The Work Continues …

Once we spashed Tara there was still plenty of work to do. Somehow during the installation of the new Alternator, a ground was loose and that affected both the windlass and the bow thruster.

Some assembly required

The wind in the afternoon at Preveza is a thermal and it is generally calm in the morning building to 18-20 knots in the afternoon. We launched at 3pm and we didn’t know yet the thruster and windlass didn’t work so when we were told to go to a dock it was “yikes” I haven’t done this in a year and I don’t have a bow thruster. Gulp!

Tara back in the water ... She's Happy Again!

So we took her out of the marina entrance to get a good long run at the slip, testing the new alternator, and her new gear shifter in the process. The Yanmar engine worked flawlessly – always like a champ. We pulled 100 meters out of the marina put it in reverse and promptly went sideways – attempt 1. The next time I remembered to orient the bow 30 degrees to the left and then the prop-walk will bring the transom up by the time the boat gets moving.

We backed in a ‘warp speed’ into the slip and thankfully there was another 50 foot sailboat beside us to hang onto as the wind pushed the boat sideways hard. We managed to get it all tied up and secured, and then we plugged in for the first time with the new charger – 14+ volts … high fives for everyone.

Also delivered at launching was the mainsail, and Bonnie Blue – Tara’s trusty RIB – rigid inflatable boat. More work to do.

The new 140 Amp Alternator installed

Once we figured out the windlass and the bow thruster weren’t working it became obvious that there was a wiring problem. I reckoned it had something to do with the alternator because both of them only work with the engine running. I tried some combinations that didn’t work, and finally figured out that it was a ground. The windlass was working but not the thruster. After an hour of cleaning contacts and testing, it was ready for re-installation and it worked. Yes! Then it stopped working. No! Finally after putting new connections on, it worked and we’re not touching it again.

The only other nagging problem is the engine driven freezer needs to be charged with Freon. This has happened before although we had a technician think that he had fixed the problem. It could be that the o-ring that he installed last year broke again as there is a fair amount of vibration.

Anyway, we figure we can get a refrigeration technician somewhere along the route to Athens.

Out of Preveza – onto Lefkas

Two days in the water at Cleopatra and it was time to go. The afternoon breeze there funnels down the channel and creates an unpleasant 2 foot chop that attacks the docks and the transoms of the boats. We didn’t have the main in the mast for the first night and we got to listen to the Clang, Clang, Clang of the roller furling hitting the inside of the mast.

The afternoon thermal arrives at Preveza and keeps you
awake at night. This is the view from the Restaurant where
we ate Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for nearly five
days in a row.

Day 2 morning we got up really early and installed the mainsail. We also put the jib and the jib sheets on properly – though we threaded the jib incorrectly and had a spinnaker halyard between the jib and the forestay so Ross had to go all the way to the top of the mast a few days later to fix it. We were feeling better about ourselves, we had fixed the windlass and the thruster, the sails were on, the water tanks filled, we had gas for the outboard, and some food in the fridge. I put an extra fender on our right transom corner as we had a tight left turn to make and I didn’t want to bash into the boat beside us. We dropped the lines, cast off, hit the throttle and we were off. We decided to put Bonnie Blue in the water.  It was a bit of a gong-show, but we got it done. Off to Lefkas. We pulled out the jib and were tooling along pretty well. Lefkas opens up the floating bridge on the hour. We were going to either be right on time or an hour early. We got there and the bridge hadn’t opened up yet. We drove by a guy that was hard aground who yelled for us to give him a rope to pull him off. I had 0.3M of water under the keel, one other person on board and a channel about 50 feet wide. I felt bad about not helping him but the reality is that 1) Tara would have been put in danger; 2) there are commercial operators that could help him if he wanted to pay the fee; and 3) the bridge was open and damned if we were going to float around for an hour waiting for another opening.

Matt happily steering Tara towards Lefkas

We charged through Lefkas channel … me swearing at the guy in front that was going so slow that I needed to put the boat in neutral half the time. Also in 20 knots of breeze, the boat can be a handful if you lose tracking of the keel and rudder. I was tailgating him enough that he got the message and pulled over to let us through. Freaking pushy Canadians!

We went on to Meganisi island. Reading the Imray book you must be mindful of lines ashore on Meganisi as rats have a habit of climbing on board your boat. Ross was reading an annotation for a bay we were looking at and it said: “There is 100% chance a rat will get on board your boat in this anchorage. They only come on-board at night though – so you can enjoy all the wasps during the day”. We have seen up close what a mouse/rat can do on board a boat – we saw one at Kremik and they needed to tear the boat apart to catch the thing after it had chewed through a bunch of wire and hoses. Just as we were about to give in we went into an anchorage and threw the hook and it held. The disco pumped out fireworks at midnight and kept going full-tilt-boogey until 6am Sunday morning. We hope that was because it was a holiday and not just Saturday night. We got up a little late the next morning and went ashore, had a coffee, breakfast, bought some provisions and surfed the internet. Ross downloaded $30 of Archie Comics. That IB program is really paying off!

Ross on Meganisi resisting the temptation to hold up Tara with one hand

In the afternoon we headed to Tranquil Bay in Nydri, a town about half way down Lefkas. There we secured rental of 2 scooters that we would take to Preveza on Monday morning. We ate out, bought food and hung out on the boat. Monday morning at 9 we picked up our scooters, a 50cc one for Ross, 100cc’s for me, and rode the 50kms to Preveza, including the 2 km tunnel under the Preveza harbour. We payed our 800 Euros tax, got our cruising permit stamped and we were good to go. On the way back we stopped in Lefkas town and checked out the beach there – a mecca for windsurfing and kitesurfing. Both Ross and I looked at the kitesurfing and thought it would be a blast – provided the water is warm.

Ross and I both enjoyed the ride, once I got over being a bit panicked about how people ride your butt when they want to pass. We are thinking about a motorcycle trip next June to visit Marina’s brother Mike in the Yukon for the summer solstice.

Safe and sound back on Tara, we loaded up on more food and beverages and started thinking about getting to Athens. We have about a week to get there … and we always like to be early as opposed to late to the party. Looks like it’s time to leave Tranquil Bay for the windy side of Greece.