we were off to join friends for an Indian takeaway. We had a great time; living where they do, all their friends seem to be boatie types so the conversation (and wine) flowed.

On Saturday morning Polly and I set off early to join other lady rowers for a training session. I should state immediately at this point that yours truly was not doing any rowing! I can row … after a fashion … when I have to … like when the outboard on the dinghy dies. However, no way am I in the same league as these ladies who train several times a week and row competitively. For those of you not already familiar with the Cornish Pilot Gig it Wikipedia states the following:

Flushing and Mylor Gig Club ladies out for a training session

“The Cornish pilot gig is a six-oared rowing boat, built of Cornish narrow leaf elm, 32 feet (9.8 m) long with a beam of four feet ten inches … The original purpose of the Cornish pilot gig was as a general work boat, and the craft is used for taking pilots out to incoming vessels off the Atlantic. In those days the race would be the first gig to get their pilot on board a vessel (often those about to run aground on rocks) got the job, and hence the payment… Today, pilot gigs are used primarily for sport, with around 100 clubs across the globe.”

You get the general idea that these are big, heavy, fixed-seat rowing boats so racing them competitively is something of an endurance sport, especially when you remember that most of the races are conducted in open sea – exposed to the wind and waves. Indeed, although it was a beautiful, sunny morning and relatively calm as we sat out, (self, sitting in the bows and well wrapped up,) by the time we got out to the open sea beyond Black Rock (for those of you that know the area) it was getting pretty bouncy with waves well over a metre high – and they rowed for 1½ hours – I was deeply impressed.

Tommy's office (!) beside King Harry's Ferry

Later Polly and Tommy took me out to lunch crossing over on ferry beside Tommy’s office – he now works for King Harry’s ferries managing their website and has probably one of the prettiest working locations in the country! Later, going for a walk along the headland, we came upon hundreds of ripe, plum sloes so Tommy was despatched back to the car for a couple of bags and we picked furiously. Having stopped to pick up several bottles of gin on the way home and a large quantity of sugar, Pol and I then settled down to make sloe gin while her dutiful spouse cooked supper!

One of so many beautiful Cornish beaches - sorry don't know the name of this one but it was on the Roseland

Sunday was my last day and the three of us went to the Remembrance Service at the little church in Mylor Harbour where they were married just over a year ago. The service was particularly poignant since Mylor is a maritime parish, bounded by water on three sides. The area has strong naval connections and during the 2nd World War, Mylor Harbour was the base for the French Resistance. More info at http://www.cornwalls.co.uk/Mylor-village.htm .

Afterwards Polly made pancakes and bacon for brunch served with maple syrup purchased on their recent trip to the US and that evening Tommy – always an imaginative and skilled chef – made a most wonderful roast dinner for my final night.

Tommy cooking an amazing meal

Tommy heroically rose from his bed at 04.45 next morning to get me to Truro station in time for the 05.38 train to Reading, from where I caught a connection to Gatwick and my flight back to Athens. Originally the Skipper had decreed that I could reverse my outward journey, catching the airport bus to the main Athens bus station and then a 3½ hour onward journey to Messolonghi. However, thankfully he realised that should there be any sort of delay, there was a strong risk of missing the last bus and so he very kindly drove the 200 odd miles to come and meet me. Even so, it felt quite a marathon and we were both very thankful to reach the marina that night.

It was a brilliant trip and would just like to thank Naomi, Ken, Polly and Tommy for their wonderful hospitality and Charlie, Jess and Lily for their pictures, cuddles and so many hours of entertainment!

Polly and Tommy

The next blog must now be written by Himself – by all accounts it was just a mad social whirl here whilst I was gone!

Part 3: Himself’s bit.

Rather than do another truly separate blog, I think the easiest way is simply to tag on to that what the First Mate has written. So, to keep you up to speed with the mad social whirl that is Messolonghi Marina in the winter.

Having put J and Maggie on to the bus for Athens, I returned to my pit to make up for lost sleep. I rose a little later and joined the rest of the community here for the Sunday barbeque. The weather is such that, provided you get out of the wind, it’s quite nice sitting out in the sunshine. The following day I started work on some of the jobs I’d been told to get on with and then had a pleasant evening in the Marina Sunset bar, where we had a games evening – nothing competitive, just playing games with others of a like mind.

