Doesn't time fly...

...I can't believe we have only be back on the boat for six weeks, it feels like we've already had a full season on board. But don't think that we're complaining, it means that it feels like time has slowed down. That may just be us, it does take a while to get used to a completely different lifestyle - or it could just be the heat, in which case, I will pour another glass of iced water and get on with this update.

Dolphins around Oxia

So, what have we done in three weeks since leaving Messolonghi. On our first day out of the marina we were greeted by three enormous dolphins, swimming and playing in our bow wake. There is nothing more wonderful to see than dolpins. They really do put a smile on your face.

View from Georges
Restaurant

On my previous blog I mentioned that our first planned stop would be to Kastos. That plan, as all plans, was subject to change, and did so at the last minute. The town quay was, unsurprisingly at this time of year, full with boats, so we went around to the next island, Kalamos and went on the dock in the little harbour. We last visited Kalamos back in 2005 when we chartered a boat in the Ionian, long before we bought Alhambra.
     Back then a very nice man met us on the dock, took our lines and introduced himself as 'George'.  He explained that he had the restaurant at the end of the dock, showers and washing machines were also available. Well nothing much changes in eight years. We arrived, George took our lines, and told us all about his restaurant, showers and washing machines. After a hard, 40 miles of motoring we decided to have dinner in his restaurant - all very pleasant.

Glassy seas on the Ionian

The next day we set off for Nidri, about 17 miles north-ish. Again, so unlike the Ionian, there was not a breath of wind - no need to even think about getting a sail out. We got the headsail out twice the previous day, but as normal, the wind went on our nose and after rolling in the headsail twice my daily exercise was complete. David and I have agreed that even if there is no wind, we should still get the headsail out so that I can haul on lines and winch the sail away, all in the name of exercise...
    
However, I digress. We arrived safely in Nidri, got a space on the Neilson dock and spent the afternoon relaxing around the very welcoming swimming pool. That night, we attended the weekly Neilson Quiz (it raises money for Sail Cancer) and is held at one of our favourite bars - The Tree Bar. All was right in the world again.
     That night, whilst catching up with friends who run the bar, and explaining we needed to take our mainsail up to Lefkas,one of them very kindly offered to drive us there the next day - this meant we could take our mainsail to the sailmakers without having to take the boat there. And so it was that on Wednesday 10th July we ordered a brand new mainsail - hopefully it should be arriving by the end of July - yipee (we think).

Since then we have met with some old friends, been for drinks and dinner and generally enjoying the waiting around for a new sail. Good friends on Locomocean, invited us to join them for dinner at a restaurant half way up the mountain, behind Nidri. Nothing special about the menu, typically Greek, all very nice and inexpensive, but the view was wonderful, as you can see.   

 

A few days later, another set of very good sailing friends on Fritha, arrived back in Nidri. They, unfortunately, are going back to the UK soon, so we needed to get a whole lot of catching up and socialising sorted out. They invited us to lunch on their boat in One Tree Bay. This bay is so named, because there is one tree in the Bay. There's a lot of other bushes and greenery and stuff around, but there is a particuarly obvious tree, on its own, in the middle of a field.

When we visited last year, it was one of the few bays that still had nothing in it. This year a beach bar has sprung up - unsurprisingly. The bay is fantastic, it has crystal clear water, perfect for swimming and you can see straight to the bottom. It has fantastic views all around, and the back drop of the mountains to complete the picture, as you can see from the photo above. However I really must get a picture of the Tree!

     We continued the week in a similar vein, lunch round the pool, drinks at the bar, dinner with friends. However, in between all this exhausting socialising, I have been making jewellery and writing my book. There are photos of the new jewellery and 'wine glass bangles' (as I am told they are called) on the Jewellery page. I have also taken my first commission for a necklace and earings set. I will let you know whether they liked it or not.

 

     Finally, I have to add two photographs of the other creatures in life that make me smile - dogs. As we left Messolonghi, a German couple, who live in Crete, when not sailing in Greece (keep up), rescued this adoreable fluff ball. It just had so much energy and bounce, you couldn't help but like it.

Then, when we were another dock for a day, opposite us, on a motor boat, a young girl arrived. In her had was the tiniest puppy. She put her down on the boat - the puppy scampered around and nearly fell off twice, overboard, then ran around yapping to her 'mum' whenever she couldn't see her. She had so much character, I could easily have 'stolen' her away. We believe there is probably quite a bit of Huskey in her, but not sure what else - either way, I'm not sure how long this little bundle of fun will stay this small.

 

That's about it for this installment. Hopefully by the next one I will be able to put up a photo of Alhambra and her new mainsail. Hopefully all the engineering issues will be sorted and we will finally be able to go sailing - properly!

 

Michele and Dave on Alhambra - Nidri, Greece

 

 

Finally ready to leave

We always said it would take four weeks before we would be ready to leave Messolonghi, and nearly to the day, its been four weeks. And what a busy four weeks it has been.


