It's too hot

The problem with light winds is that you have no cooling breeze, so the last week has been sweltering.
We came back to Lakki for shopping on Monday 23 June and tied up on the town quay. That afternoon a brand new Hanse 575 on a skippered charter came in alongside us. Just as they reached the quay a cry rang out 'the anchor has gone'. It turned out that the anchor chain had not been tied on, so the chain all just ran out. £300,000 worth of boat and they didn't even tie the anchor on! The skipper phoned for a diver, but he was off training, so Simon put on his weight belt and jumped in to tie a rope to the chain so that they could recover it - it was only about 6m deep, so not any problem. Once he was back aboard three large gin and tonics were thrust into our hands.
On Tuesday morning we motored round to the south of Leros and picked up a mooring buoy in Xerokampos, where we spent two days, swimming from the boat. Soon after we arrived Lin heard a loud hissing noise from the engine room. One of the hoses to the watermaker had sprung a leak - the reinforcing wire had broken so that the pipe ballooned and burst. Luckily Lin found it quickly and Simon was able to put an old non-return valve on the end of the pipe to stop it leaking. That afternoon we put the outboard on the dinghy and it would not start. Simon took off the carburettor and cleaned a lot of gunge out of it and switched from the external to the internal fuel tank, and it still would not start, so he had to row to and from the shore. Next morning Simon started to walk over the hill to Lakki to get a new hose for the watermaker- luckily he got a lift after about twenty minutes because it was sweltering, and he got a taxi back and fitted the new hose. But that was not the end of the story.
On Thursday we motored (no wind) down to Paleonissos, on the east coast of Kalymnos. We had passed it many times, but never been in because it is open to the south and the pilot says it gets strong gusts with a north wind and it is bad holding, but friends had told us that there are now laid mooring buoys and two tavernas, but you only see them once you get round the corner and go up the fjord.
We picked up a mooring buoy

and it is an idyllic place, beautiful colours and towering mountains (600 metres on one side and 300 metres on the other).

Soon after we arrived, Lin noticed that the water pump was running - Simon had not fixed the new hose on tightly enough and it had fallen off, water gushing into the bilge. He refitted the pipe, this time with the Jubilee clip really tight, but we had lost a lot of water!
We went up to the taverna for a beer at lunchtime and they told us that the fishing boat below had just brought in a catch, including three small lobsters, so we reserved a lobster spaghetti for the evening, which was delicious, with Symi shrimps to start with, and not ridiculously expensive. The son of the taverna owner had a ten-day old goat as his pet, which he was bottle-feeding.

In the afternoon we walked along the southern edge of the fjord - Lin and John along the coast,

while Simon scrambled up to check out the climbs, in the vain hope of persuading Sam to come and test his mettle on them.

On Friday morning we walked a couple of kilometres up the road to see the view and almost drowned in sweat. On the way back we stopped for fresh orange juice at Nikolas's taverna, a couple of hundred yards back from the beach. Nikolas is a one-time sponge diver and diving instructor who had been born in the stone croft across the road from his taverna and had taught Greek in London for a few years before returning home. He showed us his photo album and told us what a paradise it had been ten years ago, before the road, electricity, water, tavernas, the beach cafe and mooring buoys had arrived. Lin bought a Mediterranean sponge from him after he explained that the America sponges, that he also sold, would not last seven months.
We spent a quiet afternoon, mostly in the sea, which is now too warm, as the wind went round in circles and the boat did likewise, tying its mooring line in knots.

We left early on Saturday morning, visiting the beach that we had seen on our walk and admiring Sikati cave, a climbers' paradise with its stalactites and stalagmites

and returning to the Lakki town quay because the wind is forecast to get up again.
Just after we arrived the coast guard boat came in, towing a small (about 8 metre) Russian-registered yacht.

It turned out that they had picked up two young Russian men trying to smuggle twenty five Syrian refugees, who had been crammed in the saloon of their yacht and were now on board the lifeboat. The coastguard told John they had stopped the yacht because it was so low in the water. They must have been very naive to try to land their refugees in Leros, where there are no deserted beaches on which to drop their cargo and get away, which is why the traffickers prefer Agathonisi or Farmakonisi.

The coast guard seemed to be treating the refugees, men, women and children, very well, but the Russian men objected to being handcuffed as they were led away.

