Friday

jaba
Basil Panakis
Sat 14 Jan 2017 15:11

All I can say, it is hot and the wind has been light today. A lot of activity around my boat, congratulation etc.
Peter on the berth next to my invited me over for a couple of beers, he flew now back home for 6 weeks. Apparently in UK they cancelled flights because of snow. The Balkans were hit quite badly.
The airport nearby is only for inter island flights, the international one is an hour and a half away at the bottom of the island, £60.
 
Vincent, the electrician, cancelled the schedule and made me 2 short cables and explained to me how to do it. The twin charging of solar panels and wind generator proved complicated and expensive. So in order  to eliminate some of the water getting in the locker, I re-routed the solar panel wires through a gland and repaired and rebuilt part of the lip with epoxy putty. Also self amalgamating tape and diesel don’t go together they make a tarry mess. All the re-routed wires were reconnected afresh. May be this way some of the inherent problems have been overcome. My new toy, twin domestic/leisure batteries work fine. I charged them twice today as I listen to the radio and to the VHF channel 68 this morning for 30 minutes.It is a service provided by a boatie about cruising people around here.
 
Kenny, the sail maker is not as friendly and polite as the guide book makes out to be. I wanted my bunk cushion covered in see thru plastic, and although he asked me to take it to his shop, he disappeared then arrangements were made by the ladies next door  that I should return at 1800 hours. I turned up at 1730 he was there, had been to a funeral, very uncommunicative, take your cushion, I have not done anything with it. I did offer my condolences about his loss but ignored them the first time, so said again, no problem man. It is when the chips are down the true professional comes through.
 
I went to buy bread from a bakery, it was a shack and had a few breads...not really a bakery. Started talking to the lady about cooking and all sort of things, I said to her that I could not find any tomatoes for sale in the supermarket in the marina, she went in her garden and came back with a tomato. She gave it to me for free.
 
Tony was with Peter and he offered to buy me my diesel. Two ten litre containers. I was going somewhere and on my return he had filled them and put them by my boat. I paid for the diesel and something to cover his time and fuel.
 
Today I walked to the Malls so that I could book my own BR flight ticket. My attempts yesterday were fruitless, found the prices, cheaper than Peter’s but I was being asked too many unnecessary question, mobile number, business access number etc. I gave up, Mother Goose saw me in the marina and asked me to go to the office and phone Budget Travel which I did. Their price was more expensive than the one I had found. I said OK and left, they sent me an email with a pdf file but I have not been able to open this file yet.
The laptop battery run out before I could do much. Had a walk around, excellent supermarkets full of goods just like back home. Looked for blue tack, no luck. Bought some tomatoes, iceberg lettuce and four pieces of chicken cooked just like KFC. Sat at the Spinnaker by the beach, ambience as Jackie calls it and paid twice the price for a bottle of beer.
 
Back here I thought that a cool box is a necessity. They do not have any that work with 12v or 240v. So I bought a cool box put two packets of ice and then added lager, cider, coke, the milk, cheese which I had bought, Now I even saved one piece of chicken for tomorrow.