Hello friends, family and loyal blog readers. It is June 2023 and we are off again on the Good Ship Patience. Well that is strictly not true - as I write we are still sat in the dusty boatyard in Preveza, Greece.

Having flippantly announced to some of you that the boat was exactly where we had left it and no stowaways of the bird, reptile, mammal or insect variety - we were soon proved wrong. Yes the boat was still there but as Ricky lifted up the dingy there was a very bright green 'petit grenouille!' I wrote that in French for you pip, in honour of 'Petit Pierre' the little friend of " 'Enry le Grenouille"😊 We are so high up from the ground, balanced within a metal frame, so no idea how it managed to get up there? As it sat aghast with beady eyes, Ricky carefully scooped it up and returned it to the long grass the other side of the marina fence, to live another day.

Our next stowaways did not receive such kindness. Also hiding underneath the upturned dingy, hanging there like they owned the joint, were half a dozen wasps busy adding the final touches to their exclusive wasp hotel. How very dare they! Needless to say, you couldn't see me for dust, I was out of there, directing Ricky from the safety of the companion way on how best to relocate the offending structure and avoid being stung. Relocation via a long fish landing net did the trick, but sadly two days later they are still hanging around and one did sting Ricky on his throat would you believe ? I guess we did choose to move their home but targetted vengeance or coincidence? The jury is out!

Finally the day arrived when we were ready to launch Patience into the sea. This is always a tad scary as the marinero actually tows the boat facing backwards through the boatyard looking over his shoulder so that when he reaches the slip he is facing the right way to push it into the water- yikes!
Patience was ship shape, as were Ricky and I. We had filled in our relevant paperwork at the customs office, collected our cruising log, paid our cruising tax, and boatyard fees and got lots of official stamps on various pieces of paper because the Greeks love stamping things. All that was left to do was visit the Port Police, once we were afloat, for yet more checks and more official stamps, then we were finally good to go... wherever the wind takes us x