No sooner had the costguard dealt with the people traffickers than they went out again to a large cruise ship anchored just outside the bay to bring back a sick passenger, who came back with very smart doctors, nurses and friends to be whisked off to hospital.

That evening we had the devastating news that John Belgrove, Jade and Kai's other grandfather, had died of a cerebral aneurism. John had a full and happy life surrounded by a close family, but we will all miss him very much.
Now we have a couple of days to pack up before we all fly back to England on Tuesday.

Just chilling

We have had a pretty uneventful ten days.

Lin’s brother, John, arrived early on Monday morning, June 16^th, and Lin went up to the airport with Richard, our Canadian neighbour who had hired a car to meet his friend David off the same flight, to fetch John. We pottered around Lakki, did some stocking up shopping and went to To Petrino for giant steaks with Simon and Christiana, who were going home on the Wednesday.

On Tuesday morning we had a nice sail in a gentle breeze to the anchorage by Arkhangeli, at the top of Leros. John had brought out replacement screws for the propeller, but when Simon dived to fit one it turned out that the screw had not fallen out at all – it had just been screwed in so far that he had not been able to see it  - panic over.

On Wednesday 18^th there was no wind, so we motored up to Arki, where we anchored off Tiganaki, the blue lagoon, in two and a half metres of water. 

Occasional RIBs arrived for a swim, but otherwise we had it to ourselves. In the early evening the wind got up a bit so we decided to move, because we were a bit vulnerable with the water so shallow, so we motored round to the anchorage south of Port Augusta on Arki, where we spent the night, and next morning, after a short thunderstorm, motored round the corner to tie up on the quay, where we got a good spot in the middle.

There were a lot of crossed chains, with boats leaving pulling up the anchors of those who remained. We had a lot of chain out, so we decided to re-anchor with less chain to make us less vulnerable.

We had a quiet time in Arki, meeting people, reading, swimming and eating at Nikolas’s tavern. On Friday 20^th we woke to thunder and menacing dark clouds to the south. We then noticed what looked like small tornadoes coming down from the cloud – eventually there were three of them. 

It turned out that they were tornadoes that had swept across the harbour in Lipsi. Some people walked to the top of the hill so see them better. Everybody cleared their decks, but the storm passed us by, with just a few drops of rain and, by the afternoon a blistering hot sun in a clear sky.

Lin bought herself some fancy new shoes in the little cafe/boutique.

A theatrical performance by a group from Samos was advertised in the square for 9 pm Sunday evening, so we decided to stay for that. Chairs were borrowed from the tavernas and laid out in two rows. At 9 pm the performers were still sitting around drinking and the auditorium was empty. At about 9.20 three of the performers took up seats on the chairs and a few people, mostly kids, dribbled in so the performance started at 9.40. It consisted of an accordionist providing background and linking music and a series of dramatic monologues (and one dialogue), which looked impressive (and we were told by Greek friends were very good), but which we did not understand. The first was Tchekov's 'On the harmful consequences of tobacco'.

On Monday morning, June 23^rd, we set off for Agathonisi. When we came to pull up the anchor we found that two boats had anchored over us – our anchor came up with one anchor and one chain hooked over us. Once we had got free and had got round the south of Arki we found ourselves close reaching into a Force 6 wind with big waves, which was uncomfortable, so we turned south and went back home to Lakki.

Summer at last

In Lipsi bay on Sunday 8 June Simon noticed that the locking screw had fallen out of the propeller. This should not be a problem when going forward, since the propeller tightens, but there is a slight risk of the propeller falling off in reverse, though the nuts should be good and tight. We immediately emailed Bruntons to send replacement screws to Lin's brother John, who comes out next week. We  came back to Lakki, reversing gingerly onto the town quay.
Next morning, Monday, Jo and Ian came for their early morning tea at the end of their walk and we did a bit of shopping before setting off to motor down to Xerokampos in no wind, where we picked up a buoy. We went ashore to the taverna for dinner, which was rather disappointing after all the excellent meals we had had over the previous two weeks.
Early on Tuesday morning, with no wind forecast, we motored round to Agia Marina, where we anchored in the corner,

off the excellent seafood taverna Milos.

