Leros Boatyard Partheni 8th May 2015

Myrica is a boat afloat again . It was a seamless (if slightly tiring) trip out here - a late flight from Heathrow to Athens arriving 4am, followed by a short flight in a small plane to Leros at about 6.30am. The benefit of doing it like that was flying Aegean Airways - they booked all our heavy bags, including new genoa, right through to Leros, meaning we didn't have those hassles at Athens.

We arrived in sunshine, hired a car for some much needed stocking up, and then set to unpacking and putting the boat to rights. By Thursday afternoon, the boat was polished and antifouled, rigged and tested, sails put on and dinghy inflated. The only mishaps this year (due to wet and very windy weather over the winter) were a shredded tarpaulin, a snapped mousing line for the spinnaker halyard and a broken gas spring strut for the kicker. A new one was ordered and came in super quick time for Richard to replace. The dust and grit in the boat (result of said shredded tarp) was cleaned out. The only remaining fix is for Wendy to be hoisted up the mast to try and feed a new mousing line down so we can get the spinnaker halyard in - but we don't do that on the hard. If I am going to fall anywhere from 40 odd feet, I would rather swing out and fall in the water, thank you very much - not that it would be very likely!

The wifi has been a bit flaky yesterday and today, so belated birthday wishes to Super Mario Isaac, and we have had difficulty following the election - have had only garbled reports from others so far. But by the time this uploads we should know.

We were launched by 11am on a sunny, hot (28 deg) morning. We sat on a buoy for lunch and to sort a few things, then set off for the southwest of the island to Lakki - partly to try out the new genoa and partly to put ourselves somewhere with access to a few shops that is sheltered - it's going to be a tad windy over the next couple of days.

We had a fabulous sail down, achieved 7.9 knots on a flat sea without really trying - shows what a new sail and a clean bottom will do. No jokes please. The season has started!

Wishing all our fellow sailors fair winds and a good season, and family & friends a lovely summer.
xx

ps back online - surprise election result!