It was a shorter week, as we were away last weekend, but still filled with lots of highlights. In particular was meeting up with family friends the Williams for a couple of days and getting to show Serenity to her first visitors! We were also excited to have brought back lots of new boat bits from the UK, and enjoyed some rousing sails as we headed into the Cyclades islands.
After a lovely holiday back in the UK, Alec and I returned to Greece on Monday. Our UK trip had been another opportunity for us to source “all the things,” so, as has become a bit of a habit, we were loaded to the absolute brim on our return. Not ones to miss out on opportunities, we added to the pile when we got back to Athens, before catching the ferry back to where the boat was. There is, somewhat surprisingly, an IKEA very close to Athens airport. So, while I waited for our bags, Alec found the bus and headed there to get a few more things (dish rack, laundry basket…). It was all going well until he attempted to get the bus back to the airport to meet me. Despite going to the correct return bus stop, he must have got on one going a different route, as he found himself travelling further away from the airport rather than back to it! The bus deposited him at its next stop in a random town, and I found a taxi to go rescue him. The taxi driver didn’t speak English, so he ended up calling a friend who did, who acted as the translator / go-between. Between that, a lot of charades, and eventually me getting Google Maps directions up on my phone, we managed to find Alec and make it to the ferry terminal. There, because we clearly didn’t have enough stuff, we also collected our refilled propane tanks from the friendly gas man. Alec and I now had four large bags each and had to waddle onto the ferry. But, we managed, and as night fell we finally got to Agistri.
We were delighted to see Serenity looking happy and safe in her spot on the pontoon when we arrived. A thorough check confirmed she was all good, with only one small casualty. One of our fenders had worked its way loose from its line and gone walk-about. This was annoying but not a drama, and we were very grateful that Serenity had been safe and sound while we were away.
We took a couple of days to unpack and start to install all the goodies we’d brought back with us, and then set our sights one island to the east (Aegina) to the harbour of Perdika. The Williams are close family friends of the Marshalls and just so happened to be on a sailing holiday in the Saronic islands with some of their friends for the week. We’d arranged to overlap with them in Perdika for Wednesday / Thursday, and were very excited to be able to host our first visitors to Serenity!
We managed to save a spot next to us for them the first day, and had a great evening catching up, giving tours of Serenity, and generally enjoying their great company. They did a day sail the next day before coming back to Perdika again and we had a second chance to spend a lovely evening – this time enjoying drinks on a balcony overlooking the bay next to the harbour. It was a real treat to meet up with friends and really made the week .
The Williams and co were headed back to Athens on Friday, and we needed to make tracks east as we are due to meet some friends in Mykonos, so we parted ways. The islands of the Cyclades are a bit further apart, so we had a couple of big sails ahead. First, we made for Kea, which is a pretty little island that we’d actually visited before on a sailing trip in 2012, about 40nm from Aegina. The place was much the same and still beautiful, and we enjoyed a bit of paddle boarding in the bay and chilling on the town quay. Our enjoyment was somewhat dampened though when I got in a bit of a fight with a lamp post (i.e. I was doing the classic thing of walking while looking at my phone, and ran right into it…), and managed to fling my phone into the road where the screen promptly shattered to smithereens. This is the reason I’m afraid we don’t have more pictures this week – they’re inaccessible on my phone at the minute! I had a not-so-minor melt down about my phone situation, though then found out I can get it fixed when we get to Mykonos, so am feeling a bit better about things now. A bit… Luckily we have many devices so it is really only a small setback!
The next day we were up early again for another big leg, about 35nm, to the island of Syros. The morning started with a bit of an unexpected bang. Or clang? We slipped lines at 7am, and were casually pulling up our anchor when the windlass started really struggling. At first, we were worried we might have a power problem, but it quickly became apparent that the anchor was caught on something. This was a bit odd because we’d inspected it the day before and it had been happily set in clear sand. We shortly realised that another boat had come in at the end of the day and laid their anchor over ours (this was impressive given they were parked more than two spaces away from us – I’m not sure how they managed to lay anchor at such a severe angle!). While our windlass is a beast, it was no match for both our anchor and chain plus another boat’s. We tried pulling in a number of different directions to free ourselves, but Springsteen was firmly stuck on their chain, so we had to re-park against the quay and discuss the situation with our neighbours. They’d been awakened by the noise and quickly realised their mistake. Sometimes these things can be fixed by swimming down and dealing with the problem directly, but the bay was really deep and the anchors were beyond our reach. So, since they’d laid their chain over ours, we all thought the best option would be for them to go out and pull up their chain, which would hopefully then free our anchor. They did their best to pull up their anchor, but it turned out that in all the pulling the two anchors had got hooked together! They had a more powerful windlass thanks to being a larger boat than us (a 45ft catamaran), and after a while they were able to haul up both their anchor and ours. They did a bit of majiggery (technical term) with some ropes and were eventually able to uncouple the anchors and finally free us.
I think we were quite lucky in some respects, as this sort of thing does happen. First, the couple who had laid their chain over ours were clearly seasoned sailors and had lots of good ideas about how to fix the situation, and second, they were quick to admit they had been at fault – so we could all approach the problem together without grumbling. What could have been quite a sticky situation was rectified in an hour, so we were underway without too much delay and no harm done!
The sail to Syros was a lively one. Big seas and relatively punchy winds meant active helming was required, and I was once again grateful to have Alec, who takes these conditions in stride. He helmed the whole way, and made sure we still had fun doing it (blasting Tay Tay is always a win!). He even coached me on the helm for a bit, which was super helpful and a great learning experience! Yay for Alec! We arrived at the bay of Finikas on the west coast of Syros around 2pm and found a lovely little spot to anchor. This meant we still had lots of time to explore the town and even get in a little nap . Tomorrow, we head for Mykonos – we’ll let you know how it goes in next week’s post!
One thing Alec and I have started doing over the last few weeks is a little Serenity First book club. We first read Dune (the first in a fantasy series, based on a desert world), which we both loved. This was followed by re-reading what had been a childhood favourite of mine, A Wrinkle in Time. I’d loved this as a kid, but it didn’t catch me or Alec now reading as an adult. But they can’t all be winners! Most recently we just read The Martian, which we both adored. It’s about an astronaut who gets stranded on Mars and is a very humorous and engaging read – very highly recommended! We are looking for many more good books to explore together, so if you have any recommendations we’d love if you would share them with us!
Nice Lifespark tshirt, Alec!
Thanks bud, been getting some good wear out of it as it doesn’t show engine oil stains!
Gorgeous photos
For your book club, I’d recommend Dark Matter by Blake Crouch – it’s a great mix of sci fi, thriller, and philosophy!
Sounds perfect – thank you Lauren!!
Hi Lauren, I just finished this book on our last passage and really enjoyed it – thanks for the recommendation! The last 25% took me completely by surprise and I’m really excited to see what Laura ends up making of it. As a return recommendation, I’ve recently devoured the first Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (whilst waiting for the next Stormlight book to come out) and it was a great read that combined a pretty inventive magic system with intricate character development and some interesting broader themes. Also, I’m still optimistic the Mr Rothfuss will finally get around to finishing his trilogy at some point this year (fingers crossed)!
Cheers,
Alec
Funny you should mention A Wrinkle in Time. My sister just recommended it to me last week. Will look for The Martian.
Two book club recommendations: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Both are very well written and should provoke some interesting discussions.
They sound great – thanks for the recommendations Marie!
Hi Marie! Thanks again for the great book recommendations. We really enjoyed both of them, and they definitely prompted some interesting discussions (both about the themes and the styles of writing)!