 We rowed ashore and walked around the bay to Alinda, where we went to the Bellenis museum,

which was exactly as we had expected it! The ground floor had lots of portraits of distinguished citizens and benefactors of Leros, with all of their certificates, and a room full of bits of old clothing, china, old agricultural tools and machines. The upper floor was devoted to the battle of Leros, with one room of rusty bits of the cruiser Queen Olga, sunk by the Germans, and fading photographs of the crew and the other room full of rusty bullets, helmets, radios left from the battle.
We had coffee at the Hotel Alinda, where Claudio and Olga stayed last year, then walked back to Agia Marina and up the hill to Platanos, only to find the Archaeological Museum closed. After buying some goodies from the wonderful cake shop we went back to the boat for an afternoon swimming, before rowing to Milos for a slightly disappointing dinner (maybe because we ate too much!). But wonderful views from our table on the terrace.

On Wednesday morning, June 11th, still with no wind, we motored back to Lakki and went back on the town quay. The anchor did not hold the first time. Simon swam out to see if he could set it, but it was too deep to get down without flippers and/or a weight belt, but he could see a clump of weed and muck, so we went out again and re-anchored. On Wednesday night Jo and Ian, having sold their boat, were driving home, starting by getting the ferry Diogenes to Piraeus. They parked their heavily laden car by Mia Hara and we all went to To Petrino for their last supper, having enormous and delicious fillet steaks (he says he only gets his carefully selected beef from France and it is tender and delicious). We waved Jo and Ian off and collapsed into bed.
On Thursday we left the town quay and went into the marina as we needed water for washing the decks. Simon got the storm jib out and spent the morning dealing with the corrosion and freeing the brass hanks - the storm job had probably been in its bag unused for 25 years! In the afternoon Lin oiled the teak and Simon worked away at all the little marks on the deck with a stainless steel wire brush, which worked a treat. In the late afternoon a lot of soldiers arrived in two RIBS, each with two machine guns, no doubt for mowing down refugees, and parked in the marina.

In the evening we went to Tacis and Marietta's shop, where they now serve drinks in front of the shop, and had ouzo and the best selection of mezes we have ever tasted. Already well filled, we decided that an omelette would be enough for dinner.
We decided to stay in the marina for another day to finish all our jobs, bringing our contract forward so that we would not have to pay. 

A drowned rat

On Tuesday June 3rd we walked up to the church and ruined village at the top of the hill behind Arki, passing a goat perched on a wall on the way back.

In the evening Mama's rooster was delicious!
Wednesday June 4th was the day when the strong southerly winds were forecast, though the latest forecast was for the heaviest winds to pass further South. Simon and Christiana had 47 knots in Nissiros and the taverna owner said this summer was the worst weather she had known in 55 years. We had only 20 knots, gusting to 28, and everyone was well dug in so there were no problems. We washed the boat down, which was covered in red dust from all the rain.
On Thursday we walked over to Tiganaka beach at the south of the island for a swim. The water was very cold, having been churned up by the south winds. Lin swam, but Simon went in up to his knees and chickened out. When we got back for lunch we found a bite taken out of our peach. Simon reassured Lin that it was probably just wasps (though it is too cold for there to be many wasps), but next morning a big bite had been taken out of our apple and there were droppings on the worktop. They were very small, so we hoped it was just a mouse, not a rat. There were also droppings on the floor and on the top bunk - it had obviously climbed up the mooring rope (we had put out a thick rope for the blow) and got in through the little hatch over the bunk. We couldn't find it in any of the accessible places, so we hoped it had gone home after eating its fill, but we set our rat catcher that night. At 3 am Lin heard a scuffling and a small rat was in the rat catcher.

 It looked plaintively at us with its little eyes, to say "let me out!". We thought of releasing it up the hill, but now it had learned to get into boats it would just come back to us or somebody else, so we put the rat in the ratcatcher with a couple of rocks in a polythene bag and lowered it into the water. Next morning we had a poor little drowned rat!

After putting him in the bin we emptied the dinghy, which was half full of water from all the rain, and set off for Lipsi to get water, do some washing and get some of their delicious chocolate cake.
On Sunday morning, 8th June, we motored down to the bay at the bottom of Lipsi and picked up a mooring to have a swim, before setting off to get back to Lakki.

