Sunday 24^th April – Messolonghi (Happy Easter)

38:21.668N 21:25.004E

Yesterday I bought a large bag of oranges so this morning I dug out my luxury item, my electric juicer, and we had freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast.  Afterwards it was time to change out the old sprayhood and cockpit enclosure which we have had on the boat over the winter and put on the new one we got last year.  It is such a huge difference having totally clear windows again – the plastic in the old ones is now totally opaque.  Pyxis looks really smart again.

Mid afternoon we went for a walk into town to see the celebrations for Easter.  Although virtually all the shops and restaurants were closed and the centre of town deserted, there was still quite a bit going on in the side streets.  Today was not a good day to be a sheep.  In the gardens of many of the houses, families were gathered, roasting whole lambs on spits over large barbecues, with music and dancing to celebrate Easter.  Elsewhere there were street parties, this time with multiple lambs roasting on spits, together with more loud music.  Periodically we could hear the locals firing shotguns into the air in celebration and we joked - there goes another sheep – as we waded through piles of shotgun cartridges on the roadside.

On our way back through the marina, I spotted our missing passerelle plank, complete with the fender rope we had left attached to it, supporting the passerelle of a catamaran on the harbour wall.  So we asked if we could have it back; apparently they had found it under a boat on the hard just beside them.  Our beloved plank was in a sorry state with paint/antifoul on one side of it and so Richard sanded it down, and now, suitably restored, it is back where is should be on our stern!

This evening we had a sundowner with our neighbours Electric Monk and Santelmo (wine courtesy of one of our French neighbours), before returning to Pyxis and zipping in the side panels on the cockpit enclosure and having a picnic supper.

Messolonghi:  Easter celebrations - roast lamb

Messolonghi:  Deserted streets

Messolonghi:  Spring sunshine

© Pyxis 2011