We journeyed out to the boat in March, before flights started up to Preveza, so we touched down in Athens and, after getting a hire car organised, drove round the coast towards Piraeus and stayed overnight in a very convenient hotel. It was cold in quite a fresh breeze but we ventured out to find supper in the town that evening and lucked out coming across an excellent sea food restaurant!
Long drive the next day but we succeeded in visiting the Mastervolt office in Athens to sort out the battery saga, and calling in on Almira boatyard, just short of Corith on the north coast, where we had a 6 week booking for July/August 2026. Having discovered that the Corinth Canal would be closed until July 2026, we had a need to cancel our booking and get a refund on our deposit. We were interested to discover a lively, very large boatyard with all the indication of doing very well, but we soon discovered that refunds were not on their agenda! The best we managed was to defer our booking to 2027 so that we could worry about it next year!
The motorway was brilliant and easy, the tolls mounted to about 45 euros, a fair chunk of that being to cross the Rion Bridge before Patras, and we were soon in Preveza and found Deja Vu, mastless as expected, but in good shape.
We had a week to work on her, the hull polishing taking priority, and with a suitable scaffold tower, the job was methodically completed. Nigel continued to swab out the fuel tanks that had been ‘cleaned’, fitted new solar panels, a new kitchen tap, lots of other essential jobs, Mo organised the galley and produced the shopping list that got translated into bags of shopping in the local supermarkets.
We stayed in Dora’s seafront apartment in Preveza and it was so comfortable! Modern, ace bathroom, superb views across the bay from a well appointed balcony, and all that we needed for a warm and comfortable stay. After 8 hours work at the boat every day, it was a joy to get back to the apartment, shower and relax.
View across to the yard from our apartment balcony followed by various boat work images but majoring on the reinstallation of the mast, and finishing with a magical view of a backstreet in Preveza!
The riggers were a great bunch and did very careful and professional work. Whilst they rigged the mast, we polished, cleaned and organised. Our new mainsail had arrived from Austria and that was duly stowed on the boat with the help of the crane that was lifting the mast back in. We are full of awe at the skill of the crane driver, particularly as quite a brisk wind had started as the mast lift began. It was lowered onto the deck with great precision accompanied by a lot of shouted Greek from the riggers. It was good to get it back in place with shiny new stays and fittings. Remarkable the ‘rats nest’ of wiring under the mast was reconnected the next day and everything worked. Amazing!
Preveza was quite quiet as the airport had not yet opened and not all of the tavernas were open. We re-established our friendships with our favourite places who were pleased to welcome us back. Unlike the UK, the prices were largely the same as last year and eating out is not prohibitively expensive. It made us look forward to the season even more. After 8 days we did the return trip to Athens without incident and flew home to some lovely warm weather!
We are now poised to return 5th May for the season afloat. It has been unseasonally cold in Greece with snow briefly reported in the mountains around Athens. It is, however, looking brighter and warmer ahead in the Ionian, so we shall see how we get on. With the world in turmoil we are unsure how easy it will be to get diesel fuel, but we shall soon find out!
Deja Vu 
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