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Jun 30
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| Waiting ain't so bad with a frosty beer in hand |
I was waiting with a Heini in hand by the time the ladies walked by. As it turned out we also decided that we really only needed 3 people grocery shopping so I stayed back and had another Heineken at the cafe. I was just about to drain my 2nd beer when the ladies walked by with the groceries and rescued me from my naturally wicked ways.
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| Donna and Janice enjoying the sunshine and the little wind that we had to work with |
We headed back to the boat, stopping for ice on the way. When we hit the boat, went for a swim and and picked up the anchor by 2pm. Marina is preparing for when I leave for Germany and she will be Captain in command. She was at the back driving and the anchor was really weird how it was way off to the one side ... she had to fight the wind to get the bow that direction but she got it and we pulled up the anchor and headed roughly SE towards Muertos. We tried sailing for a while, it looked pretty good but the 2 knot rule was in effect and we turned on the Yanmar for some help. We dropped the hook, had cocktail hour (a daily event on Tara including wine, beer, rum, cheese, olives, humous and crackers) and later, after some discussion regarding whether the new propellor would work, went into town for dinner ... (it worked).
Jul 1
We had a very leisurely morning, getting
up late and having a coffee. The ladies woke up about 09:30, about 2 hours
after Marina woke up and started on her math homework. She is prepping to tutor Grade 12 Pre-Calculus.
Ross' head had filled up again (not planned) so we decided it was time to change the pump. Marina went at it with the two key ingredients: alacrity and gloves. In the mean time I took the carburetor off of the outboard engine and cleaned it thoroughly as it quitting part way home seemed like a bit of a liability. Once that maintenance was done we headed into the town of Sivota and I had “breakfast” which is a euphemism for a coffee and "dropping anchor". The ladies went out for a walk. They came and joined me an hour or so later and I had lunch, then they went marketing while I took a walk up and over to the beach resort outside of where Tara was moored. Marina came and picked me up in BB2 but not without some confusion as to where I was — having gone to the other shoreline a mile or so away.
In the early afternoon we lifted up the hook and headed out towards Lakka some 12 miles or so away. We only powered around the point and set our sails, and the wind was pretty much on the nose so we were heading more towards Antipaxos than Lakka but we kept with it and coming around the Corfu point we were lifted nearly all the way to Lakka. We dropped the hook on the south side of the entrance in about 4 meters of water (only 21.35 degrees though) right beside a 1970’s vintage superyacht called Royal Tara from Valetta. We settled down and saw a guy on a SUP with the paddle the wrong way ... I asked Marina when we saw him whether we should tell him ... she said no ... but he came up to the boat, introduced himself as Gareth whose wife is from Vancouver so we shared a beer and a nice chat. Then Marina and I hopped on our SUP boards and paddled around the bay finally helping some guys in a dinghy with getting it started. I joked about owing us a beer and lo and behold they showed up with some beers and we had a very nice chat with this Latvian couple who live in Germany with their daughter and their friend who is still from Latvia. Perfect English skills plus very social. Nice young people in their late 20’s. What a terrific group of people our world produces on a regular basis. Now after a few beers and rum drinks it was time for dinner so we headed into Lakka and our normal place for dinner. We shared some lamb and some prawns and, of course, more wine. I skulked off now and then to see the different soccer scores — Russia advancing on penalties over Spain, Croatia also advances on penalties. Wow. We made it back to the dinghy and then the boat ... turned in and, after drinking a torpedo of water, went to bed.
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| CELEBRATING CANADA DAY 2018 |
Ross' head had filled up again (not planned) so we decided it was time to change the pump. Marina went at it with the two key ingredients: alacrity and gloves. In the mean time I took the carburetor off of the outboard engine and cleaned it thoroughly as it quitting part way home seemed like a bit of a liability. Once that maintenance was done we headed into the town of Sivota and I had “breakfast” which is a euphemism for a coffee and "dropping anchor". The ladies went out for a walk. They came and joined me an hour or so later and I had lunch, then they went marketing while I took a walk up and over to the beach resort outside of where Tara was moored. Marina came and picked me up in BB2 but not without some confusion as to where I was — having gone to the other shoreline a mile or so away.
