Midi s Meanderings Part One 2015

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Erik Thomas Morris
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Midi s Meanderings Part One 2015 30 May 2015 And they are off racing oh come on, this is the Travelling Tebbutts we don t do racing but it is the start of another season for Midi.

We got back to Midi on the 7 th May (Bruce s birthday) but only to unload our bags as we had a little apartment/b&b booked nearby for a week, whilst we worked on Midi on the hard.

1 Midi s Meanderings Part One May 2015 And they are off racing oh come on, this is the Travelling Tebbutts we don t do racing but it is the start of another season for Midi. Who would have thought it year six and still in the Mediterranean! We got back to Midi on the 7 th May (Bruce s birthday) but only to unload our bags as we had a little apartment/b&b booked nearby for a week, whilst we worked on Midi on the hard. Well that was our first adventure. The apartment had a decent sized bedroom but the living area was tiny. Nowhere to cook and if you sat at the table and wanted something out of the fridge, I had to get out of the chair as you couldn t open the fridge door. The shower was so tiny you almost had to keep your hands by your sides to fit in there and bending over to scrub your feet necessitated the nimbleness of a Russian gymnast! Breakfast, well, after a few mornings of local cakes and one morning of cake and fennel! we asked Guiseppe, the landlord, if we could just have croissants. Then it was the fun of working on the boat. What did you do on Mother s Day Lesley? Well I sanded marine growth off propeller blades (she did do a great job though). Isn t that what all mothers did on that day? Think I might have been conned there. Arriving back after 8 months we found Midi in a filthy state and very pongy! It took a few days to work out what the pong was though. We knew that we would be replacing our house batteries as they were on the way out last season. So we had Gino onboard to investigate and organise new batteries. Now we have 3 house batteries and 1 engine battery that starts the port engine. The house batteries start the starboard engine and we have a switch that allows us to connect them all together in an emergency. Me in my wisdom had turned this switch to connect them and had left it on whilst we were away. So the house batteries get replaced and Gino speaks to me in Italian flat out and I nod wisely. Lesley was impressed, so you speak Italian now Apparently I do because we got things sorted. Next day we returned to the boat to find it pongs again. Just on a whim I decided to poke my head down the port engine hatch where the engine battery is housed and wow what a stink. And there was our engine battery fizzing like mad and giving off a foul acidic pong (sulphury). Ha found the source of the smell and now realise we need another new battery. So 900 euros later we are all powered up again and pong free! The joys of boats. There are so many chores to be done on the boat when we get back but most of them are bloke/blue jobs (I am sure there are plenty of pink jobs besides reading) and I am there to just pass a screwdriver or hold something whilst Bruce toils away. We did get to share the ultimate experience

of sanding down the antifouling. This is when I wished we had a 20 foot monohull not a 44 foot catamaran. We had our fortieth wedding anniversary back in March.

Bruce had the muckiest part of lying on his back, on the wet grubby boatyard ground, sanding the keels and he managed to get a piece of antifouling lodged under one of his fingernails.

Unfortunately when I pulled it out a piece broke off and I still have a piece lodged in there.

It won t hurt, promise he said! Yeah right I said it already hurts like hell! Oh joy. Now here is a photo of my canine friend at the boatyard.

2 of sanding down the antifouling. This is when I wished we had a 20 foot monohull not a 44 foot catamaran. We had our fortieth wedding anniversary back in March. It might have been forty years ago but I am sure there wasn t anything in the vows (honour and obey if I remember correctly) about sanding Midi s bottom! Bruce had the muckiest part of lying on his back, on the wet grubby boatyard ground, sanding the keels and he managed to get a piece of antifouling lodged under one of his fingernails. There were areas along the keel joins where the antifouling had cracked and I got a piece about 50mm long and 7mm wide that lodged itself right in under my nail. Unfortunately when I pulled it out a piece broke off and I still have a piece lodged in there. We have some American friends on the same type of boat as ours also at the same yard and Rick was very keen to drill a hole in my fingernail with his high speed drill and pick the piece out. It won t hurt, promise he said! Yeah right I said it already hurts like hell! Oh joy. Now here is a photo of my canine friend at the boatyard. Arresto not a little dog, as you can see and you know where dogs love to put their nose when they see you and Arresto always seemed to have plenty of slobber YUCK!!! There was the occasional time for a night out and Crotone pulled out all the stops when it celebrated the night of the Madonna. We didn t know that there were that many people in the town but they came out in force to see the lights, the fireworks and the endless stalls selling sweets. Never mind, yucky jobs out of the way and it was time to get Midi in the water. Elio, the boatyard owner, is an absolute magician operating his crane. I don t know how he got Midi out of the yard, over the fence and into the water without mishap. I had my heart in my mouth the whole time. Then there was the matter of payment. I kept asking Elio to sort out what we owed him. Domani domani (tomorrow) he would say. Now in NZ your boat does get put back in the water until you have paid the bill. So finally we get to discuss the bill. Elio says so you have the contract? What contract says I, when I asked you about a

