Mainland Greece - Peloponnese - Koiládhia
09 December 2023
Jane Paulson
“ the end is nigh" !!! - we have arrived at our final destination. Now we have to get Stiletto ready for being lifted as well as getting everything off that we want to bring back to the UK. It will be a busy time but we've done it enough times now and have it down to a fine art.
We decided to tie up on the visitors section of the quay which was very poorly maintained with very few cleats or rings on which to tie our lines. It was also very gritty and no matter how much we tried, grit still gets aboard which plays havoc with the teak deck.
The first job was to check in with the office to confirm our lift out date of October 31st and we were told that the last lift out for that day was scheduled for 1.30pm. We didn't think to ask where we were on the list for that day. Mistake.
The next job was to go and get the car which had been sat in the yard car park for 5 months. We had disconnected the battery and put a full cover over it and joked about the possibility of finding kittens living in the engine as had been the case last year when we were on Leros.
Cover off – no kittens !!! Battery connected and our lovely Max the Mazda started first time. Result ! The relief was enormous (on both counts).
We drove to the quayside and parked up alongside Stiletto thus making it dead easy to offload everything.
This year the sails are going to the sailmaker on The Hamble who made them, to be laundered and given a full MOT.
Dubsy the dinghy is not in great shape – we suspect a few punctures as the floor and one of the side tubes are deflating, so he is coming off and we will try and get him repaired. He has been worked hard so a service/repair is inevitable as long as it is financially viable.
Now that we are not living aboard permanently, we are wanting to offload a lot of clothing that we no longer need.
So the next few days were spent packing up and hauling stuff off Stiletto and into Max. Cleaning and making sure that she would be ship shape for when we returned next May. The end result was that the back of the car was absolutely fully loaded!!!
The day before lift out we put Max back in the car park, left the quayside, and anchored in the bay which was so much nicer. The plan was that the next day we would be called on our ships radio when it was time to head for the lift out facility. We had assumed (wrongly) that we would be done and dusted by about 2pm. We didn't eventually get called until 4pm which was very frustrating as we had been ready since 8am. Another lesson learnt!!!
Once our old gel was safely ensconced on her cradle, we locked up and headed to Aunt Koulas villa in Porto Khelli where we spent two nights catching up with her before moving on to Athens where we caught up with Cousin Joyce and Kosmas.
From there we made our way back home to the UK which we now also have down to a fine art and arrived on November 10th (Andreas birthday). On arrival we were both sick with horrendous head colds and coughs for 3 weeks.
Welcome Home!!!!!