The Western Cyclades

As I write this we are approaching the island of Serifos doing about 7 knots in a following 2 metre breaking sea with 25 knots of wind up our rear. Not a cloud to be seen and the sea is a beautiful deep blue.
Sharon & Doug arrived on schedule on Mon 2/7 a bit jet lagged after their direct flight from Auckland and made worse by the heat of Piraeus – well into the 30s. Di, Sharon & Doug went into Athens to see the Acropolis while I stayed on board as the stabilizers were being worked on. Unfortunately they were a bit disappointed by the Acropolis. They found the organisation of the site very poor and the staff mostly less than helpful. Also the site is being renovated and the appearance is spoilt by cranes and scaffolding.
Piraeus itself has little of interest but is simply the seaport of Athens and although it has a long history, there is virtually nothing which survives. But our objective in spending the time there was to get our gearbox oil leak and our stabilizers fixed, both of which were achieved.
On Fri 6/7, after 9 nights in Piraeus we departed for Sounion, on the mainland SE of Piraeus. Here is the Temple of Poseidon built in 444 BC and which still has much of the original structure standing. Sharon & Doug had their first Med swims and it was a fantastic first night out at anchor - the Temple on a hilltop only a few hundred metres away and spotlit all night.
This was made better by the fact that ashore nearby was a wedding and about 10 pm they put on a great fireworks display. You certainly wonder about all the boats which would have anchored in these places during the last several millennia. In the morning we went ashore to visit the Temple only to find out the ticket sellers were on strike and it was closed.
In Greece so far we’ve had several such instances.
The next day we left the mainland and headed East to the Cyclades starting with Kithnos and anchored in a great bay called Ormos Apokrothis. Went to a couple of nice Tavernas on the shore and at one they were preparing for a function – probably a wedding. Well they know how to party and the band only stopped playing at 6.30 the next morning. The next day we had a bit of a rough trip in a 25 knot headwind to the Eastern side of the island and a bay called Ayios Stefanos. This was very secluded with only one other boat anchored there.
Again we went ashore to a Taverna and had a great dinner with local Greeks being the only other patrons. They didn’t have menus but the owner just came and sat with us to talk about what he had to offer. All tasted great especially when washed down with a carafe of local red wine.
Other news is that “Imagine” – the boat which our son John crews on has been sold and is now en route from USA to the Med so that’s great.
Distance covered: 1804 miles in 124 days on board.
Technical: well the engineers did return with our Vickers hydraulic pump fitted with 3 pulleys of a slightly larger diameter than the previous 2 pulleys. Also using cogged drive belts as per Frank’s suggestion. So far after about 20 hours running all is OK and the drive belts are running cooler than the belts which drive our alternator and generator. Belt temps reached so far is about 73 dC, whereas the belts driving our AC generator reach 80dC – I’m not sure what the max allowable temp for fan belts is – does anybody ? Anyway it’s great to have the stabilizers working once again.
Gearbox oil leak is fine apart from a little coming out of a hose fitting that needs tightening.
In Piraeus our Groco fuel polishing pump gave up and with help from an engineer we fitted a new replacement pump we had on board. Frustratingly the engineer over tightened the inlet hose fitting and split the brass inlet of the (US$350) pump. He took it away and repaired it so all is OK apart from a very slight weeping (from me and the pump !)
After over 4 months in the water the underside of the hull needs a clean so I’ll have to sort out my scuba gear and get onto that. The antifoul applied in Italy doesn’t seem as good as what we’re used to in NZ.