Wow what a month!
Svein has been worked off his feet. He has repaired outboard engines, gone up the mast of a charter boat to repair their genoa, gone up the mast of a Halberg Rassy to change a navigation light and also renew plugs on a teak deck. He has also acted as temporary harbourmaster when the boats poured in to be safe from the strong southerlies that were forecast and people had trouble anchoring whilst dragging other boat anchors as well. He has sanded and varnished and also found time to finish our targa, install the new start battery and do other odd jobs on our boat as well.
We have had several boats that we know come into Pali so we have also had a busy social time. We saw Britt Marie and Gunnar (Jespan), June and Steve (Piper) who we had not seen since 2010 in Messalonghi, Petra (Viva) and finally Pauline and Gordon (Crazy Dream).
We made two trips to Kos with a car from Eagle’s Nest. The first trip we experienced a Greek MOT test for one of Mike’s cars and we also bought a start battery for the boat. On the second trip we went with Piper so they could do a big shop and we visited the island as they had never been there before. On both occasions we went to Kardamena with the ferry and saw Andy and Carole (Zeus). We also had excellent lunches at Teo each time.
We showed Piper round Nisyros as well taking in the volcano, Emporio, Nikia and the other usual sights.
We were invited to join Tsambika and Nikos’ family for the traditional Greek Easter lunch and we enjoyed goat that had been stuffed and cooked in the local baker’s oven for 24 hours amongst other goodies. We shall also be returning to Nisyros for a traditional Greek wedding on our return from Norway but that is another story.
We did find time for some relaxation as well as took full advantage of the beach and the warm water so that we both (yes even Svein) went swimming every day.
After a month of chilling (?) out came the day to leave and return to Kos so that we could organise the boat and prepare our departure to Norway. We leave today but the boat is safely tucked into the marina (although it is costing an arm and a leg as the marina now only has 3 rates – daily, 180 days or one year). However we will have peace of mind during our absence.
The next write up will come after our trip to Norway where Caryn will see regions that she never visited whilst living there and she is now returning after an 8 year absence.