Orei to Leros, Summer 2016
03 July 2016 | Agmar Marine Boatyard. Partheni, Island of Leros
Judy and I returned to Greece on 17 April 2016. Sofie and one year old Edith met up with us at Heathrow and we flew off together. We picked up a hire car at Athens airport and drove to Orei on Evia Island, crossing on the Arkitsas to Edipsos ferry.
The weather was great - around 20 deg every day. Little blond Edith charmed everyone she met and had a great time. I took Sofie and Edith back to Athens airport on the 26th and Ben, Cynthia and Tristan arrived a few days later. Unfortunately, one of their bags didn't but after many phone calls Ben managed to get it delivered to Orei.
My project was to install a replacement engine in Tobin Bronze. The engine was being transported out from the UK by road but unfortunately arrived in Athens on the Thursday before Greek Easter. Everything in Greece shuts down during their Easter and it was the following Thursday before it could be forwarded to Orei. At least, this gave me more time to properly prepare and paint the engine bay.
After sorting out a few engine problems - with help from Dimitrios from the yard - TB was slid into the water on Tuesday 10 May.
Yolande and Bruce joined us for a week, which we spent pottering around in the Gulf of Volos. We ended back at Orei from where Y&B caught the bus back to Athens on the 16th May. We immediately sailed (and motored) across to Skiathos. Brother Denis arrived there at 20:30hrs. Even though he was pretty shattered form his flight from Australia, we took him to our favourite "Mother Maria" tavern to introduce him to some good Greek cooking. A couple of days later it was Judy's turn to depart as we said "Goodbye" to her at Skiathos airport.
After having some difficulty in recovering the fouled anchor, Denis and I sailed back to Orei to pick up the life raft which had been sent to Piraeus for servicing. Because of some bureaucratic bullshit, the life raft had not been serviced but as it was only three years old it would still be functional.
Over the next couple of weeks, we sailed south east across the Aegean visiting many beautiful places - Loutraki on Skopolos, Linaria in Skyros, Psara, Mestra on Chios, Evdhilos on Ikaria, Fourni, the port of Skala and the bay of Ormos Stavros on Patmos, Alinda on the east side of Leros and the main port Lakki, Emborios on NW Kalimnos and then the main harbour on the south of the island. Finally we ended up at the Agmar Marine boatyard at Partheni right next door to the small Leros airstrip.
On 07 June, TB was lifted out of the water and Denis took off for Athens and Istanbul on his way back to Brisbane.
The following day, I departed Leros and flew back to Heathrow. TB had logged 450 Nautical miles from relaunch on 10 May and some 19,579 Nm since launch day.
1916 Summer part 2.
I returned to Leros via Athens on the overnight flight from Heathrow on Sept 6th. The small Athens to Leros plane landed at 07:20 hrs and by 07:30hrs I was on board TB. It is a 200m walk from the airport to the boatyard.
I spent 5 days on board in the boatyard doing the inevitable maintenance - the main job being installing a new fridge unit. The old one died after nearly 30 years!
On the 12th Sept , TB was back in the water by 09:00hrs. After a couple of quiet days at anchor (spent painting, of course), I picked up Roger at the airport at 07:20hrs and we motored down to Lakki. Over the next week, between spells of strong winds, we sailed to the island of Kalimnos and the wonderful island of Levitha and back to Lakki and finally Partheni. The Dodekanes is a beautiful island group. It tends to be pretty windy - quite often too stromg for comfortable sailing. But the people are so welcoming and friendly, being weather bound in port is no hardship!
Roger flew out from the airport at Partheni Wed 21 Sept. I spent a couple of days at anchor before being lifted out on 23 Sept.
I departed fo home on the 25 Sept 2016.