Levitha, Monday 5 September 2016

Well we are finally out of the marina!  We did have a nice time going around the island in the hire car.  We finally made it to Panteli Castle.  There isn’t too much to see except the main walls and ramparts, but there were lovely views over the bays.

We discovered a new cove at Goruna where there was a fish restaurant that looked good.  We had already had lunch, so we shall have to try it another time.  The man we hired the car from has offered us a deal on the same care for when we have to go to the airport.  For 20 Euro a day we can have the care delivered to the marina and then we can leave it at the airport.  This sounds great and we will probably do that.  We have already booked a room in the new boutique hotel in town for the night before we fly home.

The interesting thing about being here for a year is that we are becoming known locally.  Not surprisingly the marina staff know us, but we are also known to the staff in Ostria, our favourite restaurant in town, the car hire man and a number of local shops.  It is all very nice.

The wind started to drop yesterday.  We could have gone out and spent a night at anchor in Lakki bay, but we decided to leave this morning.  We have made it to Levitha, where we were held up in bad weather in July.  There was very little wind, but Richard wanted to put up the sails.  However, when he came to put up the main it wouldn’t go up and he discovered that one of the battens had come out and was stopping the whole thing going up.  The sea was still pretty choppy and the boat was rolling about a lot.  R tried to go forward with life jacket and safety line one, but in those conditions he couldn’t reach the baton.  So we just put up the Genoa and motor sailed most of the way.  I had to take a pill to cope with the waves, which weren’t that big (mostly under a meter with the occasional higher one) but I haven’t yet got my sea legs, so I played it safe.

We saw a lot of boats going in to Levitha and were worried that there might not be any buoys left, but there was no problem.  We did a lovely job of picking up the buoy.  I got the pick up line on the boat hook at first try and threaded it through a line to secure us in place.  Then R swam out to the buoy and I threw him another line which he put through the buoy and I got that line on board with the boat hook and secured us properly, releasing the original line I put on the pick up.  We were quite proud of ourselves.

Richard blew up the dinghy and got it ready to go ashore, but in the end we have just stayed aboard and I cooked dinner.  The temperature isn’t that warm – a mere 25 Centigrade and the water is 26.3 and the wind has a chilly feel. 

We will have an early start in the morning to get to Amorgos for lunch.  We will probably not tie up to the pier, but just anchor as we had done earlier in the summer.