Brian, Maggie and the Lone Shark

We met Brian and Maggie working on Lone Shark when we first arrived at Cleopatra Yard. Affable and interested it wasn’t long before they invited us to use their van for shopping trips and even for a weekend – though we’re not quite confident enough of leaving Petronella yet to take them up on that offer.

Brian has sailed all over the world, on his own and with all sorts of crew including a round Britain race when Lone Shark, a mean thoroughbred Sadler Barracuda, clocked 22 knots off the Shetlands! He’s currently with Maggie an old time friend and now partner and they are such positive people. Now in his early 70s Brian regales us with stories of turning upside down off Falmouth, friends doing Titanic impressions on the anchor only to find it wasn’t tied on and plummeting to the water with it and spending an entire chartering season (the boat was used in Howard’s Way so was quite an icon back then) without an engine. Maggie’s first exposure to sailing was with Brian on the Round Lefkas Race. It was blowing at 43 knots and when Brian asked for the genoa to be sheeted in more Maggie replied “I can’t, the winch is underwater!” They have a great life out here, know everyone and are so grateful for what they have.

Tonight we are going to their rented house for something to eat before probably mooching around to Meganissi tomorrow. Oh yes, yesterday evening turned into a bit of a session at the Yacht Club and “The Red Lion” run by a multilingual eccentric Greek.

Not Exactly Tranquil Bay

Arrived in Tranquil Bay, well actually Vlikho, today after a 7 knot fly down the east side of Lefkas in a rising Force 6/7. By the time we got to anchoring it was blowing an absolute hoolie – spray twice the height of the boat and waterspouts all over the place. Gill took us fairly close to the Yacht Club and the Rocna did its stuff. But we were too close to shore if we had dragged so we found a less windy spot just at the entrance to the bay. Even here we recorded gusts at deck level of 54 knots and meanwhile back where we had anchored initially it was considerably windier……

Mr Rocna stood firm with not a slither or a wiggle. We continue to be impressed though true enough the holding here is excellent anyway.

Oops – I think we parked in the wrong place!

Lefkas Town quay is great. Arrived via the Lifting Bridge at 1pm.

Spent the afternoon festering around in the sun. Went to get an internet forecast and came back to find circling fishing boats making right for where we were tied up. Spoke to the Greek guy on the yacht next door who had been ‘asked’ to move for the fishermen and they had looked for us too. He suggested we lay low until they were well berthed either side of us! This we did.

Meantime he told us his life story and his take on Greece’s economic problems. Germany and Angela Merkel are not high on his list of favourites. He, Alex, is 67 and does delivery trips for Kiriakolis the charter company. On his way from Athens to Corfu. Has just written a book, semi-autobiographical about his 4 year relationship with an 18 year old student and all the things it taught him about life. Fascinating guy and another real one-off who fits into the independent life of a delivery skipper better than anywhere else.

The New Anchor

Launched today with little incident despite a 2 knot tide flowing through Cleopatra’s launch pad.

First stop Preveza anchorage for anchor sea trials. If you are a sailor you’ll know that there’s always a great debate regarding ‘the best’ anchor. Last year’s repeated anchoring efforts meant we bought a brand spanking new one this year – a Rocna 25. Out we go to the empty anchorage, drop it, let out 20m of chain and then slowly back onto it. Crash, bang. What the hell was that? ‘That’, was the anchor setting. Instead of dragging slowly before setting now the abrupt setting had nearly pulled the windlass off the front. We are going to have to be careful here but what a great sense of security – definitely a success.

Cleopatra Boatyard

The boatyard is slowly coming to life. Three weeks ago you could walk round the hundreds of other boats and if you were lucky see one other person – probably the cleaner or maybe Markus the engineer. Now you hear intermittent grinding and polishing noises from time to time and there’s perhaps one launch a day from the travel lifts (beep, beep, beep) as they are remotely controlled from the yard, out the gate, and into the water. Sooty Albatross went in yesterday looking fantastic. Across the way from us Brian and Maggie are working on Lone Shark and next to them the lovely wooden Moonspray is repainted and almost ready for launch. Give it a few more weeks and the yard will be struggling to keep up.

The weather is picking up now too. The days are warmer and the nights slightly less cold. When the wind gets up though you still wouldn’t call it warm.

The water is back in the toilets, and a new bit of hardstanding has been produced by a myriad of trucks trundling by with hardcore. Shame about the thousands of frogs that lived in the marsh now under the hardcore, that formed part of the evening cacophany of croaks, chirps and froggy-type noises that accompany us to and from the loos at night, but there are plenty more to take their place as we are essentially living on an island surrounded by marshland and seas. The stars at night are fantastic, and the sunsets visible from the boat are lovely.

