# Greece ## Monday 2024-01-01 Dubrovnik old harbour (old town) - Cavtatska luka - Cavtat - Adriatic We were sitting in the boat for an hour, eating the panettone and tasting the local alcohol I bought earlier in the day (only one small shots glass), before we left. To much panettone, and I was like "this is nothing to save", so I had a lot of it. Only six nautical miles from the old harbour to our Cavtat anchorage, but it had become quite windy. We had checked the wind forecast for getting to Dubrovnik carefully, and the rain forecast for the hours we were going to stay there (promised rain from 22 ... but no rain!), but we hadn't studied the wind forecast for the return. It was windy and choppy. With all the panettone and the small shot of alcohol, it was sufficient that I felt a bit sea sick. Six small nautic miles, headwind, low power on the batteries, not much hot water on the hot water tank, relatively cold boat, crew that hadn't slept for 20 hours, the best option would probably have been to go by engine on relatively high RPM. But the crew wanted to sail and do tacking, so that's what we got. I think the final tack eventually would have gotten us into calmer water, but no ... at that point the crew was fed up tacking and started the engine. We arrived at around five ... I was dead tired and only wanted to sleep ... and still I spent half an hour hacking on my anchor drifting alarm system after our arrival. After sleeping a bit (a bit more than planned), we decided go back to Cavtat for a final visit to Croatian civilisation - throwing garbage and such - and then we headed out into the Adriatic - first tack going like 90 degrees out from the coast, then we tacked when the wind direction turned less favorably. ### Times and positions * 2024-01-01T001424 UTC: departed from mooring after 3:35:00 * 2024-01-01T001444 UTC: moved for 2:36:53, line distance 5.8nm, sailed distance 9.4nm (-14.56%), avg speed 3.589506267011826, vmg 2.2 kts * 2024-01-01T025137 UTC: stop or standstill (anchor chain got jammed) at 42.581381666666665,18.214623333333332 for 0:03:01 * 2024-01-01T025438 UTC: drifted for 0:17:41, line distance 398m, vmg 0.7 kts * 2024-01-01T031219 UTC: stop or standstill (resolved anchor chain problems) at 42.58323166666667,18.210108333333334) for 0:02:00 * 2024-01-01T031419 UTC: moved for 0:16:02, line distance 443m, vmg 0.9 kts * 2024-01-01T033021 UTC: arrived at anchorage 42.581135,18.213775 (Cavtat, Cavtatska luka) * 2024-01-01T104615 UTC: departed from anchorage after 7:15:54 * 2024-01-01T104615 UTC: moved for 0:03:30, line distance 209m, vmg 1.9 kts * 2024-01-01T104945 UTC: arrived at mooring 42.581806666666665,18.21660333333333 (Cavtat, taxi quay) * 2024-01-01T112527 UTC: departed from mooring after 0:35:42 * 2024-01-01T112547 UTC: moved for 1 day, 19:09:58, line distance 165.0nm, sailed distance 184.5nm (+-0.36%), avg speed 4.2 kts, vmg 3.8 kts ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-01 12:13 UTC - 5543 nautic miles - a bit after leaving cavtat * 2024-01-01 12:13 UTC - 3920.3 engine hours ## Tuesday 2024-01-02 Adriatic We saw dolphins several times, and even turtles. Really nice sailing most of the way, even if we had to tack some few times. ### Maintenance Smell of cooling liquid relatively strong by starboard water tanks. Smell of burnt electronics. And many hours later the power supply for the nav systems stopped working. Both units warm, one of them quite hot. Bilge pump in front got displaced, together with battery. Water in places where it shouldn't be water - again. ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-02 16:11 UTC - 3921.3 engine hours - position unknown, exact time uncertain * 2024-01-02 16:11 UTC - 5678 nautical miles - position unknown, exact time uncertain ## Wednesday 2024-01-03 Adriatic - Kassiopi - Aegiali bay Mostly quite good sailing conditions. We did a detour around the Othonoi island, for "strategic reasons" and it served us well. I paniced a bit as I realized it's needed to pay a "TEPAI" tax for boating in Greece, that it preferably should be done prior to arriving to Greece, and that the fine for not paying it is very high. Anyway, the due date was "the day of arrival", and I managed to get it paid eventually. Quite high fee, but not as bad as Herzegovina - and a bit of a luck arriving in the beginning of the month. We stayed by some places dedicated for reservements through some app in Kassiopi, but everything is dead and quiet, so no problem with that. There were people around though, and activity in the local smaller boats. Some few dining places were open, but it was decided to have Bolognese at the boat rather than dining out. Some few supermarkets open as well. People fishing from the quay. Alessandro and the captain went up to have a look at the local byzantian fortress. The entrance seems to be very well preserved (or reconstructed?), rest of the fortress was mostly a ruined outer wall surrounding an olive farm. We left Kassiopi and slept by anchor in the nearby bay. ### Expenses * EUR 211.20 - taxes - "TEPAI" (paid by my son) * EUR 0 - food - paid by Ayman? ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-03 05:07 UTC - 3926.4 engine hours - position unknown, exact time uncertain * 2024-01-03 05:07 UTC - 5733 nautical miles - position unknown, exact time uncertain * 2024-01-03 18:00 UTC - 5785 miles - Aegiali anchorage ### Times and positions * 2024-01-03T063545 UTC: stop or standstill (failed tacking?) at 39.944343333333336,19.253566666666668 (NW of Othonoi) for 0:02:00 * 2024-01-03T063845 UTC: moved for 7:35:23, line distance 32.2nm, sailed distance 35.7nm (-0.38%), avg speed 4.705703739287912, vmg 4.2 kts * 2024-01-03T141718 UTC: arrived at mooring 39.791381666666666,19.922983333333335 (Corfu, Kassiopi) * 2024-01-03T154840 UTC: departed from mooring after 1:31:22* 2024-01-03T154900 UTC: moved for 0:18:52, line distance 1.0nm, vmg 3.2 kts * 2024-01-03T160752 UTC: arrived at anchorage 39.78108666666667,19.940343333333335 (Corfu, Avlaki bay) ## Thursday 2024-01-04 Aegiali bay - Gouvia Marina - Gouvia bay Captain was knocked out by some virus and staying in bed parts of the sailing time. We called the Gouvia marina and asked if we could stay for some few hours. We got assigned a place where we could stay long-side. They even dispatched a boat to come out and give us instructions. No payments involved. We tried to get the gas bottles refilled, but no luck. The place marked as a gas refilling place in NFL had stopped doing this service and would only exchange bottles - and in any case they didn't have adaptor for filling click-on bottles. Crew went to take showers in the marina facilities. We went dining and then doing grocery shopping, left and anchored. The ill captain went early to bed and slept for long next morning. ### Times and positions * 2024-01-04T085512 UTC: departed from anchorage after 16:47:20 * 2024-01-04T085532 UTC: moved for 5:39:38, line distance 9.0nm, sailed distance 19.7nm (-19.39%), avg speed 3.4867392482457764, vmg 1.6 kts * 2024-01-04T144041 UTC: arrived at mooring 39.646143333333335,19.852668333333334 (Corfu, Gouvia Marina) * 2024-01-04T182406 UTC: departed from mooring after 3:43:25 * 2024-01-04T182526 UTC: moved for 0:29:32, line distance 1.1nm, sailed distance 1.3nm (-12.16%), avg speed 2.6 kts, vmg 2.3 kts * 2024-01-04T185458 UTC: