On solid ground?

We are now parked in Cleopatra Marina. The lift out was seamless and all went well.

As`M appeared through the hatch this morning the Austrian chap on the starboard side of us said ' Good Morning. Did the earth move for you last night?'
 She looked somewhat lost for words. It became a little easier when he added .. ' the earthquake ja?'.

Needless to say that we knew nothing about it, but apparently it was a fairly substantial one at 6.8 on the Richter scale and occurred only a little further south near Zakinthos. Apparently it was quite dramatic with several strong aftershocks but we were unaware. Things seem to move spontaneously when you have been afloat for a while. We seemed to be the only ones who had not woken up and fretted about it, but fortunately there seemed to be no repercussions here.

Dominos?

With many millions of pounds worth of kit propped up on wooden blocks and various bits of gantry, it is pretty amazing that nothing fell over. Hats off to the Marina staff. I have sent Mark and Chrisy a photo of Blue Magic to show she survived.

We have had a busy time getting essential maintenance done and sorting out a few issues. We really have been working hard dawn to dusk, having to remind each other to stop to drink. Fortunately the weather is a bit cooler now as otherwise it would be impossibly hard.
I thought we had left a bit too much time for de-commissioning, but in the end the 5 days will have been just about right.

Rat Puzzle

Remember the Flash cleaning powder white tornado ads from the 60's? Well that has been M. Every bit of warp, fender and canvas has been soaked, and scrubbed to within an inch of its life. Tubeworm in the bow thruster housing-  -gone! Dinghy bottom scrubbed raw! Cushion covers ripped off and thrust in the washing machine. She has devised a cunning device to stop rats climbing up the anchor chain. We will see which is the more intelligent species.
 Since she discovered that one of the washing machines takes 2 Euros and the others take 5 Euros, she has adopted the 2 Euro machine as her own. She covets it carefully and I think she has been conversing with it in preference to me. She also reports lots of good chat going on in the steamie.
Meanwhile the things I have been doing are a bit more of the spannering variety. I finally got the solar panel delivered (6 weeks late), fitted and pushing nice little amps into the batteries. The importance of this is it will keep the batteries topped up over the next 6 months and hopefully extend their lifespan. There have been a few issues like being supplied with a duff connector but having cursed a lot and tested every wire's integrity, I finally tracked down the culprit and killed it.
The only major catastrophe was in taking down the sails. In every boat I have had, or had anything to do with, the cars that run up the mast track are removed to take the main sail down. Balancing on mast steps, I took out the removable section of mast track to do this, slid the first car up, which is the big one holding the sail head board, out through the hole.
It took me a little while to work out why there were peppercorns cascading over the sail, the deck and over the side. They were in fact plastic ball bearings! The device used by Beneteau had a system of unretained ball bearings and on removing the car from the track 92 of the little perishers were released to the wild - and off they went.
They have now replaced this system (as a daft idea) and they are no longer available.
Following the usual period of despair when something like this occurs, I did some research and the ball bearings (Torlon 6.4mm) are available at absurd cost. Loading them is going to be fun, but I have a plan.
Taking the sails down was a bit of a marathon. Particularly the Genoa.. it is huge. We could only just about carry it when we got it folded and tied up. It took about an hour to get it down the gangway and into the aft cabin. There was some bleeding on the way but cursing always helps.

Rudder bushing repair instructions in Franglais

There has been a significant issue with the rudder which is universal with this boat and pretty much every other Beneteau of this era. Basically the bond between the lower brass bush and the tube that houses the rudder stock breaks down. Rotation then occurs between the bush and the GRP tube rather than the bush and its counterpart on the rudder stock.
This allows excessive movement and while it was not causing a sailing problem as such, it was only going to get worse until it did, and then it would be more difficult to sort.
 I managed to get the Beneteau approved fix online so off I went with some gusto to address the monster.
I had to drop the rudder after disconnecting it from the steering mechanism and removing it's retaining pin. The brass bushing then has to be tightened up and reglued back into its seat in the tube and the rudder replaced.
It all went well but I needed help and was very grateful to my next door neighbour Rob for his excellent assistance. It was however not something I would chose to do again. Spannering is hard enough but doing it inside the cockpit locker bent double with limited access and loads of sharp bits - I think next time I will pay a small young man to do it
Rob has a Halberg Rassey 42, a very nice boat. He and his little dog Jack are doing boat work "until it gets done". He has a lot on and is planning to strip the hull and re-epoxy it. Good luck to him with a big job. Rob is however a very experienced and accomplished sailor and has been a great source of info and advice when various bits of boat work have tested my skill set.