On Tuesday, I went over to Lefkas in the car with a liferaft for servicing and to buy a new set of washboards, to replace the ones I broken during the thunderstorms just after we’d arrived. I found the washboards in Nidri at IGR Marine Services, run by Danny Keen. He took my cardboard templates and turned out lovely new washboards in no time at all and at a very reasonable price! I also got a couple of bits of stainless steel tubing to make a new bimini frame and had an English brunch in the Vliho Yacht Club before driving back.

The next few days followed in similar fashion – not going to Lefkas of course – but working through the jobs list during the day and joining in with events in the bar in the evening. Andy and Sue, next door on Curly Sue took pity on me on a couple of occasions and fed me supper and I did seem to drink lot of coffee with other folks on the pontoon at one time and another.

I was in touch with Nikos of Ionian Marine Safety about the liferaft; he had been worried when I dropped it off that it was a little ancient and would not be up to a lot, but when he opened the canister, he found that the raft itself was much newer than the canister. He serviced and repacked the raft and told me to collect it the following Monday, so I took Andy with me for the ride and the opportunity to visit the many chandleries in Lefkas. We had a good day out, including stopping on the way back to Messolonghi for a pita gyros at Amfilochia on the shores of the inland sea.

Duncan wrestling with the alternator

I was also been working on fitting an improved external regulator to the alternator, so as to boost the power delivered to the batteries when the engine is running. This proved more difficult than I’d first thought and has had to wait until J returned from UK with some extra bits.

As time went on with J absent, folks in the marina began to ask if I intended to go and pick her up from Athens, to which the reply was simple: no, there’s a bus. However, I then sat down and did a bit of looking at timings and rapidly came to the conclusion that, whilst theoretically possible, even a small delay would see J waiting at the Athens Bus Station through the night for the early morning bus, so I decided to go and pick her up in the Fiat.

I left Messolonghi in plenty of time so that I wouldn’t have to push the little car too hard and arrived at Athens airport with time to kill. But I already had a cunning plan in hand: visit Ikea again! They didn’t have the little LED light strips that I wanted in stock but they did have magnificent chocolate cake, so I was able to pass the time drinking coffee and reading the paper before driving the last ½ mile to pick J up. Well, there you are, a quick overview of my lonesome time without the First Mate. We now have another load of jobs to do, as J has brought out new bits of kit to be fitted so watch this space for more winter fun and games.

Assorted Ruins and Maggie’s Self-Demolition Attempt….

(Please note that this blog was mostly written some 2 ½ weeks ago while Maggie was with us but for some reason the Skipper failed to publish it after she and I left him to his own devises and returned to the UK.  J)

Well, it’s been a while since I last sat down and put a post together for the blog. I’ve been waiting to write this until after Maggie’s visit had ended and I’d put J on the plane back to the Frozen North for a couple weeks. Perhaps, I thought, we’d be able to go sailing for a couple of days, show Maggie what the Ionian is like. Or we could use the car to go for a couple of visits to where-ever.  In the event, Maggie decided to take things into her own hands and set the agenda. So I thought I’d better get on and write this entry before she left, so that she could have her say before I publish it – or then again, perhaps not. Freedom of the press and all that? (N.B. I don’t believe she ever did review this before she left but she can pass comment now it’s published. J)

Well, I suppose I’d better take you back to the end of the last blog before I can thrill you with the events of the past few days. It is confusing enough for us long-term yachtie types to keep track of the dates, let alone the days, so I find the discipline of writing the blog useful from all sorts of perspectives; one of them being to track the passing of time. Our last post was on 15 October and we were just starting to find our way round the community here in Messolonghi.

It is becoming clear to us that there is much to recommend the place, not just an attractive cost! Because it is a relatively small marina, it means that those of us living aboard our boats through the winter are that much closer together than Gouvia. The marina has space for perhaps 150 boats on the water, whilst Gouvia was about 10 times the size; when you think that there are more people living here than there were in Gouvia, you can begin to understand why it is easy for a community to develop in a way that was impossible there.