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| Out for a walk in Sivota |
In the early afternoon we lifted up the hook and headed out towards Lakka some 12 miles or so away. We only powered around the point and set our sails, and the wind was pretty much on the nose so we were heading more towards Antipaxos than Lakka but we kept with it and coming around the Corfu point we were lifted nearly all the way to Lakka. We dropped the hook on the south side of the entrance in about 4 meters of water (only 21.35 degrees though) right beside a 1970’s vintage superyacht called Royal Tara from Valetta. We settled down and saw a guy on a SUP with the paddle the wrong way ... I asked Marina when we saw him whether we should tell him ... she said no ... but he came up to the boat, introduced himself as Gareth whose wife is from Vancouver so we shared a beer and a nice chat. Then Marina and I hopped on our SUP boards and paddled around the bay finally helping some guys in a dinghy with getting it started. I joked about owing us a beer and lo and behold they showed up with some beers and we had a very nice chat with this Latvian couple who live in Germany with their daughter and their friend who is still from Latvia. Perfect English skills plus very social. Nice young people in their late 20’s. What a terrific group of people our world produces on a regular basis. Now after a few beers and rum drinks it was time for dinner so we headed into Lakka and our normal place for dinner. We shared some lamb and some prawns and, of course, more wine. I skulked off now and then to see the different soccer scores — Russia advancing on penalties over Spain, Croatia also advances on penalties. Wow. We made it back to the dinghy and then the boat ... turned in and, after drinking a torpedo of water, went to bed.
Jul 2
Up late today — like 09:00 ... in
reality woke up earlier but laid in bed listening to radio dramas. 70 years later Lucille Ball is still very funny. Finally got
up and got going started doing email and stuff and headed up top for a "coffee" -- see euphemism for "breakfast".
Not sure what the plan is for today, there is fairly thick fog here in Lakka,
something we haven’t seen before. Dew point must be equal to the temperature
outside. We turned on the motor to get some juice into the batteries as we are
at 70%
... yikes, maybe we turn on the generator for an hour or two today while we are away... it was a pretty lazy day and I decided that I would work on the new regulator, which while it isn’t really all that complex, I believe that I am finally figuring out electricity generated from Alternators.
The hangup was the brown wire that is switched to the ignition. I had to find an ignition switch wire to tap into, which I did finally — the red wire that is at the top of the “T” fitting that connects to the Alternator. I also noticed the brown wire from the alternator was not connected to the diode, which is likely why the charge light kept coming on ... anyway, after a couple of hours work to figure out how to do about 10 minutes worth of work, we were in business. Now all I need to do is learn how to program it!
Meanwhile Marina and Donna went of SUPping, with Donna
looking a bit shaky as we took off but she managed to circumnavigate Lakka
until she came back to Tara when I asked her why she was so far forward on the
board — causing her to rapid-step back and into the water with a big splash and
a middle finger sticking up. This all wrapped up about 4:45pm and the
Brazil-Mexico match was at 5 so we piled in the dinghy to head to town found a
bar and watched the game — which was highly entertaining except for Neymar Jr.
falling down as if he were shot. The worst one being when he was slightly
stepped on and he was rolling around on the ground for a couple of minutes ...
the slo-mo made him look like a total whiner. Anyway, he goes and scores the
first goal and sets up the 2nd so he’s a good player, not such a good person.
We made it back to the boat and our neighbours told us that the anchor had been
lifted by another boat while we were away so we made dinner and decided to
reposition the boat — twice — to get it right. Not really much of a chore in a
4 meter deep harbour where you can see the bottom clearly. Anyway, back to the
boat, I got my guitar restrung and sang a bunch of songs that I knew then off
to bed at a reasonable hour as we want to get to Antipaxos and Pargas today.
... yikes, maybe we turn on the generator for an hour or two today while we are away... it was a pretty lazy day and I decided that I would work on the new regulator, which while it isn’t really all that complex, I believe that I am finally figuring out electricity generated from Alternators.
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| Nothing like a forest of wires to make things interesting |
The hangup was the brown wire that is switched to the ignition. I had to find an ignition switch wire to tap into, which I did finally — the red wire that is at the top of the “T” fitting that connects to the Alternator. I also noticed the brown wire from the alternator was not connected to the diode, which is likely why the charge light kept coming on ... anyway, after a couple of hours work to figure out how to do about 10 minutes worth of work, we were in business. Now all I need to do is learn how to program it!
Jul 3
We actually got up on time and had a
coffee and got underway to Antipaxos by 09:00, early enough to avoid taking a
pit-stop in town. A long quiet power down to Antipaxos was followed by a very
nice lunch at the top of Antipaxos, pricey but nice.
There are some 216 steps up to the top and the beach is still very nice. We anchored close to the shore on the south side where the tripper boats go and we had to move once and we also had a large tripper boat lay his chain over top of our anchor which caused some fancy maneuvering.
