38:56.91N 20:45.76E

Saturday 4th October

A blustery day, with lots of clouds and sunshine, but the storm promised was late in arriving.

Got lots done which gave us a good feeling inside and set us up nicely for the evening when we entertained John and Lesley from Hamble (Hans Christian 34) to dinner. Their boat was anchored (free swinging) about 50 yards away so they rowed over, bang on time as it happens as the weather was just beginning to turn and they did not fancy arriving soaked to the skin! However, we had got a little confused earlier about what time we had invited them for. Decided that it was 8pm and so were coasting along when suddenly I recalled that 8pm was the time we agreed to meet Joe and his wife Robyn tomorrow night. John and Lesley were due around 6.30pm......and it was 6.29pm. Ah well, no problem with sailing friends and we had a great evening which was about to draw to a close when there was an outbreak of domestic violence on the quay and the boat next door. Lesley, who is a slip of a lass dashed on deck to see if she could offer assistance, but she may have overlooked how much she had drunk at this point. We all bravely remained below to see what was actually going down as it does not always pay to get too involved with drunks. Things settled briefly and then there was shouting, screaming and the unmistakable sounds of slapping etc. Lesley again bounded on deck and refused to accept the man next door's declaration that all was well and jumped onto their boat and put her head down their hatch. This achieved very little as they then closed their hatch and Lesley had to withdraw, but made it very clear that we were listening out and would not be fobbed off again if it continued!

All went quiet from here on and eventually as the wind started to rise quite seriously, John and Lesley set off back (downwind) to their boat around 1.30am.

Sunday 5th Oct

Very windy night and still pretty exciting this morning, but generally the worst seems to be over. Our next door neighbours were flying home this morning and we watched them sheepishly take their bags up the quay to a waiting taxi. Lots of gossip and chat along the quay this morning!!

Had another good day getting jobs done which is all a little depressing but ultimately worthwhile. New crew arrived on the boat next door and they were so eager to get off sailing that they left with the dinghy still hanging vertically in front of the mast and I for one will long remember the faintly Monty Pythonesque image of this yacht heading off down the Lefkas Canal with the helmsman unable to see a damn thing in front of him and having to lean over and peer round the bows!

At 8.00pm (phew) Joe and Robyn Charlton arrived and following some drinks on board we went off into town to a wonderful little restaurant which did us proud. This was our 'thank you' to them for their help and the free mooring on their quay.

Much quieter evening as the wind died right away, so we should be fine for the crossing to Preveza in the morning.

Had an email back from Turkey about the East Med Rally to say that we would not be able to join it in 2009 as it is a special 20th anniversary and only boats/crews that have been before can join. So perhaps 2010?

Monday 6th October

Beautiful day - normal service resumed just in time.

Did some quick shopping and I rued not having the camera with me as the scenes in the road into town beside us were just so typical of the Greeks here. Not something one can easily describe and do any justice to, but a camera would have been great. Next season perhaps.

Got away in time to catch the 11.00am bridge along with around 10 other yachts, all of which it turned out were heading for Preveza. The catch then was that most of us were clearly on our way to the boatyards to be craned out and so we were all keen to flush out and rinse our toilet holding tanks, so there was quite a bit of odd manoeuvring going on as we none of us wanted to be directly behind anyone else!

Arrived at Cleopatra Marina and filled the fuel tank to the very top and then moored up into the slot we will stay in until Friday morning when we are due to be lifted.

Got stuck back into the jobs again which stepped up a gear now that we have arrived at our final destination and will no longer be going out to sea.

Very sunny all day, but quite a cold wind. Had a quick look at the boat park and saw how most people choose to take their anchors off the boat along with all the chain, which hangs down from the boat's bows. Obviously there is a potential problem with rats, so a good many have split plastic water bottles and fitted them over the chain to stop rats climbing up. I suspect that these people have absolutely no idea how agile a rat is, as the presence of a litre water bottle presents no deterrent at all, but the very best of all was some poor sole who had not quite worked out what they were trying to achieve and they had fitted their bottle the wrong way up!! Photo will be posted when we get home.