Dropping the sails off Nidri, we immediately tied up (stern to with anchor) on the town quay to pop into George’s chandlery to pick up the repair kit for the Whale pump, which came in from Athens moments after we left on Tuesday and then headed into Vliho to ride out the impending thunder storm.
As is their way, an Italian boat, with the whole of Vliho Bay to anchor in, decided to drop its anchor such that the boat lay about 20m downwind of us. Consequently at about one in the morning when the storm kicked off I was consigned to anchor watch to ensure we didn’t drag into them. And did it rain!, the first since we came out here.
Fortunately the storm was mainly very heavy rain with gusts no greater than 20 knots, and come morning, the sky had cleared and the temperature had dropped to a very pleasant 28°.
So a chance to catch up on outstanding jobs. Ann made a cover for the shore line tape spool – hand stitched as we have no sewing machine, and I repaired the tender again!, with 2 more patches, (it now has 7 in total) and at the third attempt replaced all the seals in the Whale pump, such that it didn’t leak. The secret I discovered was to ensure that the 2 main seals were seated properly in the pump before screwing on the sides, rather than assuming that just screwing the sides on the pump would seat the seals properly.
And I also fitted our new AIS transceiver, except that the Mnea2000 cable was too short. When completed, the world will be able to track our position (when we allow it) and we’ll be able to track other boats from our cockpit plotter.
On Saturday morning we rewarded ourselves with breakfast at Elena’s taverna, although owing to a local power cut, the only item on the menu was a rather large omelette packed with peppers, onion and ham and freshly squeezed orange juice . As we passed Nidri, we dropped the hook and stocked up with food for a few days before heading for Meganisi.
