Getting to the End

Coming out of Lefkas again – third-time-lucky – we hugged the shoreline and never got below 3.5 meters deep. Again we anchored out front and the kids and Marina went ashore while I tried to figure out why our batteries aren’t charging to full. Everything went swimmingly well until a jelly was sighted … and then all swimming stopped, and it was time to get to Cleopatra.

Jess was happy to be going home to her friends.

Ross had mixed feelings...

Matt would have drowned his sorrows
if there was not so much work to do.
Here...a beer for the skipper on our
last day of sailing.

The coast off Preveza, where Cleopatra Marina is, is very shallow to about 1.5 miles off the coast so there is a channel to get in marked by red and green buoys...and the rules are opposite to those at home...where it is "red right returning", meaning keep red buoys to your right (starboard) when coming IN to port and the opposite on the way out. So, in we went.



Good bye Lefkas!

Red buoy to port (opposite of our coast)

And green to starboard...

Cleopatra reminds me a lot of both Kemer Turkey and Port Napoleon. All three marinas are well run, are efficient yet have a homey feeling. Apparently it is a family run business and their care and attention to detail shows. The first night at the restaurant we had a great meal and really enjoyed ourselves. By the third night at the restaurant it was like we were old friends … when I arrived before I would order the 500ml Heineken would arrive at our table.

Hosing off, cleaning lockers...

Lots of work to "pickle" the engine.

Laundry...

Lots of laundry....

Ross and Jess in a nice moment...

Jess and Marina went to town to look for boat parts...

There is a ton of stuff that needs to be done to prepare the boat for storage. We try to get to most of them before we hit the marina, and then it’s a race against time to get as much done as possible. If we had another week we would have been able to find another week’s worth of work to do … so like a final exam you do what you can in the time allotted and then you’re done.

A 150 line to-do list had us all working all day … Tara was lifted from the water at 14:00 hours on Monday. We are definitely getting smarter. Instead of staying on the boat we took an apartment (with air-conditioning) – when we saw that it had just one bed, we got a second apartment for the kids. We are storing the dinghy indoors, having a number of things serviced while we’re gone and will be using some of the Marina’s services to help get us prepared for next year’s cruising.

Bonnie Blue off to her winter home.

Tara getting ready to come out.

And she's up! The bottom is pressure washed.

A pic with the Marina staff (they take one with their camera too).

Marina and I awoke at 07:30 and went back to the boat for the final preparations. The wind was blowing very hard the day before so I couldn’t change the outboard’s motor oil (the wind blows the oil everywhere) and unfortunately the wind was blowing very hard on Tuesday morning too, so Plan B – change the Outboard’s oil when we return. In our usual rush we worked hard to get as much done as possible before our self-imposed 12:00 deadline.

Jess cleaning out the fridge!

We grabbed showers, did our final packing, and caught the cab at 12:30 to the Aktion airport a few Kilometers away.  We sadly waved goodbye to Tara and Marina and Jessie on the right-side windows of the airplane waved goodbye to her as we took off from Greece to Germany.

See you next summer Greece!