Greece, the UK, and boat jobs

It's  been a while since our last blog. In late July, we had our close friends the Simpson family to visit for ten days (an adventure deserving a separate blog - watch this space!). Then we returned to Greece, had the boat lifted and painted, went back to the UK together for two weeks, and then had a week apart as I returned to the UK for a further week to support my mum after the death of her partner and Phil spent his first solo week aboard.

We checked back into Greece in Rhodes, but it was a place we had explored before so we didn't linger and head directly to Panormitis bay on the bottom of Symi for a few days to relax at anchor and readjust to island life. We island hopped from Symi, to Kos, to Pserimos, to Kalimnos, back to Pserimos, and finally back to Kos town and very much enjoyed being back in Greece. The Meltemi wind was up and it was much cooler than the sweltering 40° heat we had experienced in Turkey. We had some great sails, although most of them were up-wind, and generally enjoyed our surroundings.

However, boat jobs were building up, and Phil was keen to get going with the parts the Simpsons had brought over for us. Two big jobs were fixing the block at the end of the inner forestay track and fitting two air vents, one in the anchor locker lid and one in sail locker hatch. Any job involving a holesaw and a boat takes some planning.

Phil was also in charge of logistics and he spent hours sourcing and ordering parts, dealing with customs, and ensuring that the items we needed would be ready for us to pick up and bring back to the UK. Before we leave the boat for any length of time, I always complete a deep clean. It takes me around four full days of work but it is definitely worth it when you return to a sweet smelling home, despite it having been shut up in the heat for two weeks.

We had booked the boat to be lifted at Kos Marina. Kos is convenient for flights to the UK and this provided a way to leave the boat in safe hands and we had treated ourselves to the absolute luxury of having someone else do the antifouling paint job. The lift was discounted to a summer rate, but antifouling paint definitely was not.

We were flying out the evening of the day we were lifted. Since there were jobs we wanted to do while the boat was out of the water, we were nervous that we might be hanging around all day waiting. In the end, we were first out at 9 AM sharp. The process was very smooth and the yard was efficient. The main job we wanted to complete before we left was to drill out the anode bolts in the end of the propeller. The bolts had sheared flat to the propeller - a twist in a long saga that you may recall from our blog back in June. Unfortunately, Phil got nowhere and so we had to hand the job over to the yard, to see what they could do. On our return, we were delighted to find they had removed the propeller, drilled out the bolts, re-tapped the holes, polished the propeller, and refitted it – all for €50.  We had one day to complete other jobs (service rope cutter, grease propeller, fit anode) before we were relaunched.

Once back in the water, we had one further day to move the boat to somewhere Phil could manage the boat alone before I flew back to the UK. It was all a bit of a whirlwind but it was a successful one.

Phil then spent a week aboard by himself. We positioned him somewhere were he would be sheltered from the prevailing winds, with access to a town and in an anchorage with plenty of space. Sod's law obviously meant that the wind blew from exactly the opposite direction for the first three days. Phil therefore had to move the boat three times to escape the swell but was always safe and enjoyed the light show provided by the passing thunder storms.

Phil kept himself busy with more boat work, He spent a couple of days touching up the paint chips, which involved a lot of sanding, degreasing, and three different two-part paints. This hasn't been done seriously since the boat was commissioned two years ago, so there were a few dings around the cockpit to attend to, but it all looks great now. Then he replaced our gooseneck bolt which connects the boom to the mast. The weld holding the reef hooks on the previous one had failed. Doing this single-handed was challenging, since the heavy boom needed to be aligned in multiple axes so the bolt could be tapped in. But after a couple of hours of swearing, he got there:

Meanwhile, I was back in the UK spending time with my mum and supporting her through the funeral. This did mean I experienced the UK's September heatwave, a late season treat, and was able to take her out and about whilst I was there.

I am now back home and have just over a week before our next visitor arrives. We plan to head north and west into the centre of the Cyclades, to enjoy the traditional choras and white and blue houses, before we run out of Schengen time and start to head east to Cyprus for the winter.