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.