An easy flight down to Preveza on Sunday 28th August, the plane was only half full and we had the most delightful service from our friend Hazel’s lookalike/soundalike of some 20 years back! We landed around 9pm in the dark, a salutary reminder that the days are shorter, but no less cool as a wall of heat greeted us as we stepped off the plane. We were soon re-aquainted with Deja Vu and just had enough time for a light supper and a beer at Food & More in the Marina restauant.
Monday was a round of maintenance as usual and checking up on the big jobs the yard had done during August. We had to recall one engineer to realign the shaft and another arrived with bottles of descaler to fix the blockages we constantly experienced in the aft heads. Pipes were replaced, cleaning was done and by lunchtime, all was working normally in a much more savoury environment! We mounted our new solar panel and embarked on the wiring which entailed a lot of mousing lines, threading and weaving, We decided to take a break to think about the next more difficult phase of getting to the battery box!
We were three hours from our launch time on Tuesday when we decided to drop the anchor and relabel the various depth marks. That job got done, but in the process revealed a more serious concern with the bow roller parting company with the frame. Quick thinking to the fore, help from a fellow sailor and a passing welder, plus a good pinch of luck we deemed it a a miracle that two hours later it was repaired, reinstalled and we were good to go. We have made a mental note to do more maintenance checks!
Whilst waiting for the launch we were reminded what a superb facility Cleopatra Marina is; here are a few photos taken as we walked with the boat on a tractor to the water. Massive cranes, laundry area, first aid post, admin building, security entrance and marina promenade. All very lovely.
Lauch we did, on time! It turned out to be a good decision to stay one more night in the marina so that we could finish wiring the solar panel the next day, close to a chandlery. Last evening we commented on an eerie lull to the afternoon breeze at about 6pm and looking south, the sky was black. By 630pm there was deafening thunder and a chunky 30 knot wind from the south.
Marina Cleopatra is sheltered from the south, but we looked across to mayhem on Preveza Quay, where we would have been had we left as originally planned! Many boats were leaving to escape the waves attacking the quay. So two lots of luck in one day. Hope we are not using up our quota all up in one go as we have a few weeks ahead yet!
We have a day now to start bit of shopping before our friends Brian and Michele arrive on Friday. We are hoping Michele does not divine to bring rain this trip!
Deja Vu 
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