Grace Notes

The only remaining task was to pack up our home by 5pm Thursday evening. It was a big job as we have accumulated a lot of stuff over the last 8 months. There are big items, like the spare sails, bikes, towels and bed linen to consider, as well as smaller but very important spares and tools. It was hard to throw things away as most items have some kind of memory attached to them. Phil was definitely in charge of organising the storage on the boat. He made everything fit and ensured that it all stays as dry as possible. Stef and Mark from Sail in Turkey were really helpful in finding solutions and sympathetic to our alternately quiet and then stressed moods. They have offered Phil's chilli plants a good home, where they can join a small family of other chillies and peppers. By Thursday lunchtime it was all done and so a final boozy meal helped to see us through to departure time.

We went out for a short 4 day trip, leaving Marmaris on Saturday 15th and arriving back on Tues 18th. The weather on Saturday was still beautiful, and we enjoyed a very hot lunch stop on our way out, which turned out to be my last swim of the whole trip. The weather however, did not last and by mooring up time on Sunday it was raining heavily, a situation that continued through to Monday lunchtime. After that it did clear up but with a very strong and very cold wind. The short trip was reasonably eventful as we had another disturbed night on Saturday night. We had decided to free swing in quite a small bay and the wind when it arrived was not from the expected direction, so manoeuvring by moonlight was required. On Sunday we caught our second fish of the whole journey. We make a reasonable team, as I get freaked out by killing it but am fine on the gutting, where as Phil is fine with the killing and not very happy about the chopping. So all in all we get there. We had a beaut...

We arrived in Turkey on Wednesday 12th October. It has taken us since the 9th April to deliver the boat here, a particularly long schedule, which has been more about cruising than getting anywhere very fast. It was good to finally meet the owners of Sail in Turkey, and find that they really did want to have Grace on their fleet. We have been over the boat with them, and they seem reasonably pleased with her condition and were not even too freaked out about the fridge. It has all gone really well and really smoothly so far. We have unfortunately, booked our return flights and so now have a definite schedule for our return to the UK. We are therefore on our final jobs list, of which storage, seems to be the key sticking point so far. Although I am sure we will work it all out. Marmaris has made a good first impression. It is a big place with, the good, the pretty, the bad and the ugly, all there for us to navigate depending which kind of mood we are in. The bay itself is ve...

This seems so long ago, but with limited internet access in Turkey it has taken a while to get up to speed. So the weekend I am referring to was the 8th and 9th October. We were aware that the storm was coming and chose Pedi on Simi to see out the event. The forecast was for Force 8 from the south blowing up on the Saturday, with respite on the Sunday, and blowing up again on the Monday, and finally blowing itself out by Tuesday morning. In preparation we laid our 20kg Rocna and 20kg Delta in tandem and pointing south the direction the wind should have come from. I snorkelled them to ensure they were both in, and our only concern on retiring to bed on Saturday night, was that we seemed a little close to the end of the short quay when we swung around. So we picked 5 meters of chain up and went to bed. At 2.45am we were woken by the noise of the wind, which had finally arrived. The whole bay was up as yacht after yacht began to drag their anchor. Some only needed to re-ancho...

Making the most of our last week we spent two nights in Tilos, one at anchor and one on the quay, enjoying every last second of the sun and warm weather. The second morning we went running and ran up the steepest hill yet. Well done us. We then moved down to Khalki which was beautiful. The architecture is Venetian and so the place looks like Fiscardo, but much quieter, with only a few tavernas and a lazy rather than fashionable feel. However it is no place to be in a blow as the floating pontoon provided for visiting yachts offers very little protection from wind or swell. Last stop Simi and then into Marmaris.

We spent two nights on the lovely volcanic island of Nisiros. The main event was our trip around the island on a hired moped. The first thing to note is that, whilst Phil was driving and I was pillion, there were no accidents. We had a thorough briefing of where to go and how to get there from the moped hire man at Eagles Nest, who was from the island and had a lot of really good local knowledge. We started with a volcanic sauna in a natural cave up in the hills and then went down into the crater from there. The whole crater takes up the entire centre of the island, but within this there are two smaller craters. We were able to walk right up to the edge of the smaller and most recent one to erupt, and right down into the larger older one. It was an amazing experience to be in the crater of a volcano. It feels a lot like being in a Star Trek episode, especially as the rocks are all pumice and so weigh nothing, making them feel strangely like polystyrene rocks . The colours of...

