Lovely but SHUT

The one’s that got away

Christmas dinner – chicken not turkey

Spartan with his Xmas socks , lol, another turkey

We have decided that the good old Avon dinghy and the outboard are well past their sell by date and have ordered up replacements. The new outboard is electric and will be charged by an upgraded solar panel system and an increased battery capacity.

I may have posted earlier that the two stroke petrol outboard had been submerged in Astipalaia. It was now seized so I thought I would Google how to un-seize it and fix it just for the challenge – I had otherwise intended to bin it.

However I was successful in getting it going again! so decided to advertise it along with our old dinghy and our original (to be replaced) solar panels on Samos Face Book

The engine went to a Greek policeman, after a hasty re-strip to get it going an hour before he arrived. He hasn’t been back so I am assuming all still OK!

The solar panels to a woman from Karlovassi.

The old dinghy was retired to a good home, a wee disabled boy Dimitris who will have hours of fun in it tethered to the beach at Ireon in Samos. I have no doubt he will drive his mother Effi mad .

When he came to see it we had to put it in our pool for him to try out 

Result !

Only other non-general winter maintenance worthy of note was :

Removal of gearbox to hopefully find oil leak & replace drive carrier bushes.

Repair windlass & install remote operation capability.

Upgraded solar panels, controller & installed a further battery under the chart seat.

……and of course mounting of  the new bathing platform which turned out to be quite difficult in the end, but I’m sure will be a game changer along with the (hopefully) more stable dinghy and (hopefully) more reliable motor.

Hardboard prototype

Final installation – quite nice and in keeping with the boat dimensions

We will see next year .

The biggest frustration this year was arranging and waiting for deliveries.