Well who would have thought?

30 years, some would say the girl deserves a medal.

So I got her one, and a wad of cash to go along with it.

I did also get her Catherine Zoraida earrings.

   

One of the best decisions of my life 30 years ago,

Here’s to the next 30

This one’s quite sad.

I am writing these blogs retrospectively using my log book and pictures as an aide memoire to allow me to accurately back date the posts to the correct time and date.

This is Buster a wee cracker of a cat, well he’s actually quite big but he’s a softy. He was bullied by a big Ginger Tom, who thankfully seems to have moved on.

He was the cat that one of the vacation renters had left loads, and I mean loads, of cat food for. We used to feed him it regularly.

He was very vociferous and you could hear him calling for his breakfast outside if it was his chosen day for a visit. It was great to hear. He was very affectionate and Lily loved him, although she was a little minx. She would run out to kiss him each morning but she would also swipe him every now and again. He just tolerated her antics. They used to disappear for the day and come back at tea time.

He wasn’t allowed in the house, although he did manage it once or twice, and would just hunker down like a spoilt child not wanting to be moved out again lol.

Louise & I agreed that had this been our house or we knew we were going to settle semi permanently in Greece we would gladly have adopted him, but the boat unfortunately wouldn’t have been possible or even fair on him.

I had to go home to Scotland, (Louise remained in Greece) at the end of March for my 1^st Covid jab and that unfortunately was the last time we have seen him. It’s now 25th May 2021

You hear stories that cats turn up months later, or they simply have found a better place to stay. I like to think & hope the latter and that someone, somewhere is taking care of Buster.

A special wee animal.

Although a good way through December it is still nice enough to sit out during the day. Once the sun starts to set it does get a bit chilly though.

One  such “Lazy Sunday Afternoon”  we had Joni, Bruce, Brian & Sara up for afternoon drinks in the garden. How  posh & decadent does that sound?  All that’s missing is the cucumber sandwiches – and I think they wouldn’t go amiss as I am sure both Joni & Sara must have connections with the aristocracy, lol

Having a car instead of a bike this year has been a bonus, not only for the supermarket trips but to allow us just to get out and about a bit.

As I have said in previous blogs the C19 restrictions in Samos are less strenuously applied at the present anyway, which means although cafes & tavernas remain shut you can still go for a walk at least.

Today we went down to Psili Amos to see the Flamingos but they had Flamingone, retreating shyly to the other side of the lake.

Afterwards we drove to Ireon, a popular seaside town busy in summer but mid-winter and thanks to Covid was deserted. Into the bargain it was a fresh and breezy day.

Nice to get out though

And equaly nice to get back

It’s not tongue in cheek. That is the name of our rented house.

We have settled in now.

It has a lounge with two sofas , wide screen TV, WIFI, double bedroom up a spiral staircase and a twin set up downstairs.

We have elected to use the downstairs twin beds as there is an exit door immediately next to one of the beds which will allow a quick escape if we were to suffer another earthquake.

In addition we have since discovered the upstairs bedroom roof void is the preferred nocturnal location for Roland and his rat family. You can hear them squeaking and scuttling, so doonstairs it is for us.

Nicolas goes back to France for the winter in mid November so we have had him up for a BBQ while the weather is still good, and once for the rugby. He thinks it’s not rats but some cuddly possum like creature they also have in France. It’s NOT I’ve since seen the feckin tail as it headed out on the tiles one evening.

That said they are not inside the house so you get used to the noise.

It is a nice house probably just the price you pay for being out in the country.

Lily has now recovered and has also settled in nicely . I imagine it’s like Disneyworld for cats out here in the fields.

Another day in Paradise

Le Rugby BBQ night

Did they have fat Spartans back in the day?

 

The last BBQ of the season? maybe ……

It does come in three’s

Greece like elsewhere is now under lockdown & travel restrictions. If you have a Greek phone you must text a reason for your travel e.g. Supermarket, Doctor, Exercise. If you don’t have a phone you must fill out a paper form, select your reason and carry it and your passport with you.

However as a result of the earthquake these restrictions were not to be enforced in Samos presumably to allow for repairs to property and the like. We however happily conformed to the pan Greece rules, fair enough.

Now the story on masks was a different matter. The Government’s own literature was at variance with itself depending on what day it was. Two people in a car if from the same family did not need to wear a mask, and then they did. It was utter confusion.

We were heading down to Pythagorio and cars coming towards us were flashing us. It was the cops in a lay by. Louise was wearing her mask & I wasn’t. We got pulled and fined 300 Euros (150.00 each). I pointed out that Louise was wearing hers so it’s negotiated down to 150.00.

I then point to all the other cars passing – Nobody in any other car was wearing a mask.

So now he is forced to pull another couple of cars.

The first one turns out to be the police captain and his wife…. you can guess – off he goes sanction free.

The next says his wife was returning from hospital and couldn’t breathe – off he goes sanction free.

He now wants us to move on and I refuse until he pulls someone else and fines them, which he does to the next poor guy, who understandably is not happy.