After dropping off Pam and Brian we decided to stay for a few days in Kardamena on Kos. The place has a reputation with some yachties for being loud and full of package holiday makers, and whilst it is true that you can get a full English breakfast at any time of day here, we liked the place. The first night we spent drinking shots in the bar just behind the boat. The company was good and the night ended with chips and curry sauce. The next day was spent feeling a little worse for wear and doing jobs very slowly. We did plan to leave the following morning, but this was just as the weather forecast was predicting a force 8 to blow through, so we decided to stay put. This meant that we could finish all our jobs, go running twice, including a 9.25km trip, and eat in a lovely place we had spotted on the way to the supermarket. The wind arrived, but we were really sheltered and spent a very peaceful night. All in all we really enjoyed our time in Kardamena.

This week's challenge for Team Grace has been having the Aged Parents on board! Having laid Kylan up in a yard in Preveza until next spring we were delighted to have the opportunity to be in Greece again and of course to see Sara and Philip. It has been a novel experience for us to be crew and the first time we've been on a boat other than Kylan for about 10 years - a fact that became obvious by the clumsy way we moved around. The last time we were in the Dodecanese was about 20 years ago, so it was interesting to see how things had changed. We have had great weather and marvellous sailing. We've very much enjoyed anchoring off and being in deserted bays. In Kylan we are always sailing with the dogs and so it becomes a priority to be on a quay. Good company and wonderful food with plenty of liquid refreshment and knowing the ultimate responsibility for the boat was not yours - all made for a very relaxing week. Thank you for having us! xxx

This week has surely seen Grace's most challanging guests as the Simpson family descended on the Agean. First instrucion for Archie (3) and Benji (8 months) was that the boat was not a playground on the sea (perhaps a grown ups playground), but this is difficult with lots to pull, turn and clamber over. Second lesson was that it was the sea, not a giant river. Third lesson was the bowline, thinking rabbits coming up holes round the tree and back down was a manageable concept for as toddler, but hey of course it was greeting with the obligatory why, why does it go round the tree and not climb up it. Final lesson was that not all large boats are pirate ships, although Archie does already posses a dislike for large stinky motor boats, who should "get off the sea" in his words. We really liked the Agean islands we visited - and Vathi on Kalimnos and Port Augusta on Arki stand out as beautiful fishing villages with dramatic backdrops of cliffs. Also some lovely peaceful bay...

We have been pottering around Khios and adjacent islands for the last few days. Mostly the places have been lovely, with the exception of Khios town itself. Marmaro and Emborios on Khios were both pretty places where we spent comfortable nights. Mandraki on the island of Oinoussa was slightly odd, as it had a yacht club with private pier, floodlit clay tennis court and basketball courts, full size athletics stadium, separate football stadium, outside cinema but no bakery. It was a place that did not exploit its water front and so you had to look for things, but however hard you looked no bakery, apparently they ship all their fresh bread over from Khios. However a very lovely, pretty and quiet place. The meltemi has been blowing on and off and we did have one disturbed night at anchor in a bay on Oinoussa. The bay was sheltered from the swell but not from the wind which blew up to 28 knots in the night. Anchor watch was required for a couple of hours to ensure that all was ...

We took advantage of a break in the weather to head for the Eastern Sporades. The omens looked good, a pod of dolphins escorted us for half an hour on our departure from Skyros. The official forecast was F7 locally F8, but we could see from the GRIBs (localised lies about what the wind might do) that in the afternoon the wind should drop a little and back, giving us a good blast ESE. Here's a picture of Grace in full flight, taken by S/Y Orpheus who were alongside us in Linari. The GRIBs turned out to be spot on for once. 10 hours and 60NM later we tied up in Psara alongside Orpheus and another yacht that had made the same trip. We're now at Kardhamila on the top of Khios. With the prevailing northerlies, its downhill all the way to Marmaris.

