On our way...looking for new places

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We dropped the lines in the marina and headed back to Preveza town to anchor off and go in for a few more provisions. We got what we needed and set off for Levkas Canal to get south en route to Zakynthos where we will pick up Jessie and her friend Hugh on Wednesday. The swing bridge over the canal opens on the hour and it was going to be a close one to make the 3 o’clock opening. Thankfully they were a few minutes late and we went straight on through, second to last. 

Through and past the bridge

Sailing conditions were perfect so we set sail again on the other side considering where to go. I love flipping through the charts and the Pilot book to see if there are any places we haven’t gone yet that might be worth a look and found one to check out. We turned the boat about 60 degrees and headed for a nice double bay with what looked like a nice beach. It was a very pleasant anchorage (provided there wasn’t a southerly, which there wasn’t) with one of the bays providing a pebble beach and a beach café/bar and the other a tavern. We opted for in front of the beach bar and settled in for the night.

We BBQ'd up some chicken and with a salad and some pasta had a great dinner onboard. We each took a dip in the water ... we really miss Ross as he is the straw that stirs the drink when it comes to water sports. After a two minute swim we were back on the boat ready to retire.

We woke up the next morning and hopped on the SUPs and went for an explore of the bay for about an hour. The water was a beautiful turquoise and you could see about 10 meters down to the bottom. There weren't too many fish but we did see a couple of good sized ones when we were relaxing on the SUPs taking a dip to cool off. We paddled back to the beach cafe and then walked the beach. It's not a sandy beach but a fine pebble -- very hard to walk because you sink in to your ankles in the little rocks -- really pleasant when you're wearing sandals too. We checked out the beach, it will be a good place to have a beer in the afternoon one day soon and then headed back to the boat.

Almost Ready to Go

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We thought we’d do some provisioning so hopped on the water shuttle to town and did a little shopping, sat in a café for a half hour and then got groceries. Back by 12:15 and kept working on little things around the boat…and we had our first little lunch on board – nice. The bad news was they told us they couldn’t rebuild our alternator and the worse news is they couldn’t find a new one for us – even in Athens. What’s with that?? 

Matt's new favorite passtime: screwing around with alternators

Matt decided to re-install the broken one and use our portable generator to charge up the batteries – a workaround until a permanent solution could be found. The good news is, when he installed the “shot” alternator and bypassed the external regulator (a test he had asked if the tech had done and they said yes – assuming they understood the question), it worked. This alternator is supposed to have a special and unique feature of the external regulator, without that it’s just a normal “dumb” one…well, we’ll skip the special part thanks and get on our way. Now that we had a functioning engine we could get our fridge serviced so that technician was scheduled for the next morning. He showed up around 9:30, got it working, and with mixed feelings (happy all is well but unhappy that we waited around for an alternator that worked) we finally departed. 

To the credit of Cleopatra Marina, after an email from Matt to Konstantina in the Technical Department (who knows us well), she did not charge us for the work they did (and didn’t) do on the alternator -- probably hundreds of Euros.  Chock another one up for Cleo -- such a well run place and customer-service oriented. We cannot recommend them enough, though Marina does cringe when they add the 1Euro charge for the Coke we consumed out of the minibar fridge last year to the 7,300 Euro bill from this year. they are nothing if not consistent and well run.

Cleopatra Marina

Have we mentioned how amazing Cleopatra Marina is? Right down through office staff, marina staff, maintenance guys, room cleaners and into to the restaurant. We have yet to meet someone who hasn’t been friendly and professional. A few examples this trip:  I asked the room lady for a couple of small bottles of water to replenish the fridge in the room, she spoke little English but understood what I wanted through charades and she literally jogged to get the water as I was insisting “no rush!!”.  

Bon Filet...and it was!

The food at the restaurant is amazing – we have never been disappointed (thank goodness because we are here for 3 meals a day for several days). We ordered a steak, “Bon Filet”, with a cognac, cream and peppercorn sauce (which we shared because the portions are huge), and it was the best steak we’ve ever had. The water to the spigot we had charged with euro wasn’t working so they came out and got another one working and gave us 5 euro free, which filled the tanks. All the maintenance and marina guys call Matt “Captain”…which I think is great because it’s respectful and they don’t have to remember names. :0)  They don’t call me First Mate but I don’t mind…I get nods and smiles and hello’s.

Spending Time at Cleopatra Marina

In short, we made it to Preveza on a flight that was more than two hours late, grabbed a cab who drove fast enough to get back to the airport for a second fare (it's only a 5 minute cab ride), and got into our little air conditioned room. 

We decided a drink was in order to aid with sleep so went for a quick one at the restaurant where we were greeted warmly. Of course, up at 5:30 - not so bad because it's cool, and we had to search high and low for Tara and eventually found her in the farthest corner of the lot. 

