The final curtain for 2010
Posted at 11:10 AM, Oct. 10, 2010
The last posting has us at Kos where we got the engine and generator serviced by Babis, the engineer supremo at Kos (see previous postings for his contact details). While Babis got grease on his hands we cruised the delightful town of Kos and ultimately ended up at a restaurant for beers ands our first moussaka for a few months. It was more than ok!
Lunching at Pandeli on Leros
Leaving Kos the next morning with the meltemi blowing it was again hard on the wind with 18 knots apparent so a good sail and burning off everything in sight. But a 25 mile sail to Leros and close hauled so it was again going to be quite a few hours in the office. Wind gradually built, first reef in, seas building until we again shortened sail with 40 knots on the nose around the southern end of Leros. Had a hard bash to windward for the last few miles up the west coast into Leros and then a good run up the bay to the marina. The marina at Leros at Lakki is interesting – we have had good reports of wintering over here but were struggling to find why. The people at the marina are great, the facilities as in bathroom etc are poor and there are no chandleries on island at all. So how the any work gets completed will be a question I cannot answer until we get back next year. They must bring in contractors from other islands. The job list however is very small which bodes well for the pocket.
So we spent a day and a half of hard labour getting sails off, running mouse lines for the halyards and dismantling the dodger and bimini etc etc. After the work was completed it was time for play and we headed off for an island tour on the hired mopeds. First stop was Pandeli where we have anchored off a couple of times previously for a late lunch and a beer or two and then it was grunting up the hills on the underpowered mopeds.
Powering around on 50 cc's
The following day was departure day and it started off with us being the first lift out of the day. I had been in discussions for 24 hours about which travellift they would use as I said the 50 tonner doesn’t have enough height in the top bar given our draft. I wanted the 150 tonner to do the lift – the response was that they had lifted out a Hanse 540 a few days ago on the 50 ton lift without a problem. I could see that the Hanse 540 had their radar post well inboard from the stern whereas ours protrudes from the stern. Next meeting with the manager but still no movement – so after several attempts to lift us they realised I was correct and the answer was to dismantle and unbolt the radar post. By this time we had run out of time and had to depart for the airport so left Savarna in the sling and hope all is ok. The marina sent through some photo’s by the time we arrived in Athens so all appears well.
The other interesting aspect of hauling out at Leros is that there is no tax office on the island so the business of spending non productive hours all to pay 88 cents to get approval to haul out doesn’t happen on Leros. So all in all a lot easier and I suspect that the 3 monthly tax we got hit with back in April at Kos will not be an issue at Leros – so in summary there are the usual pluses and minuses! Also the marina manager appears to promptly respond to emails which in my experience is not always the case! So all up I think we will be quite happy at Leros.
Looking down onto Pandeli from the monastery
The winding road down from the monastery
We have signed a 9 month contract that takes us through until late June so that gives us plenty of leeway so when we get back next year who knows. The big question is do we enter the ARC for late 2011 or defer another year or look at crossing with the alternative “not the ARC” or simply cruise across the Atlantic on our own. It will probably come down to whether we do it on our own, two handed or persuade a few mates to come along for the ride (or race??) in which case maybe the ARC. Time will tell and we have a few months to think about it. We have two great friends who have done many thousand of miles racing around the Pacific on our last yacht Memphis who both now have yachts in Europe and are working eastwards towards us – so one thing for sure is that somewhere in the Med next year there will be the great Memphis reunion – so Roly, Consie, Pat & June get ready!!
On the hardstand at Lakki marina Leros
In summary a very memorable year, a lot of ground covered, many countries visited, many new friends made and some quite amazing experiences in terms of places visited.
Cheers until 2011