Yesterday was a very busy day, with three events worthy of note in just one day. The first was that we cycled over Skyros to the Chora. It was a hard ride there as it was both up hill and into the wind but stunning scenery. The Chora itself was well worth the climb, with the cobbled winding alleys and whitewashed houses and the occasional gem of a church. The fortification on the very top was closed due to earthquake damage. We stopped in one of the cafés, that gave the place it's classy feel, before flying home on the bikes. The second event was less positive as it involved me picking up another injury. We needed to re-anchor, as on our return had begun to drag the anchor. During this procedure I managed to get my hand trapped between our pull pit and the stanchion of another boat. We have so often said, "Keep your hands and feet out of the way", and I now realise just how good this advice is. There is nothing broken, scrapped skin and bruising but a defin...

So since Graham left us the Meltemi has turned itself back on. The forecast is now F7 locally gale 8, very different to the week when Graham was here. We are currently making the hop over from the western side of the Aegean to the eastern side, which means going across 40 miles of open sea. Therefore we are taking a weekend break in Skiros and are planning to make a dash for it on Tuesday, when there seems to be a small decrease in the wind. So in the mean time we are going to get the bikes out and cycle up to the Chora, 10km away, and then on to have a bit of a poke around and see what trouble we can get ourselves into.

Phil and Sara kindly invited me to join them for a week on Grace pottering around the NW Aegean and I flew out last Wednesday to join them in Skiathos. There was a hell of a blow on that day and into the next day; pushing well into 30 knots. And that was it. Since then there has been almost no wind so the lesson appears to be: I must not be greedy and use up all the wind on the first day of my holiday! However no wind does enable you to see some places and moor up in some tiny inlets that would otherwise be impossible with the Meltemi blowing as usual. We anchored beam-on across an inlet in the Maritime Park of Alonnisos and ate Phil's Thai Curry. The next morning we spotted a turtle - something we would not have been able to see if there was any more than a ripple on the water. It was good to see that the maritime park seems to be having a positive effect on the wildlife. We then motored down the north of Nisos Alonnisos and anchored where the sea bed sloped so deeply t...

This chap was so insistent on hitching a ride, he stayed where he was while we hauled the dinghy up onto the transom. He stayed there for a couple of hours, all the way from Orei to Ormos Pteloú.

As we have completed our last stop on Evia and head out into the Northern Sporades I would like to take a moment to appreciate the return of the green. The Cyclades were impressive in their own barren rugged way. The Choras looked pretty from a distance and the sunsets to be seen from them were some of the best we have ever seen. But I missed the green. I particularly love looking at the different shades of green from different types of foliage and as we moved north up Evia we saw more and more of this.

Monday night was hard work. We were at anchor, in a reasonably sheltered, shallow bay on the south side of the North Evia Gulf. View Larger Map At around 2330, we were about to turn in for the night. I did a final check on deck, only to witness a fantastic display of sheet lightning to the north, on the other side of Evia. We watched it for ten minutes. We became fairly confident it was not heading in our direction, but we know a thunderstorm can bring strong winds so decided to lay a second anchor. The ten minutes spent enjoying the spectacle cost us dearly. Lesson 1 : If a thunderstorm is about, don't dawdle - get prepared. We laid our second anchor, which is a 16kg Delta plus about 25kg of chain - not an easy thing to lug about. While doing so, it became apparent that the chain of the primary Rocna anchor was caught round something on the bottom. It looked to us (in the pitch black - a new moon), that the two chains were somehow entangled, but in thinking about it aft...

There is a small road bridge joining Evia to the main land which needs to be passed to proceed up to the Northern Sporades. Having read about it, it all sounded reasonably worrying with talk of 6-7 knots of tide at springs as you pass through the bridge and yachts being left out by the call by the port police and it all having to be done in the dark, as they only open the bridge between 10pm and 4am to avoid disrupting the traffic as much as possible. So we went and paid our dues and were given very clear instructions by the Port Police, who seemed very well organised and told us to expect the call about 2.00am, which would be around slack water. The whole event passed off pretty much as they said it would. We were prepared early and rigged the boat ready for an along side whilst we still had light. The Port Police called each boat individually to stand by at about 2.30am and then called each boat again individually to proceed through the bridge in turn. We went through, watche...