Music night in the Sunset Bar

Anyhow, in addition to the weekly barbeque (now moved to Sunday lunchtime), there is a games night on Monday, a musical evening in the bar on a Tuesday, a camera group meets on Wednesday and there is a quiz night on Fridays. This gives shape to the week and is helped along by the daily radio net, which serves 2 functions; firstly, it give you a reason to be out of bed by 9.30am and secondly it’s an information exchange where you can ask for help doing a job, offer surplus kit to anyone who might need it or find out about a short notice event.

One of the hilltop monasteries we visited with Penelope, our local tourist guide

The other thing that happens every couple of weeks is a day trip to some local event or place of interest. There is a rep from the local tourist office who is based part time in the marina office; she has access to a bus about once a fortnight to lead a trip to somewhere local. We missed the first one after we arrived – the signup sheet was spotted by J but she didn’t have her lenses in, so couldn’t sign up and it had disappeared by the time she’d found her glasses. The next one took place the Tuesday after our last post. We had a fun day out, visiting a couple of monasteries and a Roman bath house before making our way to a small village way up in the hills to the north for lunch. A great day out and a chance to explore a part of the countryside we would never have seen left to our own devices.

Demonstration of how to make the traditional Greek spinach pie

Sunday barbeques are the time when everyone has a chance to catch up on gossip and relax. Often in the week, people are buried in their own boats, sorting through all the jobs that need to be done before next year’s cruising season starts. I have a long list which is being slowly tackled but the barbeque gives the perfect excuse to have a day of rest on Sunday.

Anyway, back somewhat to the narrative. The weather had been nice and warm again but, in common with last year, it has become unpredictable. After J had had her cycle ride in the warm sun, the wind started to get up and kept on getting up! It blew a near gale all night and then started to rain heavily and continued to do so for the rest of the week and the weekend. This left us confined to the boat for most of the time. By Monday, I’d read several books, played J at innumerable games of scrabble and rumikub and watched a fair bit of TV. J was climbing the walls by now and needed a change of scene, so on Monday we took the car down the coast to Navpaktos, the small port we’d totally failed to get into back in August.

The very picturesque but tiny harbour at Navpaktos

The trip was OK but the town of Navpaktos is deceptive from the sea: the harbour is tiny and very picturesque but the town behind it is large, sprawling and modern. We wandered round the town and found an agricultural supply shop, where we made their day by buying a suitcase generator from them! I’d been looking for one for some time, as we have found this year with the hotter summer temperatures that we’d struggled to keep up with demand for power for the fridge! Once we got back to the boat and put oil and petrol into the generator, I had a great deal of fun getting it to start. Eventually, after a good deal of swearing and sweating, I found that the label on the petrol tap was stuck on the wrong way round……. Once it was running, I hooked it up to the boat and was delighted to find that it was doing just what it was meant to do! Then J started to call frantically to me, so I popped back into the cockpit to discover it was full of smoke. It turned out we’d put too much oil into the thing and it had dumped the excess into the air filter and thus into the engine…… It was messy but easily sorted and we are now able to generate electricity without the need to run the main engine, a real bonus when you’re away from mains electricity as we are for much of the cruising season.

The next day we had our trip out by bus. When we got back to the marina, the winds had completely died away and we seized the moment to move Rampage from our berth by the offices to the centre pontoon. This is a much better place to be; people all round, clean concrete surfaces and close to the bar….

The next morning, it was clear that the aft head was blocked. Regular readers of the blog will remember that this happened to the front one last autumn, this year it was the other one! However, the aft head is also designed to pump out via a holding tank, so there is a mass of additional pipe work involved, along with several valves. It took me most of the day to resolve the problem; not fun at all!