I explain we have the paperwork that says family members do not have to wear masks in cars. He says I need to talk to the Police Captain.

On entering the police station we cannot see the Captain today so return tomorrow, which we did. We are shown into the Captain who says I will look into it come back tomorrow. We return the next day fill out a form and the fine is apparently quashed. All very polite but what a fiasco.

We never saw the police blocks ever again and nobody is wearing masks yet! lol

Samos marina is good but the service is a bit haphazard.

As long as you are prepared to live with that it’s fine. It’s easier for us because we are here and can pop down for deliveries etc and the guys are nice.

It’s just that there is no management and the staff seem to suit themselves, e.g. I was booked to come out at 11:00 and eventually Gabriel, the lift operator turned up at 12:15, siga siga .

It’s more difficult for our friends Paul & Lorraine, Sara & Brian and Nicolas who can’t get e-mails answered, works instructed, payments acknowledged and receipted.

It’s usually up to us to chase the guys on their behalf.

That said I would over winter here again but not in the water because of the Lily / dogs situation and I don’t think the boats are monitored overly much during the winter.

The marina , Brian Sara & Pepper

From the previous blog you will know we had arranged to move into the house early. I had also managed to negotiate a long term car hire in favour of a scooter for the winter.

So Louise was up at the house preparing and sorting out our gear and Nicolas & I had just visited the Port Police to surrender our boat papers for the winter.

We had stopped at one of the cafes in Pythagorio harbour, and were in the middle of an ouzo when ………………….

On 30 October 2020, at 13.51 local time (11.51 UTC), an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 Mw struck off the Aegean coast of Turkey, south of Izmir, and north of the Greek island of Samos (37.91 N 26.79 E), with an estimated hypo central depth of 21 km (USGS-United States Geological Survey).

I have never been in an earthquake before and this was quite a big one.

To say it’s a weird feeling is a gross understatement. We dashed out from under cover, Nicolas at least remembered his ouzo, I left mine and it and the table and chairs crashed to the floor. Cracks appeared in the buildings and pavement and all the mirrors and gantries in the tavernas could be heard shattering.

Meanwhile Louise was up stairs in the house felt it shuddering and groaning and couldn’t keep her feet to come down a spiral staircase to get out of the house. At first she had just thought it was a heavy truck passing, lol

There was a lot of damage to the island particularly in Karlovasi nearer to the epicentre and two kids were killed.

We went to check the boats were OK then I headed up to the house. There continued to be aftershocks and every time the shuddering started we made ready for a dash outside hopefully having managed to get Lily in her carry basket.

All in all an interesting few days introduction to our chosen wintering location.

They say things come in three’s – Lily, F7 earthquake, what’s next?

We were berthed in Samos marina right next to Freya of Wight, Paul & Lorraine’s boat. They love Lily & it seemed an ideal spot 30 ft from a grassy plot and very quiet with very little traffic on the marina road, perfect, or so we thought.

We let Lily out about 06:30 on our first morning and about an hour later she came back to the boat, but the way she came down the companionway and banged onto the floor sounded very different from normal.

When I got up to see what was amiss she wouldn’t let me near her and was obviously in pain.

We were unsure what had happened but we suspected he had been attacked and bitten by two wee dogs that are allowed to run free and attack bicylists, cars, in fact anything that moves.

Now there are two vets in Samos both in Vathi , the main town but no one was answering their phones, it was a holiday.

We also found out later, from the cat sanctuary, that they dislike one another and so won’t  arrange staggering their opening times for cover.

Kleanthis our engineer friend gave us the mobile number of his friend Antonio, one of the vets and eventually with the help of Yanita a Norwegian sailor, whose husband is Greek we managed to leave a message explaining our issue.

Eventually he called back but couldn’t come to the surgery until 16:00 that afternoon!  It was also his son’s birthday.

It was a very long day waiting with Lily in obvious pain.

At 16:00 Sara gave us a lift into Vathi to the vet. Lily was knocked out examined, stitched up and given an antibiotic jab.

The vet confirmed the bites had been from a small dog, but that she would be OK.

All ended very well but I can’t understand a vet not coming out immediately for an animal in distress.

9 hours the poor wee thing was in pain.

So back to the boat with her, out for the count, but at least relieved she was going to be OK.

It took a shine off the marina though and we were glad we had the house rental set up for the beginning of November. We arranged to move up early on the 30^th October (More later !!) to give her somewhere safe to recuperate.

Lily out cold after the Vet visit

The final 23 miles of 600 miles today.

Back to Pythagorio harbour and then around to the marina tomorrow morning.

It’s the last anchorage of the season and nice to spend the afternoon in the deserted bay , with the lone exception of “Etioile Fresante” from Switzerland, who although they left the following morning before us, in the end, turned out to be fellow winterers in Samos marina. Dani and his wife.

So on the 27^th October 2020 the sailing season of 2019-2020 was officially ended with drinks on Syeni that evening.

600 miles , not withstanding Covid.