We arrived to find the boat in a sorry state after two weeks of heavy rain that dumped half of the Sahara desert onto our decks and cover. Our first job was to hose the boat down which was an immediate improvement but the red dust had penetrated everything and it took several washes to rid Deja Vu of all the dirt. Next came the antifouling which was the usual messy task of rubbing down, masking and painting. With that finished we booked our launch for Thursday 9th May.
Much happier in the water we continued the cleaning and maintenance jobs, polishing the topsides and all the chrome. Déjà vu was sparkling!
As we filled the water system on board, delighting in the luxury of running water, hot included, we discovered to our dismay there was a leak. Nigel traced it quickly to the hot water boiler which, on close inspection, was condemned. It must have frozen during the winter and split a seam.
We discovered that it was a problem to get a replacement in Greece and a speedy review of alternative manufacturer’s boilers all of which were the wrong size, we concluded we had a problem. It was Thursday and with our friend Peter due from the UK on Sunday, we knew we had an opportunity to bring parts from the UK as long as we acted immediately. Luck was on our side.
What a blessing the internet and the mobile phone proved to be. We traced a replacement boiler in Doncaster of all places and organized its urgent dispatch to Peter’s house in Farnham. Fortunately it arrived on Saturday, Peter had established he could get it through airport security and we were thrilled we had a plan. In the meantime Nigel had bypassed the boiler so that we could at least have cold running water, but as soon as this was done we discovered the second leak in a fitting near the pump, that looked like more frost damage. Once again the local chandler did not have the spare parts we needed to do a repair, so more urgent messages to Peter to trawl the local plumber’s merchants.
Peter arrived late afternoon on Sunday 12th May bearing vital gifts to repair the boat!
Nigel set to on Monday and did some ambitious plumbing repairs with Peter assisting and with a little advice and assistance from the very helpful, but overworked, local Greek engineer, John.
By Tuesday we had the boat back in working order.
We had planned to sail to Crete but the weather was not in our favour. Strong winds south of Kalamata have persisted for the last week and look to remain for the foreseeable future. This has curtailed our sailing as there are few safe places to go to that are not in the teeth of the weather.
We managed a couple of day sails to Koroni and to Petalidhion which were good but cloudy and cool!
Despite the cool conditions and sea temperature well below normal Peter donned his newly acquired wet suit and took to the water briefly with a quick swim to look at the anchor. He even repeated the process a couple of days later claiming it to be a good experience through gritted teeth.
Thursday 16th we hired a car to visit the stunning caves at Diros, a 90km drive on very winding roads south of Kalamata. The tour involved a punt with 6 or 7 on board, paddled by a guide through a maze of dimly lit underground passages which opened into stunning cathedral style caves boasting magnificent stalactites and stalagmites in all sorts of colours. Some of the canals were very narrow and low and slightly testing for the claustrophobe, but the experience was well worth it.
We drove back to Kalamata through Sparta and over the mountains which we did last year, and repeated to show Peter the stunning scenery.
We have been enjoying Peter’s good company and have cooked on board, enjoyed meals in local restaurants, been walking and cycling. However the frustration of not sailing where we want to go is wearing us down! The forecast is still against us, so we will have to wait and see what happens next.
Deja Vu 
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