"When it rains it pours," or should I say lightning!
12 June 2011 | Ithaca, Greece
Eddie
Well with the prop installed, we were all ready to leave Ithaca for Athens. We were delayed a while waiting for the passage of a thunder storm. While I am not a believer of BAD LUCK, I am now reconsidering my perspective in that regard.
The kids and I were standing on deck, Flo was in the galley when we heard this extremely loud crack of lightning. Flo shouted that felt as if something ran through her body and she smelled smoke, I went below and found smoke coming out of her head (just joking).
Soon after we realize that our inverter (converts 12 volt battery power to 120 volt alternating power) was knocked out, then we discovered the charger was also knocked out and that was the source of the smoke.
My further investigation found that most of the Raymarine electronics, which we use to navigate were also damaged including the wind machine, autopilot, GPS and a host of other electrical devices.
We're therefore back to sailing the old fashion way, steering by hand and using the stars for navigation (joking on the stars bit), but we are steering by hand taking one hour shifts throughout the day and night.
We sailed from Ithaca, past Patras and under the world's longest cable suspension bridge, the Rion - Andirion Bridge, and on to Athens.
An hour out of Athens we sailed past this charming little secluded cove, Nisos Salamis, and decided to spend the two days swimming, diving and exploring that area.
We are now in Athens and have arranged for a Raymarine technician to survey the damage and figure out what is salvagable and what is not. Wish use luck, we need lots of it.