Windy days

We left Lakki for Agathonisi early on Saturday morning, May 31^st. The previous Thursday evening, just after I wrote the last blog, the wind blew up from the Southwest, as forecast. Waves were sweeping down the bay and crashing on the front, but we were sheltered from the waves by the ferry quay , but not from the wind, which came in vicious gusts. The French boat next to us, who had clearly not dug his anchor in when he came in tried to pull his anchor tight, but it just kept coming. He decided to leave and go into the marina, but as he left his keel ran over our anchor chain then, when he lifted his anchor he pulled ours out, just at the height of the storm. Fortunately we had a lot of chain out, so we pulled off the quay and held ourselves off on the engine, pulled the anchor and within a few metres it set again. Now the French boat had left we could put on a spring to give us more security.

As we were getting everything together, Jo and Ian arrived for a drink before we went out to dinner to celebrate their last evening as boat owners, as they were due to complete the sale and hand over the next day. We had a drink below, as it was too windy to sit in the cockpit, and decided we could safely leave the boat and go for dinner at To Petrino as the wind had dropped, though Simon took a bike so that he could go back and check if it blew up again. We had a good dinner and everything was fine when we got back.

On Friday morning we met Jo and Ian in Tacis’s grocer (now a delicatessen) and Ian was fretting a bit as the money for the sale had not come through, and he insisted he was not letting Graham, the new owner, aboard until the money was in the bank. They picked Ian up off the ferry at Agia Marina t midday and we got a text at teatime to say the money had arrived. They all came over for a celebration drink and we then cooked a tuna stew, with some tuna that some neighbours had given as, as they had caught a huge tuna and could not eat it all.

On Saturday morning we set off for Agathonisi, as planned. Outside Lakki harbour there was a big swell but almost no wind, though the swell dropped once we had got round the north of the island and we motored all the way, arriving at midday to find only one yacht there, alongside on the ferry quay, but a float of high-powered RIBs, each with 500 horsepower of engine. It turned out that they were from a club in Athens who toured the islands to see how the other half lived and to bring presents for the children, including toys and new bikes. We went on the end of the ferry quay and went for a beer at Yanni and Voula’s tavern. Their son Yiorgo was there, having come home after his military service, and Yanni and Voula arrived soon after, Voula hobbling and inWindy days

We left Lakki for Agathonisi early on Saturday morning, May 31^st. The previous Thursday evening, just after I wrote the last blog, the wind blew up from the Southwest, as forecast. Waves were sweeping down the bay and crashing on the front, but we were sheltered from the waves by the ferry quay , but not from the wind, which came in vicious gusts. The French boat next to us, who had clearly not dug his anchor in when he came in tried to pull his anchor tight, but it just kept coming. He decided to leave and go into the marina, but as he left his keel ran over our anchor chain then, when he lifted his anchor he pulled ours out, just at the height of the storm. Fortunately we had a lot of chain out, so we pulled off the quay and held ourselves off on the engine, pulled the anchor and within a few metres it set again. Now the French boat had left we could put on a spring to give us more security.

As we were getting everything together, Jo and Ian arrived for a drink before we went out to dinner to celebrate their last evening as boat owners, as they were due to complete the sale and hand over the next day. We had a drink below, as it was too windy to sit in the cockpit, and decided we could safely leave the boat and go for dinner at To Petrino as the wind had dropped, though Simon took a bike so that he could go back and check if it blew up again. We had a good dinner and everything was fine when we got back.

On Friday morning we met Jo and Ian in Tacis’s grocer (now a delicatessen) and Ian was fretting a bit as the money for the sale had not come through, and he insisted he was not letting Graham, the new owner, aboard until the money was in the bank. They picked Ian up off the ferry at Agia Marina t midday and we got a text at teatime to say the money had arrived. They all came over for a celebration drink and we then cooked a tuna stew, with some tuna that some neighbours had given as, as they had caught a huge tuna and could not eat it all.

On Saturday morning we set off for Agathonisi, as planned. Outside Lakki harbour there was a big swell but almost no wind, though the swell dropped once we had got round the north of the island and we motored all the way, arriving at midday to find only one yacht there, alongside on the ferry quay, but a float of high-powered RIBs, each with 500 horsepower of engine. It turned out that they were from a club in Athens who toured the islands to see how the other half lived and to bring presents for the children, including toys and new bikes. We went on the end of the ferry quay and went for a beer at Yanni and Voula’s tavern. Their son Yiorgo was there, having come home after his military service, and Yanni and Voula arrived soon after, Voula hobbling and in obvious pain as she had burnt her ankle on Yiogo’s motorbike and then hit it on something. We had heard that Voula had stood against the incumbent in the mayoral election, the first time he had faced opposition in years, and she only lost by 58% to 42% and they now form an opposition group of five on the council of 13, so they can try to keep the mayor in check. The last straw was his roadbuilding programme, in which he spent three million euros of EU money building high class roads to nowhere (see last year’s blog), which are now tarmacked, with white lines and crash barriers.

