Whilst in the marina we met up with Brian, Sara, Joni & Bruce yet again. They had not managed to get away. Brian & Sara’s boat had a leaking stern gland when launched and required re-lifting and a new shaft installed! Bruce had managed to cut through his hydraulic pipes and was searching Samos for someone with the experience to fix it. They were going to be around for another wee bit yet.

This of course now necessitated a further “leaving do”

So we all headed off to Kokkari in their respective cars for an afternoon at the beach and a spicy pizza.

Kokari Day Out

Louise had her 2^nd Pfizer jab and I visited the Doctor to have a check over as I had been having dizzy spells. She arranged blood tests and an MRI in Samos town. It turns out I do have a brain; they found it, and thankfully nothing amiss. My bloods came back and other than the bad cholesterol and my BP being a little high, I was given a clean bill of health. Louise was most perturbed especially that my liver tests came back in very good shape, but she was actually there when the Doctor told me! lol.

During this period they started to dissuade boats from anchoring in Pythagorio bay in an attempt to force people into the harbour quay where there had been a silent take over by a private company during the winter and had doubled and more the charges with no facilities. We were advised by the harbour master that the Port Police had decreed it, but when I visited them they let me stay to go for my tests. The next day we headed back up to Posidonio to wait for Diane arriving on the 5^th July

We had extended our stay in the house & car rental until the 3^rd June to make it easier for Louise to get her first Pfizer jab in Samos Town. We then had to be back here again on the 29^th for her second one (and, as it turned out various other medical clinics!) Diane had also “Taylored” her trip to coincide with that and was flying out to Samos on the 5^th July for 10 days all expenses paid luxury cruise on Camira, lol. This was our present to her for her 60^th birthday.

Upshot of all this meant we had 3 weeks for a mini cruise around the familiar haunts of the Dodecanese so we won’t be overloading you with pictures of places you will have already seen in abundance in earlier posts rather it will (hopefully) be more people oriented this time around , well we’ll see…….

Just before we set off a few reminders of the winter, in Another Day in Paradise:

Who could forget the “New Commitments” rendition of Mustang Sally now immortalized on Facebook?

The overflowing pool – just to prove it does rain in Greece sometimes

and Christos our handyman/ gardener (the grey men! lol)

Meanwhile down at the marina, Schrumpy (Smurf in German) aka Brian and me having a beer in the cafe after he had grinded down his rusty keel.

and Joni happy with our old Mediterranean Almanac for their cruise to Italy,

She can’t wait to visit Italy, Bruce we think is not so keen, but they have to go to pay VAT on their boat and it would be much cheaper than Greece they believe. We have warned them of the prices!

Anyhow the 4^th June saw us heading off on a massive passage to Posidonio at the east end of Samos 7 miles or so away. We planned to stay a few days, turned out to be four. Having renewed the fridge thermostat over the winter with the pukka and very expensive proper one, I thought I had solved the problems with the batteries not being charged fully by our solar panels, but alas no, so a bit of further investigation was required and a lot of head scratching by me.

Posidonio is a lovely wee bay with a couple of tavernas, a cafe and a mini market (not opening this year though).

We met up one evening with Neil and his new girlfriend Ushie. He has a house nearby and his boat has a mooring in the bay. Neil had introduced us to his accountant for all the residency / tax shenanigans. I am envious of the house and the boat mooring – just seems perfect to me, day sailing / mini cruises then back for a beer in the taverna and up the road to your house & swimming pool. Ah well you can’t have everything eh?

G&T’s on board. Look at that grumpy face….. well take yer pick,lol.

Brian, Sara, Joni and Bruce also visited by car one afternoon for what was meant to be a farewell get together, but in the end I think we must’ve had about 5 or 6 more!

8th June we headed back to Pythagorio, to stock up and took the opportunity to visit Daphnes’ restaurant, which was now open. We met up again with Sara & Brian for another farewell drink!

The next day we headed off for Marathrokampos (2) at the west end of Samos, intending to visit Fournoi and Ikaria , all places we hadn’t visited before, but was not to be , after two hours battling into the wind we gave up and turned south for Agathanisi (3), we were well reefed down and it was a lumpy beam reach and a very windy entrance into Agathanisi were we anchored off the little beach in the village and went ashore to George’s Taverna. The weather was far too hot to cook on the boat.

George’s – Agathanisi

During the following two weeks or so saw us revisiting Arki town, Lily was noisily excited at getting ashore!

Model boats in Arki I think the purple one is meant to be refugees !

Then Lipsi – anchored again in Katsadia bay

We mentioned in an earlier blog Nicolas had lots of visitors planned this year. We did however bump into him in Lipsi and invited him and his guests Jessica & Innes (mother & daughter) over for a few drinks,  ended up they had dinner and stayed till late. We think he has not been feeding them, lol ! as they thoroughly enjoyed Louise’s aperitifs. Turns out Jessica is a hairdresser and she cut Louise’s hair on the beach in Posidonio, very good it was too.

Innes & Jessica on Camira

Finally we headed to Patmos before our planned return to Samos for various clinics!

I see from the log book we had a good sail back, which is almost normally the case on this passage.

I still hadn’t solved our charging issue which meant some motor sailing and running the engine at anchor, a pain for us and everyone else. We had a night in the bay followed by the marina met up with Kleanthis by accident , a friend and engineer and he “suggested” again  I renew the wiring. I’m sure a few Malaka’s were bandied about. Lily was let out at night and wouldn’t come back until Louise tracked her down using her bleeper!

However everything else on the boat seemed to be ok for Diane’s trip ………………..