Grace Notes

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...