One road, which also has street lighting, leads half a kilometre round the bay to Spilia beach, which now has an enormous car park behind it. The other road leads three kilometres to the abandoned village of Katoliko, with a side road down to a single farm.

On Sunday we walked round to the excavation beyond Katoliko, where they are also building a small museum, but it was closed, as it was Sunday.

We stayed two nights in Agathonisi, but because strong southerly winds were forecast we left for Arki on Monday morning, June 2^nd, to be sure of getting in there before the winds came on the Wednesday. Fortunately there was plenty of room on the Arki quay when we arrived, though it filled up during the day.

In Arki Alexandr played on his electric bike.

Nicolas’s dad has built him a little marina in the harbour, full of model boats.

On Tuesday morning the charter boats left Arki and some more owner boats came in to ride out the storm, so there seven British and two French yachts on the quay. Arki seems to attract the Brits especially, perhaps because it is so peaceful. Nicolas’s mum, Maria, was cooking a rooster, so we asked if they could keep us two portions for this evening. It turned out that they were cooking this for themselves, not for sale, but Nicholas promised there would be enough for us, if we did not tell anybody else.

Just chilling

(Still no photos - see previous entries for pictures of Lakki and Arki)
We stayed in Arki till Sunday 25 May, meeting new people, having wonderfully cooked simple food with Nicolas and Carolina, walking to the ancient watchtower (some say a pirate's castle) and to Tigana, the idyllic beach with turquoise water at the south end of the island, where we swam a couple of times - the water was not warm, but it was refreshing after the hot walk.
We came back to Lakki on 25th - motoring all the way as there was no wind, and tied up on the town quay, where we have been ever since. We saw Ian and Jo, who have driven out to unload their boat, which they hand over to the new owner at the end of the week, and they go back to the UK in a couple of weeks. They come for a cup of tea after their early morning walk each day. We have done a lot more cleaning and polishing, odd repairs and sorting out the lockers. Usually we go for a beer at the Cafe Escape at lunchtime, and after another beer with lunch fall asleep over our books in the afternoon. We had a few really hot days, when Lin went for a swim, but it has now cooled down, with rain forecast.
On Wednesday 28th Simon cycled over to Temenia to leave the spare alternator and water pump motor to be fixed and then went to the chandlers at Evros marina to buy some hose. He was warned to mind his head upstairs, but walked straight into a beam, which whacked him on the forehead. He was not knocked out but collapsed in a heap and when he got up found that he had pulled a muscle in his thigh. When he got back to the boat Lin tied ice to the lump on his head with a scarf and rubbed Voltarol into his thigh. When he went back to the electrician later, it turned out that he did not have time to do the work because he had a big job for the navy which would keep him busy for at least two more weeks. He sent us instead to another electrician up the hill towards Platanos.
In the evening we went to the opening party for Tacis and Marietta's new shop, with drinks, pastries and the priest blessing the shop. The shop is now a very swish delicatessen, over the road (in the former bank premises) from the old shop, a traditional grocer which Tacis's dad had started in 1962. We felt very honoured to have been invited because we, Jo and Ian and an English family who had been friends of Marietta since her teens were the only foreigners there. We knew quite a few of the guests - the butcher, the baker and the candlestick-maker and it was good to feel a (albeit peripheral) part of the community. We forgot to take a camera, so no pictures of the party!
We have been hanging around in Lakki partly because we love the place and have made many friends here, but also hoping to see Sue and Steve who were planning to come up from Crete to see us all, but they have been waiting for new batteries, which have still not arrived, so have had to cancel the trip.
Tomorrow (Friday) we will stock up ready to leave, probably for Agathonisi, on Saturday morning, when we will still have southerly winds to help us on our way.

A new year – and new disasters

Not many photos because they are all places we have been to before, so pictures are in previous postings.

We flew to Athens on Wednesday 30 April and stayed with Lena for two nights before taking the bus to Kranidi and then got a taxi to Kilarda on Friday morning. Mia Hara was covered in sand from the Sahara, but otherwise was as we had left her.

