Kassiopi - take two

After having our fill in Corfu town and taking full advantage of being plugged into town power and water, we scrubbed down the decks, polished the stainless steel, washed all he outside cushions, (of which there are about 3 dozen, no joke), and fired her up to depart at 12:45 on the 22nd May bound once more for Kassiopi on the north east tip of Corfu island... Just in case you forgot where it was.
Nil wind all the way, the sea as smooth as, we motored for two hours and entered the now familiar Kassiopi harbour...
Familiar because we had eased into this tiny harbour before, but also because, thanks to some pretty selfish mooring and entirely unhelpful yachties, the place was  chokka block. We once again pirouetted and headed back out to... well, we really didn't have a plan B. We'd arrived early, fully expecting some space.... Won't do that again. Didn't like Kassiopi anyway!
We decided to head south from whence we had come, had the headsail up in a nice 10-15 knot northerly while Sally scoured Rod Heikells's 'Greek Water Pilot' book (have I mentioned that this is an essential bit of Kit for any cruising boaty in Greece. There is one for every part of the Med)
Just south of Ormos Stephanos, our bolt hole on the way to Corfu town a few days prior was a small bay called Kallami that looked interesting.
After poking our nose into this delightful little bay affording perfect protection from the prevailing winds we dropped anchor at mid afternoon, lowered the dingy and went ashore.
We both agree that Kalami was the best place we had stopped at yet. Crystal clear water, pebbly beach lined with tavernas. Behind the tavernas runs a narrow street with little bars and amazingly well stocked super markets an very friendly helpful locals.
There were only ever up to four yachts in the bay at one time, swapping daily with new arrivals making that part nice and interesting too.
We all finally managed to get into out swimmers and take to the water. The kids went nuts. No bikes, although I did discover a small blow up dingy in the 'captains toilet' read storeroom, but swimming and snorkeling and wandering the shore line for hours. Returning with stories of their
adventures and what they'd found and what we really must come and see right now!
Ah, kids, can't you see Mummy is having a foot massage and daddy has finally found a comfortable shady spot in a taverna overlooking the bay with great wifi and a half litre of dry, cold rose where he can finally start this freakin blog! Yep. Kalami is where I got to turn the blog that I said I'd do, never really believing I would do it, into reality.... and I do hope you're enjoying it because I now know I have created a monster!

The dingy I discovered in the Captains bathroom.

Woooohoooo  swimtime at last!

Summer Amy at anchor in Kalami Bay

Dinner time Ashore it is gone 9:00pm

Will's 9th Birthday with some ring in's. 2nd party but this time
on his actual birthday

Our time in Corfu Town

Corfu is an absolute mecca for history buffs and trinket buying tourists. This is not for me, or Sal for that matter and certainly not for the kids. Getting under the skin of a place is what we like to do and that would be difficult in a place like this in the few days we planned to stay. But don’t be put off. 

Corfu is beautiful with well-preserved timeless buildings, cobbled streets and piazzas. Cafés, bars and tavernas abound and Corfu central is small enough to cover in a couple of days. 

In order to make it at least tolerable for the kids, we allowed them to use their bikes! Amazing how well they are riding. Picture narrow, sometimes steep cobbled streets full of ambling tourists and street vendors. They just seemed to wind their way through it all without really annoying anyone. We did get asked not to allow them to ride among the tables at this outdoor restaurant.

One thing I have found in Greece is you just have to get used to a few things…

-    Never put toilet paper down the toilet. It goes in the bin next to the toilet… 

      After unblocking twice on the boat, this now applies to the boat too and the       weird thing is that it doesn’t smell. Seriously!

-    Remember, everything opens between 9:30 and 10:00am. Closes at 2:00 (except tavernas and bars. Thank St Stephanos or whoever you want to thank for that one) then reopens at 6:00 and we rarely eat dinner before 10:00pm. 

    So breakfast at 10:00am, lunch with house wine at 2:00ish and dinner at 10:30pm with copious amounts of house wine, or bottled if we feel we achieved something special, like moored successfully without making dicks of ourselves that day.

-     Everybody, but everybody smokes! tourists included, everywhere and anywhere. We wake in the morning and it feels as if we have been smoking. Australia is at least 30 years ahead on this one.

-     Just when you really need something important there is either a strike or a public holiday and everything is closed “didn’t you know?”

One such important shopping day. Important because madam wants new mirrors. The mirrors in the bathrooms are corroded around the edges and I have to agree, they look dated compared to the rest of this immaculate ship. So Will and I take a 6km ride to a place we were directed to the previous day. The director naturally failed to tell us of the public holiday...

