Glenn had broken a tooth, so needed to find a dentist, and we needed some fresh supplies. We agreed to take Fuga with the two dinghies across to Pilos, about 2 miles across the bay. We anchored off, and went on our various errands. Glenn found an efficient dentist who treated him on the spot. Mo was suffering with her foot, so we confined ourselves to the essential shopping, and stopped for a drink in the attractive main square. It seemed a very pleasant town. Unfortunately the 'marina' is full of mostly derelict boats, and seemed to have no facilities, with wires poking out of the concrete, and even with bollards carried away. Supper was on Fuga. We had heard from Harriette that they had been robbed of some lines while out watching football. They had also had a rather too lively sail over from Sitia to Spinalonga. We tried to make a phone call to them, and managed it quite unintentionally (our phone does not work without hands free plugged in) so that they rang us back!
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| The wooden chapel on the island of Sfaktiria |
We motored over to Pilos in order to go ashore for supplies. After we had cast off in the dinghy, the outboard refused to start, and we were carried downwind towards the beach by the fresh breeze. We got the dinghy anchor down, but the motor refused to start, despite taking the spark plugs out and tweaking the slow running jet. There was nothing for it but to row back up wind to Fuga, by which time Mo was feeling distinctly queasy from the motion in the dinghy. We got the motor off, and back on board into the cockpit, where I could strip down the carburetor. There was no sign of a blockage, but some sediment that had consolidated itself around the drain plug.
Steel Sapphire had joined us by this time, and had set off into town. They had enjoyed a long walk up N. Sfaktiria from the chapels to overlook the shallow bar separating the island from the mainland. Once the engine was all back together, and back on the dinghy, it started without a problem, so the exercise must have done it some good. We set off into town, and found Glenn and Lynn who showed us the way up to the chandler's. He was extremely welcoming and gave us all orange juice, and I bought a new fishing lure and some line and a new courtesy flag.
Later, we enjoyed the promised gin and tonics with Glenn and Lynn, before going ashore to the restaurant 'Grigoris' that they had re-discovered. We ate in the gardens at the back, enjoying the ambience beneath the shade of vines and the changing light as it became dark. It was a great end to some most enjoyable time spent in their company.
Steel Sapphire were on their way early in the morning. I took the diesel cans ashore in the dinghy, only to find that the filling station was closed all day. The taxi drivers would not take me with the cans to the station outside the town, so I returned to Fuga and retrieved two small cans from the bottom of the lazarette. These would get us to Finakounda, where the pilot showed a fuel station. Indigo had confirmed via the Mednet that she was under way from Thira, and was intending to come straight to Pilos, but I wanted to meet Jim Baerselman with whom I have been working on some pages on communications for the CA web site. We were able to sail most of the way under jib alone, as the wind had come up quite strongly again from the NW. We arrived to find one yacht stern to the end of the quay, and another in the bay under the quay. I tried to squeeze in to take advantage of the shelter, but we picked up weed twice on the anchor and ended up behind the anchored yacht. We listened on the world service to the disastrous match England v. Germany where we were knocked out of the world cup by 4-1. A text message to Jim drew a response, and he and Caroline came down to the harbour to meet us. After a beer, they took us to one of their preferred restaurants, and we enjoyed a good meal there. Jim showed us the water tap, discovered that the electricity connection had been removed, and confirmed that the filling station was no longer there!
The pier was now vacant, and the German yacht in front of us was departing, so we were able to anchor off the quay and reverse up to it. There is a lot of ballast below, so we had to hold ourselves off and get ashore by dinghy. We filled the water tanks, and Mo tackled the washing. She still was suffering pain with her toe, so declined to come to the shops for bread. Having done that, and once again retrieved Willy (the wind generator) we started to sail back to Pilos. Indigo had reported her progress on the Net, but I could not hear the distance to go so was in the dark, and kept calling her on VHF without success. There was enough breeze, for a while we needed a reef, and we beat back against it, zigzagging through the narrow channel between Methoni and N. Sapientza. We were nearly back in Navarino Bay when Mo spotted a dark hulled boat motoring up behind us, so we motored up for the last couple of miles and into the bay. By the time that we had failed to get the anchor to set twice Indigo had arrived, so we moved closer to them much to their apparent surprise! Despite having spent some 35 hours on the go, they were most hospitable and invited us to share their supper with them. It was a happy reunion.
We were surprised by an unfamiliar call alongside, to find Julie and Ian (Lagos 2004) who were returning from their morning walk. Morven was anchored further down the bay. They came aboard for coffee and a chat, and we arranged for them to join us for supper in the evening. Mo had been planning on using some pork from the freezer, but as it would not go around six people, we needed to go shopping. The outboard was playing up again, so we took Fuga down to anchor off the 'marina'. Carol came with us, leaving Gus to engage in essential maintenance. I managed to register the Greek Wind phone, (a requirement as an anti-terrorism measure), and picked up two large cans of diesel at the fuel station. Mo and Carol toured the shops for fodder. We then lingered at a bar under the trees in the square and enjoyed the passers by. Back on Fuga, we returned to anchor between Indigo and Morven, ate a late lunch, and got on with preparations for the evening. Indigo and Morven got on well, with much discussion and encouragement for Ian and Julie to write a book about their experiences on Ithaca, renovating their 'shack' and tending their olive trees. The party finally wound up in the early hours, when Mo had gone to bed, and Carol had fallen asleep!
Having once again been woken by the low battery alarm, and got up to run the generator, I returned to bed. It was a long time before I managed to recover, and the day was declared an alchohol free day. The crews of both Indigo and Morven were no better. I spent some while working on the web site before starting up an internet session to update it. Mo resorted to her usual mixture of reading and Sudoku.