Floating, sailing and family unites.

So Friday the 17^th June rolled around and the boat was super ready to go back into the water. The 200 tonne Travel lift surrounded us and without warning lifted us (us being me and the boat) off its stand point while I was sitting at the nav desk.... Oh!

Um, so we were not so super ready after all. One of the winter jobs I had requested was that the anchor chain be repainted. 

I get that you may be asking yourself why I’d want to paint the anchor chain…? Well, not the entire chain. There is over 100 meters of it and somehow, when anchoring you need to know how much chain has gone out. First 30 meters, one meter of green paint, next thirty, yellow paint and so on. The entire chain was still laid out on the ground where they had painted it!

I have never used the anchor winch without the engines running, in fact I was instructed at the outset that this was the only way and so I tried everything short of starting the engines. 

The boat must be in the water to start the engines because they use sea water as their coolant and simply won’t start without it. 

Eventually we called an electrician who figured out a way to short circuit the windlass motor and in a few minutes the anchor was in and snug.

Once again, without warning the boat became airborne and we were off! Occupational Health and Safety, pah… this is Greece! I wanted to take a few photos and collect my bicycle which was parked between the hulls so I climbed down the swim ladder and jumped whilst the whole show was on the road. Nobody batted an eyelid.

Nikos the sail maker suggested I did not take the boat directly to Lavrio Port on Friday because Saturday was the changeover day for 200 plus charter boats and the port would be packed. 

He would meet me on Sunday morning 8:00am sharp, we would depart the marina, hoist the new sails to ensure they existed and he would then crew for me to Lavrio Port and get me a prime spot on one his mate’s moorings. 

Sunday the 19^th, sunrise.

Some final preparations, morning constitutional and at 8:00am on the dot Nikos arrived and off we went. The new sails looked glorious and within an hour we were parked in said prime position in Lavrio Port, power, water, 25 Euros. Woopdidoo!!

Thank you Nikos for the sails, the advice and the help in getting us to Lavrio

There were a few little last minute jobs to do before Sal and the kids arrived. Her last trip to the airport cost 80Euro. Nikos to the rescue. "My cousin is a taxi driver, he will pick her up..." 50Euro. He had done the same for me on my arrival. What a legend!

A nanna nap while the kids got back to movie watching until the cool of the evening (30 degrees!) We wondered over to the main piazza to sample the local atmosphere. William took his soccer ball as always and within minutes had a four man game going while Mum and Dad watched on, cold Vodka tonic in hand.