We had sent a box of bits and pieces to Kilarda by Parcelforce, but just before we left home we learned that it had been returned from Germany because it contained illegal liquids and aerosols. We thought we had sent it by road, but it turned out that Parcelforce flies things to Greece from Germany, which was why it had been checked. We had booked it through Parcels Please who were very good in dealing with the problem, arranging to send it instead by DHL, though DHL would not take aerosols. We decided to send it to Leros, rather than have to wait a week or ten days in Kilarda for it to arrive. When the parcel got home Andrew and Becky took out the aerosols, repacked it and sent it off again, but it meant we were without a lot of things we needed for maintenance and repair, so we decided to head off for Leros as soon as possible. It got to Leros in four days – it turned out that DHL also fly things to Athens. When we collected the box we found that it had been opened and DHL had opened the box inside containing a new water pump, but this time had resealed it and sent it on its way.

Over the winter we had bought a new propeller, a Brunton’s autoprop. I had intended to fit it myself, but when we got the mechanic in the yard to check the shaft it turned out that when we fitted a new shaft in Marmaris last year they had replaced the 1 ¼” shaft with a 30mm shaft and turned the end to fit the old propeller, so the shaft needed to be re-turned for the new prop to fit. The mechanic then found that the shaft was bent, so we needed a new shaft. This probably explained why the new engine had been so noisy when under load. When we got back the job was done, with our beautiful new prop on the new shaft.

Over the weekend we cleaned and polished the outside of the hull till it was like a mirror, except that all the little scratches and blemishes showed, and got things cleaned and sorted below. On Friday night we ate at the excellent giro place in Kilarda for a quick cheap meal. On Saturday night we went into town for dinner, planning to go to the fish restaurant we had been to last year, but the place and the one next door were both empty. As we walked back we saw that some people were eating in a little place with no sign and no menus outside, which we had thought was a bar. We went in, but all the tables inside were reserved so we sat at a little table outside. Before we could order, the owner started to bring us an array of delicious starters, eventually asking if we would also like some horta and grilled sardines, so we ended up having a superb and very cheap dinner.

In the meantime, Simon thought that he had lost a wallet of euros, which he could not find in his bag. We called Helena and Lena to see if he had left them at home or in Athens and checked Heathrow lost property, but no sign of the money, so on Monday morning Simon had to cycle up to Kranidi to get some cash to pay the yard (and some paint for the anchor chain). Kranidi is up a long hill that gets steeper and steeper so, despite just having ridden the Pennine cycle ride, he got off and walked up the last bit. 

Kranidi

On the way back Simon stopped off in Lidl to stock up, filling the enormous Brompton bike bag with goodies. He surprised Lin by picking her a big bunch of wild flowers, which lined the road. The spring flowers are beautiful, though coming to the end of their short lives.

On Monday we finished all the jobs that had to be done in the yard and decided to go back to the little restaurant for dinner, only to find it packed full of Russians, who had arrived on an enormous flotilla. We went instead to the pizza/pasta restaurant, that is normally empty but tonight was also full of Russians.

We have really got to like Kilarda. It is a quiet, very friendly little town, untroubled by tourism, though it looks as though a lot of Athenians have holiday homes      on the hill behind the town, so it is a bit busier in summer. There is a good supermarket, a baker, a laundry, several butchers and fishmongers, but no hardware store and the chandlers in the yard is a bit limited.

On Tuesday May 6 Simon found the missing money – he had forgotten that he had put it away in a safe place. We launched at 3 pm. They have a very efficient system in the yard, by which a trailer lifts both boat and cradle and drives down to the lift, driven by radio control.

Once at the slip, the slings are put round the boat and it is lowered into the water (you can see our beautiful new propeller).

Once we had checked that we were not sinking and the engine started, we motored across to anchor off the town to get everything ready to leave. We set off early on Wednesday morning, amazed at the difference the new propeller and shaft made as it was much quieter and we made at least one and a half knots more than with the old propeller. 

