Sunday, 29th April 2018
A different, somewhat anxious start

We are back in the land of blue skies and sunshine, although the path has not been as smooth as in previous years. First, we had booked an early flight from Heathrow enabling us to catch the mid-afternoon flight to Leros and do the journey in one hit with no sleepless night flying. Hurray, until Olympic decide to bump the afternoon flight and put us on an earlier flight that just happened to take off from Athens as we landed - unless we ourselves sprouted wings that was a bit of a challenge, so we had them change us to the next day's flight. We booked ourselves into a very central little place in Athens and decided to relax and enjoy a bit of sightseeing. That was great - we hadn't actually been into the city itself since a very quick zoom around the Acropolis in 1999!

The worst bit was the morning of our departure. A note was posted on the CA (Cruising Association) forum to say it was rumoured our boatyard had gone into liquidation and ceased trading. Bit of a panic, we had visions of being locked out, our boat stranded on the hard and inaccessible, and so on. We rang various people we aleady knew were out there to see if they could confirm or otherwise. We rang the boatyard's chandlery and got cut off, which was ominous. There had been an earlier rumour, which the yard had dispelled, but we all know that the Greek economy is fragile, businesses have little credit and run on impossibly tight margins. We finally got through to our Manager, Irene, who assured us all was well and they awaited our return. Friends out there confirmed that all seemed open for business, if a bit quiet. But it did give us a few heart-stopping moments, wondering what we were going to encounter on our arrival.

Our little Leros flight was a pleasure, after a quick bit of re-fuelling whilst we were on board (did they forget?), we crossed the Aegean over islands we had visited under sail. Ioannis was waiting for us on arrival with our hire car and we dumped bags and headed to the local supermarket for a mini stock-up. Myrica seemed fine, ditto the boatyard. Rumours were still flying around, assurances on the one hand, stories of rivalries, court cases, non-payments and the like on the other. We decided to hold off rebooking ourselves in for next year - see what happens. We would be very sad if it did have major problems, the staff are great, the technical lot very skilled and we feel now a certain loyalty. And we like it, it suits us. There is a Sicilian flavour to all the stories, but this is Greece - they stab each other in the back verbally and financially, and cease drinking ouzo together - unlike the Sicilians, they do not go around killing each other!

Thankfully, the Navy has resumed its morning and evening piping - we know when to get up and when to down tools! The goats are as noisy as ever and there are whole families of new kittens honing their foraging skills. We know cats are agile, but here they can climb vertical 4m ladders to try and join us for dinner - equally agile being shooed back down again.

A couple of days of manic t-cutting & polishing, antifouling, re-rigging and putting sails on, systems testing and the like and we are pretty much ready to go. We have met up with fellow sailors we have got to know. Last year was a nightmare of mishaps, broken bits, dead bits and more - so far and touch wood, we have been let off lightly with nothing to complain about… In fact the boat is looking pretty good and is obviously happy to see us. We get picked up and dropped in the water tomorrow. The forecast is for more of this damned sunshine, clear skies and light wind - it's tough. Let the fun begin.

Postscript:
Nothing has gone wrong? Water pump - first continuous cycling - fixed, then leaking. After long into this evening, now working.