I'll skip the detail of the first couple of days except not the little tenant we had. Thank GOODNESS it wasn't the rat we had on board last year, this little fella was snuggled into the ropes on deck. We're not sure the species of bat that it was. They are really tiny and we weren't sure whether it was mature or young ... let alone male or female.

Our little stowaway

He (or she) didn't want to leave in daylight so I laid the ropes over a pot so he/she could hang and gently put the lid on leaving a half inch open. It snuggled up under the lid as seen in the picture ... we then left it 'til the next morning and was gone when we checked. I hope he/she is out there devouring mosquitos. 

3 Days later and here we are…still in Cleopatra Marina, still pretty tired at certain times of the day and happy to be here. We spent a day and a half “unpacking” Tara and getting her seaworthy – a nice pace with breaks when it was really hot in the middle of the day where we went to eat or just sat in the room with AC on max. We had a 3 pm drop in and the guys here are amazingly professional and on time however, the boat launched prior to us started to sink. The owner hadn’t been on her in five years and I’m guessing didn’t do his due diligence as he had 4 or 5 leaks from thru-hulls failing. This suited us fine as we went to a late lunch and waited to watch Tara drive by in the travel lift. 

She went in without a hitch (Matt checking all possible leak spots before they set us free) and we powered over to the town to anchor and see if we could haul me up the mast to free up some halyards that got stuck near the top of the forestay (we store the good ropes inside the mast for winter to preserve them). It was just too windy, too late in the day and we were too tired, on top of that we noticed an electrical problem which made Matt quite anxious. We were getting no charging which means batteries could deplete and that’s a big problem on a boat. So we brought the anchor up trying to use the fewest amps possible – with success thankfully – and back to Cleopatra Marina we went. The afternoon thermal was up and Matt did a fantastic job backing into our slip…”you have to commit” he says, when there is wind and current of which there was a lot of both. Even the ormeggiatori commented on how well we did. 

Marina at the top 

Since then we continued to get Tara “roadworthy” – we got up around 6 am the next morning when it was lovely and calm and I went up the mast to free the halyards (by tightening a screw on the forestay that allowed the halyards to slip down to deck level) and installing the wind instrument at the top. Then we proceeded to put both sails on… A full day's work for some and it was only 8:30 so we went for breakfast.  

Matt pumping up the SUPs

The rest of the day was getting the main salon and the bedrooms put back together and de-cluttered. We had bought new fender covers so on they went while while I filled the water tanks (takes about an hour) and Matt worked with the electrician. Then...not great news…it appeared the alternator is “shot”. They took it out and sent it to town to be rebuilt…we think…the electrician did not speak English well. Then we went to lunch and back to the boat and promptly fell asleep. More boat work in the evening … mostly down to tidying up and putting away (except the alternator which we have to wait for) and yet another wonderful meal and a local walk before bed.

Nice new matching fender covers (e.g., not sun faded)

The Beginning of Summer 2017

We (Matt and Marina) left YVR at a very reasonable hour of 9:45 am feeling almost refreshed. A very nice flight to Montreal on a lovely new 787 dreamliner -- the ones that Grandma Melissa works on, and we land 2 movies and 4 hours and 5 minutes later (early by 25 minutes). The next flight now 1.5 hours away and it’s a comfortable wait. Then we’re on an older 767 so movies have to be watched on tablets or cell phones (Matt's iPad, Marina cell) but not so bad. 3 and a half movies plus several Big Bang Theory episodes (plus some reading) took us through the 9 hour flight to Athens – also arriving 30 minutes early. This time early was not a such a great thing … the next flight is now 9 hours and 45 minutes away. This length of layover (without leaving the airport) is new to me. So we get our bags, get through customs, go through a “Greek” style check-in (where our ticket says Aegean Air but we have to check-in to the Olympic Air desk, and we then our two bags must each go to a different bag drop). 

Once fully checked in we found a nice Italian restaurant and shared a huge, yummy, thin crust pizza and killed about 2 more hours. Still about 7 to go. So we find an Airport “bench”, which is 3 seats close together and a connected table on either end, and we lay out (the first one we tried must have been the busiest gate in the airport…the second area was as good as it gets). 

Now this seems like a fun idea to people like my younger brother (who’s a Yukon man) and 19 year olds, but for old farts with sore necks, legs that ache and arms that go numb, it’s not an experience that you want to chase after again. Not to mention music playing, people talking, babies crying, guys plopping down on the bench behind yours which rattles you…and did I mention there is about .05 cm of padding on these chairs with metal in between? We considered the floor but the bench seemed the lesser of two evils. Maybe 2 hours fitful sleep? Maybe. Better than none I guess…or is it?