The weather having seemingly changed for the better we headed back out to a lovely wee quiet bay with surrounding oilve groves and ciccadas, all very Greek.
It was not to last as another front moved in with even more electrical storms. We stayed put this time .
It was just after nine o’ clock, dark and stormy and a number of boats had came in to shelter. – now our stern ladder is articulated and if we forget to lift it it will rattle and bang so when it did just that Louise went to pull it up. I was down below when she let out a scream “ There’s an animal, there’s an animal I can see its eyes”
I ran up thinking turtle or something , I am not quite sure . When I looked over there was a dog trying to get up our ladder. I grabbed her collar and pulled her on board. We are anchored in the middle of a bay so we could not figure out where she had come from? Our initial thoughts she had got a fright from the thunder and fell or jumped of a passing boat. If she had come from the shore she had swam past other boats ! We put out a call to any passing boats but got no replies.
Anyhow we wrapped her up in towels and sat with her on our knees until she calmed down, she just kept sighing but eventually went to sleep, presumably out of exhaustion, she was lovely.
We eventually went to bed but later on Louise heard her pattering up and down the decks and was worried she would jump overboard so she didn’t get much sleep the rest of the night sitting up to comfort her.
I went ashore the next morning at 06:00 looking for a clue but the local surroundings seemed to be deserted.
We then spotted a guy walking a dog on the shore so I rowed over and explained the situation and showed him a picture. His name was Issa , a lovely guy from Mali and he thought her name was “Kreta” from the house next to the one he worked in, so the pair of us trecked back there and sure enough two workmen recognised her. They gave me a lift back in a golf cart and we transported Kreta back ashore in Nicolas’s dinghy (his has a solid floor!)
I walked back that afternoon to thank Issa for his help , he was a real gent. I had invited down to the boat the next day but a change in the weather meant we had to move into porto Kheli bay yet again and I texted him to explain, if we are back that way we will look him up.
Its still a mystery what happened the night before but it all eneded well, otherwise who knows we might’ve had a boat dog!
