The rocking of the boat has stopped by morning. We get up very early and press on
leaving just before 7am. We have breakfast under way and while the water is
flat I also make our sandwiches for lunch.
There is no wind to start with, but the sea has a definite swell. I reckon it is nearly .5m. Whatever it is I do not like the motion
which is very corkscrew like. But
R assures me that it will settle down after the first waypoint, which it does.
The journey is odd. As ever
we have fluky winds. At one stage
it is a run and R poles out the genoa.
Of course within the hour the wind changes direction and he has to go up
in a force 4 to take down the pole.
The journey around the last headland is also interesting with the wind
getting up to 17 knots. For a
while we are even able to sail!
So we made good time to Kalamata and get in to the marina. This is the first proper marina we have
come across in Greece. It has all
services on the pontoon, staff to show you to your berth and take your lines
and it even has toilets, showers and laundry facilities. I was determined to do laundry, but I
found an even better alternative.
A local lady was delivering laundry to the boat just across the pontoon
and I waylaid her and got her to take all our washing and the ironing from the
last load of washing we did. Using
the machines would have cost me 14 euro and I am sure she said she would do the
lot for 18 euro. It is a no
brainer.
We go to the marina office.
They can find a plumber to come and look at our hot water system. They can also lift the boat, pressure
wash it and get someone to antifoul it.
However, the latter will take a few days and will cost over 1000
euro. We will probably wait until
we get to Marmaris, unless we are stuck here waiting for the water system to be
fixed. In the latter case, we will
just bite the bullet and have the anti-fouling done while we rent a car and
check into an hotel. We shall see
how it works out.
It is now quite hot, but we decide to have a walk. We thought we might walk into the old
town, which is a bit of a way. But
instead we find the local supermarket, which is very large and has just about
anything you could want. I even
find coconut milk, so I can make fish curry tonight. We stop for some ice cream on the way back to the boat. On board we make use of the marina
internet and then wonder of wonders have a proper shower under running
water! I can’t remember when I
last felt so clean.
We have been invited to drinks on a boat we have seen in almost every
port we have been to for the last week.
They have always been a day ahead of us, but we caught them up
today. A very nice couple who have
bought a former charter boat from Sunsail. In fact the boat two away from us is another English couple
who have bought a former charter boat.
I would think that is a very cheap way of getting on with sailing in the
Med.
After a nice evening’s drinks, it is back to the boat to make our fish
curry. We will want a bit of a lie
in tomorrow. It is R’s birthday
and we really don’t know what we will do other than drink a bottle of Champagne
I bought in the supermarket.
No comments:
Post a Comment