Friday 6^th August – Messolonghi (Always jobs)

38:21.668N 21:25.004E

As the man who delivers the bread each morning is having a holiday, we needed to pop into town for some bread.  So we headed off on the bikes and were surprised by the number of cars, people and lorries; we had become accustomed to the roads being quieter due to the fuel strike.  The supermarket shelves are now filling and the supply lorries are arriving in what seems a continuous flow.  Needless to say we came back with full panniers and rucksack even though we only set out for bread.

This afternoon we tackled the water maker.  The pressure gauge is acting very sluggishly - taking a long time to move up and then a long time to go back down.  The guy who sold us the system, and is happy to help out with advice, said that it may fix the problem if we run the cleaning chemicals through the system.  Up until now we have only needed to flush and pickle the system, so it was something new to try. 

We set to with various buckets and jugs (and lots of kitchen towel J).  First an alkaline based cleaning solution and then an acid based cleaning solution were cycled through the water maker.  Since the water maker is under the seats in the saloon, this meant turning the saloon upside down; it was a fun afternoon trying to avoid splashing everything with cleaning solution.  As the wind has blown quite a lot of weed into our corner of the marina today we haven’t run the water maker itself to check if things are any better, something else to try when we next go out.

Lucky, the stray puppy which has been adopted by various boats in the marina, is becoming a serious contender for most pampered dog.  As boats and/or owners come and go, various tins of dog food and dog treats can be seen being passed from boat to boat and you realise just how many people are feeding him – today was no exception.  It’s amazing that he hasn’t turned into a barrel on legs yet.  He did excel himself this afternoon – when we went aboard there was a dried out rosemary plant in a pot besides the electric cabinet behind us.  When Richard next looked out he could only see the plastic pot lying on its side.  No sign of the plant, until we spotted Lucky running around happily with the root ball chomped between his teeth.