-    Nearly all the Greek people I have dealt with, be it to get things done on the boat, ordering food or where our kids are concerned, have been so friendly, hospitable and above all, honest. I don't know why I would have thought otherwise, but probably because the only place I've been rolled in my many years of travel has been Athens... Twice!

-    In Greece, there are Greek restaurants…    that’s it!

    This is what Will and I encountered on or way home. A full on Band Off! there would have been 10 such ooompapa bands marching around the cobbled streets immaculately dressed in 30 degrees.. 

This is the large Piazza surrounding a cricket pitch just south of our mooring.

Each band was closely followed by these ladies. Do you think we could gain any insight into what was actually happening? Only that it was Saint Somebody or Other Day..

Ladies in traditional dress - Duh Greg! Well that's all I can tell you ok?

By the way, we did discover where the expression 'OK' comes from. It is an acronym of Ola Kala which in Greek means everything is alright.

Some shots from inside the Fort area. Mainly stuff built by the British during a brief period in the 1830's when Corfu was under British administration. Na, didn't know that either...

Lighthouse it the apex of the Fort

Built by the British as a place for the troops to pray. Now a Greek
Authodox church

British Army Barracks

Corfu Town

I woke early. One of those intuitions I was told one develops out of paranoia. It comes with the subtlest of changes in the boats movement and once you wake, there is no point in lying there hoping it will go away and everything will be just fine. The paranoia will just build so nothing for it but to get up and see what it was.
There had been a change in the direction of the air flow. It could hardly be called wind but it was just enough to move all the anchored boats towards their anchors... and each other!
I woke Sal after considering what would be more consequential. Wrath or boating disaster.?
We weighed anchor and motored on a beautiful morning, south to Mandraki harbour.
This is officially the Corfu Yacht Club. It is situated at the foot of a huge 17th century Phoenician fort. Power, water, strong wifi and showers! Woooohoooo! Amazing how much we take these things for granted.
We picked out a nice spot, noted that there was not enough room to anchor and that there were slime lines.. Just as we positioned to reverse onto the wall the harbour master came out and directed us across the harbour to the far wall. We pirouetted and began reversing to that wall. He had to walk all the way around so keeping the boat positioned in the conditions was a new experience.
Once he reached the point he wanted us to moor we began reversing. Just as we were almost in place he noticed a fixed chain stretching out into our way so out we went, slight adjustment and back in again. "Hold on, big rock in the way". Back out again, slight adjustment and back in again. This time we were sorted, he reached down and picked up the slime line for Sally to reach for with the boat hook and in so doing, he pulled the line straight into the revolving starboard prop!
Ok.... Another new experience. Sal threw him a line to hold us roughly in place while yours truly put the engines in idle, pulled on some skins, goggles, snorkel and knife in hand and plunged into the still wintery waters of the Ionian Sea.
Fortunately there was no need to cut. The line had wrapped neatly and loosely enough for me to
simply unwind it and I found that the water really wasn't at bad at all.
We finely got properly settled, bikes down, kids off and once I got to know the 'harbour master' he turned out to be his very inexperienced assistant who's role it was to spare the actual harbour master from getting to work until 3:00 in the afternoon.
Due to surges caused by frequent passing ferries we had to tie up allowing a good distance from the wall. A very long, very skinny, very bouncy plank was provided for us to reach the wall from our boat. Mummy Sal did not appreciate this, much to the mirth of two little munchkins.
To reach Corfu Town itself, we got to walk up into the fort, through the western gates, over the moat and into the very heart of old Corfu town. Very cool.

The Fort with the tiny harbour/yacht club at its base.

This shot taken from a nice restaurant across the water.

The harbour taken from the Fort

Close up of the Summer Amy. Note the water either side

of the wall. We had to allow a good distance from the wall

to avoid the surges from pushing us onto the wall. 

Zoom in a check out said long plank.