Maggie visits Messolonghi

The next excitement on the agenda was the arrival of Maggie. She was due to fly into Athens airport, J thought, on Sunday. So we had an early night on Saturday and were up with the lark on Sunday, ready to drive down to Athens to pick her up. Before we left, I thought I’d just check her flight number online. On checking, it was rapidly apparent that she wasn’t due to arrive until Monday: ah well, at least we could go to the barbeque and we hadn’t driven all the way to Athens a day early! Our friends Andy and Susan on Curly Sue also arrived that afternoon, fitting into a space next to us on the pontoon. They’re staying out here most of the winter as well, so we’re looking forward to a good deal of Scrabble, Rumikub and the like.

We left the following morning, slightly earlier than originally planned, as we had found that Ikea has a shop just by the airport. So we had a good wander around Ikea, had lunch there as well as getting a few bits from the shop and picked Maggie up from the airport without a hitch. The long trip back went OK and we arrived back here round about 6 pm, having stopped to admire the Corinth Canal en route.

A new view of the Corinth Canal - from above as we made our way bact from Athens with Maggie

The following day we had a gentle day to get over all the travel (Maggie had flown in from Cairo after a trip round Jordan and the Sinai) before going to the musical evening in the bar. Sue and Andy joined us on board for a nightcap after the evening wound down and we all got a really good night’s sleep.

The following morning we were all taking it easy; J was still in bed in fact, whilst I was checking emails when Maggie decided to go ashore for a leg stretch. Unfortunately, she caught her foot in the power cable as she stepped ashore and managed to fall the rest of the way. She landed on the pontoon face first, with her left knee taking the majority of the impact. It was rapidly obvious that the damage to her knee was beyond the skills of the crew and needed a few stitches, so J took her off to the local hospital, where they spent a jolly morning as Mags was x-rayed, prodded and stitched.

Maggie is now the proud owner of a comprehensive set of x-rays, a nice, neat set of stitches on her knee cap and a significant bandage from thigh to ankle. As she also head butted the pontoon and hurt her jaw, she has been instructed not to chew gum, eat hard food or indulge in passionate kissing for a week or so……..

Hors de combat

The upshot of all of this is that we will not be going sailing, even if the wind dies down a lot, as Maggie’s left leg is not now up to being used on a heeling sail boat! So, the enforced rest should do us all a power of good and it does mean that I will be driving them back to Athens airport on Sunday; the original plan had been that they would catch the 6.30am bus….

PS from Julia:

Maggie inspects the salt heaps of Messolonghi

Just to complete the tale of Maggie’s visit, by Friday she was sufficiently recovered from her trauma (and bored) to be prepared to venture out of the marina in our extremely minute car. She and I drove out along the causeway by the salt marshes to Tourlida , the village on stilts at the end of the causeway. It was a beautiful, warm sunny day so we decided to get out and walk for a while. Maggie found she could walk fairly easily so we strolled for an hour or so past the salt pans and great hills of salt which inevitably , being a science teacher, she studied with interest. She was also please to see quite a number of wading birds. We then had a couple of beers and a light lunch of various meze in town before driving on out of town to the west, stopping at an isolated little church on the salt marshes and then on to a little town in the middle of a lagoon.

The little church in the middle of the lagoon

That evening the three of us, plus Andy and Susan, made up a team at the weekly quiz night. It was good fun ‘though Maggie was incensed to learn that the practice of Trick or Treating originated in the UK! On Saturday we ventured out again. Maggie had decided that she was sufficiently mobile to cope with the bus journey to Athens, particularly as I would be travelling with her so we went to buy our tickets for the next day and then, once again had lunch in town; this time I introduced her to the delights of a pita gyros. We then headed up into the hills, randomly following little twisting roads up to the ridgeline from where we gazed back down to the coast, the salt marshes and the town of Messolonghi spread out below us. It was another beautiful, sunny day and lovely to be up in the mountains for a change.

A view from the mountains above the town

The following day we were up by 5.30am to catch the bus to Athens. The journey went without incident as we made our way from the main bus station across town via the airport bus and then flew to Gatwick together. There we parted company, Maggie being met by her nephew and taken safely home whilst I caught a connecting flight on to Ireland to visit my elder daughter Naomi and her family. That, however, is a tale for another day…

Autumn Arrives – or does it?

