Clio’s Zimmer frame
18 October 2016 | Aktio boat yard
Francis and Chris

Tuesday 11 October to 17 October
After our last Crew have left us to explore more of the wonders of Europe, it is time for us to start focussing on getting Clio and inflatable Cloe their well-earned winter beauty sleep. We have already organised a place for her to stay, the Aktio marina on Preveza. It is one of the three big marinas/boatyards on the other side of the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf. Aktio marina was recommended to us because it does not interfere with us doing work on our boat and it does not insist on adding a percentage (10-15%) on all work done by trade people. Her big sister, the Cleopatra marina, is more meddlesome and greedy, so we leave her to others.
Every time we leave Clio in another location we have to start the time-consuming process finding the right people (expertise and reliability), workshops (technical know-how and equipment) and chandleries (expertise, willingness to help, product quality, speed of them ordering things, prices). We also have to organise a place to leave our sails, spray hood and bimini to be cleaned and checked/repaired and stored for the winter. As Greece and Turkey cultures heavily rely on networks between individuals, it is most important to find a well-connected person and work your way into the web from there. In the past some of those people have become good friends that we still are in contact with, long after the professional interactions have ceased. Another great source of information is just walking around in boat yards and talking to fellow-yachties and trades people that are at work there. Good trade people very quickly filter out in this process; it has a high input-output ratio.
As mentioned in a previous blog, our keel (cast-iron steel) is rusting in some places and our efforts to clean, metal-prime and underwater prime it last year did not result in stopping the problem. Stephan, a very capable German engineer, advised us to get the keel sand-blasted to remove all traces of rust, and take it from there. He had no idea of the price and also had no idea of who to ask, so we relegated that advice to the dark and often inaccessible recesses of the brain.
In the meantime, back on Cleo berthed at the Preveza quay, Chris has succumbed to a chest infection and retreated into the cabin with lots of tissues, strepsils, antibiotics, puffers and the likes. Skipper showed his multi-skilled background by starting to produce batches of various chicken soups, the cure for most diseases known the world over. Notwithstanding medication, soups and long rests, the dammed bugs wouldn't give up and we had a visit to the local hospital. When we arrived around 5 pm it was eerily quiet in the emergency wards. After some time we were able to locate a nurse and the message of a patient daring to enter this place of healing at such an ungodly hour as five in the afternoon spread to the dizzying heights of a medically schooled person.
After some administrative inquiries regarding our insurance status (luckily we still had our Greek health insurance), Chris was treated to a full work up of x-rays, bloods, ECG and blood pressure and body search for malicious bacteria and viruses . After this extensive data collection exercise we were shown to an empty examination room and told to wait. Which we did, and did, and did a bit longer. After 6pm we saw a dramatic increase in the influx of Greeks who obviously only can be sick after 6. Around 8 Chris was summoned into another room to be briefed on the findings. Well, briefed is a big word, she was given a prescription for the pharmacy for a severe asthma steroid inhaler and instructions to return if she gets a fever.
The main medication consisted of 60 portions of pharmaceuticals, to be inhaled using some sort of puffer device for a maximum of 15 days of two applications per day. The other 30 were probably to make sure both pharmaceutical industry and pharmacy were making some € €. A quick look on the internet resulted in a long list of scary side effects, so Chris decided after a couple of days and good night sleeps to give the rest a miss.
After a whole week of coughing and sitting up through the night with little sleep, eventually the chicken soup and medication did take effect and Chris was getting better. Meanwhile Francis started with the 54 tasks on the list for this year for Clio's winter preparations. Sails and Bimini were removed (top-left photo) and carted off to be cleaned, repaired where needed and stored in a dry place for the winter. Cloe was hauled onto the front deck and thoroughly cleaned, the inboard diesel engine and engine bay were cleaned, main sail furling spindle secured, foresail furling spindle removed and stored etc., and search parties were dispatched to find needed equipment and containers.
A small boat under Austrian flag pulled up on the quay around the end of the week and we met a lovely German couple, Siegfried and Gabrielle who Francis had some discussion with about boat repair and world politics and how to fix the woes of the world.
17 October
Today, Monday, waving goodbye to Siegfried and Gabrielle and Preveza, leaving Kathy II (our faithful supplier of basil leaves) in their good care, we motored across the bay to wait our turn to be lifted out at Actio Marina, as was agreed with them weeks before. We waited and we waited, by late in the afternoon after seeing other yachts moving into the boat ramp without being called in by the marina office, skipper decided to move ourselves alongside the quay at the boat ramp to see if we would then get in the queue. After a few more hours Francis went and talked with what seemed to be the upper-boat-hauler, but he mumbles something about 'the office' (which already had been abandoned for hours).
As we were waiting on the quay we were visited by Wout from WallyDoc2 who we had met last year in Nysiros and who had just sold their boat (a yacht owner's second time to be happy) and we arrange to meet with him and his wife Thea for dinner tomorrow.
We had just about given up on anything happening today, when Francis spotted a well-rounded person racing around on a quad bike and handing out orders to the boat haulers, obviously the boss-hauler. Asking if we were still being hauled out today, pointing at Cleo patiently waiting at the quay, he gave some more orders to the assembled hauling community and the lifting crew waved us into the lifting bay (top-right). The sun was setting quickly over Clio (and our sailing season), but she was at last out of the water (bottom-left photo) and on her way to her winter resting place. It was 8.30 that night and dark before Clio was securely placed on the hard stand in her Zimmer frame (bottom-right), with the help of the excellent little torches we bought over the last couple of years from deaf people doing the rounds. Tomorrow we start on the 54 tasks.