3 contract when we lifted out you said no need as you had our boat! Hmm. So what did I quote you then? Well 2000 euros for lifting, washing, storing and returning to the water (but I understood this to be for 7 months not 8.5 as it turned out to be). Also he had Rodolpho do a full boat polish top and bottom and he had originally quoted 500 euros but not to do the whole boat. Also we had arrived back thinking we would be able to pay for this all by credit card. Oh no cash my friend or I will have to charge you tax. Talking of tax I must pay some so maybe we make the bill 2600 euros and I will give you an invoice for 500 euros plus tax, total 610. Okay whatever. But of course we did not go with lots of cash on us and the ATM s only give you 500 euros per day. So many trips to the ATM whilst we were there and fortunately we had enough to settle Elios account but he would not take the money until we were in the water and established that all was well. I would happily go back there again for the winter layup. Great guys!! We had one night at anchor off Crotone where we got ourselves shipshape and Bruce was able to check that he had installed the new watermaker motor correctly. Amazing that that butcher/fencer of mine, with a few s from the service centre in Spain, managed to install the motor with relatively few swearwords and it WORKS really well. What a guy! We sailed overnight to a port further north Otranto with two visits in the night from the Guardia Finanza (immigration) boats. Both times they snuck up on us in the dark, then shone bright lights on us, but never speaking to us obviously checking the details of the boat, and then they would roar off into the night. A bit scary really but I guess they are having so much problems with boatloads of refugees, they have to check out even a Kiwi boat with a couple of geriatric cruisers on board. We were very lucky that our first sail had us reaching in 10-13knots most of the way for a very easy 110nm sail. That s the way to start the season.

After a couple of days in the lovely tourist town of Otranto, it was off to the northern Greek island of Orthoni for a little bit of R&R before heading to Sarandes harbour in Albania to get Midi out

We only had one night there but Agym, the local agent we had to use to be able to enter Albania, said we were almost locals as we had now been there twice.

4 After a couple of days in the lovely tourist town of Otranto, it was off to the northern Greek island of Orthoni for a little bit of R&R before heading to Sarandes harbour in Albania to get Midi out of the EU. Such cheap shopping there, we stocked up on the essentials (four 1 litre bottles of Gordons Gin for 12 Euros a bottle) and food as well. We only had one night there but Agym, the local agent we had to use to be able to enter Albania, said we were almost locals as we had now been there twice. I think Bruce whipped me out of there pretty smart as he could see the gleam in my eye once I had converted the lecce (local currency) to the NZ dollar and just knew that there were bargains to be had there, if only I could find them. Too late as we roared off out of the harbour maybe never to return again, but who knows. Then it was back to Corfu almost like coming home. We have been here so often now. The check in procedures don t get any less time consuming but at least we were a bit earlier in the morning and it wasn t so hot. It is amazing that after sailing here for 6 years the Greeks still issue us with a transit log that is hand written and uses carbon paper and they then have to rip out their copy! Actually the temperatures haven t been too bad. The hottest we have had so far were when we were working on the boat (34degrees). Bruce, of course, has been in for swims but at 22 degrees, that s not warm enough yet for me. Next it was the bay we call Leaping Mullet Bay as the fish are always leaping out of the water and plopping back in. We have had a pod of dolphins in the morning but they are not as social as the Kiwi ones and we didn t manage to get photos. Bruce spent a couple of hours putting together our inflatable kayak that we bought when we first got Midi in France. It hasn t been used for about four years so it was a bit of an exercise getting it the way it was supposed to be.

5 Now we are in the beautiful anchorage of Lakka on the island of Paxoi, south of Corfu. This would have to be one of our favourite anchorages. Beautiful clear water I only wish it was warm enough for ME to get in and have a swim. Maybe tomorrow, if I can sunbathe for long enough and get hot enough oh what s that that just flew by the window. A little porcine figure you might well ask? Hmmm. Any way hope you are all well back in New Zealand and the weather has not been too horrible. All the best Andio Bruce and Lesley

Midi s Meanderings Part Five 2013

Midi s Meanderings Part Five 2013 06 September 2013 Kalimera everyone. And then there were six. Yes we still have Ross and Karen and we picked up Brian and Rayma Dalley in Corfu. But back to where we last