We originally planned to stay in our nice comfortable bay for a week and then follow our friend’s boat to Kos, but it was just too pleasant here. We are in a nice big perfect sandy bottom bay with good holding, a short boat ride to shore and quite a few restaurants to choose from. This year we have no schedule and no destination….so no rush.
Plus we have the famous Astypalia Castle to look at which is a stunning view. I often reflect on the historical circumstances that required building fortresses on hard to climb hills: Pirates and invaders.
It was quite windy in the days after we arrived, and we had an a little adventure when launching our dingy. (I estimate we have a little adventure about once a month ;-). Our dingy weights 51kg/114lbs and we had to move it from upside down on the deck to the water. I attached a line to the dingy to help lift it over the side with Victoria winching it up and me moving it when there was a big gust of wind and the dingy went flying up in the air! It went way up towards the back of the boat like a kite and I thought it was going to land on the solar panels on our arch (this would have been very bad). We got the boat down and in the water but this was a close call.
We have now settled into our routine of getting up, me making espresso for both of us, swimming, showering on deck, playing chess online, napping, and more swimming. I usually swim to check the anchor every morning (not really necessary but an excuse to swim). The water is crystal clear with 20+m visibility. and 27 degrees which you might think is warm but it is about 2 degrees colder than in Crete! I noticed the difference the first time I dove in! I religiously watch the sunset every night with a beverage. My favorite part of the day. The changing light of sunset makes everything more beautiful.
My other major necessary hobby is fixing the boat. Our generator is a bit hard to start sometimes, and a few days ago I announced that I had had enough of this, and was going to fix the problem once and for all. The next morning the generator started immediately. You might think this is a coincidence but I’m not sure. See Panpsychism. Everything has a soul and everything is listening. Another example: our friend’s boat doesn’t have a working watermaker (a device that makes drinking water from sea-water), so I was looking at the latest watermaker technology and sent a suggestion…..and the next day my watermaker had a problem. I can see why people are superstitious.
The watermaker is now fine. The generator is starting easily (helped by a battery booster). I also had to tighten the sail outhaul. Here is a picture of how I connected the lines:
This is called lashing. This technique is used in many places on Spruzzo. Essentially you use a smaller line looped back and forth many times, pulling it tight each time, and you get a leverage effect. You can make something quite tight like this, and then you tie it off many times as above. I probably did too many of the tie-offs….but I wanted to use up all the line.
As I write we are back in a few days of strong wind. I had to double up on the anchor snubber as I saw my poor 16mm line stretching more than I liked. I just checked our anchor and it is holding perfectly. It will be nice to have calmer winds tomorrow.
Adventures on Spruzzo 