Let me begin with a tribute to our friend Dave of Manana. Dave died unexpectedly at the end of November and the photograph accompanying this post shows Manana "Dressed" in honour of Phillipas Birthday while we were anchored in Spinalonga Lagoon.

After getting Kerenne repaired following 3 years on a cradle we left Aghios and headed East. After calling at Sitia and Kasos we arrived in Karpathos where we anchored in the Southern bays with friends Dave and Philippa on board Manana. After going ashore for Bernies birthday we headed out towards Pigadhia and found that we were pumping sea water through the engine fresh water system. We had the heat exchanger removed and "repaired" and then we set off again back to the South of Karpathos and on to the anchorage of Helatros at the Southern tip of Kasos. We left here next day to return to Sitia with a strengthening wind and spent the next 6 days tied up inside Sitia with strong winds blowing down into the bay.

At last we were able to leave Sitia and made our way to the lagoon at Spinalonga, only for the heat exchanger to start passing sea water again. After limping back to the marina in Aghios Nikalaos the whole thing was stripped down again and several leaking tubes plugged. On replacement though it was found that the exhaust outlet elbow and water injection point had corroded causing sufficient back pressure to displace the heat exchanger tube assembly. This has now been replaced by a new stainless steel unit.

We decided to buy a new suit of sails and ordered these for delivery in the spring and prepared Kerenne for her winter sleep. just as we were preparing to leave Bernie noticed water in the forecabin sole and it turned out that the water tank was moving around within it's framework and had started to leak. This is being replaced over the winter with a stainless steel tank.

And finally, if these troubles weren't enough, John somehow twisted his knee while we were stormbound in Sitia and wasn't able to play golf when we got back to Bristol. Also after Dave and Phillipa visited us a few days after we got back to Bristol we received a phone call from a distraught Phillipa at the end of November to say that Dave had died!

We spent a total of 8 weeks aboard Kerenne with just 4 weeks out of the marina and only 12 days at sea! We now start to plan for 2014 and are considering returning Kerenne to the Ionian where we will keep her for the foreseeable future. We will probably put her back up for sale and see what happens as the market shows some initial signs of recovery.