Our original list of jobs were the huge things that needed doing. Primarily renewing the GRP and teakwork on the swim platform has taken most of David's time and I have being doing the usual 'boat jobs' like cleaning, cleaning, oh and more cleaning. Here are some before and after photos, first of Alhambra being lifted out of the water last October, and launched last week, and then a before and after photo of the teak work. To the uniniated, and those who don't know David that well, I can assure that the difference between the before and after of the teak is amazing - precision in all he does is shown in his work.

 

    

Last night we ventured into town, to a try a restaurant  recommended by our neighbours. An interesting experience in one of the oldest tavernas in town.

They have enourmous wine barrels situated around the ceiling of the taverna, which then have pipes flowing down the beams, to taps on the downposts, next to the tables (sorry photos not that good, but gives you the general idea). We went with a friend, Klaus, and enjoyed a variety of starters, tzaziki, ham and cheese patties (home made, not frozen I was informed by the owner) and courgette puffs, which went really well with the tzaziki. Christos, the owner then brought us a sample of this pork from the spit (the pork was from his own farm), which was unbelievably tender and very tasty, served with salt and freshly squeezed lemon. For the main course I had chicken from the grill, David had kebab from the grill and Klaus had an emormous meatball stuffed with cheese. We enjoyed a litre of wine from the barrels and finished with fresh water melon. All for €15 a head. The restaurant was well away from the main part of town, and only locals seemed to know it was there - you had to have directions to find it. A really good find which we will/have recommended.

 

     We have now been in the water for five days, our list of jobs was even longer - service the outboard, put up the headsail, install the log impeller and GPS head, buy new water containers and fuel, hose down the boat, pay the marina bill and check out with the Port Authority, tidy the cabins, put up the flag pole, Greek flag, life ring, and twinkly cockpit lights (a must for any cockpit), clean the bathrooms, sort out the hassle we've had with Skype, give David a haircut, reinstall the swim platform ladder, watch the tennis, then the Grand Prix...then we can leave. Oh, one final job is to see if the new folding bikes will fit into one of the cockpit lockers -

David can fit in there, so I don't see why they won't be able to - here's the proof. This was back in April 2007 in St Martin, an island in the Caribbean where we bought Alhambra, it was one of his favourite places... FYI I have been updating the Caribbean Page on this blog. I've been putting a selection of my original e-mails and photographs. I intend to update all of the new pages (as and when I have the time). At lest this way, all of our time spent on Alhambra will be stored in one place.
    
So the plan is to leave tomorrow, Monday 8th July, and take a pleasant motor up to an island called Kastos, around 35 miles (6 hours) away. It is a lovely spot which we stopped in on our way back to Messolonghi last year.
   There is not much there, a windmill on the hill that used to have a cafe, but we have been told that has closed now. However, there is a perfect little wine bar, in a stone building, from which this photo was taken, that is just a perfect place to end the day, with a glass of wine or beer, looking over at your boat, with a backdrop of mountains and the sun glistening on the water in the harbour....ahhhhh.

   Watch this space for more updates as the weeks go by...

Life continues on the hard...

This week continues to be extremely hard work for David, and enjoyable work for me. David gets to do all the physical stuff that makes the boat look nice and I get to do all the creative stuff such as writing blogs, books and making jewellery.

 

Last weekend proved to be a weekend of late nights; firstly in the marina bar on Friday night, secondly in town with friends on Saturday night and finally some ‘local’ colour in the form of the ‘The Monastery of Agios Symeon Festival’ which started on Saturday night and continued through to Wednesday morning. With help from the Internet I found out the following:

 

The monastery of Agio Symeon is 8km from Messolonghi, was established in 1740 during the Ottoman rule, and has great historical importance locally. Messolonghi played a very important role during the Greek uprising against the Ottoman Empire. In 1822, the Turks tried to take it but were unsuccessful. Four years later the inhabitants of Messolonghi unfortunately succumbed to the Turks who surrounded and besieged the town, and on 10 April 1826 they decided on the mass Exodus of Messolonghi. However, the Exodus was unsuccessful, most people were killed and only few managed to get to the monastery and then escape in the mountains. To revenge for this, the Turks burnt down the monastery, which was rebuilt 10 years later, by a local bishop.

 

The Monastery of Agios Simeon celebrates twice a year, on February 2nd and on the weekend of the Holy Spirit (movable festival, usually in June). The Festival starts in the evening of Saturday, when two types of groups are formed. The first are dressed as the former soldiers (armatomenos), also called kleftes. The other groups are riding on horses, the cavalry.

 

After the parade, everyone goes to the historical monastery of Agios Symeon in the mountains. This is the actual start for the festival. Gypsies playing music, people throw their money in air, and everybody is dancing, singing, drinking and eating all night and day. The festival goes on for four days and nights and lasts until Wednesday morning.

 

We ventured into town to see the parade, which we had been warned about. The horses are allegedly given ouzo or beer, and by the look in their eyes I would not have at all surprised. Although they are healthy looking animals, and most are dressed for the occasion, the route they take through the town is on marble cobblestones. The restaurants all take in their tables and chairs and the streets are lined with hundreds of people. A friend pointed out that it was strange that no-one stood in front of us, as in the norm in most parades. We were soon to find out why.

