We went ashore with David to find a taxi to take him to the airport: this proved straightforward as there was a taxi waiting at the rank on the waterfront. Mo and I walked around looking in vain for a baker's, but they were all closed as it was a Sunday morning, and only a few shops were open. We eventually found the 'tourist street' with boutiques and antiques, many with deep discounts posted in their windows, and the restaurants where tables crowded the narrow alleys, described in my 2008 notes on Prevezas, but which had eluded us the evening before.
On our return trip the outboard hiccoughed, but I managed to get back to Fuga. Later, though, when I was attempting to go ashore with the computer to pick up wifi, it refused once more. I stripped down the carburettor, and found the float chamber to be almost empty, with oily residue, and concluded in the end that I had not tightened the screws clamping the fuel pump sufficiently tightly on the last occasion. Re-assembled it seemed to work ok, and I was able to get ashore for an expensive wifi session at two small Stella's for 6€. (I had not been able to get a reliable phone connection, which was alternating between a 3G and GSM service, and the request to set up an internet session was refused - message not understandable as all in Greek).
Weigh in day! We are suffering from Dave's visit and all the high living: Mo is a touch under 10 stone but I am way over 14! Mo spotted a large fish pursuing small fry, so I was motivated to get the fishing rod out in an attempt to get him to bite my lure instead, without of course any success at all. I then had a frustrating time trying to get internet access to pursue Ampair regarding the possible wind generator purchase. We seemed to be in a bad spot in the anchorage: there was a 3G signal that came and went, so that it took over from the GSM connection and nothing would work reliably, not even a phone conversation. Finally I succumbed to taking a 48 hour Wind internet connection, that was unreliable at best. We had a phone call and voicemail, and of course I had forgotten the PIN, and locked myself out, so spent time trying to talk to Vodafone in the UK, only to find it was a sales call from Lloyds TSB! Of such frustrations our life is (sometimes) made.
I discovered that if I disabled 3G on the phone, I could get a reliable GSM connection. Whoopee! We left the anchorage at Preveza around midday and hoisted the main in the harbour. There was some kind of rally on-going with the quay crowded with boats, so that everyone was anchored off stern-to and alongside berths were restricted to the southern end of the quay. Having motored through the channel we peeled off at the penultimate buoys and set the jib for a fast sail down towards Levkas. We were a little early for the bridge, but not so early that it warranted anchoring. We were consequently first through, with the bridge fully open and available to two way traffic. Once we were at the bottom of the canal we anchored off Lygia for lunch and a swim, as it was very warm. We decided to try sailing after lunch, but the wind had gone light and southerly, so that eventually we were forced to wrap the jib and motor. We anchored well into Vliho bay, in the middle towards the far end, where we hoped it would be quiet.
We spent a couple of days in Vliho, and had not felt the need to go ashore. We wrote a jobs list, but it was too hot to think about it any more. I actually read a book within one day! I continued with writing up a specification of Fuga, so that when the time comes to sell we won't have to do that job. Mo read and did sudoku. We ran out of water eventually, so decided to go onto the Neilson's pontoon for a night to top up with water and with power. The pontoon was very sociable, with a Kiwi/American couple one side, then more Kiwis in a boat called Antares on the other side of us. My usual problem remembering names. We managed to use our time on the pontoon to top up with fruit and some other essentials.
On Friday afternoon we returned to Vliho bay, and having resisted the temptation for a while I started an internet session. The new batteries were causing us some concern, so it was helpful when Peter at IBA suggested they took a look at them. I spent the afternoon preparing a wiring diagram, which is useful work. In the evening we actually went ashore, and had a drink at the Vliho Yacht Club.
On Sunday morning the generator protested for lack of care and attention to its basic needs, and shut itself down. We changed the oil (its a team effort), spilt a bit, and the generator forgave us and started up again ok. I thought I'd change the engine oil while I was at it, but the silly brass pump fell to bits in my hands, and a vital part disappeared somewhere into the bowels. A hunt ensued, but in vain. Mo spent the afternoon on airline web sites researching options for us to go to New Zealand. Meanwhile I discovered that an outbreak of coral worm had taken over most of the underside of the boat since I had last attended to it, so spent some while with snorkel, flippers and paint scraper, making a little progress.
Can you guess the weight of the cake?
Well Mo had hardly shifted, but some of the excesses of Dave's visit had disappeared from my belly. We had arranged to take the boat up nearer to IBA's office, close north of the Neilson pontoon, so that they could take a look at our new batteries. We anchored off conveniently, and Chris came aboard. The batteries showed up as good on his special instrument, which tries to measure cold cranking ability without actually taking a massive load. He double checked that we did not have any sneak leakage that was confusing the issue. The two massive 225 AH batteries were going down from full charge to 12 volts (effectively discharged) with only 100AH usage, typically overnight. We concluded that there was nothing wrong with the boat, but equally nothing wrong with the batteries that we could lay our fingers on. I did a couple of fuel runs with the granny trolley, and Mo came ashore for some supplies. Later we returned to Vliho Bay, in our favourite spot in the middle, or slightly nearer to the east side.
While Chris had been aboard in the morning, James Starling from Xavantes (another contributor to comms information for the CA site) had come over to introduce himself. It had not been a good moment, as Chris had just pronounced the new batteries to be healthy, when perhaps it would have been better if they had not been! Later I chased James in the dinghy, and asked him to come on board for drinks. He and his crew Vanessa duly arrived and we had an enjoyable session. They were waiting for new crew to arrive, but the exact place and time remained a mystery known only to the joining crew member who was a married Hungarian-Israeli, and on a last fling 'before having babies'. Vanessa, who was from New Zealand, was moving on to enjoy Crete with some friends. James finds Find-a-crew more effective than Crewseekers.
We spent the morning in Vliho, and then moved up to Tranquil Bay and anchored next to Unique, so that Svein could come aboard for supper. I did a couple more fuel runs (with only a 10 litre can). I visited George's chandlery, and he sold me a vacuum oil extractor which I have always lusted after. Later, Svein came and we had an enjoyable evening although terminated fairly early for the loyal phone call from Kari.