No blogs for ages, have you missed me? But I thought you were getting tired of tales of sailing in the sun, eating octopus and drinking ouzo at sunset, lounging around doing not very much all day except a bit of sightseeing.
But now I'm back. We have left the beautiful Argo Saronic, and are slowly heading back to Orei, on the north coast of Evia island, where Fandancer will stay for the winter. Mind you, we've still got thirty days to go before we fly back to the UK (notice I didnt say fly home , as we don't actually have a home to fly back to, sniff sniff).

It's not actually all that far to Orei, we could probably be there in three days if we wanted to, but Tim is obsessed with checking the weather as a good sailor should, and wants to leave enough time in case a sudden storm blows up, or a fierce Meltemi, or heaven forbid a raging tsunami which means we can't leave the harbour for several weeks. If there was a raging tsunami, we probably wouldn't be leaving the harbour at all. Ever.
But better to get to Orei early, I suppose. We can maybe stop a few days at nice places on the way. And there will be lots of jobs to do on the boat before we say goodbye to her for the winter.

So I feel like my summer sailing is over - we've left the pretty harbours and picturesque villages behind now. No more waterfront tavernas and long lazy lunches. No more anchoring by a tiny island and swimming in the azure sea. No more whiling away an hour or two watching the charter boats and flotillas squeeze themselves into tiny spaces and getting their anchors crossed. Very soon Fandancer will be in a dusty boatyard propped up of a cradle, and we will have the horrible job of climbing up and down a rickety ladder all day long, taking down sails and packing them (worst job in the world), deflating the dinghy and trying to fit it in its too small storage bag, sorting things, cleaning, washing, packing, more cleaning and basically getting ready to leave the boat in a suitable condition for the winter. I'm not looking forward to that AT ALL.

I'm one of those people that once their holiday is over, I just want to get the first plane back immediately. I hate the in-between bit, hanging round the pool all day at the hotel with your bags packed, waiting for the bus to take you to the airport, etc. I just want to go back to the UK right NOW. I'm sure we will have a nice time in the next thirty days and I'll try to stay positive.......