The autumn seemed to have arrived in Greece one minute and to have beaten a hasty retreat the next. Having taken Jonno to Athens, we had our first quiet night in Galaxidi with the wind having packed up and gone back to wherever it came from; really quite nice again. We’d been watching the weather forecast quite closely, so the next morning we slipped away from our mooring and headed off to Trizonia, about 25 miles west towards Patras. We’d been there earlier a couple of times earlier in the summer and were looking forward to returning to its peaceful harbour.

On leaving, the wind was too light to sail but once out into open water the wind picked up enough to let us sail. It was a real contrast to the high winds of a couple of days before, with no need to reef, just a gentle sail at about 5 knots that took us nicely into Trizonia for mid afternoon. There was space for us to go alongside the main breakwater and we had a gentle evening playing scrabble on the new set Jonno had brought out for us.

Trizonia is such a gentle place we decided to make our fresh food stretch another day and didn’t leave until the Sunday morning, heading down to Messolonghi in almost flat calm conditions. It’s quite a long hop – about 40 miles – but the tedium of a long trip on the motor was broken by the transit of the Rion Bridge. This time, because we didn’t have anyone with us, we had to bluff our way through with our not terribly good VHF radio.

Looking across the fishing harbour towards Messolonghi marina

Messolonghi is where we are spending the winter and we decided to get here now for a whole heap of reasons, not least of which was the pretty appalling weather forecast for the next few days – force 8 to 9 winds, lots of rain, thunder etc; hence my earlier comments about autumn’s arrival. We got tucked in here and then started to work through some of the more important jobs, like getting the VHF to work at a range of more than a mile or two….. Not to mention doing several loads of laundry and some shopping at a decent supermarket and – well, you can imagine the list for yourself. Messolonghi is a reasonably sized town with a couple of big supermarkets, lots of interesting little shops and a Lidl (vital for the supply of cheap beer, cheap spirits, cheap well, you know, cheap generally!)

Autumn tasks include scrubbing the dinghy clean - reasonably satisfying when you've allowed to get quite so extraordinarily filthy!

Whilst in Galaxidi, we’d tried to use the immersion heater to make hot water. We failed to make hot water but we did succeed in knocking out most of the electricity supply to the rest of the quay….. Once in Messolonghi, I was therefore consigned to the port cabin to investigate the problem and resolve it. It rapidly became apparent that what was required was a complete new calorifier, so I duly informed Julia in her position as controller of the purse strings and we then looked at the cost of the things in UK. This did not make comfortable reading. Ah well. That’s what the operational reserve is for isn’t it?

In the meantime, we’d found out about bus travel to Igoumenitsa from where the ferries to Corfu depart. The buses stop just outside town, they are every 2 or 3 hours and you need to be there early, as they run on GMT (Greek Maybe Time – usually late!) and apparently defy the trend and tend to arrive early.

So, last Wednesday, we got the office to call us a taxi and made out way to the bus stop for the 1030 bus. We got to the stop at about 1005 and the bus promptly appeared and picked us up! It took about 3 hours to the ferry port, where we just had time for lunch before the ferry left for Corfu. It felt very strange arriving back on the island on a ferry, not on Rampage. Quite nice actually, not having to dodge the traffic round the port entrance!

Our friends Bern and Alan had lent us their boat ‘Sanuk’, as they had had to return unexpectedly to UK for family reasons. However, we met up with other friends from last winter including that true stalwart, Glynis, who had been looking after the car for us. She’d brought it down to the bar where she works for us to collect and we had a wonderful time catching up on the gossip that afternoon.

We stayed until Saturday morning, having a meal out with Claudio and Corinne on Friday evening and meeting up with various others in the meantime. It did feel a bit strange not to be staying the winter there but I think Messolonghi will work out better in the long run.

On Saturday, with nasty weather in the offing, we caught the early ferry out of Corfu and set off to join Andy and Susan in Vlikho. We’d arranged to meet them there along with John and Aiveen, who were about to head back to UK. On the way, we stopped in Lefkas and bought ourselves a brand new calorifier. I’d idly looked at new ones during the summer and remembered that one of the shops there actually stocked a few of the things. In the event, it wasn’t much more expensive than in UK (mainly accounted for by the higher VAT here in Greece) so we went ahead and bought one having checked that it would fit into the space available on board… (see later!).

