A 'different' kind of a day!

Tuesday the 10th July 2014 at 11:15 we started the engines and weighed anchor. The bolshie harbour master on arrival must have taken away some level of concentration when we lined up exactly as he wanted for our reverse to shore. We were a long way out when I gave the command to drop the anchor... I mean like 300 meters out! This is no big deal until it comes to distributing all that chain when bringing it back in. "Jack!"

Sally and Stina, standing out front, were in fits of laughter by the time the anchor finally appeared and Jack nearly collapsed.

11:40: raised the main and the spinnaker in a 15 Knot NW
12:00: dropped the sails as the wind died and we motored
14:30: raised the spinnaker in a 15-20 knot NW
14:53: spinnaker halyard shackle snapped with a very loud bang and the spinnaker went straight over the       side. Reeled it back on board flapping like a large tuna and wrestled it into the front seating recess.
14:05: raised the headsail
15:15: wind died and we motored on.

Kiparissia - Looking nice on the way in

16:15: med moored in 'creepy town' Kiparissia!

Nice big harbour. One loan yacht 'the Winsome' med moored. A person standing on the quay looking to give us a hand with the lines. All good so far, but a really creepy feeling came over us all...

The person turned out to be a filthy looking Tunisian with an american accent. Sally had got his life story before we had even moored. Homeless now, lives on the street, lived in America but got done for drugs, can you spare a few coins... you get the picture.

I gave him 5 Euro and dismissed him but we were closely followed by an tiny Italian boat which moored between Winsome and ourselves and they got the same treatment. Except according to the Tunisian the captain's wife "was very beautiful".... careeepy!

Then the beat up cars started to arrive. Down the wharf they came, slowly past the moored boats. Nowhere to go but the end of the wharf, turn around and slowly back again.... careeepy!

Having got rid of the Tunisian, nothing for it but for Jack and I to get on the bikes and see if we could improve the outlook as the girls and the kids were understandably not happy to go ashore. Not far from where we were an hotel with swimming pool with full view of the boat!

Bikes properly secured, moral fully restored. Kids happy, wife happy... Me happy.

We really did not want to be away from the boat too long and decided, thankfully, to cook and eat on board that evening.

Having just finished our meal, the captain of Winsome came over to ask if we'd seen any movement on his boat. It was dusk and we hadn't. Well someone had climbed through an open hatch and stolen two e'Readers and a number of other items..

We simply untied and drifted out into the middle of the harbour. They'd have to come by boat to get to us.

This is a town that looked on arrival to have been badly hit by the recession. This is a story that will ripple through the yachting community... I don't think it has anything to do with any recession Mr Mayor.

Repairing the spinnaker halyard, this is the Winsome from the top of our mast the following morning. Power and water supplied, this wharf should be packed with boats.

Needless to say, we were all gone by 9:30am