Well, the engine ended up taking eleven days before it was put back together. All that time I was on the jetty at Vlicho, and a 50 yard walk to the yacht club, I couldn't have had a better time. I quickly discovered a liking for the clubs coronation chicken baguette (the best I've ever had) and a large beer. Once all the engine parts had arrived, the Yanmar was put back together in a few hours and was soon banging away like a good un. The exhaust smoke was clear and everything was a great success, I'm hoping that should keep the engine running now for a few years. The repair bill was below what I had expected, so a happy result for me. While at the club I was introduced to Mark who runs a sail loft, after a quick chat he agreed to renew my green uv strip on the jib and make me a new yellow sail cover. The old sailcover was falling apart, and when it got wet, you could still see the old charter company name on it. A week later and he brought them back to Nanjo, and he had done a fantastic job for me. I'm well pleased with his stitching and work. She now stands out in any bay, with her bright new jib uv and sail cover.

A chance meeting with the president of the Dromor appreciation society on the bus into Lefkada, pointed me in the direction of a cheap Yamaha outboard. Only a small problem, it was in Corfu, and because the owner had sold his yacht and was going back home, it had to be collected asap. We had met on the 18th August, a quick chat with the outboard owner that evening, confirmed it was worth having. So, at 6am the next morning, I set of for Lakka on Paxos. It was still dark in the bay at Vlicho, and my stern and steaming lights were not working, I can't remember when I last needed them! My clip on push bike light stood in for my stern, white light in the end. To be honest, I only passed three small fishing boats before daylight came, and none of them had any lights at all. I had just missed the 8am bridge opening at Lefkada, so spent the time milling around in the pool, and practicing slow manouevers on the engine. The lack of any smoke was a joy. My log shows that I caught the 9am bridge at Lefkada and anchored in a "packed" Lakka at 18:00, a distance of 48.3 nautical miles. Mostly under engine, and a strong headwind the last couple of miles from Gaios. I didn't bother with the dinghy, just had a swim and went to sleep.

I left Lakka at 08:00 the next day, everybody else was still asleep, and had a cracking sail over to Corfu. A quick call to Berndt and he had saved me a space in Benitses side on to a pontoon. The Yamaha was as good as he had said, but the colour of the dark brown petrol wasn't good. It was his spare engine, and had not been used for quite a while. The engine looked new, and had only 20hrs use. After tipping away the fuel, I managed to find a couple of pieces of plywood, so I could bolt it to the rail. It looks like it's always been there now. I've not done anything to the engine at all yet, one big problem I'm having is trying to locate an outboard bracket for my old Avon dinghy. Just a small glitch in my otherwise great plan. They seem cheaper on UK E-bay if you buy a complete dinghy and bracket!
While sitting in my cockpit and relaxing, a strange thing occurred. My engine alarm buzzer went off, the electrics had all been turned off two hours earlier. After testing all the engine senders, by disconnecting the oil pressure switch, the alarm stopped! I couldn't see anything wrong, so assumed the switch was faulty. It meant having to leave without it working, but the rebuilt engine was going great and she's never burned any oil, so not much of a risk hopefully. I turned in early that night, as I had planned to leave early and hopefully reach Ligia or even Preveza.

I left Benitses at 5am, my bike light coming in handy again. It was pitch black at sea, and my big worry until it got light was catching a fishing net around the prop. I motored over towards the mainland, and the only other boat around was a large well lit ferry slowly coasting towards Corfu. Although there was enough wind for me to sail, I decided it would be safer to stay in the cockpit, rather than go to the mast. Sunrise soon came though, and it was a gorgeous sight. There is always something magic about seeing the start of a new day. I was soon motorsailing, and just passed Paxos I picked up a stern wind. The engine went off and Nanjo settled down to some downwind sailing. The autopilot was soon unable to cope, it's just not able to react quick enough to the waves. As the wind increased, so did my speed. I was having a great time and managed to surf down a wave and hit 7.4 knots. Most of the time I was sailing in the high fives, low sixes. My log reads 13:00 of Ligia, it was way to soon to stop. 15:00 of Preveza, and the seas and wind were building. I had been hand steering now for 4 hours. But, it was just to good a sail to end at Preveza, so I carried onto Lefkada. I arrived at the bridge at 16:15, because of the wind and seas, I decided to sail into the channel and then dump the sails once inside, after watching another yacht struggle to get his down outside. It was a small bit hairy, but a whole lot easier now that the channel is wider and deeper. The jib was rolled away and the main just dropped, before I ran out of space. A fantastic sail down from Corfu, and Nanjo was loving every minute of it as well as I was. I caught the 17:00 bridge opening and even managed to sail down to Nidri. My log shows that I dropped anchor in Vlicho at 19:25, and had covered 70.7 nautical miles, at an average of 5.1. Dinner was a tin of meatballs with pasta and a few beers and wine. I was absolutely shattered, my right arm had started to lock up with gripping the tiller earlier, and was now giving me real pain. I popped three pain killers before trying to sleep, but I couldn't drop of as quickly as I had hoped. My whole body was starting to stiffen up, from having to brace myself in the cockpit with the rolling earlier, my brain didn't want to turn off either. Eventually I slept, and woke up 10 hours later, and felt really drained and rough. It was a fantastic days sailing, but I really can't imagine me doing it again, well, not until the next time I get the chance anyway! I had got back to Vlicho on the 21st and stayed at anchor, just relaxing and chilling out until the 25th. I had tried to locate a new oil pressure sender, but it seemed that there had been a rush on them in Greece and none were available at all. It meant that I would have to sail to Sami to pick up my guest without one.

On Tuesday 25th, I left Vlicho at 09:00 and motor/sailed straight to Sami, leaving Ithaca on my starboard side. It was a very calm day and just meant keeping the engine at 1800 rpm and sitting back in the cockpit, enjoying the view. I arrived to a packed Sami at 17:00 and went bow on right outside Faro's taverna. There were three flots in, which explained the lack of space. My guest wasn't arriving until the 27th, so I had plenty of time to give Nanjo a clean and polish, and eat at my favorite taverna. I was moored alongside a large UK registered motorboat, that made Nanjo look like a dinghy. A real nice guy owned her, he even offered me a spare 240 volt plug, as he was running his 4.6kv generator for his air conditioning and had spare capacity! Chatting about his boat, he then told me it holds 10 tons of diesel fuel. Twice the weight of Nanjo in fuel alone, the costs of running such a monster must be huge. I did point out my tank held 45 litres, probably enough for him to get out of the harbour!
I had booked a hire car to collect Ruth from the airport earlier, and had a lovely drive over the mountains to collect her. We had only met a few times back in the UK before, and had had a great time together then. I knew we would have a good week sailing around and a few adventures together. Neither of us was prepared for what happened near the end of the week though.