Summertime Voyage

This post covers a couple of days. Having guests on board means that the oodles of endless time for futile activity like blog writing is compromised. Chris and Ebba have now departed on the rest of their journey back to the UK by boat and train, so I can return to futile activity. I have edited a screenshot with a very rough approximation of our route. I have been trying to keep an electronic log on an Android tablet, but occasionally it does not work and more commonly I forget. I have to confess to being a bit of a log keeping heretic on this type of sailing. I do keep accurate engine hours records and I leave the rest to the electronics with occasional entries, mostly to record changes in passage plan. I know this is not strictly RYA and (Saint) Tom Cunliffe (a well know sailing doyen and writer) would disapprove, but there we are. M releasing the long lines ashore We left Kalamos island (red line starting NE of the picture) around 10am and sailed on a fine breeze f...

So yesterday we finally departed Preveza. We motored out through the buoyed channel and turned S for Lefkas. There was quite  a big swell running from the previous days' winds that was heaping up on the shallow approaches but the wind had abated. M suddenly emerged from below with alarm on her face. "The forward heads is full of water", obviously concerned we were sinking (again). On furthehr exploration it was fresh water. The folding shower compartment had come adrift and turned on the shower tap, emptying the forward tank into the heads compartment! How many causes of quasi sinking can there be?  An uneventful passage through the Lefkas canal and on to our favourite anchorage at the SW end of Kalamos. Once through the canal a nice NW breeze filled in and we goose-winged all the rest of the trip. We anchored up with three shore lines in the bay. We were all set for a quiet night when the standard boat of naked German blokes arrived. M decided to investigate the new ...

We are still stuck in Preveza. The reason being illness. On briefing the new crew on the boat I pointed out that only the forward heads (inside the master cabin) has a holding tank therefore appropriate diligence needs to be applied. I was not really expecting anyone to need our heads as we would be at sea in the morning. I was therefore a bit surprised to find it in use in the early hours. The reason being that Ebba had been struck down with colossal gastroenteritis. It soon became clear she was seriously unwell, drifting in and out of consciousness from hypotension. Ebba has a medical condition, Addison's, that means her body cannot respond to acute stress. We administered her steroid injection but despite this she was very unwell. The team in the Port Office were splendid. They phoned an ambulance which arrived within 10 minutes (that would not happen in Swansea), and with kindness and efficiency whisked her off to the local hospital. Chris and Ebba recovered. Ebba will...

Last night I finally got some moral support from Chris that allowed me to win the argument in favour of Pizza, which was excellent. The evening was spoiled somewhat by being thoroughly trounced by Chris at table football. There was an exceptionally good table in our restaurant (Venezia Pizzeria) on the waterfornt at Preveza. My humiliation was attenuated by getting a swarm of local kids involved and getting them to take a pole each for a team game, so it was not clear who won.[That's my excuse anyway] This morning the forward water tank ran dry, a bit earlier than I had expected and I took the opportunity of demonstrating to the rest of the crew how to change over the tanks using the taps under the seats. Some time later I went to stow a some tins of beer in the bilge to find it deep with water. Oh no! we are sinking???  I recently read an account of an American couple sailing from Florida to Bermuda who found the bilges full of water 100 miles off shore in heavy seas. They coul...

Got up this morning and checked that our new friend Solar, was happy and indeed he was. With the rise of the sun, the little smile had come to his face (on the controller) and he was gaily charging the batteries away. In need of further feel good I checked again a couple of hours later and he had stopped. I argued that he was behaving normally in not overcharging the batteries but eventually this did not make sense. On testing the output it was not right 😞. Voltage direct from the panel varying from 0 to 18v depending on position, degree of flexing the panel and which way the wind blows. Having messed about with it for several hours I have come to the conclusion it is FUBAR. I cannot work out what the issue is - overheating is a known problem but I am surprised it is that as that might cause a drop in performance not complete failure. It was working fine so it is unlikely there has been mechanical damage in transit or handling. However I am where I am. I will try to source one to...

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 uphols...