Karavos was a strange little place to stop, as you can see it was a place of two halves. The beautiful little harbour lined with bars and tavernas on the one side and the massive power station and cement factory on the other. Also strangely a place without any useful shops, a furniture shop, a boat brokerage, two kiosks and a bakery with no power, so no bread.   To add to the pleasant strangeness the evening saw a parade of possibly 100 youngsters, ageing from 4 to 16, parade through the streets, with candle lights, in celebration of the local swimming clubs 50th anniversary, singing rounds of "Go baby! Go baby! Go".

The dolphins gave us a show on our way from Karastos to Erétria.

We've left the Cyclades, and crossed "the windiest place in Greece" over to Evia. There was certainly evidence of wind. Here's a bent generator we saw on our way into the bay in which we spent the night. Ironically, we motor-sailed across the channel in light winds. On the way we had a brief encounter with some dolphins: There was a blowy kick in the tail though. The wind got up through the night, F6-7 across us. We'd laid our anchors to place our bows into the swell (a good move), but it did mean we had to stand anchor watches, and are a little groggy today. During the night, we were amazed by the performance of our lightweight Fortress anchor, expecting it to drag at any time. We've not had the best of experiences with it since we removed the very heavy length of chain from its rode, (there's no point having a 4kg anchor with 30kg of chain). but we chuck it out when we're not expecting much wind and we want to be able to retrieve it simply...

This chap manages the quay at Batsi, Andros. He's helpful, and has an amusing fluorescent vest. Sadly, we left with a sour taste in our mouths after he tried to rip us off.

On Saturday we arrived in Loutra on Kithnos. A lovely little place with a hot spring. We went and sat in 50° water just in one corner of the beach. The minerals are supposed to be good for your skin and give other health benefits too. What was less good for your health was the mooring on the quay. We had to abort the trip to the spring once as a 54ft charter yacht came in and crossed us. On returning from the spring the harbour master tried to squeeze another yacht into the space at the other side of us, which was far too small. They got wedged about half way down our boat. Another boat was wedged into a similarly small gap next door but one on the other side. The 54fter was apparently leaving in an hour and, as we were all by now criss crossed, we all had to sit and wait. Everyone remained good humoured and it all sorted itself out at about 9pm when the 54fter left. We then went for a drink, but were interupted again as a Sunsail boat came very late to the party. They ende...

Yesterday we were on a collision course with this convoy: That's a tug towing a barge with a crane on it, some sort of tanker, and another tug. Being Greece, none of the vessels showed any of the appropriate day shapes. We were on a collision course for a good half hour, but they didn't show any sign of budging. We had to approach within a mile to see the towing cables. We applied Rule 2 and Rule 17 (which essentially say "even if the other guy isn't behaving, you're not allowed to crash into him"), and Rule 0 (a local special rule - "if its Greek, keep out of its way"), and hove-to to let them pass.

We have spent 3 night holed up on Mykonos waiting for the Meltemi to calm down. We have had an excellent time here, despite thoroughly disliking Mykonos town. The army of yachties, as Phil referred to them, turned out to be not only helpful but very friendly. We went to dinner with three other couples the first night and had a lovely drunken evening, with good food and a lot of laughs. Everyone was incredibly helpful including the motor yacht crew and owners, who joined in the chatting and on one occasion asked if we needed anything from the shop, as he was going! We were all out on the quay for most new arrivals as the 30 knots of breeze made mooring up especially tricky. Unfortunately there were some accidents. Some were just minor wind induced mess ups and no damage was done, a lot pushing and shoving from the shore crew was enough to solve the issue. However some were more serious and several boats were damaged, pull pits bent, smashed fibre glass bathing platform, scratch...

Let me correct my last post about the Meltemi being more about the sea state than the wind. Its definitely about the wind too. This morning we came to Mykonos and had a very windy last couple of hours (F7, gusting F8). Thanks to the assistance of a small army of yachties on the quay, we moored alongside in 35 knots. We've got all our string out.   Its still giving it some out there.

