Wednesday 3 June 2015

Wednesday 3 June 2015 - Zakynthos

We had a calm and quiet night, but get up early to get to Zakynthos as soon as possible to ensure a berth where there is electricity and water.  We also hope a Yanmar agent can sort some of our technical problems out.

Again, there is no wind and we motor all the way.  I am sure that we have used up a great deal of fuel over the last few days.

We get to Zakynthos at about 1:30.  There are some moorings free and there is a man directing us in.  So far so good.  This is our first effort at mooring on anchor on our own.  There is a French boat that has come in just before us, so he moors first.  He is single handed and seems to manage very well.  So it is now our turn.  Richard tells me to put the anchor down.  I do that, but after I have nearly dumped the whole 60 meters of chain, Richard realises we have put the anchor out too soon.  So he asks me to take it up and we will try again.  Then disaster strikes.  As I try to take it up the chain jams and I cannot move it at all.  Richard comes forward and tries to free it, but cannot without any tools.  The only bit of luck is that the anchor has bitten, so we are anchored in place – albeit right where all the boats manoeuvre.  Richard has to unscrew the top of the windlass to sort the chain out, but finally manages.  So finally we make it in to the mooring space, which is quite tight.  A man working on the boat next door is a great help fending us off and helping with the windlass.  The Frenchman on the boat which came in before us also takes our lines, which is great.  I am a bit of a wreck after that, but Richard seems quite pleased with our efforts!

We settle in and have some lunch.  Richard does eat a Greek salad.  I think he is just being nice to me because I was in a real grump this morning.  We get a visit from the local agent.  We were told that it is not necessary to use him to book in, but it turns out convenient and means that we get connected to the electricity right away.  Richard hasn’t had a shower for three days!  We are pleasantly surprised to find that the cost of two nights with water and electricity is only 30 Euros.

Having been quite cold all morning it is now very hot.  We have a lot of things to do, but the heat is off putting.  We do speak to the agent and the man who helps with the docking.  Between them we have organised for the fuel tanker to come tomorrow morning.  We have only about a quarter of a tank left.  We also have a Yanmar engineer coming tomorrow to look at the water system.  Richard is desperate to get it fixed because I am so fed up about it.  But I really think it is very unlikely to happen.  Everyone who looks at it just shrugs and indicates they can’t do anything.

When the heat abates a bit we have a walk in the town.  We find an optician to fix Richard’s sunglasses where one of the lenses fell out.  We also buy a few things in a supermarket, so we have lunch for tomorrow.  I will have to buy something for dinner tomorrow but that will wait.

Back to the boat and I finally have a proper shower.  Then we go out to dinner.  All the restaurants seem very touristy.  We get pulled into one on a nice square, but it is horribly expensive as we order fresh fish.


So now to bed.  We think we still haven’t caught up on our sleep from our long trip the other night.

No comments:

Post a Comment