Antifouling and the Dog House

Meanwhile Gilly has been working so hard to prepare and complete the antifouling. This is a shitty job – awkward, messy, nasty but ultimately rewarding. She just gets on with it and it looks great now it is finished – a barrier coat followed by two coats of actual antifouling.

But, as usual I took no photos of her. The only pictures are of me and Chris doing our small parts. Not fair and I promise to try and do better in the future. Really Gilly, I will try and take more photos with you in, I promise.

Dem Old Bones

Two days ago Gill broke a rib leaning over the stern adjusting the new kedge fittings. She didn’t tell Chris cus that’s what she’s like but it looked pretty painful. Yesterday after he had left she was grunting and groaning when she lifted an anchor! Anyway today it’s a bit better and I’ve got her back painting again. Tough cookies these cruising wives – even when they are still on dry land.

Progress

Chris has now returned to the UK after sterling work on the main engine and our pet Chinese Bear, the Panda generator. It looks as though both are now up and running again. See pictures for main engine bearing bolt fabrication.

As usual filling the gas bottles proved exciting. Can’t fill US bottles here in the yard. Try these places in Preveza. Can’t find them. Return to yard for better instructions. Ah yes, we didn’t tell you – you are just looking for an alleyway (<2’ wide it turns out) across the way from Elvis’ on the sea front. Back we go – this involves two crossings of the dreaded ‘immersed tunnel’ at 3 euros a go. Ask in the café next door. Can’t do I don’t think. Finally say they will send to Iounana many kilometres away and see if they can fill them there. Come back on Tuesday. Of course by Tuesday the car has been returned so Chris and I go in by bus (which was extremely late arriving – had we missed it?). the woman comes struggling out with two very full bottles. Yipee. 45 euros but that should last us till Turkey so time for a celebratory beer before convincing the taxi driver it was safe to drive us back through the tunnel with two unexploded bombs in the boot!

Next up, the anchor windlass. It worked great last season but seized up as we put Petronella to bed in October. I thought I had sorted it but obviously not. After two days of dismantling and cleaning we realised that the main spindle needed to come out. But it is stuck. We get Steve from Hayling Island to drive us out to some car garage which has a hydraulic press. Only it doesn’t but his mate does. He’ll take me there in a few minutes. Off we go past the Preveza Town football stadium and stop outside an ordinary house. But this is no ordinary house. If you go down the side there is an old shed with an even older lathe and an even older Greek chap working in there. Next door is a greenhouse with half a dozen marine engines in various states of disrepair and even further out the back is his diesel engine garden consisting of dozens of dead motors with grass growing through them. This guy speaks no English and my limited Greek certainly won’t stretch to please mend my windlass. My new friend interprets though and the old guy says come back tomorrow and it will either be done or the casting will be smashed! Fair enough, nothing I can do if he can’t press it out anyhow – I’ll just have to spend 800 euros on a new winch, 800 euros on new chain to fit…….. Next day though, it’s another success. Back we go under the immersed tunnel to Preveza and lo and behold there it is all in nice little pieces as we had asked. Eventually our old friend arrives and says that will be 30 euros. 30 euros – we nearly bit his hand off! Chris and I then went for some soda waters (well that’s what we told Gill). More hard sweat and it is now back on the boat working a treat.

Unsavoury Liaison

Today Gill’s favourite Moose slippers were found engaging in unnatural acts. They were summarily keel hauled for such disgusting behaviour – well they were hoisted up the mizzen mast to be precise.

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding

Vliho Yacht Club. What a great place. Steve took us there for Sunday roast. It’s like stepping into a little bit of England. Full of liveaboards, renters and a few locals. Nice buzz of conversation and at last some warmth. We met Brian and Maggie there. They are renting in Vliho for the winter before getting back on the water next month. The morning had been spent building a go-cart for the annual race down the local hill. It all looked a bit hairy but great fun. Beer led to wine, led to more wine with excellent food from our very hardworking Irish hosts. We’ve since borrowed Brian’s van and probed his mind for good engineering solutions.

You Muppet!

We returned our hire car today. The airport is shut so there was no one around except for two Olympic Airways (haven’t they gone out of business anyhow?) officials. No Avis rep, nothing. So, after ten minutes sitting in the car park waiting for Avis to arrive we decide to ring their office in Lefkas. Ah yes, they had forgotten we were returning a car today. They will send someone to collect it. Meanwhile, can we just leave the keys under the muppet. You what? Yes, please, just leave them under the muppet. Er, I’m afraid I don’t understand. The muppet, leave them under the muppet. I’ve left keys under sun visors, under carpets and on wheels before but never, ever under the muppet. After another couple of tries the woman went off to speak to someone else and came back saying, yes please leave the keys under the mat. That’s more like it. We did, and that was that.