After about a mile Lin noticed a smell of burning and saw that the engine was overheating. We dropped anchor.  Simon went down and found the boat full of steam/smoke. He had left the stopcock on the cooling water intake closed when he had been servicing the seacocks! He opened the seacock, replaced the shredded impeller and we set off again, only to find the boat still filling with smoke and overheating. Simon now found that the return pipe for the cooling water from the anti-syphon lock was split, probably when they fitted the new shaft,  and water was pouring into the bilge. We sailed back to anchor in Kilarda bay again. Simon cut the end of the pipe and refixed it. When we restarted the engine smoke still billowed out – Simon looked in the engine room and realised that the hot exhaust gas had melted the water lock-muffler so the exhaust and cooling water was just filling the engine room. He rowed ashore to see if the chandler in the yard had a replacement, but they only had a cheap Greek muffler which was much too big and said that they did not deal with Vetus, though they had Vetus equipment in their shop. Back on the boat Simon phoned Vetus in Piraeus and they promised to deliver a new waterlock the next day.

At 10 on Thursday morning Simon phoned the courier in Krainidi and they said that the waterlock had arrived and would be delivered to Kilarda in the afternoon. Instead, Simon took a taxi to Kranidi and picked it up. He fitted the new waterlock and we were underway by mid-day.

We motored round the corner and down the Hydra channel, with the little wind there was going round in a circle so that it was always more or less on the nose. 

We had decided to anchor in a little bay at the Eastern end of the Hydra channel, ready to set off for Serifos the next morning, but the wind was getting up and Lin decided that we were a bit exposed, so we upped anchor and motored up to Poros. We tried to anchor in Monastry Bay, but the anchor dragged twice in the thick weed when we put it under load, so instead we motored past Poros town and anchored just short of Russian Bay.

We left Poros early on Friday morning in a good northerly breeze, which steadily increased as we sailed across to Serifos, blowing at 35 knots, gusting to 39, for the last bit of the passage, with 3 metre waves. We covered the 60 miles in eight hours. We were zipping along, but the problem was when to get the sails down, particularly as the lazy jacks, which hold the sail in place when you drop it, had come undone on the starboard side, so the sail would be difficult to control, and the wind direction gauge had gone haywire, making it more difficult to hold the boat on the wind when dropping the sail. We hoped to get the sails down in the lee of Serifos, but the wind there was even stronger. We wound up the genoa, though with the strong wind it rolled so tightly that we ran out of furling line, leaving a bit of genoa still out, and we motored into the wind into Livadhi, the port of Serifos, with the main flogging, waiting for the wind to drop. The wind didn’t drop. As we approached the shore we decided we had to go for it. Lin kept the boat head to wind and the mainsail came down cleanly, though two battens had sprung and the main had torn in two places at the leach when it was flogging. Having tied up the main, we had to deal with the genoa because it would be difficult getting on to the quay with some genoa still out, and we didn’t want to anchor in the bay because the holding is very bad in Livadhi. The only thing to do was to unfurl it and try to furl it up again less tightly in a lull in the wind. Having managed this, we got ourselves stern to the quay on the leeward side, with help from those already there and immediately got down to repairs.

The wind dropped overnight so that on Saturday morning there was no wind at all. We set off early and motored uneventfully to Skhinoussa, where we arrived at 3 pm. We were surprised that Skhinoussa harbour, which had been jam packed when we were last here in August, was completely empty. 

Simon went up to town to do some shopping and brought back another bunch of spring flowers.

We had dinner in the taverna, to use his wifi, and went to bed.

We left early again on Sunday morning, again with almost no wind, and motored to Levitha, arriving about 3pm to find half a dozen boats already there. We picked up a mooring boy and went for dinner at the farmhouse, where  Lin had a delicious lamb stew and Simon some rather disgusting fish. They told us that the projected wind farm may not go ahead because the estimate of the anticipated output had been cut in half.

On Monday morning we left Levitha at 7 am to motor across to Lakki on Leros, arriving at 10, having completed a passage of 210 miles. Before we went onto the town quay Simon lowered the outboard to put it on the dinghy and the carrying strap broke. Fortunately it did not detach completely from the outboard, so it did not sink into 60 metres of water.

Getting back to Lakki was like coming home. All our friends in the shops and cafes greeted us enthusiastically – they had all got through a warm wet winter. Tacis the grocer’s dad, who had been in hospital in Athens with heart problems when we left last year, had had a triple by-pass and looked ten years younger.

First thing to do was to go over to Evros marina to collect our parcel from Simon and Christiana, but the outboard would only work, spluttering, on full revs with the choke out. Simon had to restart it about twenty times on the short trip across the bay, but got there and back with the parcel so that we had all the bits and pieces we needed. When he took off the carburettor the next day it was clogged up with muck. 

