BACK ABOARD ENVOY IN GREECE

We had a great trip up from Auckland enjoying one night stopovers in Dubai and Athens. The flight to Dubai is nearly 17 hours, but the time seemed to pass OK with nice meals, plenty of movies to watch and a few hours sleep. The economy class seats have quite generous space and we had a spare seat between us. Our favourite hotel in Dubai - the Roda Al Bustan upgraded us to a palatial suite having a separate lounge 26 feet across!

Our huge hotel room

After a five hour bus ride we arrived in Lefkada to a beautiful early evening, but the taxi driver told us the weather has been bad until a few days ago with heavy rain laden with red dust from Africa.

After checking into our hotel (which is pretty basic and no comparison with the Roda Al Bustan) we checked Envoy sitting on the hardstand. She still had her winter cover on and we could see the hull had been readied for anti-fouling and the Lugger, Yanmar and bow thruster props had been cleaned. Inside was perfectly dry as always and looked exactly the same as last November when we left her.

Next day we moved our gear to spend our 1,808^th day aboard. We've since spent three days aboard and all is progressing well with re-launching scheduled for next Tuesday. The winter cover has been removed and is in remarkable condition for its age with just minor maintenance needed again, anti-fouling is complete, anodes replaced, washing and polishing of topsides to be completed tomorrow, Yanmar shaft seal checked, generator sea water circulating pump taken away for servicing, small Honda outboard sent for servicing and tomorrow the large RHIB will be lifted off Envoy to a trailer for servicing its Yamaha. Everything that we've used or tested so far is working well although some equipment like engines, heads and aircon can't be checked until we're in the water.

We've been busy loading supplies and the refrigeration has been working overtime to get stuff chilled down. Tomorrow Envoy comes out of Customs Bond and we get our new Transit Log. There is a new cruising tax here costing just over Euro 100 per month. Obviously no new costs are welcome, but a bit over Euro 3 per day isn't a lot to pay for cruising in paradise. So all is good and so far no surprises!

Chris arrives tomorrow and all being well we plan to leave the marina on 1 June.

RETURN TO ENVOY NOW IMMINENT

Diane booked our fares yesterday and dealing with Emirates had no issues getting our travel arranged at short notice at good pricing with departure next Friday. We'll spend one night in Dubai and one in Athens before catching the bus for the five hour trip to Lefkada.
Just to clarify - yes Envoy has been sold but the new owners didn't intend to use her this season so part of the deal was we could use her. They will be joining us for some cruising in early August.
I had already arranged for Envoy's winter storage cover to be removed and for Envoy to be pulled out of the water onto the hardstand. There she will be water blasted to remove any marine growth, the hull sanded before having new anti-fouling applied, the props and shafts cleaned, zinc anodes replaced, stainless steel cleaned and white topsides areas polished.
Internally we're getting the generator and Yanmar wing engine sea water pumps checked over and impellers replaced. The Yanmar's dripless shaft seal will be checked and its Maxprop propeller greased. A new pump hose is required for the engines' oil change system and for the forward aircon's sea water inlet. Hopefully we'll be cruising about a week after our arrival.
We sometimes find something unexpected needs doing when returning to Envoy and fortunately we'll have our friend Chris, aka McGyver arriving a few days after us to help out. Chris not only has lots of knowledge but tons of energy and enthusiasm and will be staying with us until about the end of June by which time we will probably be somewhere in SE Italy.