Back to paradise

Back to paradise.

And it is hot as hell.  After a break over July and August Margaret and I have returned to Summertime.
It was good decision to forego the peak of the summer heat and tourist season as it sounded pretty bad here. It is way hotter now than when we left making working on the boat a sweaty trial of endurance .

The boat was in excellent condition on our return and seemed cleaner than when we left. This was confirmed by the fact that two coffee cups left out were completely bleached inside by the UV compared with the ones in the cupboard. We had covered the inflatable on the deck with it's unfolded storage bag to protect it. amazingly all the webbing straps on it had disintegrated in the sun and turned to dust when touched. Sunlight is powerful stuff.
The technical department at Cleopatra Marina had replaced the leaking through hull fitting in the rubbish locker for a very reasonable cost. However we had turned down their quotes for varnishing work and upholstery as excessive.

After a night on board on 'the hard', and an excellent meal at the local taverna, we were refloated with consummate skill by the Marineros in Cleopatra. A cheerful bunch they do this highly skilled task to perfection. It basically involves using a remote control to manipulate the boat into the gigantic lifting vehicle and then driving it about the yard before plonking it in the water, It is probably the job all little boys dream of.




We had a brief motor and sail around the bay in 20 knots before mooring up for the night at Preveza town quay. All straight forward, apart from the inevitable omniscient antipodean who has adopted the role of unofficial berthing master on the quay. He was a bit crestfallen when the approach and line delivery all went smoothly and consoled himself with advice about the position of a fender!

Preveza is a relatively unknown gem of a town. There are few tourists other than the yacht lot and I suspect the locals probably want to keep it that way. However it is a proper place with a busy night life on the waterfront with an endless "volta" parade of people walking back and fore. It also has comprehensive shopping available including chandlers, hardware shops and shops that sell everything. Thoroughly recommended as a stop to provision and repair.

I have fitted some new kit. Probably most pleasing is a remote control for the windlass. The official nautical versions cost a fair bit but I managed to get one marketed for remote control of the winch on the front of a Landrover for notalot. Four wires connected and it works perfectly. The beauty of this is that when mooring stern to a quay, you can then drop the anchor from the cockpit meaning that the second crew member can handle lines rather than be stuck at the bow pressing the down button.
I spent yesterday fitting the solar panel. This is mounted on the Bimini with bungee rope, the wiring passed through the hull, through the port aft locker and under the port aft berth. The wires are then passed through the base of the berth alongside the battery control switches to the controller and then back through the wooden berth base to the battery connectors - if you can follow that.
This has been quite a nice little project that has taken a fair bit of planning in terms of power, voltage and cable diameters and length. It is subject hotly debated in forums with no real clear answers as to the optimum configuration. If I was doing it again I would arm myself with an electric drill as the hand drill struggled a bit going through a few centimetres of GRP.
Amazingly it all works and I now have free green energy topping up my batteries during daylight hours. The question is whether this will be sufficient to allow the fridge to be run continuously or whether we will still need shore or engine power.
We had struck up conversation with a couple who had been on our flight from Gatwick and also had their boat berthed on the hard at Cleopatra marina. It turned out that Mark and Chrissy are very experienced long term cruisers who have been at it for 15 years or so. They have a very splendid Discovery 55 yacht which they have circumnavigated the world in and been pretty much everywhere there is to go.
http://blog.mailasail.com/bluemagic

 Preveza has a labyrinth of back streets that transmogrify into a continuum of bars and restaurants. A single establishment can be two houses on opposite sides of the street, and all the space in between covered by a canopy of vines sheltering the street tables below.
Last night we had a very pleasant evening out with Mark and Chrissy. We had a meal in one of these back street restaurants and Ouzo finishers on the waterfront, which was still going strong when we called it a day. When we got back it was after 2am. Have not done that for a long time.

M here:

So while Colin was doing his manly engineering, I went to source some random bits. I wanted to re upholster one of the cabin cushions and walked rather randomly for miles in the vain hope of finding upholstery nirvana. I wandered into an amazing emporium, selling anything from plastic flowers, potties and buckets to  garden chairs and asked the rather frazzled owner if he knew of anywhere that would make me a new cushion. He grabbed my arm and walked to the dusty and dark interior to proudly show me a mountain of foam. He told me to come back with the said cushion and he would do it straight away !
He was an enthusiastic and energetic chap who ran about in preparation, arranging garden tables to do the cutting on. I felt somewhat nervous. He set about it with great aplomb, with rivers of sweat pouring in rivulets, ordering me to hold bits, as his junior assistant, and he sawed awaywith most careful concentration . It was perfect. He erupted in a great beaming smile and we both had a little hurrah! celebration at the lovely result .

My next impossible task was to find a gasket for our rather splendid Fagor marine pressure cooker . This was one of our inherited bits of kit and I have spent months trying to find one to no avail. So flushed with my cushion success I poked around the streets a bit and found a rather ordinary looking electrical shop. I went in , more for a cool down out of the blazing sun, and stood in disbelief at a wall of pressure cooker gaskets ! This is the holy grail of pressure cooker gasketry. Yes said the very nice chap... bring in your cooker and I will find you one !
So I raced back to the boat with the cushion and ran back with the cooker, to the great entertainment of the locals . He sucked his teeth ... this was going to be a challenge. He flicked through catalogues and tried lots of various ones... No good he would have to order it and it would take a week to arrive from Patras ... but what a coincidence because we are going to Patras in our travels next week . Again a cheer at an unexpected success. He has given me an address and item number.. I gratefully said to him that I would remember his help every time I cooked a lovely meal in it . He gave me a slightly terrified look as I waved goodbye.

So a successful day all round. We now have the means to have a continually cold fridge, a comfy seat and delicious stews . What more will our guests need ?
Ah well.. I have noticed other people with ' windscoops' which channel any available draught into the cabin. A good bit of kit here. None to be had here even with my investigative skills, so I have improvised with a purple shower curtain... Not the classiest look it has to be said but seems to be doing the trick. I think I need to patent it .