As we expected to be leaving soon it was time to say our goodbyes to Stratis, the Chandler, Stratis the rigger and one of our favourites , Zoe one of the security guards.

We had been in Mytilini two winters now and had never tried the little taverna just outside the gates. On the day the restrictions eased allowing you to eat outside we decided to try it. Typical it was fantastic & cheap!

Louise made up non slip pads for under the spray hood so that Lily doesn’t slide about in rough weather.

I made up beer mats from the leftovers but apparently “You don’t think your keeping them do you?” I’ve got them stashed away.

And of course it would be departure day looming without me having some issue , this year a chipped molar and filling. Luckily the dentist was on a motorboat directly opposite us and he squeezed me in to sort it all out.

There are only another two inhabited boats on our pontoon at the moment. A Moody belonging to Uve , a German and a Vauquiez belonging to Alberto, an Italian.

Uve eventually wants to head to Turkey and Alberto is quite settled using his boat as a caravan and “visiting nature” on his little 125cc Honda each day.

We were waiting for a delivery of maintenance parts from Scotland, some new cushions that were being made up locally and a final emergency electrical switch (that didn’t happen) despite having already paid for it. Grrrr! But small beer.

In addition Louise had had an MRI on her back and was getting a course of injections over the coming weeks. So we thought we would likely get away mid June.

As we still had the bike we arranged to meet Alberto in Loutra, a small hillside village about 23 km from Mytilini at a taverna we had been to umpteen times before, very Greek and very good. He was keen to try it.

At the taverna

It’s a very nice journey – think I’m going to miss the wee scooter

I include the above as a rare and ususually acceptable picture of us both together ! when we stopped on the way back to Mytilini in the afternoon.

What was Lily’s lavender patch has now been taken away and the guys have built a pond in the shape of Lesvos complete with the two major lagoons. Very good it is too. Albeit the land “tongues” are in fact the lagoons.

It’s now early May in the year of our Covid.

It’s looking possible that this will be our last month on the land. Things (in Greece anyway) seem to be moving towards normality. Not entirely sure if it’s a good strategy on the health front but I imagine the economy is on its knees.

The following bloggette is a snapshot of the happenings that final month.

Oh those morning views

My wee pal Ginger Mama before we whisked her off to the vet for a checkup and antibiotics.

It’s now getting ridiculous I downloaded the now 50 year old adventures of Elsa. Still good though! Louise thinks I’ve lost the plot

The said Louise relaxing chez villa

Motherless kitten at the vets – no, no more!

I decided to build a passarelle for the scooter.

Only in Greece could you get away with transporting a 6ft plank under yer bum on a scooter. I had brought it up from the boat to be sanded and varnished. Don’t think Police Scotland would be so understanding!

Ginger Mama looking better after her trip to the vet

Last day & a sad goodbye to our cat family.

They kindly decided as it was our last day to show us the kittens.

Well we saw them through the winter and offered to have them sterilized but the mother & father of the villa owners preferred to let nature continue to take its course, and that’s fair, they do feed them. Although they are now used to 2 square meals a day.

We had a hire car to transport all the paraphernalia back onto the boat so that was that last day of decadent luxury– 1^st June saw us back on board.

We have negotiated a continued rental of the house until the end of May.

As a result of the lockdown restrictions we thought the likelihood of holiday bookings going ahead was unlikely so we contacted the owners and asked what they would want for an extension of our rental period.

They came back with a proposal that they would reduce the monthly rent by 100 Euros per month if we would water the plants.

At this point we did not know what the marina was going to charge and if it was the “normal” summer rates we couldn’t really justify or afford both the marina and the house. However the marina is going to just extend our winter rate in the meantime, which is very fair of them. Normally by now we would be off sailing and anchoring a lot of the time, foc, but until / if sailing restrictions are lifted we are stuck and we thought it would be better in the house for social distancing.

The garden was beginning to get overgrown and I offered to strim the grass and tidy it up in addition to watering the plants etc.

