Our plans to arrive in Preveza(Greece) and set sail within a week were seriously delayed due to Bern suffering a very painful ruptured eardrum a few hours after landing in Athens. A visit to a hospital that night confirmed barotrauma during the flight had caused the rupture and deafness. Then after our six hour bus trip from Athens to Preveza on the west coast with temperatures in the mid 30's the skipper was in a bad way. So instead of moving straight onto the boat on arrival, we checked into the apartments at the marina with a/c. Unfortunately the a/c's wasn't doing it's job so it was almost as hot inside as out!! Not a good start. Within 24 hrs the pain was worse and so it was off to the emergency section of the local hospital in Preveza which looked considerably dodgy and reminded us of Africa! Fortunately there was a very considerate Doctor on duty who spoke good English. He was an urologist so couldn't help us but suggested we call one of 5 ENT specialists in the town. Within an hour Bern was seen by a very capable ENT specialist at his clinic which was very well set up. The diagnosis was a serious infection in the middle ear, so strong antibiotics and painkillers were prescribed.

After 5 days in the apartments we moved onto First Light 3 and started getting her ready for launching. Bern was up early before the heat of the day set in, to anti foul. The Liferaft was serviced, new batteries installed. At this stage we still weren't confident we would be able to launch, not being sure of how the infection would respond to the medication. During the three weeks on the hardstand,with various forms of strong anti biotics and Cortisone, the infection did begin to clear up. So we decided to launch and spent another week in the area to ensure no further treatment was necessary. The rupture was slowly mending, but Bern was still quite deaf in the affected ear. It became apparent that being hearing impaired is not the ideal situation on a boat. The subtleties of engine noise/ malfunction, wind changes, sails flapping,being able to dive on the anchor to check whether its set or to clear the prop if it something gets caught up in it, all rely on acute hearing. So considering these health issues the feasibility of Bern's plans to cross the Atlantic in January became the subject of much ongoing discussion, usually over an early evening glass of wine. The decision oscillated from day to day! After four weeks we finally farewelled Preveza and headed down to Nidri on Leftkada Island. We spent a few days in this busy anchorage caught up with some friends,and then moved down to Agostoli on Kefalonia Island with the intention of checking out of Greece. Bern felt well enough to keep going and so our destination became Gibraltar! A definite decision about the Atlantic crossing still to be made!