Afloat again
Arwenofbosham
Rob and Jacky Black
Sun 11 Apr 2010 07:09
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37 07.53N 26 50.94E
Saturday 10th April Lakki Marina
We finished our winter jobs successfully by Tuesday
evening so as it was our last night for the 'hire car' we took ourselves out for
dinner
to a restaurant recommended by the guy whose boat
is behind us. The Mill is set on the waterside looking over the curve of the bay
towards the port of Aye
Marine. It has an excellent menu and very welcoming
staff and we enjoyed a delicious meal - at very reasonable prices - well worth a
visit if you
are in the area!
Wednesday and Thursday we had a few more jobs to do
including fitting and testing the new batteries and I also did two large
loads of washing, which quickly
dried in the rather blustery conditions we were
having. We also managed to get the inside of the boat a bit more ship shape -
re-organizing the main locker
and stowing away all the tool boxes that we no
longer need (we hope). We had some torrential rain on Thursday which caused more
sand to descend onto
the decks from the rigging - but at least the
halyards and standing rigging are a bit cleaner now.
We met some Scottish folk who arrived to work on
their Westerly Tempest parked next to us - where it has been for 5 years! Mike
and his son Cameron live on the east
of Scotland but originally came from Helensburgh
(where Jacky was born) and Mike was a Captain in the Merchant Navy - so plenty
of things in common to chat about
over pre-dinner drinks!
On Friday Rob had a meeting with the accounts
department to settle the bill before our launch on Saturday - he came back very
pleasantly surprised! The final figure was
several hundred Euros less than we expected! I am
pleased to say that we were not charged for the cleaning or repairs on the Main
sail after complaining earlier in the week.
I forgot to mention that every day around 11.30 a
van arrives in the yard from the bakery in Alinda (a bay about 2 miles away) I
kept missing it last week but managed to buy
some delicious products each day this week. In
addition the chap takes orders and so if you don't have the use of a car he will
bring items for you from town. We particularly
liked his spinach and goats cheese pies and his
chicken rolls (like large sausage rolls).
Saturday dawned bright and breezy - we were
expecting to be launched early so were up at 0730. However the men had to move
one more boat before us so we waited for the call
and waited and waited!! while they proceeded to
move two further boats before finally around 1030 we were in the sling and off!
The launch went fine and we backed successfully
out of the lifting pen with the engine performing
perfectly. It was gusting quite strongly from the N.E. so we decided to just set
the jib for the 7 mile passage down to Lakki. The sun
was shining again so the time passed quickly and we
were soon backing into a nice slot on the pontoon at the marina helped by Gregor
one of the harbour 'marineros'. He told us
had been leaving for lunch when he saw our boat
coming so came back to help us! There are several other boats here including a
Norwegian two Swedish and an Italian. Our Scottish
friends arrived late afternoon having sailed most
of the way in lightening winds.
We went to the Gyros cafe for supper and were
pleased to find that our favorite supermarket and butchers were also open so
purchased some more supplies including a very large 'T'
bone steak to have for Sunday
lunch!
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