The week we spent in Greece in April doing work on the boat paid dividends, as we(the royal kind) had previously polished Déjà Vu, done a host of maintenance jobs, changed a lot of the running rigging and generally cleaned her up.
We arrived late on 1st June with high expectations for a straightforward launch on Monday 3rd June. She had been ready antifouled by the yard; a chore we are very happy to unload in the future! However there were some engine bits on the chart table that really should have been installed on the engine, so at 830am on Monday morning there were hasty phone calls to the service engineers to get this anomaly resolved! It transpired that they had needed to order a new part that had not arrived in time, so within the hour and engineer was on board to put it all back together with a temporary repair on the broken filter glass.
We launched and went over to Preveza quay, now swamped with charter boats which reside there. Much harder to find a space, but we did, reverse anchored as usual and for the first time in several years that we have visited here, there was no one to take lines, so Mo had to leap ashore to enable the mooring process. Progress for the Quay authorities is not progress for the cruising fraternity and a major facility has been significantly reduced.
We love Preveza and soaked up the holiday mood, met up with friendly restaurateurs we have befriended, shopped and filled with water ready for the off.
We had been invited to be guests at the Ocean Cruising Club rally dinner in Vliho Bay on the morrow, so we slipped lines, motored down to Lefkas pontoons for a stopover to collect our recently serviced life raft and fire extinguishers. All going well, until we noticed the anchor somewhat askew in the foredeck cradle. Alas we had lost the very important bow roller and spindle and Lefkas chandlers had no suitable bits for Nigel to make a temporary repair!
We got down to the OCC evening event and had a delightful evening meeting other cruisers who feted Nigel as a hero having had some considerable successes at resolving some of the bureaucracy anomalies that Brexit has put in our way. New friends made over dinner and beer and then back to the anchor problem!
Nidri to the rescue, where the IBA, International Boat Assistance, organization resides and they offered a proper solution via their colleague, English born Phil, the local welder and problem solver! Within a couple of days the anchor was fixed (blue circle above) and better than new, the toilet was also repaired and we were ready to get on with our trip and the important activity of enjoying ourselves! We visited the new Marina to be in Nidri next to the ferry quay, pictured above, top left. A huge expansion of their infrastructure, it will be very popular when completed and running.
A couple of nights at anchor in Varko provided much needed swimming therapy for Mo’s mending wrist and shoulder, an overnight in Sivota, and a run down to Eufemia on Kefalonia.
We had arranged a rendezvous with Farnham friends Anne and Christopher who were holidaying in the south of the island. We had a marvellous day together when they drove up to find us and we shared a very pleasant lunch and early evening supper before the time came for them to depart.
Our next stop, Messalongi, where we got the last place in the Marina, gosh it was full! Becoming ever more popular for boats to rest over for UK returns, we will have to do some forward planning next time! The new marina owners have big plans for the place to expand and modernize. It will become an excellent facility.
With a couple of strong wind days ahead, we rented a car and set off for the mountain rack railway on the north coast of the Pelopponese, east of Patras. We had a wonderful day where sadly the photos do not do justice to the magnificent mountain scenery, ravines and gorges we travelled though to get to the mountain town of Kalavryta.
The train climbs over 750m with the steeper gradients on rack mode. The track is poised most of the time on the edge of precipitous drops down to the river below. Sadly the design of the carriages does not make photography easy. It was also very crowded. We spent an enjoyable day in Kalavryta before returning on the train.
The town’s main claim to infamy was graphically portrayed in the town museum, where we had quite a harrowing experience. During the German occupation, specifically on December 13th 1943, all the men and boys over 13 in the town were executed by the Nazis in reparation for partisans having killed some German soldiers. Britain had refused help that had been requested as fierce retaliation had been anticipated and, in the event, over 460 men of the town lost their lives.
There were 13 survivors for whom oak trees have been planted in the street beside the museum to remember them. It is a very sobering and depressing reminder of the horrors of war brought home with the terrible goings on in Ukraine and Gaza, will be ever learn? As a tourist attraction it was uncompromising and harsh.
Our return drive to Messalonghi would normally have been by the Rion Bridge but Nigel, not having been on a boat that day, elected to use the ferry crossing. We saved 8 euros over the toll bridge fee. Four ferries run back to back and it is hard to see how this is an economic enterprise these days! We enjoyed the trip enormously though and were glad not to be sailing as the winds were very fresh, the sea bouncy such that the ferries were crabbing across the canal.
It is now Saturday 15th June, (Happy Birthday Dick) and tomorrow we plan to depart for Trizonia, a pretty island in the gulf of Corinth as that is the way the wind is blowing.
Deja Vu 
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