We headed off to Pargas under power and arrived an hour or two later (I had a nap so I am not exactly sure how long it took). We anchored between a couple of big cats and took the shuttle to town for 5 Euros each and watched a pretty good soccer match between England and Columbia. The English had the play and a 1-nil lead through 90 minutes but the Colombians tied it up at 93 minutes and there was no score in the two 15 minute halves of overtime. In PK’s it looked bleak for the Brits as the Colombian goal keeper had made a save and Columbia had a 3-2 lead, but that was followed by a crossbar and a terrific save by the English goalie and then the striker for England potted a goal to make it 4-3, quite a dramatic turnaround. We headed back for the midnight boat and it was too full, so he did a quick turnaround and we made it back for around 12:30 thoroughly entertained by the game.
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| Taking photos of the incredible view ... Matt deep in thought ,,, Heineken or Mythos ... decisions decisions |
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| The view from the top is breathtaking |
There are some 216 steps up to the top and the beach is still very nice. We anchored close to the shore on the south side where the tripper boats go and we had to move once and we also had a large tripper boat lay his chain over top of our anchor which caused some fancy maneuvering.
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| Walking around Pargas is really like walking around the Grouse Grind ... it is all up and down |
We headed off to Pargas under power and arrived an hour or two later (I had a nap so I am not exactly sure how long it took). We anchored between a couple of big cats and took the shuttle to town for 5 Euros each and watched a pretty good soccer match between England and Columbia. The English had the play and a 1-nil lead through 90 minutes but the Colombians tied it up at 93 minutes and there was no score in the two 15 minute halves of overtime. In PK’s it looked bleak for the Brits as the Colombian goal keeper had made a save and Columbia had a 3-2 lead, but that was followed by a crossbar and a terrific save by the English goalie and then the striker for England potted a goal to make it 4-3, quite a dramatic turnaround. We headed back for the midnight boat and it was too full, so he did a quick turnaround and we made it back for around 12:30 thoroughly entertained by the game.
Jul 4
I had some work to do, an RFP response
for the Government that took me several hours, so the ladies headed off
to town in the dinghy while I worked away on the RFP for Victoria.
I got a call from the ladies asking me to take their picture at the top of the local fort (I think they will be pretty small in the picture) After working for a few more hours, I took a break and paddled the SUP around the bay for a walkabout and a very quick dip. Not sure why I was wigged out by the water but I was.
Anyway, back on the boat the fridge stopped working — the electric one. First time in 9 years so I guess it doesn’t owe us much. Anyway it means that we are down a fridge unit — geez warm beer and bread ... (Jimmy Buffet Cheeseburger in Paradise reference in case you missed it)
We decided to head to Preveza for the night and tie into the mole. We wallyied about getting ready and then nailed a perfect into the mole landing, though I was going fairly fast at the end and needed a bit of a bounce in forward to cushion against the wall. Anyway we came in and our Lithuanian friends from Lakka came and said hello. They had a puncture in their dinghy and needed some glue so I lent them my glue kit — in return they brought back some lovely soup.
Apparently a German recipe, it was delicious. The Port Police lady Nicole from Brooklyn came by and we had a nice half-hour chat with her learning about her Big Fat Greek Wedding family — 17 kids and 41 first cousins from one set of grandparents. We went over to the Lithuanian boat for a drink or three and had a nice chat until the wee hours of the morning. The world is in good hands if these guys are the future generation
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| Can you see them waving at the top of the hill? Don't Feel bad ... neither can I |
I got a call from the ladies asking me to take their picture at the top of the local fort (I think they will be pretty small in the picture) After working for a few more hours, I took a break and paddled the SUP around the bay for a walkabout and a very quick dip. Not sure why I was wigged out by the water but I was.
Anyway, back on the boat the fridge stopped working — the electric one. First time in 9 years so I guess it doesn’t owe us much. Anyway it means that we are down a fridge unit — geez warm beer and bread ... (Jimmy Buffet Cheeseburger in Paradise reference in case you missed it)
We decided to head to Preveza for the night and tie into the mole. We wallyied about getting ready and then nailed a perfect into the mole landing, though I was going fairly fast at the end and needed a bit of a bounce in forward to cushion against the wall. Anyway we came in and our Lithuanian friends from Lakka came and said hello. They had a puncture in their dinghy and needed some glue so I lent them my glue kit — in return they brought back some lovely soup.