Headed for Corfu

On the 18th May we left Gaios which had come to feel pretty homely and where the local shopkeepers had come to know Sal by name. A bit like Balmain.
We were headed for Kassiopi on the North East tip of Corfu. It looked really good and read very nicely in the Pilot Guide. Naturally we were hoping for the power and water fairy so we could plumb everything in and re humanise.
We motored in nil wind until a nice 10-15knot breeze came upon to our port beam (left middle) and up went the sails. After a while I suggested to Sal that we try the spinnaker expecting her to be a little anxious about it. "You're the captain" she said, very happy to have a go and so, way before I thought we'd ever do it, up went the spinnaker. Hey! This is real sailing and we seem to be getting the hang of it!
Thirty minutes later it all died so down it all came and we motored once again for the rest of the way. I should point out that these motors are whisper quiet and at 2000 rpm they push the boat along at a steady 8 knots. No keel to slow us down.
At around 6:00pm we arrived to find Kassiopi chukka block with boats. Hmmm so we move to plan B. "Hey Sal, what was plan B again?"
Well I needed good comms to do some work with the office and they weren't that hot on Paxos and they didn't look any better around Kassiopi so we backtracked with the aim of making the yacht club in Corfu town itself. With a couple of hours of daylight and about that in sailing time, it all looked a little dodgy so Sal scanned the Pilot Guide for alternatives.
A tiny little inlet called Ormus Stephanos came into view so we decided to take a look. Perfect! Weedy bottom, meaning 4 goes at anchoring as weeds tend to stop any anchor from penetrating, meaning heaps of chain distribution work for Sal.
We finally got it to bite and anchored among a few other boats in just serene surroundings. Gentle breeze, smooth water, balmy evening, sun setting.
Once set, we dropped the dingy for the first time and motored in to the welcoming arms of Nikos for a really good feed at his taverna. In Stephanos, you you tie up on their dock, you eat at their restaurant...

Ormus Stephanos - 7:00am 19th May

Gaios and Paxos

It has become our habit, well more because we can't handle the winging, as soon as we are tied on and set to get the bicycles off the boat. The kids cannot wait to explore their new world having forgotten that they had complained like hell about leaving the last.
Gaios was no exception particularly because we were right there in the promenade. Off they went and after about 30 minutes they returned and in a nice clear voice Will exclaimed that he'd found a great Bar! This was our first real endorsement for Home Schooling.....
On arrival we had moored right next to a shiny new power and water dispenser. These are the gems one looks for through binoculars when coming into any port. They mean unlimited electricity, ie; coffee machine, toaster, washing machine, ice maker, hair dryer, hot water and of course, unlimited hot water. You do usually have to pay for this, but it is always worth it.
I pulled out the power cable and plugged in and tested the tap whilst doing so. Mwa mwaaaa. No water. I looked up the street and noticed a guy coming along covering each of these units we a black plastic bag. When he got to me he said "this one no workin, ony that one there" (thick Greek accent). That one there turned out to be about 5 metres further than my cable would stretch! Now comes the real kicker... Two boats had arrived just after us and med moored. I even helped them with their lines. We decided that whilst there was appropriate space, we'd move closer to said dispenser. We untied, Sal not happy as she did her favourite chain distribution job and as we get near our anchor we hear very loud protestations from the shore... " you are lifting our anchor, we have crossed your chain, stop, stop" and so, to remain friends with our new neighbours we simply reversed back to our original position. Now Sal was really happy!
Ah well, we'd only be there three days so we could generate adequate electricity for the essentials... Toilets, water pump, lights, fridge. That's it.... And we'd have to go sparingly on the water.... Pommie showers!
Then the bad weather set in. So three days stretched into a week but we did manage to have water
delivered, we did hire a car and once we got the hang of slumming it, we did really enjoy Paxos.

Here are some shots highlighting the highlights..

1 - Sal giving it her all at Lakka Bay. A nice place to anchor and dingy ashore. We'll be doing this on our way south after Corfu.
2 - The view from the Sunset Bar on the North East of the island
3 - Ben's Bar...   said with deep affection. It had rained all the way here and we'd been cold for days, but as we arrived the sun came out and stayed out the whole day. That is Sal Facebooking her friends about it.. Obligatory lunch time half litre of 'house' dry rose... Cheap as chips.
4 - Another perspective of Ben's Bar
5 - Will's pre birthday, birthday party with a bunch of newly made local Greek mates. Language barrier? What language barrier?
6 - The backstreets of Lakka
7 - The backstreets of Gaios. I wish I'd taken more, these places are jaw dropping

Actually leaving Levkas

Monday morning arrived and you guessed it, nothing from the insurers. To go north out of Levkas there is a road bridge that opens on the hour and it lets whatever boating traffic through and then it closes. You're not right there, you wait another hour. If we could not get through by the 12:00 opening it would have been too late for our planned trip and we would have to wait until Tuesday and you know what it's like when you really want to go.

