Summer is long in Crete

We came back to our Crete marina in mid September because Victoria wanted to go to Athens and visit her daughter. Victoria left for Athens, and I was a stereotypical guy alone on his boat.

Victoria being away made me productive. I did a few boat projects.

The first thing I did was to finish the wood trim we have in our cockpit that was looking old. The finish had mostly worn off, and the wood was no longer protected. Here is a before picture:

It looks terrible. I had never finished wood before and was a bit nervous, but luckily there was a small wooden box on the left of the cockpit that needed finishing, and I could use it as a test piece. I went to a local hardwood store, and got a stained varnish that looked about right, watched a few YouTube videos on finishing wood, and went to work.

Good thing this was a test-piece. Firstly the stain was WAY darker than indicated. Maybe it was old. Secondly it was too thick and as it dried became wavy looking. It was a disaster. Maybe I was supposed to mix it with something first? The instructions were in Greek and my Greek is still quite basic. Luckily it was small. I didn’t take a picture but it looks terrible. So I went to a bigger store just for paints and finishes, and I got a different coloured varnish that was very expensive. (This guy clearly sold me the most expensive stuff he had.)

Every day for a week I woke up, had my coffee, did a light sanding, then put a layer of varnish on the wood in the cockpit. It took about 30 minutes every morning including cleaning the brushes afterwards….and after a week I was super happy with the look:

The wood looks 100% better than before. There are a few patches where the colour is slightly uneven from the old varnish being visible, so maybe I could have gone one shade darker…..but I’m very happy with this.

The next thing I did was make a ‘test’ outboard engine cover. We have a sewing machine, and I ordered some expensive Sunbrella fabric (UV resistant and the best material for outside) but before I cut up the $80/yard stuff I wanted to do a test piece. I went to a local fabric store, and of course I was ripped off by a very nice old lady who saw the financial opportunity of a clueless male in her store. Anyway I knew I was being ripped off, but I figured she needed the 20 euros more than I did, and I needed 2 yards of her cheapest fabric which didn’t seem very cheap to me. I took it back to the boat, followed a YouTube video that tells you exactly how to make an outboard cover complete with a draw-string, and off I went! (I’ve discovered there is a how-to video on YouTube for anything.)

I did know that sewing machines had bobbins. I didn’t know that it was a physically separate thread (I thought the single thread was magically looped around when the needle went into the fabric somehow). Whoever invented bobbins was a genius….even after watching an animation on how they work I still couldn’t make one myself. Even threading the sewing machine was not trivial. I managed to jam everything up and had to take the needle and bobbin apart to untangle everything. But after an hour or so I had this:

It was just a test piece, and not perfect, but it was successful! I’m going to do a second test version before I use the really expensive Sunbrella fabric, which has now arrived.

I then went to Athens and then Volos with Victoria. We spent 10 days in Volos. Victoria’s mom makes me breakfast and coffee every morning. I go biking most days. Victoria and I go for a walk at night. It is a nice spot. Even though I am caucasian like 99% of Volos I stick out like a sore thumb as a non-local, but I feel like a semi-resident and I think the Volos grandmothers (local surveillance network) all recognize me and know who I am by now.

Yesterday we went on one of the hikes organized by people in the marina. (The liveaboard community organizes several events through the week, about half involving drinking.) Crete is a hiking paradise: lots of mountains to climb, lots of ancient churches and windmills, lots of places to go and things to see. It was a 9km hike, listed as 2/10 in difficulty. The average age of people here is probably 70…..so how hard could it be?

Picture above is outside a church closed around 1900. The structure with a door on the right is still used as a religious retreat.

The group on a break. I fit right in with my Tilley hat.

Time made visible.

The answer is: hard enough! We left at 9:30 for a short drive, hiked until mid-afternoon with a stop for lunch (sometimes up some fairly steep and rocky paths) through very rural Crete: lots of olive trees, goats (I saw a goat with a long tail!) and general rough countryside. We were in a plateau with mountains all around, and it was more green and lush than what we usually see in Crete.

The surprising thing was how easily this mostly old group of hikers managed the hike. Victoria and I were the youngest, and the oldest could have been late 70’s. Almost all of them had walking sticks, and they were all the stereotypical old Europeans who hike in the mountains all day and are fit as fiddles. Definitely something to aspire to.