Thursday 1 June 2017 – Leros

We flaked out very early last night.  There is a lot of sleep to be made up.  But it did mean that we were up quite early to get in all the things we needed to do to get away on Friday.  I really think we are trying to do too much.  When the boat was in the UK we would start the season slowly, going to the boat for short trips and doing the things to get going over two or three trips.  It would even be better if we could have come down for say a long weekend to get the boat ready for the season, but with the flights to Leros being timed in such a way that we have to spend the night in Athens, that really wasn’t a practical solution.

So on we go.  We still haven’t heard about re-rigging the lazy jacks.  So on our way to town to renew our Depak (permit to sail a private boat in Greek waters) we stop in at the office.  Harry is there and says the new lines are being made up and they will be installed today.  So that is a relief.

In town our first stop is to the port police to renew the permit.  That is now a problem.  With the new regime of charging yearly for the permit they have new forms and the local port police have not yet been issued with them, so they cannot give us the new form.  However, they do give us the paper work to pay the new fee and say with that and a receipt from the bank to show we have paid which they say should be fine until we find a port that has the new forms.  Anyway they point out that our permit was renewed last year at the end of June, so we have until 25 June to get a new one anyway.  All pretty typical, but at least we seem to be legal for the time being.

Then we go to the Vodafone shop to get new sim cards for the phone and the internet hub.  We had hoped that we could use Richard’s English phone under the new no roaming system coming in.  We were told in London that Vodafone were putting that into effect from Mid May, but that turned out to be rubbish.  They are waiting until 11 June, so we need to buy local sims for that period.

Then we do our mega shopping trip.  I have finally filled the fridge, but I still couldn’t get all the things I wanted.  But we do have adequate stores to keep us going for at least 3-4 days.

When we get back from the town we find the workmen on the boat trying to put the lazy jacks together.  They have sent someone up the mast to get the high bits and have the new lines.   But they are confused because our system is different from the usual one as we only have three points on the sail bag where they join instead of the usual four.  Finally I find a photo of the boat on the IPad which shows the lazy jacks fairly clearly and they work out what to do from that!

Next problem is the keel mechanism.  We were again persuaded to lock the keel up with a locking rod for the winter.  Now Richard can’t get it to go further up to free the rod.  When he opened the floor to look at the lifting mechanism we find that it has leaked hydraulic fluid all over and maybe that is why it won’t go further up.  So there is a second panic.  So new engineers come to try to see what the matter is.  Would you believe it, they free the rod on the first effort at lifting the keel!  But there is still the problem of the leaked hydraulic fluid.  It doesn’t make too much difference to us because we really don’t need to lift the keel here and as long as it is down we are fine.  But we don’t like to have things wrong.  So after another hour the engineers say it is working perfectly well and just leaked the fluid because it was overfilled (by them, not us).  We shall see, but we are happy to go on with it as it is.

There are still many jobs to do, but we have done the most important to get going.  I haven’t been able to properly clean the saloon but it seems fine.  I haven’t even looked at the forward cabin which is still full to the brim with junk even after lots has been taken away and put on the decks.  Richard has got the solar panels working and I have washed the windows and put the sun blinds on.  The weather has not been that hot, but with the sun the temperature below has got up to 28C and that is not comfortable especially for heavy cleaning.  I have had a little go at the cockpit.  The Marina was supposed to clean the outside of the boat and say they did, but it is filthy.  The only obvious thing that has been done is that the chrome has been polished.  Now the penny drops.  They have taken all the lines off the rails to polish the chrome!

So by 6pm we have had enough.  We think things are fine to set off gently tomorrow.  So we go out to our favourite restaurant on the island, called Dimitris.  We have a lovely light meal of small red mullets cooked to perfection. 

Although I am pleased that we are now resuming our tour of the Med, I will sort of miss Leros.  It has begun to feel like home.  The local merchants and restaurateurs know us and we have been comfortable here.  So it will be a little melancholic to leave.