 

The horses have riders, some are saddled up, some bareback, all with someone on the ground walking them through by their reins. But the horses are unable to cope with the marble stones and as they round the first corner their hoofs start to slip and slide, one very nearly performed a re-enactment of Bambi on the ice; one leg in all four directions. This of course in turn scares the horses who then rise up on their hind legs, all within the confines of the narrow streets where we are all standing. At the same time, the gypsy bands are playing their whistles and banging their drums, all at a different rhythm and tune. The horses were dripping with sweat and frothing at their mouths, as they had to wait while the procession moved slowly through the streets.

 

We did not continue up to the Monastery, although free buses are provided both there and back, but you have to wait for everyone to be ready to leave before they come back to town, which is normally around 4am.  All in all it was one of those festivals which I am glad I have witnessed, but do not believe I would wish to see again as I found it quite daunting being that close to some very agitated, and very big horses. (I do have photos, but have not uploaded them from my phone yet - modern technology confusing me...)

 

And so back to real life. David is well on his way to finishing the teak work, the final caulking was squished in this morning, before breakfast, and is now drying before the final sanding down. Progress so far...

 

  

 Two coats of anti-foul have been applied to the  bottom of the boat and, although I look particularly attractive in my white smurf outfit, it appears 
 that my anti-fouling technique was not up the exacting Perrett standards:-) It seems that I do not have the strength to apply the paint sufficiently, and it would have been a rubbish finish, or it would have taken double the amount of anti-foul to complete and would have cost twice the money...so I made some more jewellery (see below) and wrote some more of my book, Island of Youth.

 

Our new bicycles have proved to be much more useful than first envisaged – popping into town now only takes five minutes, whereas before it took 15 minutes to walk there before you even got to the shops. However, they come into their own around the marina, especially as the bathroom block is some distance away and they can be a life saver for getting there as quickly as you need to, if you get my drift...

 

We are currently booked in to be ‘launched’ on Monday mid-day, so all going well we should be able to have our first night back on the water to see if everything else is still in order. Weather permitting, as always, we plan to make our way north on Thursday where we will stop off at one of two little bays before hopefully getting back to Nidri on Friday.

2013 sailing season begins...

Welcome to my new blog.

However, I must admit it took me a day or two to figure out how the whole thing worked and to get it set up. So if you have any comments please let me know.

 

I plan to use these pages to keep you updated about our adventures on Alhambra, although this year the adventures probably won't be very adventurous or very far reaching. For a start it is already nearly the end of June and we are still what the sailing fraternity class as 'CLODS', that's 'Cruisers Living On Dirt'. Yes folks, Alhambra is still on the hard. Although the view from the boat makes it just that more bearable...

 



Our journey back was as always exhausting, but the last part is always well worth the wait. The view from the magnificant Rio–Antirrio bridge is stunning, as is the bridge. Which Wiki tells me  'is the world's longest multi-span cable-stayed bridge. It crosses the Gulf of Corinth near Patras, linking the town of Rio on the Peloponnese to Antirrio on mainland Greece by road.'

However, that aside, we are late arriving back in Greece, and will be even later setting off. As always, there are a thousand and one things to do, plus all the additional things David wishes to fix while we are still out of the water. And that's before he starts on the things that need to be fixed once we are back in the water.

For those who are interested, and some of you will be, and I know a lot of you won't, he is replacing and recaulking all the teak work on the swim platform. He carefully took back a section to the UK to repair over winter.The pictures show what it started like...

 

The first stages of repair works...

...and the GRP repairs completed before we returned to the boat. Next step is replacing the teak...

 

When we do get going, please note I use the term 'get going' and not 'sailing', we will be heading straight to the sail makers, as we believe we need a new mainsail. We have no idea how long it will take to replace, let alone all the other things we need to get done once we eventually 'head up island' as they say.

 

I, on the other hand, have promised David that I will finish my book. For those who are unaware, I am currently, or potentially, depending on how you look at it, two thirds of the way through writing my adventure novel 'Island of Youth'. As with all novels, it is a long and arduous process, but not, I am assured, as arduous as getting published - so those of you out there who know of a good publisher or agent, please speak as highly of me as you can... a signed copy will be yours when it finally hits the shelves.

 

My second plan is to spend all my other time(?) designing a collection of jewellery, to be show-cased around the islands of the Ionion, ready to be sold when I get back to the UK - place your Christmas orders now...photos of said collections to be added as and when. Here are just a couple of examples of items I have made thus far...

 

 

 

 

So that's about it for our first week and my first blog. Next week I get to spend my time dressed up in an all-in-one white cotton suit - a bit like a onesie, only with much less class and style, and getting myself covered in blue anti-foul paint, all in 38degs. What more could a girl ask for.

 

In the meantime, your comments on my blog would be really useful, or should  I say, I would welcome really useful comments regarding my blog.

 

Take care,

Michele and Dave - on Alhambra, Messolonghi