Common wisdom is that its a bad idea to go North up the Cyclades in July or August, due to the regular northerly wind called the "Meltemi". Here's the weather forecast for today, typical Meltemi stuff: SOUTHEAST AEGEAN IKARIO WEST OF 26.00 NORTH NORTHWEST 5 LOCALLY 6 OVER NORTH PART 6 LOCALLY 7 AND EAST OF 26.00 NORTH NORTHWEST 5 LOCALLY 6. MODERATE We wanted to go fifteen miles to the North. "Fine", we thought, "We'll reef and put in a couple of long tacks. We'll end up going 25 miles through the water, but that will only take 4-5 hours". We set off, reefed down, ready for a good sail. To start off we were storming along at 6 knots in the right direction, but about a mile out of the bay, the wind died. The sea state was very confused, with large swells coming from several directions and many white horses. It certainly looked as though there was wind, but there was only 6-7 knots, changing direction through 100 degrees every ten minutes....

The new alternator arrived on this morning's first ferry. Look at the shiny-shiny: I had to swap the pulley for one the right size, but otherwise its all fine. - Phil

I have at last been trying to do some of my Yacht Master Theory, after Phil successfully completed his several weeks ago. I have the technique for secondary ports down perfectly, my methodology would gain many marks, as I show my workings every time. However what these working show every time so far, is the stupid error that I have made. From selecting the 31st instead of the 21st to missing the midnight cross over into the next day and through getting the numbers right and then still putting the line in the wrong place, I have done the lot. The only consolation is that I have not made the same mistake twice and I must be running out of mistakes to make. It feels a lot like my GCSE Maths homework used to but it will not defeat me.

It will be shocking news to those of you who know me, to hear that I have been subject to a whole string of accidents. Fate has been against me from the start. The current issue has been with my right foot. The initial injury occured two weeks ago today. I did what can only be described as a complete air step, having tried to put my full weight down on the seat that was just not there. A big bang followed, along with some bruising and a small amount of swelling to the top of my right foot. Very serious, as it has prevented me wearing heals now for a fortnight. As the week I rested it before running again ended, I stubbed it quite badly into the door that allows access to the compressor for the fridge, left open by the other member of team Grace. This morning we went running at 6.10am (be impressed) and I managed to stub the same foot on a cat's eye and do a very dramatic falling roll in the street. The impact of this is not really serious, however I will be attending the 8...

Things I did today: Went running at crap o'clock, sun came over the hill as we climbed back on board. Re-installed the old alternator to double check it was kaput. Yup - no output. Re-re-installed the good alternator. Asked around in Paros, and discovered Νίκος Καστανιάς, an alternator doctor. Walked up the hill, talked to Nikos. He took the back off  the old one and placed his money on in needing re-winding. Unfortunately, that means shipping it back to Athens, and there's no guarantee fixing it would be cheaper than a new one. So I ordered a new one - and was promised it will come on a ferry tomorrow (will be stunned if it does). There's one a little cheaper on e-bay, but that would take a few weeks before we could get our hands on it. Wired up our smart charger properly.   The "smart" charger has been bugging me for months. Its a magic box that provides the appropriate charging regimes for the domestic and engine batteries. The charger is effective at ...

At the start of the week, we moored in the crater of an extinct volcano, wondering what to right about on the blog.... Setting off, Grace provided the material. Our alternator went phut (smelt a bit, and stopped producing the juice). Now I have it on good authority from Nigel Calder (who writes books on the subject) that "alternators are virtually maintenance and trouble free". Knowing this not to be true, since we've been up the creek without an alternator before, we paid out big bucks for a rebuilt spare before we left Nidri. Half an hour later, Team Grace had replaced the alternator and we were on our way again. Now we just have to find another spare.

As newcomers to the world of sailing, we thought that we would prepare some "handy hints" for others who are lucky enough to be joining Phil, Sara and Grace on their journey around Greece: 1. Boats are always "on the move", even when they are stationary so you need to be careful not to fall in 2. "Port" and "Starboard" mean "left" and "right". You can remember which is which by thinking about which one has an "r" in it 3. Always use sunscreen or you will be fried to a crisp 4. There are two types of knot to learn. One involves making a tree and a hole for a rabbit. The other is hard to remember, but Phil and Sara are always more than happy to remind you, even a week after having been on board. It is VERY important to learn these knots if you want to be a competent member of the "crew" 5. There are all sorts of ropes to pull and winch. They come in a variety of colours (chosen by Phil and Sara, so be s...

