We dropped the lines from the shore in Ormos Kapsali after two very peaceful nights and set off back to Porto Heli, where we had arranged for the lady who will make our winter cockpit cover to come on board.

The trip took from 09.30 to around 15.00 that afternoon and was a mix of motoring, some nice sailing from 11.30 to 13.00, then the later stages were all wind on the nose motor-sailing as the wind bent around the corners of the channels we passed along.

The old winter cover was made to fit to the previous canvas bimini roof, so as its was 14 years old there was no point in altering it.....it was falling to bits anyway. Chris met Jutta in the dinghy and taxied her to Splice, but it soon became clear that not much could be done other than measurements until we were on the hard. The visit was useful however as we realised that the design of the sun shades we wanted would affect the design of the winter cover. We had assumed separate 'bolt ropes' to feed into the grove on the roof, but Jutta planned to use the same 'bolt rope' so the zips sewn onto it would have to work for both sets of canvas... queue a rethink of the design, which we agreed via email over the next few days and work should start as soon as we lift out onto the hard (well, as this is Greece, we shall see!)

One of our meals aboard, salad with garlic fried bacon, feta cheese,tomatoes,brown bread croutons with lemon and Parmesan,pine nuts and figs

Our three nights in Porto Heli were uneventful apart from this as we topped up the supplies and sat out a couple of cooler days aboard. The weather has changed since the middle of September and is noticeably windier and cooler than we have seen here other years at this time.

Main photo: Splices mainsail as we motor-sailed back to Potro Heli - note sail number 11 of the boats series and the Greek courtesy flag