stop or standstill (unknown) at 39.664415,19.860353333333332 (was going to drop anchor, but found ourself surrounded by swimming lanes and other bouys) for 0:02:10 * 2024-01-04T185708 UTC: moved for 0:02:51, line distance 64m, vmg 0.7 kts * 2024-01-04T185959 UTC: arrived at anchorage 39.664095,19.859621666666666 (Corfu, outer Gouvia bay) ### Expenses Grocery shopping and dining, I think Ayman picked up the bill for the dining. ## Friday 2024-01-05 - Gouvia bay - Corfu NAOK (Corfu city) - Ionian sea Captain is still ill, but felt much better this morning. Moored up easily in the Corfu NAOK (sailing club?) harbour. No services provided and no harbour dues to be paid, though there were some activity there. We should have gone there yesterday instead of messing with Gouvia (but not too bad - the crew got to take showers, we got to see a good supermarket, and the food was good and probably less pricy than in sentral Gouvia). (On the return, some local said we shouldn't stay there over the weekend - but that was only due to the weather, he said it was perfectly fine to stay there overnight). We walked a bit around in Corfu, had some bakeries and some coffee, Ayman headed for the airport, I visited a tea shop to replenish the tea storage, and we went walking a bit more before returning to the boat. Went on tacking to get to the best available storm shelter this neighbourhood could offer. ### Embarkments and disembarkments Ayman (crewbay) left. Seven weeks of "winter sailing", and the only luggage was a small under-the-seat handluggage and a jacket. ### Expenses * EUR 30.7 - drinks - 500g of tea * EUR 3 - entertainment - tossed some coins to some violinists ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-05 18:42 UTC - 3936.3 engine hours * 2024-01-05 18:42 UTC - 322.6 nautic miles shortest sailing distance to Paros (~23 nm/day) ### Times and positions * 2024-01-05T075624 UTC: departed from anchorage after 12:56:25 * 2024-01-05T075644 UTC: moved for 1:15:56, line distance 4.0nm, sailed distance 4.7nm (-1.30%), avg speed 3.7 kts, vmg 3.2 kts * 2024-01-05T091920 UTC: arrived at mooring 39.62005333333333,19.925788333333333 (Corfu, Corfu, NAOK) * 2024-01-05T114031 UTC: departed from mooring after 2:21:11 * 2024-01-05T114111 UTC: moved for 1 day, 0:42:22, line distance 61.9nm, sailed distance 108.6nm (-7.36%), avg speed 4.4 kts, vmg 2.5 kts ## Saturday 2024-01-06 - Ionian sea - Ambracian Gulf Wind was picking up a bit, and almost straight headwind. Probably a bit more wind from the east than west, it feels like we were doing better vmg and kept sailing for longer distances on tacks with port side wind. Around 35 knots of wind according to the meter. We did 3 hours shift throughout the night. Alessandro also got affected by the virus, so when I took over at 09:00 local time he went down and stayed down more or less until the next morning. Just before I took over, the wind direction got quite favorable (we could sail close hauled with roughly the correct direction), but then the disappeared. Alessandro took out a little bit more main then he rolled out the genoa. He seemed to be both sick, tired and exhausted from dealing with the sails. Shortly after I took over the wind again picked up to around 35 knots, so I just had to roll the genoa right in again. It took me some time to realize that the main had been taken a bit out, "we have the same wind speed, but much more keeling, how can that be? Hm. Aha!". Wind direction also became unfavorable, first we drifted out away from land, but when I tried tacking the wind apparently turned again. It was relatively short way to Preveza, so my idea was to just take down the sails and go by engine. However, I didn't want to be alone and take down the jib in such wind conditions, so I decided to just keep the course and get closer to land and hopefully less wind again. As the VMG was like -3 knots, eventually I went out, took down the jib, started the engine and headed straight for the passage. It was sunny and so nice when arriving to the anchorage some hours later, but I was deadly tired. After anchoring up and doing some few things for making the boat more storm-ready (like taking the jib under the deck and trying to secure the boom a bit), I first just laid down flat on the deck trying to both relax and enjoy the sunshine a bit, but soon enough there was some draft in the air and I headed for the bed. ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-06 13:00 UTC - 3941.1 engine hours ### Times and positions * 2024-01-06T122333 UTC: arrived at anchorage 38.924038333333336,20.906756666666666 (Ambracian Gulf, Vonitsa, east bay) * 2024-01-08T073047 UTC: moved for 0:20:51, line distance 1747m, sailed distance 2439m (-29.10%), avg speed 3.8 kts, vmg 2.7 kts ## Sunday 2024-01-07 - Vonitsia, east bay Was considering to go to Vonitsia to fill water, but every time I turned on the autopilot and peeked out through the door it started raining heavily. New crew member arriving to Athens today, but apparently on a late flight so most likely he will only arrive in the morning. ### Maintenance * bilge pump in front cabin had been hit by a big battery on the loose. We somehow managed to get it back in place again, and tightened up the belt fixing the big battery. * water mopping. Seems like the upper aft starboard water tank is now leaking a bit, but ... as for now ... not much. I think I will just accept it for the next few weeks, and then install Vetus tanks when I return from Oslo. * Shower tube - provisoric repair of the metal spiral, probably the shower hose should be replaced. With or without the shower head. With or without the holder on the wall. ### Expenses * EUR 312 - travel - airline tickets (Paros-Athens, Oslo-Athens, Athens-Paros, with luggage from Oslo to Paros) ## Monday 2024-01-08 - Vonitsia, east bay - Vonitsia - Preveza - Lefkada Went to Vonitsia relatively early in the morning and filled up water there for free. We had inbound crew, but the bus driver denied stopping in Vonitsia, so we had to hurry up and go for Preveza right after breakfast. Motoring all the way, no useful wind. Managed to get a batch of the laundry done (bedclothes and towels, 16 euro for two machine loads). Managed to get half of it almost dried while motoring, running the airdrier, eberspacher and engine heat on full steam. Rainy weather and dark as we left. Varying wind, was motoring but managed to combine it with some sailing. I was considering we either would catch the bridge opening at 19, or ask if it was OK to come maybe 18:15, but when Alessandro called in at 16:55, he simply asked "when will the bridge open next time?" ... so then we had to hurry up quite a bit up to catch bridge opening at 18:00. The bridge was weird - a ferry with platforms on both sides of the channel which then moved away, apparently using propellors. It was hard coming there in the darkness, in heavy rain, and with the clothes laundry project causing the windows to be covered with dew. The red lights on the "bridge", was it for the cars or for the boats? A man with very big lungs came running out on the ferry waving his arms saying "WAIT!!!", so I put the engine in reverse - it felt a bit scary. And right after he came again, yelling "GO!!!", so I put the boat in full speed ahead. ### Embarkments and disembarkments * Rudi from crewbay joined ### Expenses * EUR 0 - groceries - paid by Rudi * EUR 16 - laundry - bedclothes mostly, two loads ### Times and positions * 2024-01-08T080240 UTC: arrived at mooring 38.92160333333333,20.886251666666666 (Vonitsa) * 2024-01-08T100853 UTC: departed from mooring after 2:06:13 * 2024-01-08T100934 UTC: moved for 2:01:29, line distance 6.5nm, sailed distance 8.2nm (-1.70%), avg speed 4.1 kts, vmg 3.2 kts * 2024-01-08T121103 UTC: arrived at mooring 38.95809166666667,20.755183333333335 (Preveza town quay) * 2024-01-08T141911 UTC: departed from mooring after 2:08:08 * 2024-01-08T141941 UTC: moved for 2:38:17, line distance 9.8nm, sailed distance 10.9nm (-3.64%), avg speed 4.13855998242036, vmg 3.7 kts * 2024-01-08T165758 UTC: arrived at anchorage at 38.7955,20.72448 (Lefkada, first anchorage after channel) ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-08 16:58 UTC: 3947.0 engine hours - anchoring up south of Lefkada * 2024-01-08 16:58 UTC: 5994 nautical miles - anchoring up south of Lefkada ## Tuesday 2024-01-09 - Lefkada - Poros Mostly sunny day. Took down the tent early, to get the laundry quicker dry, to enjoy the sunshine, and as it was still quite humid inside the tent. Started patching up the tent. Rudi fixed the cockpit main sheet rail car system. Crazy approach and even more crazy arrival. Wind picked up, Alessandro read more than 10 knots on the GPS, and we generally had more than 8 knots with tail wind - but only 20 knots of wind speed? Weird. We took in the sails and started entering the harbour. No other ships, big space, "only" 14 knots of wind, and still it was really hard to get in the right place. It didn't make things better that there were some shallow points in the harbour basin, a bouy and even a line (that we saw in the very last moment) stretched from the end of the floating quay and til the other end of the harbour basin. And as I was motoring like crazy we went out of diesel. Apparently I'd managed to turn off the cockpit lights rather than the tricolor, so I had no light when changing the diesel tank. And while we were having on a midcleat spring with the engine in reverse and wind pullingus backwards, suddenly the rope started slipping (0-8-0-knot by Alessandro - works well as long as the rope isn't slippery). ### Maintenance * Done some more patching of the tent * Fixing the cockpit main sheet rail car system ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-09 20:00: 3950.5 engine hours after arrival * 2024-01-09 20:00: 5589 nautical meters * 2024-01-09 20:00: starboard fuel tank sort of empty ### Times and positions * 2024-01-09T065612 UTC: departed from anchorage after 13:58:14 * 2024-01-09T065632 UTC: moved for 9:26:36, line distance 39.0nm, sailed distance 41.9nm (-0.53%), avg speed 4.4 kts, vmg 4.1 kts * 2024-01-09T162308 UTC: spent quite some time on the final approach to Poros ### Expenses * EUR 24.83 - food - misc from the minimarket ## Wednesday 2024-01-10 - Poros - Kyparissia Incident/mistake: we should be careful checking the maps after setting a course as there are rocks in the sea. In the middle of the sea, quite deep sea indeed, Alessandro noticed the color of the water changed, noticed it was relatively shallow (56 meters instead of 150 meters) and that we were on direct course towards some rocks. Very lucky with the wind most of the way - smooth sailing most of the way, despite forecast saying it would be very little wind. A bit rough in the beginning of the day. At one point we considered to start the engine, but while we were discussing it the wind picked up. We took up the baby jib at some point, should have done it much earlier, it did increase our speed. In the end, the wind direction changed into directly headwind and it grew. We engined the last way in. I read on the Internet that I'm supposed to buy a "cruisers log" for 30 euros and get it stamped for every port office, oups. ### Maintenance Guard rails was fixed "before we need them" by Rudi. ### Times and positions * 2024-01-11T064434 UTC: departed from mooring after 13:37:53 * 2024-01-10T064514 UTC: moved for 15:34:18, line distance 67.9nm, sailed distance 69.2nm (-0.88%), avg speed 4.4 kts, vmg 4.4 kts * 2024-01-10T222503 UTC: arrived at mooring 37.25754333333333,21.665925 (Kyparissia) ## Thursday 2024-01-11 - Kyparissia (town, castle, beach) Went for two walks. Saw the castle. Picked up lots of oranges from a tree on public land. Had a chat with the coast guard. I was a bit concerned about that, because: * I didn't have the "Cruisers log", supposed to be bought from the customs at the first port of entry (so I learned yesterday) * I didn't have insurance documents in other languages than Norwegian. English or Greek is required according to Greek laws * I don't have the "ICC", only the Norwegian "Båtførerprøven" which may not be sufficient in Greece. Filled diesel. I ordered 200l. If I understand it correctly, it was exactly space for 200l on the tanks. Of course, difficult to know for sure what we actually got, it does seem a bit suspicious that was exactly space for the amount ordered. I'm also anyway a bit surprised that it was only space for 200l. Got inspected by the coast guard. I was told to go to the customs office the next morning to buy the transit log. ### Expenses * EUR 322 - diesel - 200l @ 1.66EUR * EUR 0 - groceries - paid by Rudi Got 100 EUR from my crew for fuel expenses ### Maintenance * The doorhandle to the aft cabin has been working very badly. Screwed it up and had a look. Apparently there is a piece there that is quite worn out and getting stuck. I suppose it's difficult to find a replacement part, so it should probably be mended a bit with an angle grinder. Opened it and closed it some 3-4 times. Door handle seems to work marginally better now than before. * I do find it a bit strange that we could fit only 200l of diesel into the tanks. If I remember correctly I was told that each of them was 350l when I bought the boat. I also vaguely remember to have filled more into the tanks earlier. ## Friday 2024-01-12 - Kyparissia - Prosti Tried to visit the customs office. There were two people working there, one computer terminal, two printers, one copying machine in the office (plus a third working position with a terminal and a printer, but not in use). They could not sell us the transit log, they said we needed to see a bigger place to do that. They came up with a list of places where it could be done, most of them involving detours, but also Paros was mentioned, so that seems to be the obvious choice. Went back to the boat and left straight away. It was no wind, so we went motoring. Managed to charge all there Li-Ion batteries while on the go. All three of us took a shower while we had enough hot water. We didn't go far - the plan was to make the shortest possible move now while waiting for better wind. We went to land with a thin rope hanging after the SUP so two of us could get in land using the SUP. Then the boat moved and the SUP got dragged out on the sea again, so Rudi had to swim after it. On the return the waves and wind had gotten a bit stronger, so we had to go down on our knees. ### Maintenance * Filled oil on the engine, checked cooling liquid * Went some hours with diesel from the port side tank to make sure there aren't diesel standing in the hose for filling the tank, then switched to the