SERENITY NOW

          25th Aug 2019 (Patmos) It be time for a pirate tale ... Arrrrr! Woke earlyish - sun was up, maybe 7:30, but don’t know. We’ve been tucked away on anchor for the last week in a gorgeous quiet little spot at Livardi on Patmos.  We had a bit of excitement here yesterday when the wind got up - having to rescue and ferry back to the beach a few swimmers and a lady with a little kid on a SUP. They all got caught in the wind and current and couldn’t make it back under their own steam. - good deeds done :) Today we’re going on a pirate style raiding mission to Skala - attempting to get provisioned, top up our water containers, download some Survivor in free cafe wifi and leave again before the Port authority can charge us for mooring. Planning to do this around lunchtime to match up with their siesta... Headed out of the anchorage at Livardi without incident, we’re swapping roles a bit this season for both of us to get an idea of what the other one ...

  5th Aug 2019 (Samos) What a day!  Woke in Pythagoria, we’re leaving the quay today as per the harbourmasters instructions. There’s the annual ‘try to burn down a restaurant’ festival tonight, and they need the quay completely cleared. Before we left, we did a little bit of provisioning and popped to the chandler for some sicolflex. It looks like the water tank might be leaking again.  We then headed off at around 10:30. Gusty NW winds were forecast (turned out to be constant 20s with gusts to 35), so headed out cautiously. The wind initially was favourable, so we had the genoa up, and went along quite nicely for the first hour or so. To the south of Samos is a small island with a fairly wide channel between it and the main island. It was my turn on watch (I had the stone cigar and everything!) and made the decision to sail around it rather than go through - at that time, I considered that the more cautious option. As we passed the island the winds began picking u...

  1st Aug 2019 (Leros) Awoke to ‘tea?’ at 7:30...  Today finds us floating just outside Artemis boatyard having ‘splashed’ yesterday. First job/lesson of the day is to raise the genoa.. we managed to work out what went where easily enough, but struggled with the raising once we reached the halfway point - Chez feeding, me (somewhat feebly) trying to tug/raise the rope from the mast. Eventually decided a winch was in order, and then made short work of getting the sail to the top of the furler. Finished prepping the boat, then only had to wait for George to come and collect his sunglasses (left onboard yesterday) before setting off. Headed clockwise around the island taking turns at the helm. Managed a good sail with genoa out for the majority of the day. Arrived at our old stomping ground of Panteli around lunchtime - neighbours Dave, Shirl and Honey. Turned cricket on (Day one of the Ashes)... which at time of writing is going fairly well: England have Australia 133/8 bef...