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| The soup delivered from our new Lithuanian Friends |
Apparently a German recipe, it was delicious. The Port Police lady Nicole from Brooklyn came by and we had a nice half-hour chat with her learning about her Big Fat Greek Wedding family — 17 kids and 41 first cousins from one set of grandparents. We went over to the Lithuanian boat for a drink or three and had a nice chat until the wee hours of the morning. The world is in good hands if these guys are the future generation
Jul 5
We left Preveza after the world’s
largest (and best priced) breakfast for 5 Euros. Did a little marketing,, though
forgot to buy rum, picked up a couple bags of ice and shipped 225Euro of fuel.
Fridge is still on the fritz but the result is that we’re using way less
electricity so it works out about even. We left Preveza around 13:10 and did a
lazy cruise at 1200 Revs out the passage, the wind picked up so we sailed to
Lefkas, even reefing on the way there. We arrived at the entrance of the Canal
at 14:45 so we just did a few lazy racetracks until 14:57 and then headed into
the canal. There were only a half dozen or so boats with us and only 2 going
the other way, so it was low stress. We puttered through Lefkas and then passed
the French Catamaran around the fuel dock and through to the other side.
We raised our sails and sailed to the Ormos Varko bay ... originally thinking it was the one that was further east but getting it right. It was pretty windy and Marina didn’t want to manage the helm but I convinced her it wasn’t going to get any better than this so .... she did a grease job. It’s a nice bay here, quite open to the south but the wind was from the North all day so it seemed like a good place to hang out. The beach is pebble and there is a beach bar here that isn;t very well attended ... maybe on the weekend it gets busier. Marina and Donna headed off on SUPs and explored the beach while I had a swim (very short) and lounged about doing next to nothing. Donna prepared some pork tenderloin for dinner and I BBQd it. We ate dinner while I played guitar and tried to learn some new songs ... I can play them, just remembering them takes some time. Maybe I need to write them down and build a playlist with the lyrics to make them stick. Early to bed, relatively early to rise ....
We raised our sails and sailed to the Ormos Varko bay ... originally thinking it was the one that was further east but getting it right. It was pretty windy and Marina didn’t want to manage the helm but I convinced her it wasn’t going to get any better than this so .... she did a grease job. It’s a nice bay here, quite open to the south but the wind was from the North all day so it seemed like a good place to hang out. The beach is pebble and there is a beach bar here that isn;t very well attended ... maybe on the weekend it gets busier. Marina and Donna headed off on SUPs and explored the beach while I had a swim (very short) and lounged about doing next to nothing. Donna prepared some pork tenderloin for dinner and I BBQd it. We ate dinner while I played guitar and tried to learn some new songs ... I can play them, just remembering them takes some time. Maybe I need to write them down and build a playlist with the lyrics to make them stick. Early to bed, relatively early to rise ....
Jul 6
Coming towards the end of Donna and
Janis’ stay with us we figured we go to Nidri and eat at the Italian place. We
didn’t power to Nidri until late in the afternoon and we secured a good spot at
the head of tranquil bay ... perhaps a little close to the Lyra of Wight boat
that appears to be stapled to the bottom of the bay as it is in the same spot
as it was the previous year as we recall.
Anyway we did some marketing at the grocery store and went to Nidri Marine to get some rope for bracelets and a spark plug. We also got some colour coding for the anchor chain — see if that works before we buy a lot of them. We watched two quarter-final soccer games seeing Belgium triumph over Brazil at the bar, then we went to the Italian restaurant D’Opprodo and watched France triumph over Uruguay. We then went back to the boat put wrist bands on everyone and had a talk about the weather.
Marina was concerned that we don’t want to go to Preveza too late as the wind was coming up — like Force 8, so we don’t want to be slogging into that, or perhaps worse, trying to dock at Preveza in that kind of situation, so we will play it by ear for tomorrow. In the end we stayed in Nidri and Donna and Janice caught a cab from our favorite Italian restaurant to the airport -- and Marina and I watched another World Cup game!
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| Watching World Cup Football -- England crushes Uruguay |
Anyway we did some marketing at the grocery store and went to Nidri Marine to get some rope for bracelets and a spark plug. We also got some colour coding for the anchor chain — see if that works before we buy a lot of them. We watched two quarter-final soccer games seeing Belgium triumph over Brazil at the bar, then we went to the Italian restaurant D’Opprodo and watched France triumph over Uruguay. We then went back to the boat put wrist bands on everyone and had a talk about the weather.
Marina was concerned that we don’t want to go to Preveza too late as the wind was coming up — like Force 8, so we don’t want to be slogging into that, or perhaps worse, trying to dock at Preveza in that kind of situation, so we will play it by ear for tomorrow. In the end we stayed in Nidri and Donna and Janice caught a cab from our favorite Italian restaurant to the airport -- and Marina and I watched another World Cup game!
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