36:54.992 N  021:41.721 E

01/07/10

21:00

We’ve been sailing all day. The wind finally went NNW so we have been able to make course at a reasonable speed. Steve decided to have octopus tonight but wasn’t quite sure what to do, so he thawed it, nuked it, steamed it and finally grilled it,  The result was nearly edible apart from being rubbery and chewy.

We all getting bored with sailing to windward. 

.

02/07/10

02:00

Still shuntering along. The wind has gone NW so we’re sailing a bit freer and its not quite so lumpy.

09:00

The NW wind has held through the night although it has dropped to

Force 4, At the moment with around 10 knots of wind we’re making a little over 6 knots. We should be in in  the  next 2 ½ hours,

When LED navigation lights became available I rushed out and bought a set reasoning that while there were expensive they used very little current and would last for years.  Well the LEDs themselves may last for years but the housings certainly don’t.   We’re on our second set of Port and Starboard units and the

Masthead Tricolour went last night.  We have a conventional tungsten spare which I bought last time the LED masthead went to tide us over until I could get a replacement..  So we’ll fit that and maybe not bother with replacing the LED one.

14:00

The wind kept reducing until we were doing under 4 knots. Steve and I decided to try our hateful cruising chute and faffed around with it for a wasted hour.

The RoloGen system is meant to make setting and striking the chute really easy, but the system really only works on smaller boats.  The furling device is also very heavy so dragging the whole thing up front is a real chore.  I’m going to give up on  it and replace it with a conventional sock.

Distance covered in two days was 362 miles, we motored the last 9 miles.  There was a fuel lorry on the dock so I took on 124 litres as we hadn’t quite filled up in Malta.

Apart from the last 1 1.4 hours of motoring there was only 9 hours of generator time.

Formalities were completed very easily with good humour and  no fuss.  This is a great place to check in or out of Greece.

Tomorrow we will go to Porto Kayo for an afternoon swim, eat on the boat and then set off overnight for Spetses.