I called the insurers ($1.00 a minute) and got straight onto somebody who was across the Greek law changes, they amended the document while we spoke, emailed a copy to me, faxed a copy to the port Authorities in Levkas and I was on their doorstep at 9:00 sharp. We had anticipated a 3 hour rigmarole... well between the Port Authorities and the Custums doods I had my Transit Log and was back on the boat before 10:00!

The Transit Log is the 'essential' document which is like an internal Greek passport for the boat. Every time you arrive at a port you take it to the port police and they check it all and stamp it to show you have in fact transitted their port.... I have yet to see, meet, encounter in any way the port authorities in any of the ports we have arrived at? So much for all the horror stories I read before we started this voyage... Who knows, it may all kick in when the season kicks in. That'll be in June.

Sal had a few things t do like collect her bike from the bike shop as it needed 
some 'new bike' tightening up. Take Summer's to the bike shop for a new tube, do some grocery shopping but by 11:30 we fired up, untied and were away. Destination Gaios on Paxos Island on a perfect South easterly blowing 10-15 knots.

We got through the bridge at 12:00 out into open water and up went the sails. It is always a great feeling when you shut down the motors and all you can hear is the swish as the two hulls cut through the water and Sal brewing a nice cuppa tea!

Ten minutes of that and the wind just died. Down came the sails, on with the 
motors for a still not unpleasant 5 hour run concluding in a perfect Med Mooring 
right in the centre of Gaios on what is the beautiful island of Paxos.

I am unable to caption these photo's on this iPad. So...

Shot 1 - is William the street urchin having his breakfast
Shot 2 - med moored in Gaios to an centre 
Shot 3 - flower arrangement by Summer Amy





 

Attempting to finally leave Levkas legally

We downed our lunch and shot straight over to the Port Authorities with all the relevant paperwork. One look at our insurance document and the tongue clicking began…. “The Greek laws have changed two weeks ago and you do not have enough third party liability cover….” Huh!?

“You have to contact your insurer and ask them to change it.”

“It’s Friday night where my insurer resides and then it’s the weekend and we’ve waited 5 weeks for this and we wanted to sail tomorrow and, and, and….” Buggar!

Nothing for it but to hire a car for the weekend and go and see the rest of Levkas Island before we left it for good. I emailed the insurers asking them to amend the documents by Monday morning their time, email me a copy and fax a copy to the Levkas Port Authorities… Somehow I didn’t fancy our chances, but if we didn’t get out of there by Monday afternoon, the winds were going to turn against us and Corfu would have to wait.

Saturday came and we drove down the spectacular west coast of Levkas. Steep and mountainous dropping into the bluest of blue waters. Twisty windy roads leading down to the coves and beaches with sheer drops of hundreds of feet and nothing to stop you from going over.

One of the many beaches along the West Coast of Levkas

From the edge of the road!

These tow are having a ball...

Heading around one such bend in the road, a scooter rider simply not looking where he was going headed directly for us. We screeched to a stop when he finally noticed us and swung wildly to avoid collision clipping our left front bumper and coming to a stop himself. He was ok but the damage to the car cost us E500.00. That’s about $800. Not happy Jan.

We came across these guys on the way home. Mark our 18yo son has just got his paragliding license so I though he might be interested.

A very dodgy take off because the wind
rotors over that lip sending the wing in all
directions when trying to inflate it 

They got away none-the-less. Unreal place to fly

The Rego Certificate

On Friday the 9^th May, Sally and Summer went on their daily ‘what can we buy today’ tours and to try the post office again on the very outside chance that the Boat Registration Certificate had arrived. We planned to meet at 1:30 for lunch at a yet untried seafood restaurant. 

I say yet untried because having spent a month or more in Levkas, we have tried them all, like 3 times! By the way, a really good meal for four with a half litre of white for me and half red for Sal always comes to between 40 and 50 Euro, so cooking is not high on our agenda. We met as planned and Sal announced that she had presents for everybody….

“Close your eyes” she said while placing something in front of me. “Now open them”… and there it was… The Registration Certificate! We cele-nebreated.

A very fancy looking piece of paper with embossed silver stamp,
the works! No wonder I had to wait for the original... the whole process
of naming, sending the papers to Canberra and them sending me
the certificate took just over five weeks!

Carol-Anne Joins us for first independent sail

My sister Carol-Anne and hubby Alan were joining us on the 30th, I was hoping our boat registration papers had arrived from Canberra by then so we could sail legally.... It took 11 days for the marking notes (change of name and home port etc) to get to Canberra from here!