Initially the son and daughter (who are in Athens) didn’t like to take us up on it but as April progressed we got a hand delivered letter by her Dad from Myrsini, her mum.

The whole family are lovely. The letter is below.

Let the battle begin………

The vegetable patch, eh no garden, was at least waist high by now. It was a Hobbit’s hideaway. I’m sure I saw Bilbo polishing his ring in the long grass one evening.

The gumby man look is my snake protection, lol

I have done my finger in starting the strimmer, seriously!

Perhaps it’s a curse from Bilbo after my quip about his ring.

It had better get better for sailing though. As it is I can all but lift a glass of wine, but I struggle on.

The pictures follow the Month of April from jungle…

  to paradise……

Bonny eh ?

One of the lock down allowances is that you can take exercise locally with a maximum of two people.

We are lucky that we are out in the country and can follow a circular route through the hills down to the sea shore and return back up to the house.

Today’s enforced yomp, which I ended up enjoying, was about 6 miles, through an agricultural area with vineyards and orchards.

We are not often on land at this time of year and it’s nice to see all the spring plants & greenery coming to life. Lesvos is one of the more fertile islands.

It was strange however to walk through the deserted as yet unopened Taverna on the beach that would normally be buzzing by now.

The dome on the left is part of a very small refugee camp not the imfamous one at Moria.

Oh bum!

Today I dropped our lovely wee scooter.

Not careering around a bend knees out like Barry Sheen round Silverstone – more ignominiously it fell off the side stand down the hill as I was opening our gate to get in!

Bust one of the mirrors and a scrape on the plastic chrome.

I’ve managed to replace the mirror with a new one but will just need to come clean with Thanassis and offer to pay for repairing the scrape.

All my years of motorcycling and this is my only accident Oh bum! Again.

When we first entered the house back in December Louise forced me to follow her keep fat regime for two weeks.

It’s a variation on the 5 and 2 day thingy by Dr Mosely except that you can eat every day. When I say eat its 800 calories! Do you know how many calories there are in a glass of wine ffs? So no alcohol was allowed.

Anyhow me being me I made up a spreadsheet and table of targeted and actual weight loss, and in the 2 weeks we both did rather well.

I was glad when it was over however. There is only so much cauliflower rice, pea and broccoli puree the body can accommodate.

However that was December.

Since then I have flatlined at that weight loss. Louise however has gone back to her original starting position. I am sure you can imagine how that sits! Lol. I think she must’ve been sneaking extra glasses of wine when I wasn’t looking.

This whole preamble is in explanation as to why she is doing squats with water bottles and skipping in the garden.

Unfortunately this occurrence can only have one unhappy ending for me ….the reintroduction of the “Regime” in the near future Aaaaw No!

As prophetised:

I think she’s expecting aliens for tea – a variation on Klingon “Pach” was forthcoming.

Its not all klingon grub though .

The parents of the house owners we are renting from gave us a rabbit for Easter as a present for doing the gardening. It ended up as rabbit stifado, after the grim reaper (Louise) beheaded it. It was dead I hasten to add !

Run rabbit run rabbit …..Carnage in Pligoni last night.

Hats off to her I couldn’t do it. I would be vegetarian if I had to kill and butcher my food.

and washed doen with a fine “Trump” on the rocks.

Well, crazy times are with us.

The Covid 19 virus is raging across the globe and the whole world as gone into shutdown mode in an attempt to flatten the curve of infection.

In Greece that equates to no unnecessary travel except for only 6 possible reasons, the most pertinent for us are visiting the bank (ATM), Supermarket shopping or visiting the Pharmacy / Vet if required. You are required to send an SMS to a central number with your name, address, reason, date & time and you receive a txt message reply authorizing that particular outing. There are fines for those caught not complying. The system unfortunately doesn’t work on non Greek phones. We have to take a handwritten chit with the same information. As yet we have not been stopped.