Supper at Vlikho Yacht Club with Andy and Susan, John and Aiveen

We had a great time together that evening at the Vlikho Yacht Club, a bar/gardinage service/yachty meeting place that serves UK dishes as well as Greek standards. I really enjoyed a fry up for supper whilst J had steak and ale pie that might have been served in a UK pub! Made a change from all the Greek food we’ve been eating.

On Sunday we drove back through the countryside to Messolonghi arriving back mid afternoon after having had lunch about half way home. We also paused en route to visit the waterfalls just outside Nidri. We’d seen the signs for them when we were there earlier in the summer but not got around to visiting them. There was a pause in the rain and the sun broke through as we made our way along the rather muddy path to the falls which were well worth the small detour and the ½ mile or so walk from the car. Rampage was none the worse for the torrential rain that had fallen over the previous 3 days; yet more arrived that evening. The temperature was well down – about 18c – and it had begun to feel a bit like UK….. Not in the plan at all.

J at Nidri Falls (please note the super-cool sunnies, courtesy of our lovely daughter-in-law, Lucy!)

The next morning, our peace was broken by someone summoning us to a barbeque which had been postponed from the night before. We said that we knew nothing about it but Lesley told us that it was open to anyone to attend just be there at about 4pm with something to cook and a dish to share.

D confined to the port cabin until the new calorifier has been installed!

With that to look forward to, I was returned to the port cabin and told not to re-emerge until I had installed the new calorifier. So, I turned the water pump off, undid all the connections to the old one and ripped it out and then tried to fit the new one into the space available…… The trouble was I’d measured the gap not the entrance to the gap….. The thing was about ¼ inch too wide to fit through the hole, so I then had to spend a happy hour or so with a Dremel and cutting discs trimming enough away so that I could get the thing through the hole! The mess was indescribable with fine dust everywhere but the new calorifier fitted through the hole and the rest, as they say, was easy. I even went to Lidl and bought a 7 day timer, so the thing comes on for ½ an hour in the morning and again in the evening. Luxury is hot water on tap; frankly I hadn’t missed it until we had it, if you follow my thoughts. The engine heats the water while it’s running and as we ran the engine for at least an hour a day, we always had hot water through the cruising season. Now we’re in civilization and on shore power, we don’t run the engine, so no hot water until the new thing was fitted – that was complicated wasn’t it?

And it fits! Well, with a bit of persuasion!

The barbeque was fun; apparently it is a weekly event aimed at dragging folk out of their boats (normally on a Sunday afternoon) and provides an opportunity to meet people and chat about boats and things…… After the sun went down, it got distinctly chilly, so we retreated on board Rampage and watched TV for a couple of hours before bed.

The next evening, we went into town with two other couples, heading for what is known as the ‘table cloth’ restaurant (it is apparently the only place in town with real fabric table cloths). We had a very nice meal there, a little different from the normal Greek stuff, and at a reasonable price.

Wednesday was something of a consolidation day, with lots of little jobs being done – J was scrubbing the cockpit cushions to remove a season’s grime – and I took the opportunity to make a start on this blog. That evening we headed over to the bar in the marina where a weekly guitar session is held and anyone who feels inclined can come along to join in with singing the chorus of familiar ballards or merely to heckle and jeer. It was great fun and after just a week in Messolonghi we seem to have done more socialising than throughout last winter in Corfu.

Traditional fishing boats on the salt marshes at Messolonghi

Summer returned on Wednesday when we had three days of hot sunshine and had to dig out our shorts again. J took herself off to the beach yesterday, cycling down a long causeway across the salt marshes. Then last night autumn returned with a vengeance – torrential rain and gale force winds. We dashed out this morning to resupply the larder and have now returned to batten down the hatches and stay snug and dry inside. We have another week of peace to get a few more jobs out of the way before Maggie arrives on 23 October to stay with us for just on a week. I intend to get this up on the site today, so must now trawl through the camera memory cards and see what pictures I can find to illustrate the past week or so.

Another view across the salt marshes from the causeway, this time looking northeast to the mountains.