starboard side tank. * Started looking into the feet of the drying machine ### Times and positions * 2024-01-12T082042 UTC: departed from mooring after 1 day, 9:55:39 * 2024-01-12T082152 UTC: moved for 4:54:02, line distance 13.4nm, sailed distance 15.3nm (-1.58%), avg speed 3.114676888691079, vmg 2.7 kts * 2024-01-12T131554 UTC: arrived at anchorage 37.05126166666667,21.5556 (Proti, east side) ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-12 08:11 - 3955.1 engine hours after topfilling both diesel tanks * 2024-01-12 08:41 - 3955.6 engine hours * 2024-01-12 08:41 - 6058 nautic miles * 2024-01-12 15:54 - 50.14V on all three Li-Ion batteries ## Saturday 2024-01-13 - Prosti - Prosti - Navarino bay It has been pretty cold the last days, but now the sun is up and the north europeans go topless, Rudi in shorts. We moved from our bay and over to the neighbour bay where there are supposed to be two shipwrecks. We circled a bit over one of them with the SUP, and I went in with the wet suit and snorkelling mask. Also removed some weed and barnacles from the propellor, around the rudder and hull. Sailed slowly further, even if the forecast said it would be no wind. A tuna was following us for a long time, apparently trying to eat something from the rudder. I was at first surprised that no fishes appeared when I was cleaning the hull, then eventually much later I was surprised by the size of the fish. Eventually we had to start the engine for a while because there was no wind, and then to make the last distance back again at the other side of the island. The tuna joined us in the narrow channel between the islands, but disappeared when I turned up the engine revs (as we had headwind and low speed). Observed the first sailboat in use since Rome (with the exception of two regattas and one "wintering" boat seeking shelter). ### Times and positions * 2024-01-13T082910 UTC: departed from anchorage after 19:13:16 * 2024-01-13T082910 UTC: moved for 0:09:31, line distance 714m, sailed distance 805m (-11.73%), avg speed 2.7 kts, vmg 2.4 kts * 2024-01-13T083841 UTC: arrived at anchorage 37.04470666666667,21.557635 (Prosti) * 2024-01-13T105441 UTC: departed from anchorage after 2:16:00 * 2024-01-13T110101 UTC: moved for 0:54:15, line distance 1.6nm, sailed distance 1.7nm (-0.71%), avg speed 1.9 kts, vmg 1.8 kts * 2024-01-13T115516 UTC: very low speed for around 400 meters and around 25 minutes, between 37.02272166666667,21.57592 and 37.01907833333333,21.577915 * 2024-01-13T122008 UTC: moved for 3:36:06, line distance 5.9nm, sailed distance 11.0nm (-2.30%), avg speed 3.1 kts, vmg 1.6 kts * 2024-01-13T155614 UTC: arrived at anchorage 36.95324333333333,21.670128333333334 (Navarino bay) ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-13 08:00 UTC - 3960.4 engine hours * 2024-01-13 08:00 UTC - 6073 nautic miles ### Maintenance * Removed some barnacles and algae from the hull and propellor, using diving mask, snorkelling mask, SUP, spatula and the deckbrush. * Removed he deck pad since it was leaking water. We'll reattach it using some elastic glue. Rudi says it will be easy to weld it - but of course, it's needed with equipment. * Patched the tent a bit * Going to fix feet for the drying machine. * free-fall of the winch stopped working ## Sunday 2024-01-14 - Navarino bay - ... Woke up in the morning, and it was sunny and nice weather. Two fortresses, a cave and lots of other things to look into in the neighbourhood Drunk my coffee and the sun disappeared, but it was still calm. We moved a bit closer to land and prepared the SUP, but as soon as we were ready to leave the boat it became windy. We just left. Played a bit with the main - a tight and centered main sometimes makes it impossible to turn the boat from clause hauled into broad reach as the sail controls the direction more than the rudder and wants to steer the boat into the wind. I'm not sure why, but my crew decided to hoist the main first and then hoist the anchor. With the wind coming from the shore and the boat being anchored up quite close to the shallow waters, I was a bit concerned of the consequences, but it went fine. (nothing to panic over anyway, we could always force a change of direction by starting the engine or rolling out the genoa). We were running low on provisions, and grocery shops are closed on Sundays in Greece - so we needed to plan so that we would be close to a grocery shop Monday. Our alternatives seemed to be to do just some 5-20 nautic miles and visit a grocery shop in the neighbourhood, do a long detour into one of the bays between the "fingers" or to pass all three fingers in one go (more than 100 nautic miles, going some night sailing). We chose the latter. Good wind. ### Times and positions * 2024-01-14T090324 UTC: departed from anchorage after 17:07:10 * 2024-01-14T090324 UTC: moved for 0:02:20, line distance 81m, sailed distance 67m (3.07%), avg speed 0.9 kts, vmg 1.1 kts * 2024-01-14T090544 UTC: arrived at anchorage 36.95355333333333,21.66876 (Navarino bay, closer to a breakwater) * 2024-01-14T094307 UTC: departed from anchorage after 0:37:23 * 2024-01-14T094737 UTC: moved for 20:15:40, line distance 80.2nm, sailed distance 93.7nm (-1.06%), avg speed 4.6 kts, vmg 4.0 kts ### Maintenance * Did a little bit of research into the small 50VDC->12VDC converter I have for autopilot and bilge pump. It's 50V in the end which is now with tape. It creates big sparks but apparently didn't blow any fuses when I tried to reattach it. Is the sparks due to something wrong, or is it just in the nature of the converter to do that? Should carefully reattach it with a small fuse in between and see what happens and weather the converters still work. * Learned something about the 50VDC->220VAC inverter. It starts creating terribly annoying warning beeps when voltage sinks below 45V. If stopping it and restarting it, it will create a long beep and deny working. If keeping it running, it will continue working as the voltage drops lower than 45V. Managed to tap out ~2.5 kWh until the alarm became unbearable (or rather, until someone wanted to sleep in the room) ## Monday 2024-01-15 - ... - Monemvasia - Gefyra Went mostly by sails - in the very end towards the quay of Monemvasia, in the mind of the skipper, the only thing that made sense was to start the engine. We were low on hot water, low on batteries, it would be nice to spend time on land while it was daylight and no rain, and we had headwind ... but my crew preferred to do some tacking. Well, let them have fun ... Weather was roughening up. It started raining as we landed the ship. We did a shopping trip in Gefyra, then a trip around and to the top of the Monemvasia island - in the rain. Fantastic, felt a bit like hiking in Norwegian mountains in the summer time. Alessandro told me the next time that Greece is very green in the winter time - in the summer time it's all dry and the green plants disappear. The island is a natural fortress in itself, and then fortified even more. There was the lower town, protected by walls and the sea and a fortress - then the only access to the upper parts of the island is through a small gate in a fortress wall separating the lower town and the upper town. Above the upper town there is a lot of land, and at the very top of the island remnants of an old fortress. It's almost hard to believe that