Well, we are getting back to being just the 2 of us. It was lovely having Tess to stay and we both had a great time with many laughs that will go into the memories for recall in darker times. However life does indeed go on and just after she left us I got news that dad had been unwell. It did panic me but he reassured me no need to come home, always a difficult decision when you are so far away.
Anyway we continued with our travels.

Tell me do others have the same issue as us, we seem to be a giant magnet for idiots that can't anchor or moor a boat without invading our space? The issue this time was a German on a charter boat. We were anchored in Syvota, a tiny harbour hidden away to the left of the bay. We watched as he dropped anchor, 3 times, finally finishing up far too close. Pete said,' I think you are a little close'.... he replied ' I don't think so'.
Having photographed the boat and boat name in case of the need to claim on insurance, we left it to the Gods, who for once allowed us to have an incident free night.

Now to visitors.....We left Syvota and sailed back to Nidri, wow we have now been here 4 times!!! We decided to Moore on Neilson's pontoon as we could get water and top up electrics for just 10€ a night. So we motored up, dropped anchor , motored back, got the anchor chain stuck, missed the mooring and started again, this time successfully.

Having settled we got info the dinghy to go look for our friends on Rampage, who were due to be in Tranquil Bay just to port of where we moored.
Well we found Duncan and had a good catch up over a glass of orange and lemonade (yes no alcohol, it was far too hot!). Well that is until some friends of Duncan turned up and then out came the beer and wine. We made our excuses and returned to Argonauta to remove the DuoGen so we could start the bearing replacement repair job next day, with the help of Duncan as agreed earlie. That evening we went out with Duncan, Steve and Linda and enjoyed a relaxing meal, regaling sailing stories and experiences as per norm.

The following day, as agreed, Duncan came to visit. Pete and Duncan spent several hours removing bits in an effort to get at the DuoGen bearings. It seems that somehow the sealed unit had not been sealed following a repair in 2011 by DuoGen. The unit was full of water and everything was rusty! After much pulling,pushing , teasing and brute force we were down to the final magnet before the cur clip that allows Access to the bearings. You got it, it would not budge.
We soaked the unit in WD40 and oil and left it.
Duncan left and came back later for dinner and we spent a relaxed evening catching up with summer adventures.

Next day Duncan came back for try 2 but with no success. We even managed to break the brand new 'puller tool' we bought to do the job !!!
Pete and I eventually went off to a local steel shop and that is where the DuoGen remains, hopefully he will get it apart and we will pick it up Saturday, yet more money to spend but hopefully cheaper than packing it up to and to the UK.

We then left the mooring and decided as there was no wind and it was late in the day to move downstream to anchor in the quiet of the huge lagoon. Anchoring went well and although boiling hot, seeing several large jellyfish, we opted to not swim today.
We settled down for dinner and were beautifully relaxed, a small moon providing some light on the mill pond like water.
Suddenly I jumped, I thought I saw something move along the deck of the boat. Having got a torch and explored there seemed to be nothing there so we settled back down to just relaxing, thinking it had been the moon glinting on the toe rails or something .
We washed up and I decided to go to bed. Pete though he would watch a film on the laptop and sat in the cockpit setting it up. Guess what, we forgot to charge the laptop!! Oops. So Pete came downstairs and was just stood by the sink when he saw something move.
'I believe you did see something' he said!!
I shot out of bed, 'what'?
We have a rat on board!!!!!!! probably crawled up our lines when moored stern too on Neilsons pontoon.

Pete put on shoes whilst I emptied a clothes box that has a clip lock lid. He stood by the back cabin and gingerly picked up shoes, water containers etc and shook them before throwing into the main cabin. He is as fond as I am on 4 legged visitors... not!!! It just had to be the cabin that is full of bits and pieces, potatoes, onions, spare bedding etc.
He bravely stood on the now cleaned floor space and moved the door.
'Get the piece of wood from the front berth and pass me the box' he said.
I dived to the front berth, pulled out the wood which fit exactly across the doorway and passed in the box.
Pete moved the door, shoved the box forward and I passed the lid. He quickly put the container across the edge of the doorway where the rat was and pushed it into the box with the lid, clipping it shut quickly.
We had bagged a rat!!!!!
Poor thing sat stunned in the box.
Now sense told us to kill it,however we are not that sensible and definitely are both too woossey do the deed.
So we collected all the rubbish and set off for shore to release it as far away from us as possible. On the way we bumped into Duncan returning to Rampage, showed him our catch and were somewhat red faced to admit we were too soft to kill it He suggested we should have thrown it overboard, but we had both been worried its nearest route to safety would have been straight up our anchor chain so decided against it.
Having dumped the rubbish and the rat we returned to Argonauta, both a bit shaken.
Therefore a tot of whiskey and coke before bed seemed the answer. We both slept well!!!

So we have had visitors from friends, new friends and a 4 legged creature that was not so welcome. I wonder what will come next?