Friday 2nd May 2014 Basimakopoulou Boatyard Kilada

The start of our 2014 cruise. After a good flight on Monday 28th, we arrived at a balmy Athens airport to be met by Helena of Pop's Cars. We shared a one-way car hire with Viv and Alan, our friends from Free Spirit, Richard driving the hair-pin bends of the Peloponnese on a dark night in a significantly under-powered, diddy little car. We each retired to our respective boats at 11.30pm after a scramble around for ladders - a bit tired.

All nice and dry, all seemed fine until - quel horreur! - we noticed the port side glass in the windscreen had shattered. Houston, we definitely have a problem. Bring out the big guns. Houston in the form of Boatyard Manager Yannis came for a look. Calls went out to Transworld (HR UK agents) and to friends. Replacement glass from Sweden (mega bucks) would take a minimum of 6 weeks. Replacing the whole unit (eye-watering mega mega bucks & definite insurance job) same timeframe. We can't waste two months cruising time, meanwhile status quo is dangerous and not an option. Back to Houston Yannis. Too unique an item and curved, so it will not be possible to manufacture a replacement in safety glass. Solution - a temporary one for the season - we knock out all the glass, Yannis will order Perspex from Athens, special courier. They will measure, cut and fit and we will still be able to get launched on Friday, 2nd May as planned. So we knocked out the glass. No matter how careful, we will be finding little glass diamond nuggets for weeks to come.

Well, various delays occurred (May Day holiday being one). Greek sense of time is, shall we say, unusual. However, true to his word, Yannis turned up this morning (Friday) with plexiglass and set one of his men to the task. He came, fiddled about a bit, then headed off for lunch. We paid our dues (the office closes from 2pm to 5pm). Man returned, made template and disappeared off again to cut the Perspex. Fingers crossed.

In the meantime, we have worked solidly since Tuesday, Myrica is polished and antifouled, cleaned and everything is stowed. Lines are re-rigged, genoa and mainsail are back on and we are ready to launch. Viv and I did a massive supermarket shop whilst we had the hire car and sorted out things like Greek sim data cards. I do like boatyards - they are convivial, busy places where everyone is looking forward. All nationalities, from Aussie to Dutch, German, Italian, French, North Americans, Swedes etc etc. The variety means a wealth of information and different practices are shared and compared. We celebrated last night by dining out at our favourite little cantina, where there is no menu and you are brought plate after plate of tasty little bites - vegetables, cheese concoctions, peas & beans, fishy bits, it goes on.

It is now creeping towards 4pm. If Yannis delivers and we launch today, he truly deserves the name Houston, with Myrica's heartfelt thanks. Longer term is longer term and we have time to plan the final solution. Meanwhile, there's a sparkling sea out there and we want to get afloat.

Ps. It is 7pm our time and hooray, we are in the water. Man returned, much fiddling and fine-tuning, and we have an insert. Yannis came to inspect and improved things further. Job done by 4pm. Yannis says, we launch you now and we were safely launched, checked and let go by 5pm. The season can start!