The Winter of our Discontent

We are now coming to the end of sedentary week. The weather has just been terrible, and we have been boat bound most of the time. The temperature has dropped considerably and the wind has picked up.

On Thursday the wind picked up to a force 8 which, combined with big waves and the direction of the weather directly onto the town quay, was almost fatal for our beloved Crest Hawk. It had been blowing all night and as we left the boat that morning several huge gusts came through. Tomas ran back and we were both holding her off at the shrouds, waves breaking over the top of the quay and the beam of the boat riding up to within an inch of the concrete. Luckily the wind died down enough within half an hour that we could stop holding her off. Soaking wet from the waist down, we found some spare fenders which had obviously been blown of some other poor bastard's yacht, and which saved ours.


But that was not the end of the excitement: it was carnival!!!! And so we must apologise for the late publication of this entry since last night was the culmination of the festivities. There was a parade through the town, plenty of fancy dress and some light drinking. Crest Hawk's crew were dressed up naturally as pirates.

A shore based crew member has given the rest of the crew the chance to shower, and use the facilities. Also, some fellow travellers called Richard and Theo had us over for a lovely dinner in their boat. Richard (aka Richard the First) was ex Parachute Regiment and pretty deaf, so conversation tended to be mono-directional.

We will be leaving tomorrow for Aktio to pick up our Grandmother's letter, dropping by Vonitsa for a night or two (to enjoy a meal with Andreas and Alex) and then eventually starting to sail North.

Tom's Top Tip: If you are going to wear the same T-shirt for seven days, make sure you don't meet up with the same people more than one day in a row.

Ben's Best Bit: Managing to save Crest Hawk from certain death.

More guests than mugs

Get me the rum Jim! 

Wonky-eyed Moody