After Greek logistics had stretched our patience to breaking point, the new vibration damper finally arrived. Miraculously, its the right one. Nugget and I spent a few sweaty hours in the aft cabins fitting it, and convincing the engine back together. The new damper has made things better, but there's still a noticeable vibration at cruising speed. Maybe the engine mountings are tired, maybe the prop is a little off, maybe it needs to bed in, maybe I need to stop worrying about it and sail more. Fortunately, the Meltemi is full on at the moment. Of course, the wind is from the wrong direction, but one can't have everything. Martin and Zoe have joined us for a week. We're on the hook off the bottom of Aigina tonight, and on our eastwards tomorrow.

Our first every catch... landed.... [missing out a few steps] Yum!

Having finally diagnosed the problem on Thursday there was not much else to do but wait. We have some very good people helping us get sorted so we settled down to wait in Porta Kheli. We went running, did some gel coat spot filling, did the washing, and took part in a book swap with Hazel & Kevin on Chance, a lovely self built steel boat, with very attractive green trim. I have done bikini shopping, both on land and on the internet, and with three new bikinis on the way I should be sorted for the rest of the season. We settled in to watch the Murray in the final at Queens on Sunday. Unfortunately it was rained off, but apparently we British all have a sense of humour about the weather. I don't, as today we needed to leave the good band width offered in Porta Kheli and so my chance of watching it live disappeared. I have had to make do with BBC live text updates instead, but still good result. Wimbledon here we come! However it has been good to get under way again. A re...

So..... Clearly I couldn't ignore a wobbly engine, so we hot tailed it around Porto Khelli (our second home) to meet up with "Nugget", an engineer who works for Neilson and was recommended by Pedro with a view to replacing the propeller. On our way, we passed through Poros, where Vangellis at Vikos Marine amazingly managed to fish out a slightly encrusted but functional matching prop from the back of a cupboard. What's more, he lent it to us on a "sale or return" basis - amazing service. Today, Nugget swapped the propeller three times, duck diving under the boat. We tried the second hand one, a re-conned one out of his workshop, and both made the problem worse, so we put the original back. After consultation with the Nidri Engineering Underground, the conclusion was that it was likely the vibration damper. Worn out ones look a little like this (look at the little bits of rubber, poking out where they shouldn't). New ones from Volvo are ver...

I suffer terribly from engine paranoia. Over the years, we've had marine engines stop on us, overheat, fail to charge my batteries, or generally mess us about. There's always something to worry about. Good care and feeding helps, but won't prevent prop wraps and other bad luck. In the latest episode, we're experiencing some excessive vibration when cruising at 2000rpm. During yet another duck diving drip underneath, I found the rubber fairing around the saildrive leg had come loose. This is a common problem . The fairing smooths the water flow around the saildrive leg, but is mostly cosmetic. After a quick call to Mr Pedro, I cut it off. The vibration is still there. There's a chunk of paint missing off the propeller boss, but the shaft is clear and it all looks good. The engine runs sweetly out of gear. Gear box oil is clear. Conclusion: the prop is a little out of alignment. Its not serious enough to be worth the time, expense, and hassle of lifting th...

Part 1 Pauline's notes on Athens Sparta airport -> Piraeus (the port): Come out of arrivals, go right to "Exit 5". Turn left. Kiosk sells bus tickets. Bus x96 goes to Piraeus Port, 5€. The bus runs every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day, and the journey time is 50-60 minutes. The bus drops on the far side of the port (Gates 1/2). Most departures are from Gates 7-9, you'll need to walk around to the other side of the port. Destinations are listed on each gate. The ticket kiosks were open by 0630. Where available, hydrofoils and "fast cats" are faster than car ferries.

