It has been a long time since I put pen to paper and as we are rapidly approaching our departure from Lefkas it is time to fill you in on how we spent the winter. The photos have been regularly updated but here are a few words. The last blog was just before we left for the wedding in California. We had a super time there although we were quite surprised at how low the temperature was and for the wedding our finery was covered in thick sailing jackets. Yes we had a terrific shopping spree over there and managed to kit ourselves out with all sort of clothes ranging from sport clothes to “fancy” clothes for events (well Svein anyway!). We visited an outlet centre with 146 shops and managed to buy in 12 of them. We also managed to get the items we wanted to have embroidered and they were done by a friend of my sister who has a marking company.
To get us ready for the event we were pampered with manicures, pedicures and the hairdresser who came to the house. The manicure/pedicure treatment was quite something with massage chairs, warm stones and wax treatment. Caryn has had a number of mani/pedicures but never anything like this!!
We attended the wedding of Caryn’s nephew in a beautiful setting (a winery in Saratoga) with fantastic views but a bitterly cold wind for the outdoor evening ceremony. However once we were inside the venue for the evening meal everything soon warmed up.
After a ten-day trip we returned to Greece and carried on working on the boat.
The end of year festivities were quiet with a Scandinavian meal on Escapade with Angie and Keith on Christmas Eve and a traditional Christmas lunch on their boat on Christmas Day. The New Year was celebrated on Pacific Pearl.
January saw us wending our way to England to celebrate Caryn’s mother’s 90th birthday. This was held in a gastro pub in Shiplake which is also where we stayed. Friends and family gathered to celebrate.
On our return Svein continued the renovations (everything is shown in the pictures in “Transformation of Escapade”). He has worked very hard through the winter and although the list is not complete he has certainly made great inroads into it. He has to leave something for next winter. He extended the hard top bimini so that we could install 4 solar panels. This was a major task taking quite a long time as he had to deal with a period of bad weather as well. He also managed to change the wire guard rails for stainless steels ones.
We also now have a new dinghy and all the security equipment has been serviced or renewed including an automatic fire extinguisher in the engine room and new fire extinguishers throughout the boat.
There have been twice weekly gym sessions throughout the winter for Caryn as well as a few shopping excursions into town and Ikea. She also had a 6-monthly scan in the hospital in Ioannina (about a 90 minute drive from Lefkada). It is a university hospital and everything was done very efficiently (albeit in French) although we did have to return 3 days later to pick up the results! Next scan is due in September.
We had a visit from our friends Marilyn and Mike from Eagle’s Nest Rentals in Nisyros and are looking forward to seeing them in the summer and from our friend Gordon (Crazy Dream) delivering a yacht from Turkey to Slovenia.
The weather overall has been very clement through the winter although there have been some spectacular thunderstorms and heavy rain at times. We have enjoyed Lefkada on the whole and have certainly found everything we needed for the boat. We have, however, missed the BBQs and community room large enough for the social gatherings that we enjoyed in other marinas.
We leave here mtomorrow as Svein has returned from his trip to Norway to visit his family. We are not yet sure where we will be heading but do know that we have to pick up an outboard and an anchor from Leros so at some point we will be back in the Dodecanese.
Updates will be easier now that we are on the move again so watch this space.