I have to say Mr Mitsokatis has acted very quickly and so far it appears to be reaping benefits.

For us and everyone else that means finding ways of passing the days. I have been messing about with my camera and today Lily posed about on the scooter for a photo shoot.

We (that is Louise) takes her out on the lead as we are concerned about letting her roam free for two reasons. One, there are a group of cats (that we feed & house!) who see this as their territory and Two, although it is deathly quiet on the road outside, even before the lockdown, I found two dead cats with no trauma on separate occasions – so they may have been poisoned. She will just have to content herself until we get back to the marina. She’s not bad if we are both in the house but if one of us goes out she creates a bit, especially if it’s Louise.

Well, David Bailey eat your heart out, lol

Oi Paparazzi ! Can we be famous too ?

We decided to cancel Louise’s trip home and bring forward the launching of the boat to Monday 23^rd March so that we would have somewhere to stay when we are due to leave the house on 12^th April.

It would be a problem if we were not allowed to launch Camira and she was on the hard for an indefinite period. A small boat is challenging enough but up & down ladders with a cat!

It could be a good or bad decision as it turns out, who knows in these crazy times. Indeed the day after the launch the lockdown procedures came into force. Unnecessary land travel etc was prohibited for the foreseeable future, and all sea movements already banned due to the Turkish crisis were extended.

A positive “benefit” was that the villa we are renting was now available to us for a longer period as a result of holiday cancellations and as we were on good terms with the owners they offered us it at a further knockdown price just as long as we watered the garden & plants. We have taken it for April & May at the moment in the hope that some semblance of normality is restored later in the summer – but who knows – we could be here throughout the summer into the winter and next year before we are allowed to leave, in which case the boat could have remained out of the water.

This past winter saw an extensive maintenance schedule and only for my own record I have listed it below. Still some final things to do but the parts are currently stuck in Scotland.

Camira was looking good and in normal times we would have been making plans for this year’s cruise.

     

Sandblasted , primed & antifouled

The launch itself was a train crash with the crane operator bashing the backstay 4 times. I would not lift out here again, which is a shame as I have come to really like the Marina, Mytilini & Lesvos.

So this is it the last post of 2019-20:

8,600 miles and 6 years to date………

All the best and see you after in the continuing blogs of the intrepid threesome, lol

Captain Chaos, Louise and, of course, Lily xx

Appendix

    
√    Winterise outboard    
√    Engine –  renew engine mounts
√    Engine –  change fuel filters
√    Engine – flush / antifreeze
√    Engine – change oil & filter
√    Engine –  remove batteries & check VP seal
√    Engine – remove exhaust elbow & clean
√    Engine – refurb spare water pump
√    Engine – repair ignition wiring loom
√    Engine – new ignition panel
√    Renew heads toilet pipework
√    Renew heads sink pipework
√    Renew galley sink pipework
√    Service sea cocks
√    Remove & service diverter valve
√    Service Jabsco pumps x 2
√    Clean speed log impellor
√    Fit & test new Pilot Mini gas alarm
√    Fix pressure gas hobs &  remake all connections
√    Fix annoying leak in fresh water sytem
√    Clean keel nuts and paint bilges
√    Epoxy in NASA EX1 exhaust alarm monitor at hatch
√    Glue compresion post & galley headlining
√    Sandblast & epoxy keel
√    Fair up rudder, clean shaft, prop & p bracket
√    New cushion zips
√    Replace velcro on cushion arm
√    Varnish oars
√    Sand & varnish outboard bracket
√    New foam for upolstery
√    Polish hull & prop.
√    Fit new hull & shaft & engine annodes
√    Install new VHF speaker  

    Fit new aquasignal bow navigation lens
     Oil teak
     Repair toerail – alum powder & epoxy
     Engine – emergency start button
     Fit new compass bulb 
     Fit new fridge thermostat
     Fit wichard pad eye
     Fit decals for new ignition panel