End of season

On Tuesday September 17th we went to Marathona beach for the afternoon - Lin got a lift with Mick and Hilary while Simon cycled down.

On Wednesday 18th we took Hilary, Mick, Rosa and Fleur for a day trip to Moni. Fleur borrowed Charlie's lifejacket.

Mick felt a bit queasy on the way down, so as soon as we got to Moni everyone but Simon went ashore to the cafe and to swim. When we got back to Aegina we went in our usual place on the town quay, where they were already preparing for the Pistachio festival, which opened on Thursday evening. We went up to Mick and Hilary's for dinner on Thursday night, but it did not look as though we had missed much in town.
We set off early in the morning of Friday 20th September with a bit of a north wind and motor sailed past Poros to a quiet anchorage on the north coast of Dhokos, a sparsely inhabited island north of Hydra.

 By the evening the clouds rolled in.

 Next morning we sailed across to Sabateki, where we had heard there was a new harbour with free water.

 We got on the new quay, but there did not seem to be any free water.

On Sunday morning we motored the few miles up the coast to Tiros, where we were meeting Lin's cousin Simon, his wife Suzie and their son Oliver in the evening. They recently sold their house near Tiros and were now staying for a week in the Golden Beach hotel on the beach at the other end of town.
On Tuesday we took them out for a sail.

At first there was no wind, but as soon as we turned back the wind got up, reaching 20 knots before we got back. Although it was his first time sailing, Olly helmed the whole way and turned out to be a very competent (and enthusiastic) helm. We encouraged him to chase up sailing courses as soon as he got home.

We set off for Khilada on Thursday morning, to be ready to lift out on Friday. We first anchor just off the Frankthi cave, which was continuously inhabited from, at least 30,000 to 3,000 BC, when the roof fell in.

When Simon came a few years ago the cave was open and the excavation trenches remained. Now most of the trenches have been filled in, paths have been laid and there are excellent information boards, so it is more informative, if less dramatic. We then moved over to anchor in the bay

and got the genoa down, ready to lift in the morning.

We had a busy few days in the yard, washing, drying, cleaning and stowing ready to leave the boat for the winter. On Saturday Simon cycled to the neighbouring town, Kranidi, to get some cash and buy our bus tickets to Athens. He took the rough back road through meadows and olive groves, which was very attractive, but led to a yard with guard dogs, one of which squeezed through the fence and attacked him. Fortunately he was able to give it a mighty kick just before it sank its teeth in so he got away with a scratch. He came back by the main road, which turned out to be no safer as he was again chased by guard dogs, but he managed to pedal fast enough to get away.
On Tuesday Simon, Suzie and Olly came over to have lunch with us in town and on Wednesday morning we got a taxi to Kranidi from where we took the bus to Athens. We stayed two nights with Lena in Athens, having dinner with her, Lena and Nikos on Wednesday, and flew home via Copenhagen on Friday, Kai's birthday.
That's it till next year!