J is the bushing, arrow represents finger!

Another job on the list was to re-insert the bushing that fell out the genoa furler. Sounded simple but like everything has had its complications.I released the furling aluminium foil from the drum at the base and hoisted it on a halyard so the bushing could be re-inserted from below. It was a really tight fit and I could not get enough access to exert the required pressure.
So I asked M to lower the foil with the halyard and use it's considerable weight, judiciously placed, to assist inserting the plastic bush inside the foil. I would put a couple of spanners in the right place to force the bushing in.
Bang - it came down a bit quick but fortunately the bushing went straight in the right spot -  along with a bit of finger. The air was blue but I got a plaster and a cup of tea.
So lines are all removed, engine flushed with fresh water and anti-freeze, engine oil changed, out-board serviced and dinghy covered with tarpaulin and lashed down.

We still have the interior, decks and hull to do but the major tasks are complete.
There are packs of dogs roaming about the Marina. Some of them are large and mean looking. I think some belong to the staff and are vaguely part of the security setup however there are also some feral types. Unfortunately Jack next door, who is a small Jack Russell, was very badly attacked. He suffered multiple bites and apparently was picked up by the neck and  badly shaken. He had several big wounds on his abdomen and some around his neck. Poor wee soul... he looked terrified and obviously in pain.
 Rob whisked him off to the vet in Lefkas who seemed to be very good. However I was very concerned he might not survive. He did not eat or drink for about 48 hours and looked pretty grim. We all worried about him and Rob had to administer water via syringe and various wily schemes to get antibiotics aboard. However in the last 24 hours he seems to have rallied and is up and about, though gingerly, and has eaten a little and drunk spontaneously. So hopefully he will be OK. He's still very wary and scared looking, but allowed a gently cuddle from M with almost a tail wag.

There are thousands of boats, literally, in this marina hard standing. It is Nirvana for some sad gits like me who like looking at boats, in all their shapes and sizes. Of particular interest are boat names. From a huge 50ft powerboat Gin palace called Kahuna, to home counties husband and wife owners with Amanda Jane and really good names like Giggles.

Skylax parked at Cleopatra

A couple of rows away from us I spotted a blue hulled boat called Skylax. I knew this as the name of Rod Heikell's boat so I did a bit of research and worked out that this is indeed his Warwick 46 yacht, built in Taiwan.
 Everyone who has sailed in the Med, whether on flotilla or or by themselves know of Rod Heikell. He has written the pilot books for then entire Med over the last 35 years, and very good they are. More than that he has been involved in charting the area and is accredited in every Imray chart.
 He is also a hugely followed sailing blogger and has sailed round most of the world's sailing areas. He gives very useful and graphic accounts of everywhere he has been, warts and all, the pleasures of the sailing and navigational difficulties.
Having looked up his boat I came across some recent pictures of him and realised that he was in the local restaurant with us the last two nights. Probably just as well we did not know his celebrity.

We are going home via the bus to Athens then courtesy of Ryanair (£1 Billion profits declared), providing they are not on strike over pilot's pay. So that is the sailing over for this year, we will be sorry to leave Summertime. Unless something dramatic occurs this will be the last blog for this trip but I hope to continue blogging when we return next April/May time. As yet we do not have a clear plan as to where we go next, but it will be South and East or West.  I will send round a reminder by email to those on my list. Hope you have enjoyed the blog, it has been great fun doing it and will serve as a reminder to us as to what we did, and of some of the characters that we have met, if no other purpose has been served.