Monday morning and only a day into Pauline's visit and we asked her to do a little job. Just dive down under the boat and unwrap more plastic from our prop. She is a qualified swimming instructor and competition swimmer..... That, however was over 30 years ago and these days you're more likely to find me embroidering, wearing a head torch and talking to my cat Hardy. It's important you know that so I'm now taking over to tell you what it's really like under Grace. First of all were they serious? They had mentioned it the night before but that was after several beers. But no, ten o' clock the next morning there they were standing waiting for me in the cockpit, offering me goggles and snorkel. Phil had constructed a spear made of a pole with a lethal looking knife on the end. Looked like I was expected to kill lunch while I was down there too! What was a girl to do? Sara went in first. Cold! But she is actually Lara Croft in disguise. I followed (disguised a...

Crazy season is approaching, and we're close to Athens, which means money circulating in little ships. This joy... ...kept us awake with its main generator. They turned turn the thing off when the Sun came up, so I guess it was only needed for the ridiculous quantity of deck lighting. There was one consolation. She made the neighbouring stinkies look small, which must have annoyed them.

Having spent a fortune in Hydra, and more on a beautiful chocolate soufflé and cocktail back in Porta Kheli, we have spent the last 5 nights eating on board. These have really helped with the diet and the bank balance. The highlight was Phil's made from scratch pizza night. Phil rolled the thin crust bases out using a can of Fanta Lemon, the rolling pin of choice for the fashionable yachtie, and my special tomato sauce with anchovy and capers was the wining topping.

As the weather is warming up the insect life is also springing into action. One bite each was enough to motivate me into starting the mosquito nets. The design is essentially using the outside rim of the hatches to hook elastic all the way around. So a simple job of cutting to size, hemming all the edges and inserting elastic. The first one took 3 1/2 hours of hand stitching with the lowest quality, most tangle prone cotton in the world. Since then I have got quicker and the size of hatches have got smaller. I am trying to ensure that I complete one everyday. Currently I have the two hatches for the stern cabins yet to do. Then I need to decide on a design for the side hatches, which have no outer rim. I need to decide between the design I thought of and the idea Phil suggested. The jury is still out. I am particularly proud of the design for the companion way, which works as a curtain as well as a mosquito net. A triumph for GCSE textiles!

We have been to Hydra and were lucky enough to get a spot on the quay. We had re-prepped to do a bows-to piggy off two yachts on the North side, just as two Nelson yachts left the quay on the South side. We quickly about turned and pinched a lovely spot. The harbour was particularly full as there was a flotilla of 40 foot catamarans blocking the view along the length of the North quay. The place is very pretty and rightly deserves the tourists it brings in. The lack of motorised transport was great and the donkeys and horses do work hard on everyday stuff as well as rides for the masses. We spent a great evening with a couple from Guernsey, who were just finishing a three week holiday. Lovely meal, great company, but the most expensive meal of the trip so far. Three of us had kalamari, which was nicely done, one whole fresh squid each. But it was 18 euros each! Compared to the 5 euros for a bowl full from the fisherman. We will be anchoring off and cooking on board for the...

We went all around the island on the coast road. The total journey was about 25km. There huge amounts of zig zaging, up then down, then up again. It was worth it for the views and to see into the beautiful little bays. Spetsai is written about as an island without cars. This is mostly true, as there were no cars, but there were hundreds of mopeds and some trucks. It was nice therefore to get out of the town with its constant moped drone. We discovered that the rest of the island is very quiet with virtually no motorised transport.

We moored up next to a small fishing boat in Spetsai. They were very friendly and asked if we wanted to buy some fish. So to continue our fishetarian adventure we said yes. We went across and I suggested the squid. We tried to help ourselves to 4 animals but they were insistent that we had more. In the end we had given an entire bowl full of fresh squids for 5 euros. Having watched many cookery programmes over the years I had seen how to gut squid and it looked very straightforward. What I quickly discovered, having thrust my fingers into my first squid, is that when you pull firmly the insides will not all come away in one piece, as it does every time for the professionals, but will break and then you will just have to do your best to pull out the bits. On about squid number 12 one finally came away as it should. We then marinaded the prepared pieces in oil, lemon and dill. The other key thing I learnt was how easy it is to over cook. I new it did not need long but it real...