Carol-Anne and Alan arrived on time at the Levkas bus station on Wednesday evening 30^th April. We fed the kids, put them in front of a DVD and took Carol-Anne and Alan to our favourite restaurant in Levkas after some cocktails nearby. More Greek food, lots of House wine, then another two litres on the house… and lots of laughs.

On the 1^st May we woke to variable but acceptable weather, readied the boat for our very first independent sail and motored once more out of the narrow, shallow Levkas channel. On a good breeze we raised the main, unfurled the headsail and made 5.5 knots as we sailed north toward the mainland, tacked south to Nidri and enjoyed a near perfect mooring on Christo’s wharf for 15Euro and night, power and water included.

Four nights in Nidri with Carol-Anne and Alan was a blast. We decided to stay put as it was the weekend and no point going back to Levkas, so we asked them if they were happy to cab it back. It is only 17Ks by road and it meant one more night for us all to be together. I had warned Sal and the kids that one of the sadder features of travel is you get to say goodbye a lot and so at 11:30 on the 4^th May, we had our first taste of it…

We sailed back to Levkas in the mid-afternoon of the 5^th, docked alongside at the Marina as we had paid up until the 11^th thanks to a quirk in their pricing. The next day, the cushion covers, sailbag, helm cover and mooring rope bags arrived, but alas, still no registration papers!

Before...

After.... For a change, the model is part of the deal.

School time kids!

On the 28^th April, the kids would have been going back to school, and so this was to be their first day of home schooling… 

Enthusiasm was a little on the low side, but commitment from Mum got it afloat. Sal had arrived with a ton of stuff from IGS designed to keep the kids on course. Combine this with Mathletics and other such literacy programs on the net plus reading at least a chapter a day to Dad and we are happy that they are probably getting more than they would at school. Not to mention, the new language, the food, the independence of being able to cycle into town, the sailing….

I was really concerned about the kids. How would they cope without friends? How would they entertain themselves while Sal and I got all this stuff done? 

Well, they are out of their skin. Once the schooling is out of the way, they’re off. 

Summer hardly knew how to ride a bike when we left Aus, we bought both her and Will a BMX and within a few days she was into it. We have had a few interesting traffic incidents, particularly related to the fact that they drive on the other side of the road here. Some bumps and scrapes… in fact they both look like they live barefoot in a quarry, but we now spend so much time with them compared with being at home and they seem to be so content. Long may it last and Sal needs to be wrapped here, she is doing an amazing job.

So the schooling started with one child, one on one with Mum whilst other child read to Dad. It has evolved. Mum has worked out that she can set one child up with a task and then move onto the other, effectively halving the time it takes and thus avoiding the inevitable and daily argument as to who goes first. Dad just has to find the reading time for each of them.

Mum looking every inch the part!

Summer, the enthusiastic student

William faking enthusiasm. 

Nesting for Sal

We repeated this process three times before returning a day later in Levkas. We are so very thankful for having Ken and Brian to show us how all of this stuff gets done, without them I have no idea how we would even contemplate our first voyage. Now, with some trepidation, we were actually looking forward to it. 

The Ionian Seas are the safest waters in the Med and I suspect we will be tootling around them for quite a while. The Aegean is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish thanks to the Meltimi winds.

In Levkas, we decided to avoid putting Sally through the heaving process again and so we docked alongside the Marina. The boys recommended I have the windlass, the outboard and the generator serviced so no choice but to be on the marina as one cannot anchor without a windlass. At least we had shore power and tap water….. and an ablution block about 500 meters away.

We enjoyed a last supper with Ken and Brian who we are both looking forward to catching up with sometime down the track. The following morning I drove them to the bus station and bid them a fond and very thankful farewell.

Now it was Sally’s time with the boat. I’m sure you ladies out there can relate to this… us guys not so much. The boat was adequately provisioned. Cutlery, crockery, linen etc, but for the girls, it all belongs to somebody else. I have to say that if it were me and the boys on this jaunt, we would not have changed a thing, but I also agreed with Sally, it just wasn’t us….. none of it and so it all went.

Days of shopping in Levkas, then a two hour drive to IKEA broke the back of it, or should I say the ‘bank’ of it. All that was needed now were the new cushion covers, matching cushions, a sail bag, new helm covers and mooring line bags and we were there, the boat was ours and we are ready to do this thing.

Distributing the anchor chain covered in shite!