the main church has been converted from a church to a mosque and then back to a church - this island could probably have maintained status quo as an independent city state if the population there really wanted it. Very strong wind at the top of the island. We thought we were the only people on the whole island, all until we suddenly met some tourist on the town square of the lower town. I was considering to go for another shopping trip to Gefyra. They should have a place selling gas, a laundry and a supermarket with a butcher desk ... and water. We were too exhausted, it was just eat and sleep on the program - but first, move to the anchorage. Even that was a challenge, getting away from the quay was difficult, and my crew forgot to take care of the trip line when we were anchoring, so the anchor ended up hanging by the trip line. ### Expenses * EUR 94 - food - bought misc groceries on a supermarked with relatively high markups * EUR -90 - food - my crew tossed some money for "compensation for eating from the ship supplies" over the last few days * EUR 0 - food - bread paid by Alessandro ### Times and positions * 2024-01-15T060317 UTC: Standstill/forth and back due to very unstable wind direction at 36.44313666666667,23.207445 for 0:22:07 * 2024-01-15T062524 UTC: moved for 5:32:58, line distance 16.7nm, sailed distance 21.0nm (-7.21%), avg speed 3.8 kts, vmg 3.0 kts * 2024-01-15T115832 UTC: arrived at mooring 36.68861833333333,23.04188 (Monemvasia) * 2024-01-15T155138 UTC: departed from mooring after 3:53:06 * 2024-01-15T160620 UTC: Struggled a bit to drop the anchor at the right place and get it to set (particularly because we had forgotten about the tripline) * 2024-01-15T161320 UTC: arrived at anchorage 36.68846,23.040915 (Gefyra) ## Tuesday 2024-01-16 - Gefyra - Gerekas (Zerakas) Rudi went in land by the SUP in the morning and figured out there was no water to be found. We called to the next port, Gerakas, and appointed that we would arrive at 16 and fill water there. Around six nautical miles sailing distance and around 3 hours to go - I thought we had too much time, but we got there only around 16:20 (moored up at 16:30 according to the GPS). Probably we also ate brunch before going, because the time disappeared fast. Paid 10 EUR for water and electricity. Finally we can charge the batteries properly ... first time I'm connected to land power since Rome (20th of November). Went for a walk. Idyllic and quiet place, with lots of wild nature around. No grocery shops or any commercial activity except for a couple of tavernas that were closed. I noticed no less than three "prayer boxes" on this small place, two of them with lit candles inside. According to legend, they used to put a chain across the bay in earlier times to keep unwanted boats out of the cove. ### Expenses * GBP 7 - marketing - premium membership crewbay * EUR 5 - water * EUR 5 - electricity ### Maintenance * Topped up water and batteries * Epoxy-work: improved legs for the drying machine * Epoxy-work: waterproofing and making the roll for 200m rope more solid ### Times and positions * 2024-01-16T114601 UTC: departed from anchorage after 19:32:41 * 2024-01-16T114601 UTC: moved for 2:38:03, line distance 6.2nm, sailed distance 11.3nm (-3.80%), avg speed 4.3 kts, vmg 2.4 kts * 2024-01-16T142744 UTC: arrived at mooring 36.78534833333333,23.08660666666667 (Gerakas) ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-16 22:15 UTC - 14.74V, 3.7A * 2024-01-16 22:55 UTC - 13.46V, 1.4A, -83.6Ah ## Wednesday 2024-01-17 - Gerekas (Zerakas) - ... ### Expenses * EUR 10 - fish. I was surprised by the cost of the fish. Lots of work preparing it and lots of work eating it as well. ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-17 16:40 UTC - 12.93V, -1.5A, -70Ah ### Times and positions * 2024-01-17T143250 UTC: departed from mooring after 1 day, 0:05:06 * 2024-01-17T143300 UTC: moved for 0:21:42, line distance 1171m, sailed distance 1270m (-8.14%), avg speed 1.9 kts, vmg 1.7 kts * 2024-01-17T145442 UTC: Fiddling with sails for 0:04:30 * 2024-01-17T145912 UTC: moved for 13:30:05, line distance 62.6nm, sailed distance 64.7nm (-0.79%), avg speed 4.8 kts, vmg 4.6 kts ## Thursday 2024-01-18 - ... - Dhimitrios Bay, Milos Arrived before sunrise, captain went right to bed, Rudi stayed up for a while. Very lazy day. We considered the wind to be too strong to do anything except staying still. Milos was on the list of places where we could get the transit log, but with the prevailing weather we didn't consider to do anything but stay still. ### Times and positions * 2024-01-18T042917 UTC: arrived at anchorage 36.73021833333333,24.394806666666668 (Dhimitrios Bay, Milos) ### Meters and measurements * 2024-01-18T0438 UTC: 3966 engine hours * 2024-01-18T0438 UTC: 6282 nautic miles ### Maintenance * Epoxy work: made the roll for 200m rope more robust with even more epoxy and some "ears" to secure overflowing rope ## Friday 2024-01-19 - Dhimitrios Bay, Milos Very lazy day. We still considered the wind to be too strong, but maybe we should consider to get going anyway? The forecast for Saturday seems a bit unstable, and Sunday we should definitively be at Paros and be prepared for some pretty rough weather. "Let's go after dinner" the captain suggested, but after dinner we were quite sleepy. Checking the forecast yet another time, we decided to get going at 04 in the morning. ### Maintenance Emptied the bike storage / propellor axis room properly. Fixed the loose switches to a piece of wood (using epoxy, and then screws to get the wooden piece in place). Reattached one broken cord and one cord that fell off. Cords there should be redone properly, probably soldering the contacts and certainly attaching the cords neatly to the wall. Finalized the new air drier feet and rope drum. ## Saturday 2024-01-20 - Dhimitrios Bay, Milos - Paros Plan was to leave at 04, but we got going quite much later. A bit unstable wind and forecast. Parts of the journey went very slowly, (small) parts of the journey by engine. Less swell than what we feared for. We got quite decent average speed in the end, even if we had only 0.9 knots and was just hoping for the wind to pick up for quite some time.. ### Times and positions * 2024-01-20T024957 UTC: departed from anchorage after 1 day, 22:20:40 * 2024-01-20T024937 UTC: moved for 12:28:09, line distance 42.3nm, sailed distance 47.3nm (-1.42%), avg speed 3.8 kts, vmg 3.4 kts * 2024-01-20T182749 UTC: arrived at mooring 37.087395,25.151996666666665 (XXX) * NA UTC: departed from mooring after 1 day, 18:57:30 ### Expenses * EUR 60.55 - food - some grocery shopping (Rudi also bought quite some things). Expensive supermarket, bought some dried fruits and nuts, yoghurt and honey for the müsli mornings. ### Maintenance I did mop some water Autopilot stopped working, so I looked into and made a better fix for the loose contact (squeezed the female contact a bit with a wrench). ## Sunday 2024-01-21 - Paros Stormy day ### Maintenance Engine room: Drying properly up, using the airdrier, USB fan and the engine heat to dry out the wood supporting the propellor axis ## Monday 2024-01-22 - Paros Engine room: epoxy and carbon fibre work around the support for the propellor axis. Added some metal to the floater for the super-annoying bilge pump in the engine room, hope it will become a bit