Saturday 11th, Sunday 12th & Monday 13th October

Bit of a surprise to discover that the boatyard stays open all day Saturday and that includes all the earth moving equipment! The heavy vibration roller has spent days doing laps around us, or so it seems. It really is nice whenever he stops to go for a break.

Spent all three days working our way through the long list of jobs which seems endless. Quite a few boats are being given the same treatment around us although with the notable exception of the couple from Malvern (!) they are mostly German.

Sarah is quite agitated by the size of the local insect life, one or two of which more closely resemble birds. Certainly the mosquitoes have returned in force and you really do have to take serious precautions if (like me) you are considered a live target by them. They too can be bloody enormous!   Sarah has succumbed to third bite of the season.....

I suppose if you are propped up in the air like we are on some fairly ordinary props, which in turn are placed on reclaimed marsh land, the one thing you do not want when you are on board is an earthquake......so you can imagine our delight and excitement (!) when we had not one, but two tremors during Sunday night. This region has always suffered from earthquakes and most of the buildings are designed specifically with this in mind, so we have to hope that they do not get anything too serious this winter.

Andy Barker called in to see us on Sunday on his way to the airport. He has just finished laying up his boat (Seven Tenths) at Nidri and joined us for a cup of tea and the use of the marina's showers. We also got a visit from Steve Miller on the Sunday as he was in the marina waiting to be lifted out on Monday. In the end we joined him on his boat for a drink before all going out to the taverna nearby for a meal. Super taverna here, which is a surprise in a way as it is so isolated. The food is wonderful and really cheap and the way the kitchens are run is a real throwback to the Seventies and Eighties, which is actually better than it sounds!