I haven’t written anything because there has been little to say. We have been sitting in the marina
while the work on the windlass has proceeded very slowly. We hire a car on Wednesday and were
able to get shopping done and go down to the other end of the island to a nice
beach. I got the laundry done in
town, which was much cheaper than doing it myself in the marina.
We have had another maintenance crisis. While the engineers were testing out the new windlass, they
asked us to put the engine on.
When we tried to turn it off, the red button which stops the fuel
getting into the engine didn’t work and we couldn’t turn the engine off. We have had this problem before many
years ago, but we couldn’t solve it.
The electrician tried to put it right, but couldn’t. He thinks the cable between the red
button and the solenoid on the engine is faulty. We really did not want to spend any more time in the marina
waiting for repairs. We can turn
the engine off by pulling the solenoid cable by hand at the engine. So we will do that and have the problem
dealt with while we are back in England in August. It is a bit of a nuisance having to go to the engine to shut
it off, but not a danger.
The Luries came back to Leros on Wednesday night and we have spent more
time with them. We went to
Demitri’s again for dinner on Thursday.
Today we were desperate to get out of the marina. So when we both had our repairs
completed and had sorted out the forward cabin and cleaned the boat, we headed
out to a local anchorage where there is a taverna and they have mooring buoys.
The weather in the marina was very calm, so we were a bit surprised to
find that the wind in the harbour is still blowing 14-15 knots. We went out of the harbour to pump out
our holding tank and then went back to the Merikia Cove. We tried to pick up a mooring buoy. They have pick ups and it should not
have been difficult. But with the
wind and all I made a proper mess of it.
I finally got the pick up, but when I put my line through I was on the
wrong side of the railings. It
took me ages to sort it out. The
Luries followed us in. Despite a
cool breeze we all had a swim, which was very welcome after all these days in
the marina.
Luries don’t have a
dinghy, because theirs has sprung a leak and is being repaired. So we ferried all of us to the Taverna
for a preprandial drink. Our
dinghy isn’t that well inflated either but we managed to get us all safely
ashore.
The mooring is rather rolly, but it is just about acceptable. We ate dinner aboard our boat. The Luries provided smoked salmon and
avocado as a starter. I tried a
new recipe for steak Creole. I
marinaded the meat for four hours and then “grilled” it on a dryish frying pan
before flaming it with rum. It was
great fun to make and was very nice, but I am not sure that it tasted much
different from my ordinary fried steak!
We drank far too much wine over dinner, but managed to get everyone back
to their own boat without untoward incident. The weather forecast is still for strong winds. We will try to get to Kos tomorrow.
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