less annoying with this modification (however, it may probably still be a problem that it will start, stop, start, stop ...) ### Expenses * Hotel * food * patch set for the SUP ## Tuesday 2024-01-23 - Paros I finally went to the port police to ask for the cruisers log (Saturday and Sunday I didn't go because it was a weekend, Monday it was quite wet and windy so I didn't risk taking the laptop with me). They told I should go to Mykonos or Syros. They also told that a self-service system was being implemented and referred me to echarter.yna.gov.gr. I spent hours searching for an open laundry - even taking all the laundry with me and biking to Naousa. There is one that will be open on Thursday. Cleaned the aft bedroom and bathroom. ### Maintenance I did not get time to check for services. Rudi will take the deckpad to some service and get it welded, and also ask if they can do the handlebar. He will replace oil on the engine and on the gearbox. If there will still be problems with the gearbox after replacing the oil, maybe we can repair it in Turkey. I played with epoxy in the aft cabin - on the starboard side of the storages there will often be water, and it will go all the way if keelign too much. the idea is to make a more or less horizontal edge that will let water pass towards the bilge pump whenever we're keeling towards the port, but will stop the water from going back when keeling starboard. I'm not sure how to do this properly. Made a start, but the edge is too short, it will not be much efficient on preventing backslash, should work more on it later. ### Expenses * NOK 1720 - maintenance - new side power joystick * EUR 73.90 - food - bought some canned tins and beans from AB ## Two weeks in Paros Rudi stayed on board while I was in Oslo ### Maintenance Lots of maintenance done by Rudi while I was away ... * The padeye was welded * Rope for furling in the main sail was replaced (togheter with the bolt fixing the rope) * Anchor winch was oiled/greased and is now working again ### Expenses * NOK 2500 - maintenance - estimated price for maintenance-related things I brought from Oslo (most expensive thing was the joystick for the bow truster, ridiculously expensive) * NOK 2000 - equipment - estimated price of new equipment brought from Norway Did not do any counting of food while I was not on the boat, and neither for the week my mother was for a visit. ## Friday 2024-02-09 - Paros - Antiparos Arrived at Paros. Really beautiful day with sun, warm weather, almost no wind and superb visibility in the sea. Even from the airplane we could see the sea bottom far out from land. Since this was our weather window for doing small lcoal trips, we went right to Antiparos. It's quite many shallow places on the way to Antiparos and around the harbour there. The map at my plotter is pretty rough, the navionics map is much more detailed. Just before arriving to the harbour I realized it was a good idea to visit the toilet before getting too busy with the mooring - I put down the speed and told Rudi to take charge. I hadn't studied Navionics well enough to be aware that we were heading straight for some really shallow area. Luckily I had the depth alarm on and luckily Rudi did put the boat in reverse, but we still had enough speed to get a little bit stuck. I put the engine in reverse, I also tried to jiggle a bit with the bow truster, but it does like nothing - don't know if it's because of bad contacts or too low battery voltage. Without the dhingy there is not so much we can do. We seemed to be really stuck for what seemed to be an eternity, but according to the GPS data we were stuck only for some few minutes. ### Times and positions * 2024-02-09T105446 UTC: departed from mooring after 19 days, 19:37:00 * 2024-02-09T105446 UTC: moved for 1:09:15, line distance 4.2nm, sailed distance 4.5nm (-0.55%), avg speed 3.9 kts, vmg 3.7 kts * 2024-02-09T120401 UTC: Got stuck in the sand at 37.04074,25.085915 for 0:03:41 * 2024-02-09T120742 UTC: moved for 0:00:20, line distance 19m, sailed distance 0m (-100.00%), avg speed 0.0 kts, vmg 1.9 kts * 2024-02-09T120802 UTC: arrived at mooring 37.04032333333333,25.085026666666668 (Antiparos) ### Maintenance Unpacked lots of luggage, the new bow truster "joystick" was installed, bow trusters does work a bit (but perhaps the battery voltage is too low). Starter battery had too low voltage. The battery meter says that the main battery bank is full, but I believe it's wrong. ## Saturday 2024-02-10 - Antiparos - Paros ### Times and positions * 2024-02-10T083606 UTC: departed from mooring after 20:28:04 * 2024-02-10T083606 UTC: moved for 1:03:56, line distance 4.2nm, sailed distance 5.1nm (-10.81%), avg speed 4.8 kts, vmg 4.0 kts * 2024-02-10T094302 UTC: arrived at mooring 37.087465,25.151993333333333 (Paros) ### Maintenance The big oil-changing day. I brought a Li-Ion-driven pump with me, Jaro thought it would be great for pumping the oil from the engine. I was not so sure about it. It has 25mm hose fittings at both ends, is supposed to lift liquids for up to 9 meters and supposed to be able to pump 30l/minutes. Jaro made sure to ship with me a fitting for a much smaller tube, and the tubes itself, but ... outer diameter of the thinnest tube he sent me was 8mm, and apparently it's needed with only 6mm outer diameter to get into the dipstick hole. I did a lot of biking to find oil for the engine, then a lot more biking to find the tube. The pump did not really work very well - problem is that with so thinny tube and with thick oil things will take time - and the big pump is simply overpowered, creates too much heat and noise and wasting too much energy while trying to pump the oil. We also had some issues getting the fittings really tight. Eventually it appears I've been changing oil before, we did manage to find the oil pump, and after running the engine for a while (to heat up the oil) and introducing a metal string into the suction tube (to make it more rigid) and moving it a bit up and down we it went fairly easy to pump out the oil. We also replaced the oil of the reverse gear. Ate Norwegian whale meat for supper, together with Alessandro and his girl-friend Wind picking up throughout the day. Some jerks in the rear ropes. We tossed out some more fenders and some rubber snubbers plus rubberbands on the rear ropes to stop the boat from jerking - with great success. ### Expenses * EUR 4 - maintenance - tube for changing oil * EUR 156 - maintenance - oil ## Sunday 2024-02-11 - Paros Quite a lot of wind. ### Maintenance * Cleaned the food storage (it had become wet and stinky) ## Monday 2024-02-12 - Paros - Mykonos Filled up water tanks before the departure. Tried to do some work during our voyage, but the waves were too rough - or perhaps I've been on land for too long, at least I started feeling a bit sea sick when consentrating over the laptop. Lots of wind in the start, much more than what the forecast predicted. Had more than 6 knots with no other sails than the baby jib. A cold front passed us, and with that a lot of lightning and thunder - really close! Some passing on the sky above our heads, going from somewhere behind the ship to somewhere in front of the ship. Some hitting the sea realatively close. Others a bit further away. And of course, lots of rain. We decided to stay by anchor over the night because ... why not. Calmares for supper. ### Times and positions * 2024-02-12T103925 UTC: departed from mooring after 2 days, 0:56:23 * 2024-02-12T104005 UTC: moved for 6:38:34, line distance 22.1nm, sailed distance 28.6nm (-2.14%), avg speed 4.3 kts, vmg 3.3 kts * 2024-02-12T171839 UTC: arrived at anchorage 37.42951,25.322158333333334 (Mykonos, north bay) ## Monday 2024-02-12 - Mykonos - Mykonos Not a very good day ... my insurance isn't good enough, and it's impossible to get the transit log. Panatheus will only make an offer if I get a surveyor and a rigger to inspect the boat. How can I organize that? ### Times and positions * 2024-02-13T071945 UTC: departed from anchorage after 14:01:06 * 2024-02-13T071945 UTC: moved for 0:11:11, line distance 783m, sailed distance 774m (-1.38%), avg speed 2.2 kts, vmg 2.3 kts * 2024-02-13T073056 UTC: sailing too slowly - my algorithms cannot figure out if we're sailing or standing still * 2024-02-13T083652 UTC: moved for 0:39:43, line distance 1.7nm, sailed distance 2.0nm (-13.16%), avg speed 3.0 kts, vmg 2.6 kts * 2024-02-13T092516 UTC: arrived at mooring 37.46461166666667,25.327286666666666 (Mykonos new harbour) ## Tuesday 2024-02-13 - Mykonos The port police sent me to the customs office for getting a transit log - and also commented I needed a proper insurance document. Tried to visit the customs office to get a transit log, but it was closed there. ## Wednesday 2024-02-14 - Mykonos Got the transit log. Yay! Planned to cross the straight (~9.5 nautic miles) before the weather got too rough, but ... insurance problems ### Embarkments and disembarkments * Jon from Cyprus (crewbay) joined * My mother left ## Thursday 2024-02-15 - Mykonos Rudi was out for a while. He got the news that he is accepted as a mechanic on the tall ship he wanted to join across the Atlantic, so he was quite happy. ### Embarkments and disembarkments * Jon from Cyprus left ### Maintenance * The belt on the engine was replaced * The electric toilet already seems to be needing maintenance again. Perhaps the tubes are clogged ... or more likely, the toilet was just disbehaving because it was full. ## Friday 2024-02-16 - Mykonos The insurance saga continues. * Rudi got a "skippers liability insurance". New people in the coast guard office. At first they didn't want to accept it because it doesn't explicitly refer to the Greek insurance law, and because it doesn't explicitly state that it covers environmental damage (it does have a section for "pecuniary damages"). Then he was just waving his hand, stating "you have permission to leave now". Probably meaning that we have all the stamps we need for leaving, and that they wouldn't come after us in any case if we would have left yesterday or Wednesday evening. * The "professional insurance agent" that I specifically found when googling for companies offering insurance covering greek rules for foreign yachts - yesterday she came back to me promising to "search the international market for an insurance" and that "it would take a week". Today she writes back to me that she has been in touch with one greek insurance company, and they could accept me if I could get a Greek tax number, meaning to start up a business in Greece or settling down here - and then she simply gives up. ### Maintenance Looked a bit into the charging again. I don't understand much. After starting the engine, the battery voltage briefly went up to around 14V (13.98V if I remember correctly). I started the Li-Ion charger, adjusted the RPM of the engine to the point where I had maximum charging current (around 14A net into the "main" battery bank). It was then at ~1300 RPM. I measured the amperage from the generator, it was giving around 80A of current. After a while the charging amps for the main battery bank and the voltage started dropping - perhaps the generator was giving less amperage because it was hot? Unfortunately I didn't measure the amps from the generator. Later I tuned down the Li-Ion-charger to around half the amps, the main battery charging increased a bit but not much, and the voltage still stayed relatively low (<13.5V). I turned off the Li-Ion-charging completely, still not so much increasage of the main battery charging, still relatively low voltage on the charging, and around 36A from the generator. Tried to charge again a bit later, with Li-Ion carger on and measuring current constnatly on the cord coming from the engine systems. Also started the diesel heater. The net charge was around 0 at some points, voltage around 13V. It started at 90A, and fell down to 85A after perhaps 15 minutes. Conclusion: Probably important to maximize the charging on the Li-Ion batteries while the generator is going. Something is really weird with the charging ciruitry. ### Embarkments and disembarkments The Polish arrived ## Saturday 2024-02-17 - Mykonos - Tinos It wasn't that much wind in the harbour - meter showed only 5 knots - but it got pretty rough as soon as we got further out. So we had land in front of us, behind us and on our port side, and the wind was blowing strong mostly from behind, but a bit from port as well. Harbour basin was relatively big and we were quite alone there, but still it was needed to make a difficult 90-degree turn (or even more) relatively quickly to be able to get out of the harbour before blowing into the dock. I was considering my usual reverse-on-stern-spring-force-out-bow-maneuver and then full speed ahead, hoping to turn the bow 90 degrees to the starboard before hitting land, but Rudi suggested to rather force the stern out using the bow spring. The effect is much bigger when utilizing the bow than the stern due to the shape of the ship, and we would have the wind working with us instead of against us, so it was a great idea. Except, as soon as I tried to back out, the ship rotated clockwise. The propellor effect does turn the boat a bit clockwise, but not that much - may have been the wind playing with the ship as well. The wind tend to move the bow a lot more than the stern, so wind from the port side will turn the boat clockwise. I did consider to run forward with the rudder towards the starboard, it would probably have worked out, but I decided it was a safer bet to turn the rudder towards the port, give full speed ahead (towards land), get the ship rotated more anti-clockwise, and then go backwards with good speed, going out the way I had originally planned for. We keeled quite a lot towards the port when the jib went out. Probably there is water under the sink on the aft bathroom again. I didn't check the wind meter all the time, but I believe it was between 20 and 40 knots most of the way. It got a bit calmer as we got in the shade of Tinos. Arriving to the quay there was apparently a port employee there to help us. I had forgotten to inform the Polish that the aft line needs to be attached first, luckily I got Rudi to relay it. I did get a bit stressed by this helper on land, he seemed to have very fixed ideas on how the lines were supposed to go, and almost the only English he knew was things like "...there, my friend!". Rudi told me to relax and let him take control, then we could rather adjust things the way we liked it later. We got electricity, and we went for a short walk on the island. Nice to get the batteries fully charged, that was quite much needed. ### Times