An early summer

We flew out to Athens from London on Tuesday 24^th April and stayed the night with Lena. On Wednesday afternoon we took a taxi to Piraeus and boarded the Superfast ferry to Leros. We had booked a luxury cabin, which was still cheaper than flying, 

and celebrated by having a very good dinner in the a la carte restaurant.

We arrived in Lakki at 4.30 am on Thursday. Costas had left us a car on the ferry quay, so after a coffee in the café to let the lorries leave, we drove up to Partheni and parked outside the gate until the first workers arrived at 6.30 and we could go in and board Mia Hara. Everything seemed to be in pretty good condition – less dust than usual outside and the salt that we leave to combat the damp had absorbed very little water – they had had a pretty dry winter. After a bit of unpacking, we drove into Lakki for shopping, to get our new DEKPA (the Greek cruising permit), to see our friends and for a beer and lunch at Poppy’s before coming back to start work on the boat. When we got back we finished unpacking, Simon washed the outside of the boat while Lin started to clean and polish inside. For dinner we had an excellent takeaway from Marietta. When we came to light the oven, we found that the cooker, which had been repaired, had been returned without the oven shelf. Next morning Simon went to ask Tony about the shelf, he phoned Thomas, who had repaired the cooker but had now left the yard, who knew nothing about it, but it was soon found lying around in the workshop.

From Friday to Monday we worked on the boat, mostly sorting things out, cleaning and polishing inside and out and fitting the sails, bimini and storm hood. This year, fortunately, there were very few repairs. On Saturday night we went to Pandeli to have dinner on the beach with Al and Kitty, on Sunday we went for dinner at Milos with Frank and Lin, and on Monday we met Julie and Jad and went for dinner with them in Alinda. We apologized to Julie that we would miss the launch of her book (Hitler’s Island War: The Men WhoFought for Leros) on May 10^th, but it looks as though a lot of people will be there. On Monday we did a major shop, because Tuesday was bank holiday so all the shops were closed.

On Monday evening Simon committed a serious blunder and, not for the first time, left the shower gel in the shower. Lin was not pleased. When Simon went back the shower gel had gone, so he put a post-it on the door asking whoever had taken it please to return it as Simon’s life was at stake. Next day it reappeared in the shower, so Simon’s life was saved.

Rumours have been flying around, spread by their competitors, that Agmar is bankrupt. It obviously is not bankrupt at the moment, but it is clear that its financial difficulties have increased and there is a danger that it will close as a result of a long-drawn-out court case which is due to come to court in November. We decided that we could not risk the boat being trapped in a bankrupt boatyard so have taken a contract with Evros, the other marina in Lakki, from July. On Monday Irene called Simon in to the office for long lecture about the falsity of the rumours, that Agmar was clearly not bankrupt as it was still operating, and that they had great plans for the future. Simon told her that we did not believe the rumours, but it was obvious that they were in great difficulty and we felt that we could not take the risk of renewing the contract. Irene did not persist and did not seem in the least surprised by our decision.

On Tuesday we finished the jobs on the boat to be ready for launching on Wednesday morning, 2^nd May, allowing ourselves time to go into town, say goodbye to Anna and Poppy and to go and see Galya in Pikpa. Galya was very pleased that she has now got her asylum and is off to Athens for a month to sort out her papers before coming back to Lakki.

We launched without any problems in the middle of the morning on Wednesday. Our plan was to head north before the northerly winds set in and the forecast looked good. After launching we motored across to anchor off Arkhangelos, followed by a family of two large and two small dolphins, who played around the boat. When we arrived we rowed over to Stigma for a lunchtime beer. Evropi was there alone – Georgos had gone to the mainland to meet Tasos to deal with a problem with his water boat, which had been drive ashore by a winter gale. The taverna and jetty had suffered a lot of damage in the strong winter southerly winds so Georgos had had a major job remaking the roof of the terrace, repainting, and rebuilding the jetties.

We had our first swims of the year in the afternoon. 

Usually it is too cold to swim until late May, but a week of hot sunny weather had warmed the water up to 21 degrees and swimming was lovely. Georgos came back in the afternoon and we rowed ashore for dinner with them before getting an early night, ready to leave early next morning.