Birvidik

We managed to arrange our lift-out to coincide with public holidays and gale force winds. Smart move, huh. Looking at the weather forecast for the Monday, we decided that manoeuvring in tight spaces in force 10 winds was not a demonstration of good seamanship, and so we left the marina on the Saturday and tied up in the lifting dock to wait for Monday morning.

This was just as well as it turned out. Birvidik had accumulated so much growth over the winter - weed, barnacles and coral worm - that she hardly manoeuvred at all. The bowthruster had about as much effect as a goldfish fart and the prop just churned the water about without producing any thrust or steerage. It took 10 minutes to execute a 15 point turn to change direction by 90 degrees in order to get out of the marina. And that was with no wind. Once in the outer harbour, at 1200 revs she was only doing 2 knots instead of the usual 7.

Once we lifted out on the Monday it was obvious why. The prop was encrusted with about 4 cm of coral worm and barnacles, and looked more like a lump of rock than a beautiful man made helix.

We had 4 � days to put on two coats of antifoul, change the anodes, service the seacocks and clean and polish the topsides. Did it - just. This was not helped by the presence of 50 knot winds. As the roller moved twixt tray and hull, the wind whipped the antifoul off it and distributed it downwind in a spiral spray of spume (ooh - alliteration). We suspect that the boat downwind ended up with more of our antifoul on it that Birvidik did.

We were back in the water on the 29th March, and were intending to leave early April, but two facts altered this intention:

1) We found out that the winter contract we had paid for lasted to the end of April and not the end of March as we had assumed.

2) When Bob went for his yearly liver and thyroid tests it turned out that his thyroid was overactive (TH4 = 50 pmol/l for the medical nerds amongst you). He was asymptomatic apart from the fact that he lost 3kg in weight over 4 weeks whilst still eating and drinking to excess. So now he's on carbizamole to counter the side effects of the amioderone. This could run and run. Next it's drug C to counter the side effects of carbizamole and so on ad infinitum. Of course we could end up with a metacycle where amioderone counters the side effects of drug n where n= a sodding large number.

So, we now await a further blood test to determine whether he has become euthyroid and to determine the maintenance dose required. Either way, we're buggering off early May.

The delay meant that we were able to see Malta in the Spring, which is a welcome change from the barren vistas that we saw in the autumn and winter. It also meant that we were here for Liz's birthday. This coincided with the 60th birthday of Ian, one of the cruisers here for the winter, so Liz gallantly stood down and we went to his bash at The Black Pearl. It was a quiet, restrained night as can be seen from the photos.

Our plan now is to have a quieter year this year. Having done two years of passage making, we intend to go into pottering mode this season. After spending a few days in Syracuse and visiting Etna, we'll hop across the toe and heel of Italy and enter Greece in Corfu. From there we intend to wander aimlessly around the Northern Ionian and the Gulfs of Patras and Corinth. Next winter will probably be in Corfu, Lefkas or Kalamata, and then we can go through into the Aegean before the Meltemi blows up in July.