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

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

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

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

Going up the mast

 We had discovered a problem with the wind instrument, which meant someone was going to have to go up the mast. Naturally, that meant me! I don’t mind heights and with an appropriate boson’s chair, electric winches and seasoned sailors, this wasn’t as daunting as it looks. I did end up having to go up twice as the main halyard looked warn when I got up there the first time… which was a little alarming as that was what was holding me up there. 

The second time we used the topping lift and the spinnaker halyard as a backup. I managed to cut and retie the main halyard and replaced the wind speed and direction doodad while I was up there.

At the top

From the top

Sally and the kids arrive in Athens

Sally, William and Summer arrived in Athens the following day. I drove the 5 hours trip to Athens to collect them and left Ken and Brian on the boat. We felt there was no need to pay 70 euros a night in the marina, a good walk from town, so the boys moved the boat onto the wall where mooring is free and literally right in the centre of the action. The marina was a little surprised to see the boat being moved without having been paid but I did get them sorted the following morning.

It was so good to see Sal and the kids, it felt like a lifetime since I’d seen them. They were not as bedraggled as I’d expected given the length of flight and the all the issues Sal had had to deal with while I was away. I haven’t mentioned that my wallet was missing when I arrived in Athens two weeks earlier  (a new phenomenon when flying these days is theft from the overhead lockers whist asleep) or the fact that all our original documents and passports were in the UK whilst applying for British passports right up until three days before Sal left Australia… I’ll just leave you to imagine how big a hassle all that would be and I won’t mention it again!

Thankfully Ken and Brian had agreed to hang around to show Sally her role in crewing the boat…

Sea trials

Phil Berman joined us in Nidri for the sea trials. By this point it hardly seemed necessary. He did, however bring more valuable experience to the table and confirmed that this boat was in great shape and at a good price which dulled the pain of that ‘price’ a little. As Capt. Will Miller once said “when you buy a catamaran, you get two boats for the price of two boats.”

Nidri Bay - Early morning

We sailed to a few places practicing mooring, getting the spinnaker up, tacking and jibing etc. Absolutely invaluable for me and no idea why the guys helped in this way. There was little if no incentive as I had paid for the boat?? just good guys is the only conclusion to be drawn here.

Lefkada Marina and town. Very good for anything yacht repair.

Phil spent a three nights with us, two in Nidri and one when we got back to Levkas where we did go alongside the marina for the night as Sally had booked 5 nights in the adjacent hotel.

Med Mooring

Then there is this unique thing called Med mooring. This is not easy and especially difficult when windy.

First you find a spot on the wall... The promenade in most towns. There is no tide, so no floating docks unless you’re prepared to pay heaps to dock in the town marina, which is usually miles from the action. 

You then line the boat up directly in front of where you intend to end up on the wall and a long way out, like 60 - 70 metres or a 7 to 1 scope… and drop the anchor. Now start reversing toward your goal whilst Sally lets out chain until there is enough chain out for the anchor to bite. Once it has bitten, and that is never a given, you continue reversing letting out chain as you go, the chain being your brakes as you line her up. 

You will pretty well always be trying to get her between two other boats, the owners of which are keenly observing your ability to avoid damaging their boat. 

Sally is now at the stern with rope in hand ready to either throw to a willing helper on shore, or to jump ashore and tie up. This means getting the boat close enough to the wall without actually hitting it... I then run down and tie up the other side, take a breath and adjust everything for a safe stay....

However, if there is not enough room to drop an anchor, there will be something called a 'slime line'…. Sally loves this one! 

This time you reverse, no anchor and therefore no brakes into the slot between other boats, very slowly. Hopefully there is somebody there to catch, attach and return a line. Sally then ties that off and boat hook in hand she picks up a line which is attached to the wall. 

The other end of this line is attached to a submerged, more robust anchored line somewhere out in the water. Her job is to grab this slime line with gloves on to avoid being cut to pieces by the attached barnacles and rushes forward hauling on the appropriately named ‘slime line’ until the anchor line appears from the depths. She now pulls with all she can muster and when it is a taught as she can manage, wraps it onto the bow cleat. All this while I'm trying to hold the boat in one place with an audience all harbouring differing wishes as to the outcome. We’re talking entertainment for the entire promenade…

This is us Med-Moored in Gaios on Paxos.
Something I didn't mention was that often you get crossed anchors.
Always fun when anybody wants to leave.
This happened to us here and we delayed departure for a day to
allow the offenders to go before we dislodged their anchor.