New Season - May 2012

Gillyb
Wed 6 Jun 2012 11:43
Greetings Everyone,
This is our first entry since arriving in Greece so
a bit belated but we have been busy. Firstly we cleaned and
ant-fouled the boat (see photo) while it was 'on land'. Then on May
9th Gilly B was put back into the water and we continued with cleaning and
putting on sails etc in the marina (see 2nd photo).
We went across to Preveza in the new fast rib (aka
marina taxi) to do our shopping and check in with the port
police/coastguard for the season. When we were all loaded and
provisioned we set off to Vonitsa in the inland sea and anchored behind a spit
of land with fir trees and a little church. We enjoyed our first BBQ
that evening and had pleasant walks ashore but the weather was still to warm up
so it was cool in the evening. We tried our first swim but it was
quite cold so we were quickly back up the ladder for a hot shower! (See
photo of sunset over the BBQ).
After a couple of days we headed down towards
Vlikho Bay and then on down south to Sivota. A lovely town in an
enclosed bay surrounded by little shops and tavernas. It gets very
crowded in the summer with charter boats but we had plenty of space this early
in the year. We were on the wall just opposite a very old building
which was an oil press right up till the 1950's and then was converted to a bar
but with the old walls and press etc still included. It was called
Liotrivi which means oil press. (The owner spoke good english and
explained its history to us one evening over a night cap). See photo
looking out of bar to our boat.
We celebrated our 40th (Ruby) wedding anniversary
while here and went out to a taverna with an 'upstairs' balcony overlooking the
water. There were lots of cards and some champagne
and Graham gave me a pretty ruby pendant while we enjoyed the usual sort of
greek meal (Pork Souvlaki). See photo no.5
The last photo shows Gilly B at anchor in Abelike
where we had the usual visit to Pirates Cove and hot showers. Here
we also met someone that recognised Graham from about 1984 !! back
in Brize Norton she had been in her first post when he was her O.C.
She had a good memory. We hope to meet up with her again sometime as
she has a boat in the Ionian.
Thats all for now folks as the new batteries have
just arrived!! More news later. Regards to you
all.
Gilly B
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