Back to small planes, goats and reveille - and home. Sunday, 11th October 2015.

Not only did we lunch and swim in beautiful sunshine off Archangelos, but took the opportunity of an afternoon lull in the breeze to drop and remove both the genoa and the mainsail. We were in the company of an Irish boat that was on the hard next to us last winter - they were doing much the same and followed us into Partheni to pick up a boatyard buoy in the evening. They were called for first lift at 8am Friday; we were second at around 9am with a couple more boats to follow us. Our lift-out chaps were cheerful and extremely competent and careful. And Irene in the office is charming and incredibly efficient - this doesn't seem like the Greece we have known and come to love - cheerful, charming, etc yes, but efficient?

We are back to packing up mode - the little Leros to Athens plane arrives and takes off again about 20 minutes later four times a day - so close we could spit at it (if one was so inclined!). We will walk to the airport on Monday for our 8am flight. That said, our friend Vasilis from S/Y Thetis is ashore here also and taking the same Athens flight. He has a hire car, and has once again offered to drive our luggage to the airport for us - all of about 400m away at most. I owe him coffee and cake later today. The goats bleat away in the distance, the yard cats seem to have produced sproglets, sweet little kittens being trained in the art of bin diving and rat catching (effective, none around!). And the bugles from the adjacent navy establishment hold forth at many and strange times of the day and night,

So now Myrica does not look like a sleek thoroughbred sailing yacht. She is festooned with warps and sheets and lines that have been washed and are now drying. Ditto bedding and everything to be left behind has been put through the washing machine and is similarly strung up to dry in the fabulous warm sunshine. Now looks more like a junk…. The boatyard has a beautifully tiled area for washing sails, with a "mast" to hoist them to dry before laying them out to flake and roll them. Our sails have never been so well looked after. I forgot to take a picture when we were doing ours, but in the album there is a picture of someone else's to show the idea.

It's been another good season, very varied and different again to the others. Istanbul and all the excursions were highlights, so too Mount Athos, as were exploring hitherto unvisited islands - we particularly liked Lesbos and Limnos, but Rhodes in the south and some of the dinkier islets like Khalkis, Levitha and the Arki/Lipso Nature Reserve were all special. Love the whole Dodecanese really. And the people you meet; locals, itinerant cruisers like us, or migrants, they were all fascinating with their own stories to tell.

Last day, outside jobs are done except for a bit of fender cleaning and furlex tweaking, just the defrosting of fridge and last clean-up inside before Monday's little plane. Love little planes, you can keep your big ones. Until next spring, farewell good little boat. And so to bed…