Splice lifted out at Basimakopoulos Shipyard in Kilada on 15th October, giving us four days to settle her in for the winter. As we had done much of the preparation whilst still afloat, this worked well and we weren't particularly stressed during the close down.

The yard was already quiet with few other sailors around so we just got on with flushing the outboard, engines and generator with fresh water (kinder to the innards than salt water), getting all the remaining gear off the decks, storing the internal gear so that tradesmen can reach the relevant equipment, checking the 'use by' dates on all the contents of the cupboards to see what's worth keeping, putting the winter cover around the cockpit etc etc.

We also had to cover and protect the helm station and seat this year as we are hoping to have a hard top bimini made over the winter onto which we can fit additional solar panels. Neither of the two quotes we have asked for have yet appeared but this is Greece and maybe they will arrive sometime!

The Greek Air-Traffic Controllers thought a strike on the morning of our return flight would add to the fun, so we were delayed more than three hours but we still arrived back home in the UK by 20.30 that evening.

A rather shortened season has closed and we are happy that we got to sail for a couple of months but rather frustrated that we weren't able to go very far this year. We did get to explore a different gulf and round a major headland, so maybe that's an achievement in these strange times.

The Blog will pause now until next May when we hope to return to Splice. Thank you for being interested enough to join us on our travels and wishing you a warm and safe winter.


Main Photo: Fid tucked up for the winter underneath Splice's hulls