We had a week in Lakki, going out to dinner twice with Simon and Christiana, once to To Petrino in town (fantastic steak) and once to Milos, over in Agia Marina (fantastic seafood). Other nights we ate various pasta delicacies we had got from Lidl. On Wednesday we went into the marina, because it was forecast to blow from the south overnight and we would be better sheltered there. We were surprised to find Kiriakos still running the marina (he agreed it must be the longest he had ever held down a job) and Aggiris was back from Germany, where he had not been able to find work, for the summer.

We met some really nice and interesting people in Lakki, a couple from Brisbane, who had just bought an ex-charter boat; a climber from Nottingham, who had bought a small Vancouver on a whim last year; and Archie and Liz, retired teachers from Shetland, in a She 36. Their stories brought home just how far Shetland is from the rest of the UK – their nearest cruising ground is Norway. Liz had only been to London once, for a day 40 years ago, and was very apprehensive about their next visit in the summer – how would they be able to find their way around? We tried to reassure them.

We did a lot of cleaning, maintenance and repairs, all of which took far longer than expected. Simon spent a whole day trying to fix the chain counter. It had shown ‘Sensor Failure’, so we had got a replacement sensor, which Simon fitted, but it still said sensor failure. He checked all the wiring and connections, finding all was OK, and concluded that the problem was in the handheld unit so gave up. Simon also refitted our water filter under the sink, requiring great contortions to get at it, and then had to deal with all the leaks from the piping that he had created (the last one is still to be fixed – Lin is not too happy!). Over the weekend Simon went up the mast to rig the inner forestay (for the storm jib) and to check out the failed wind gauge. It turned out that the connector of the gauge had just come loose. Once it was tightened and aligned it went back to work.

Sunday May 18^th was local election day, with a hotly contested election for mayor. Apparently the existing mayor is a bit of a populist, while our friends in the shops and cafes wanted his opponent to win, to bring changes to Lakki, while others told us that the existing mayor looks after people, but his opponent would only look after his rich friends. The incumbent won a narrow vote.

We left Lakki on Monday May 19^th for Partheni. On the way up the alternator regulator cut out, with a high alternator voltage warning. We moored on a buoy and went into the boatyard to get a spare impeller and get a quote for the yard for next year. While he was away a French boat came on to the buoy next to us and asked to borrow our dinghy so they could get ashore to collect their new dinghy from the yard. When they brought the dinghy back we both went ashore and as Irene had offered us a reasonable discount, we took a 12-month contract from the end of June, when we go home for ten days.

When we got back to the boat it was only about 3.30 so Simon suggested we go further north. In his hurry to leave he forgot to lift the dinghy on the davits. As we accelerated out of the mooring there was a loud clunk – the dinghy had flipped over and the oars were floating away towards the shallows. After a delicate recovery operation, to avoid running aground, we got the oars back and set off again. After about a mile Simon noticed that the battery voltage had gone to 17.8 volts, without the regulator cutting out. We gingerly made our way back to Partheni bay, hoping the batteries would not boil, and anchored in the bay for the night. Lin, as usual, had been right. We should have stopped there in the first place. The problem was sorted out easily enough – when Simon installed the new batteries the cable through which the regulator monitored the batteries had fallen down the side and he had not attached it. The regulator thought the batteries were dead, so kept jacking up the alternator voltage. Once the cable was attached, all was well – for now.

There was no sun, with heavy cloud cover, and we were moored between the naval base and a steelworks, but still the surrounding hills, still green from the winter rains, and the mountains of Kalimnos behind were in the evening light. As Christiana had commented, we are so used to all these places that we rarely notice how stunningly beautiful they are.

We left Partheni early on Tuesday morning, beating up to Arki in a light wind. After a couple of hours we decided to motor the rest of the way, to be sure of getting a place on the quay. We tied up on the end of the quay and went to see Nicholas and Carolina, who had returned from Poland with Alexandr/Alexandros at the end of April. We had not seen them all since we had left Arki at the beginning of August last year so it was great to catch up. Simon spent most of the rest of the day trying to fix the leaks in his botched installation of the water filter, which has so many joints that when you fix one, another starts to leak.

On Wednesday morning, after a bit of housekeeping, we went for a walk round the headland at the entrance to the bay, past the lighthouse

and up to the remains of the fourth century BC watchtower.