Back In Lakki
After our last cruise we arrived back in Lakki, were greeted by Bob (another one!), the yard manager, who we last saw on March 8th as we left Lakki for Samos and Turkey . It was good to be back and we had 3 weeks before our flights home on the 29th.
For our first weekend we were welcomed with a substantial gale, which kind of got in the way of work. After that we knuckled down to sail washing, deck scrubbing, hull polishing and waxing, heads (toilets to you non yotties) servicing and cleaning, engine servicing and the million other small tasks which need completing before one can securely leave a boat ashore for long periods.
This seemingly endless list of jobs does sounds daunting but we had loadsa time and were able to conduct it at quite a leisurely rate thus leaving plenty of time for socialising. On our 4th day here we saw Caladh enter the harbour with Richard and June aboard, we hadn't seen them for about a year so it was fun to get together and compare notes on our respective cruises over a meal or two - by the bye anyone visiting Lakki should try Giorgio's Taverna next to the Post Office, the pork is absolutely delicious, the chops seem to have come from a pig the size of camel, and the prices are very easy on the wallet - oh yes - the chips are home made and plentiful and there is even a picture of Adolf Hitler on the wall - what more could one desire .
This year the yard is very heavily booked by a record number of boats and there are a lot more staff than in previous years, nonetheless the work appeared to go ahead without a hitch - compared to last year when the main crane driver was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack and work ground to a halt.
A couple of weeks before we left a 46ft Brit boat, "Renaissance", appeared. She was brought in single handed by her owner, Ken. He had taken about 2 months to get here from Grimsby and had experienced a lot of fairly serious weather en-route - quite some achievement. His delight in arriving was apparent to all who met him. We got quite friendly over the ensuing days and enjoyed his company. This was his first sailing in Greece, thus we were able to bore him incessantly with our experiences here. Nonetheless he seemed to take it all in good stead and now has a Greek Waters Pilot book full of useful notes based on our experiences.
Meeting him, just starting out here in Greece, full of enthusiasm for the cruising ahead of him, brought home to us how we felt in June 2006 when we arrived here . It also made us realise that we were now at the end of our outward journey. If Ken's future experiences here are half as good as our past ones he will have a great time.

A Visit to the "Goatshit Gallery" and a Birthday Picnic.
Last year we became friendly with a remarkable woman, Mo, who hails from Nottingham. She left many years ago to sail away in a catamaran. She finally fetched up on Leros where she does odds and sods for yotties - she made some new mattresses for our aft cabin. Her sister Jean was visiting the island for the first time in a long while and was celebrating her 75th birthday. Mo decided that she should celebrate it by walking to an unusual collection of paintings and cartoons done by German troops stationed here during the 2nd world war. They are in a building, about 3 miles along a goat track in the hills on the South of the island.
In company with Mo, Jean and a German friend Christina we set out on a lovely sunny, breezy morning and enjoyed an exhilarating walk up to the "Goatshit Gallery" to see these bizarrely situated artwork .
The paintings are in an old art deco building on a remote hillside in the back of beyond. They really are quite remarkable. The building is slowly deteriorating and acts as a shelter for goats. Indeed, walking through the building one has to wade through goat droppings 6 inches deep. Nonetheless it is worth the walk - and wade. Two walls are taken up by paintings done in the style of Brueghels whilst others are covered in cartoons.
On our return to Mo's car on the beach at Xerocambos we concluded this delightful day with a birthday picnic - Thanks Mo!

Tiercel Is Hauled Out and put into Hibernation
On Friday it was our turn to be hauled out. The boat before us was an 80ft Baltic trader, a wooden sailing ship built in 1895. She was huge and possibly the largest vessel ever hauled at this yard. Bob, the yard manager, and his staff were on tenterhooks yet the German skipper of the boat appeared very relaxed. He and his family - wife, young boy, baby and dog - cheerfully sail this ship without benefit of additional crew .
Next to Bob at the lifting bay, during this stressful hoist, was Nico, the yard owner's son, who is a solicitor in Athens - useful when things go wrong and a boat turns into a large heap of firewood in an instant. However, as is usual in this yard, the lift went without a hitch.
Humorous interlude:-
While waiting to lift us Nico was admiring the wee baby on the Baltic trader and said "Isn't he beautiful?"
"Yes" says Bob (typical Brit engineer) "and they're very cheap to make!"
End of humorous interlude.
We were next. In order to get hoisted one needs to reverse into a tiny lifting bay. Tiercel has spent the last 2 years refusing to be steered backwards - put the engine in astern gear and Tiercel goes exactly where she wants, despite one's best attempts at the wheel. However, this time she performed impeccably, travelling from the quay wall all the way round into the tiny entrance to the lifting bay as if she did it every day - who said boats don't have a soul or a sense of humour - you could almost hear her chuckling as we arrived in the clutches of the boat hoist . She will now get 11 months rest before she is back in the water again.

The Trip Home
On a slightly cloudy, warm (22 C) Wednesday we got a taxi to the tiny airport on Leros and waited for the aircraft to arrive. The security arrangements are a long way from those in London. One man operates the whole thing, he x-rays the luggage then the hand luggage and finally he puts the passengers through the metal scanner. Being Greek, a nice guy, a gentleman and having no female colleague to assist, he doesn't put women through the scanner; he gets them to walk around the side of it - very Greek!
Our flights to Athens and then Heathrow both actually departed and arrived early. Terminal 5 at Heathrow was a complete contrast to Greece. A vast unwelcoming edifice in which we seemed to walk miles, went through 5 or 6 different security checks - at least 4 or 5 of which seemed designed purely to let the security personnel put one through mildly humiliating experiences in the name of "anti-terrorism" . Still, if it gives them a bit of amusement I suppose that's OK then!
We arrived in Edinburgh, roughly on time, to a drizzly 1 degree centigrade and were met by our son, Will. After a couple of days in Dunfermline with him and Angela we arrived in Tarbert on a gloriously sunny Saturday morning after a beautiful trip across to Glasgow then along the shores of Lochs Lomond, Long and Fyne. Scotland had really put on a lovely show for our journey home. The autumn colours were glorious; the lochs were absolutely still and the surface reflected the beautiful hills in a perfect mirror image - wonderful.
We have now had 3 days at home in Caol Na Mara. Whilst our tenants had left it in perfect condition, we, particularly Gina, have been working very hard to turn it from a rented house into "our home" again. It has been great fun crawling around the attic finding stuff that we haven't seen for up to 3 years.
As we look out onto the beautiful, but icy, views from our windows along Loch Fyne and the delightful Kintyre Peninsula, our thoughts keep going back to our journey, the places we have seen, the wonderful (and not so wonderful) experiences we have had, the people we have met and the many new friends we have made. We truly loved the whole experience of travelling from Scotland to Turkey. We have learned so much about ancient and modern Southern Europe and also feel that we have grown as a result of our experiences. We will never be quite the same again.
The bay in front of our house looks rather empty to us because Tiercel isn't there. We will be returning to the Med each year for a few weeks until we have finally sailed her back onto her mooring here in Tarbert.
Finally we ask all our friends, old and new, not to become strangers.
Keep in touch!
Yours Aye,
Bob and Gina