After six nights of eating spit roasted suckling pig and other Greek delights (including the now almost obligatory pork chop topped with two fried eggs) it was time to leave Kioni and head back to our winter berth in Messolonghi. The forecast for Tuesday (29th Sept) looked fine – apart from a severe lack of wind – although the upside was that it was not blowing against us! We got up at the ungodly hour of 8am and upped anchor at 9am after lots of hugs and kisses with Tony and Margaret. ...that is with Margaret ...not Tony ....except Pam gave Tony hugs and kisses ...oh I give up.
Yes, we left around 9ish with the anchor coming up no problem. It had been playing up a bit over the past six weeks – the dog clutch not engaging properly I think – me being an expert on windlasses you see! It will have to be stripped down this winter – then I will be an expert.
The sail motor over to Messolonghi was uneventful with the wind virtually non-existent until we got within a few miles of our destination and then it picked up to 15 knots in time to park the boat as usual. We managed to squeeze into a small spot on the pontoon that we had asked for a berth on (just by the office building).
So that was our sailing over for this year. We are now safely tucked up in Messolonghi marina to enjoy another winter on the boat. Now those of you who have been following the plot for the last few months will know that Messolonghi is not a real marina .....yet! It is in the process of evolving and it is great to be here at the start. It looks like there will be between 10-20 liveaboard boats here and the parties have started already.
Last Sunday was our first ad hoc BBQ orgainised by Jean and Bill on Soleil sans fin. Almost 50 people turned up for a great afternoon. We are getting to know the new neighbours – that’s Bryn on the bike intent on knocking everyone down on his new bike. Shore power has not yet quite reached our pontoon but at least the power company have all the bits installed. Dave on Cape (Bryn’s father who we bumped into in Villasimius on Sardinia earlier in the year and hails from Wales) has kindly let us hook into his generator to keep us topped up. There is water on each pontoon now and the toilets and showers are functioning well. Once the power is up and running the plan is to take over the office block as our clubhouse. Poor Yannis and Jo (the owners) won’t know what has hit them. We've started a vhf net 3 times a week on channel 09.
We had one deep depression pass through last weekend which brought wind and rain. It was blowing a good F7 overnight Friday from the south east yet the boat hardly moved at all with excellent protection this end of the marina. Other than that the weather has been great with daytime temps in the high 20’s and dropping to around 20 C overnight. It is still T shirt and shorts most of the time.
Steve and June on Piper are due back on Thursday so it will be good to see them again.
Although we are here now for the winter, I will try and summarise our trip this year in the next few days and announce the winners of the various competitions I havent told you about but have secretly been working on. Who will win the "oh really marina of the year award"? You will have to wait until next time.
Come on Andy - who were the winners???!! Seriously though, how's life in Messalonghi? Would you recommend it - so far? Us readers want to know!
Cheers
Ju
Posted by: Ju Randall | 27/10/2009 at 07:28 PM