and positions * 2024-02-17T111341 UTC: departed from unknown after 4 days, 1:57:06 * 2024-02-17T111341 UTC: moved for 3:17:37, line distance 9.0nm, sailed distance 13.8nm (-8.81%), avg speed 4.2 kts, vmg 2.7 kts * 2024-02-17T144058 UTC: arrived at mooring 37.537393333333334,25.161698333333334 (Tinos) ### Expenses 95 eur food 30 eur harbour fee ### Maintenance * Fixed gas alarm * Fixed 50V->12V thingy (but the output voltage should probably be adjusted up a bit - it was set to 12.6V, but main voltage easily drops down to 12.15V when fridge and autopilot and radar is working) ## Sunday 2024-02-18 - Tinos - ... ### Meters and measurements * 2024-02-18 19:41 UTC - 3978.5 nautical miles * 2024-02-18 19:41 UTC - 6404 engine hours ### Times and positions * 2024-02-18T145213 UTC: departed from mooring after 1 day, 0:11:15 * 2024-02-18T145243 UTC: moved for 9:17:54, line distance 38.5nm, sailed distance 39.4nm (-0.53%), avg speed 4.2 kts, vmg 4.1 kts ## Monday 2024-02-19 - ... - Porto Rafti - Artemida - Rafina Crazy day. In Porto Rafti a uniformed car met us and told us the harbour was fully private and that the only way to stay was by anchor. We stayed by anchor for a while, but what's the point - we needed to do things on land, so we continued towards the next harbour(s). On the way out from the anchorage, the boat started turning and turning on the engine didn't help, we made several turns before someone concluded that the steering was broken. Autopilot was still working though. The cable had snapped. Rudi later found that the cable was wrongly installed from Lisbon and that was the reason why it had become chaffed. Rudi managed to make a makeshift solution using a rope, but it failed once, and once the rudder got blocked, causing the angry autopilot to break appart it's fundament. So we were for a short while almost without both autopilot and without manual steering. We attempted stopping in Artemida - we came in relatively calm weather, but with the wind blowing into the harbour. The entrance is quie narrow, and it's quite shallow. We did not touch bottom, but according to our depth gauge we were centimeters from doing so, right outside the entrance. I just took it in full reverse and set the heading for the next harbour. Finally we got to Rafina. Michael landed the boat almost perfectly. I was a bit stressed, standing behind and ready to take over or give orders, but it went fine. It would probably have been an idea to throw out an anchor and stayed stern-in - even with all the fenders out it was a pretty nasty place to stay. Immediately after arriving to Rafina police met us at the quay. The crew list from Mykonos was not ajour, we had two new crew members and the guy from Cyprus decided not to join us. I was concerned that it would be a problem, but we got to deliver an updated crew list and got it stamped. Delivered the laundry, but to a service in Artemida. It had better opening hours and pictures of washing machines on the google information, so I thought it was perhaps a self-service laundry. Laundry would be ready in 24 hours. Another customer was helping with translating, I asked if I could pick up the clothes earlier, and the man said "sure! when would you like to pick it up?" - but he probably didn't relay it, because when I came the next day I was told to come back later. Silly I didn't deliver it to a local laundry. I was considering to do another trip to Lidl while it was still open - but I was too exhausted. Even Rudi was exhausetd Did some epoxy work with the rudder support after Rudi had left, got help from Matheus. ### Maintenance * Ladder in front is probably getting a bit too loose - something in the bow is creating sounds, even after Rudi ensured the anchor was properly secured. * Rudder problems. Rudi was looking a bit into it, but we considered we need to buy parts before it makes sense trying to deal with it. * Autopilot problems ### Times and positions * 2024-02-19T001037 UTC: Possibly an unplanned tack at 37.79176833333333,24.420565 for 0:05:00 * 2024-02-19T001527 UTC: moved for 5:02:12, line distance 20.4nm, sailed distance 20.8nm (-0.44%), avg speed 4.1 kts, vmg 4.0 kts * 2024-02-19T051739 UTC: arrived at anchorage 37.890155,24.01126 (Porto Rafti) * 2024-02-19T071738 UTC: departed from anchorage after 1:59:59 * 2024-02-19T071738 UTC: moved for 4:58:45, line distance 7.9nm, sailed distance 21.3nm (-3.96%), avg speed 4.3 kts, vmg 1.6 kts * 2024-02-19T121713 UTC: arrived at mooring 38.021905,24.00918 (Rafina) ### Expenses * EUR 15.65 - food - oats ## Tuesday 2024-02-20 Quite stressful day. On my list was deciding weather to stay for one more night at the same spot or not, paying the harbour due, collecting the laundry, get an exit-stamp from the port police office, fill water, find spare parts for the rudder and work a bit. One of the problems, I had an appointment to pay the harbour due at 09 - I had sort of already decided to leave the same day, but the rudder systems was taken apart, and I would need to find the right spare parts in order to get it fixed. I was visiting a lot of hardware stores, found only six meter of 5mm cable (I needed 3.8m + 4.2m or something like that). The last hardware store was 10 km of uphill, and when leaving it the bike got a flat tire. Found another hardware shop on the way, they sold me a bike pump, but the leak was too big, and they didn't have a patch set. Found some car tire repair shops also on the way, but none that could help me. (came to think, there exist spray cans for resolving such problems for cars, should probably be possible to use it for a bike tire as well?) Rudi came in the evening and fixed the rudder. Left the harbour in the late evening. Departure was a bit unorderly, I released the fore ropes assuming they were not needed - but the wind slowly started pushing the bow away from the quay and the big ball fender was not in the aft anymore. ### Maintenance * Rudder problem - the reason why the wires got chaffed was identified. The old short cable was replaced with the old long cable (with the chaffed part of it cut off). The old long cable was replaced with a new cable, but without the eye connection at top - we had to use a screw thing. ### Expenses EUR 5 - dining - coffee/toilet/office stops while searching for parts EUR 12 - harbour due EUR 57 - maintenance - hardware (5mm cable, floating switch, solder, brush) EUR 28 - laundry EUR 86 - food - pasta rice beans tinned meat etc EUR 12 - other - useless purchase of bike pump, in hope to get back to the boat rolling rather than walking after biking 10 km of uphill ## TODO 1st pri * patch the SUP 2nd pri * fridge freezer box lid * fridge door should be lifted a bit? * water leakages - replace leaky water tanks * check for water in places where it shouldn't be water * research on li-ion power supply for bilge pump and nav systems * fix broken rope guide starboard side for main sail sheet car * Seems to be a leakage on the hot air tube going to the aft bathroom * heater in the bathroom doesn't work * varnishing Land/shopping: new tire and tubes for eltempo 110 cm * 2 of outer tube for 5mm wire. Outside diameter 15mm, should fit through a 17mm hole. 8.3m of 5mm wire with a loop in both ends (spare for the rudder control) flexible tanks for blackwater, greywater and drinking water transistors? more socks new cheese slicer