Here we go again, off to Agio Theodori, Athens, where Rukus has been on the hardstand for the last 6 months. After 34 hours flying via Singapore, we reached Athens, picked up our rental car and checked into a comfortable hotel.
We were invited to a welcome back BBQ by our Greek friends Dimos and Evi at their home not so far from our Athens hotel. It really was the perfect welcome back to Greece and we did just manage to avoid the embarrassment of ‘falling asleep, head plant onto the plate of pork strips trick’ – but only just! These gorgeous friends put on a special meal with many interesting Greek side dishes, good wine and good company!
The next morning, we wound our way out through the suburbs of Athens and onto the highway heading for the Corinth Canal. The familiar landmarks, sights and hectic traffic of these ‘hell-enic’ drivers felt all so familiar – this being our fourth year returning to Almira Boatyard. The staff are mostly familiar and the barking guard dogs seem the same.
Our first sight of our beautiful boat was a disappointing, but we were warned by Dimos and Antonis (electrician) that the boat was a bit of a mess. Despite being covered by two large tarpaulins the whole deck was covered by a green/ blue powder layer with large boot marks like footsteps in the snow.
Evidently, over winter, an adjacent boat had the antifouling removed (sanded) and apparently blown onto our boat. Not to be deterred the clean-up commenced and we settled in with elbow grease and the best cleaning product in the world, litres of vinegar.
At least we did not have to stay onboard at this stage but stayed with Warren and Helen at their luxurious B&B located conveniently close by. A typical Greek holiday home on the foreshore surrounded by orange and lemon trees with the obligatory olive trees and of course, the house came with the quintessential friendly Greek cat!
(JCM) So the work begins. Really just part of cruising and getting Rukus to a good operational state. The biggest physical projects were the replacement of the S Drive bellows which required the partial relocation of the motor and pulling the whole transmission and S Drive out of the engine bay. Actually this was done twice! Just for practice. Luckily Warren and Russell were on hand to assist and only required cold beer as payment for services rendered.
Our neighbour boat on the RHS was a very nice Lagoon 440 being readied for charter around the island of Santorini on a skippered charter basis. I got talking to the skipper, Spyros, a typical Greek fisherman from Leros, who was doing a mate a favour by skippering for a season. Interesting guy, now retired from fishing but still felt that it was his life. He reminded me a lot of my good friend and Africa expedition leader, Dennis, both in looks and outlook on life.
Apart from the clean-up there were some major improvements including new Lithium batteries and wiring, new solar arch and solar panels made by Dimos, new sails from Chronis and Lydia at Alpha Sails complete with a nice blue sail pack , all of which was installed during our 2nd week, and our refurbished wind generator (which we destroyed last year).
Yes, we were very busy and were on track for our twelve-day timeline (but were very tired), had cleared all the paperwork hurdles, and then with 2 days to go disaster struck.
Robyn had an unplanned 3 metre fall backwards off the back of the boat – no she was NOT jumping ship – we were not even in the water! Very traumatic fall with no help around to assist. We eventually ended up via ambulance in Korinthos hospital where she was assessed with X-rays and CT scans and eventually got to a ward at 3am after waiting in a drafty corridor for most of the night. The specialist doctors on the ward were very good with a diagnosis of a broken scapular, ribs, concussion and a lot of bruising inside and out. The meds could never subdue the pain.
Out of hospital a few days later. Counting ourselves extremely lucky and resting on Rukus. We had a huge welcome back from the crews off Vanilla (Russell & Cathie) and Macsea (Warren& Helen) who were very supportive through the whole episode and actually delayed their own launch dates to be with us. Much appreciated.
The recovery period is at least 6 weeks and so our launch is obviously postponed and we are making plans to travel and rest elsewhere – out of Schengen somewhere.
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