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While Envoy is in Lefkas Marina, Greece, we are home in Auckland, New Zealand planning to return to Greece early next month to commence cruising by late April.

Destination 5: Gramvousa
Where is it?: On the north-west coast of Crete, which stretches 260km from east to west in the southern Aegean Sea.
How long is required to enjoy here?: A few days or about three weeks for the greater area.
Brief outline: A delightfully isolated spot on stunning Crete, rarely visited by cruisers having some great anchorages, mountain villages and ancient Minoan sites
Must do: Pay your respects at the New Zealand war cemetery in nearby Soudha Bay where 446 young Kiwis are buried.

It’s a sombre feeling visiting the NZ war cemetery at Soudha Bay

Crete is a large island with three mountain ranges rising over 2,000m, an extremely rugged topography and few major inland roads. With many rocky ravines and caves it’s easy to see how the partisans were able to resist the Germans so effectively in WW2. On every spare piece of land there are olive trees – over 21 million of them in fact!

We often encountered herds of goats on Cretan roads

Cretan villages are exactly as you would picture them – narrow winding streets where a car has to pull over to let an oncoming car through, ancient rustic buildings mostly in a poor state of repair, old men with waistcoats and mustaches sitting outside small tavernas, elderly hunched-over women dressed totally in black.

Picturesque village of Alikambos

There are only a few areas to anchor on Crete’s north coast offering good shelter because the Meltemi wind is consistently from the NW or N generating a 1-2m swell. One is Ormos Milati, a stunning bay protected from all except easterlies, and although this is one of the best anchorages on the coast we were the only boat anchored here. It’s on the NE side of a four-mile long inlet, Soudha Bay, a deep and beautiful harbour and NATO base where we found about 13 warships anchored.

Natural anchorage of Soudha Bay. Ormos Milati is on the north-west entrance

Around the most westerly point of Crete’s north coast is the island of Gramvousa. This is a spectacular area and the island has a couple of bays on its south side, making it reasonably sheltered from the Meltemi.

Gramvousa is the most isolated of out top ten spots

Envoy anchored at Gramvousa

Crowning the island are The ruins of a huge Venetian fortress built in 1579 crown the island, and was the last Cretan stronghold to fall to the Turks in 1692. In the early 19th century the area became a haven for pirates until an Anglo/French expedition rooted them out in 1828.

Looking down from the castle

On rocks separating the two bays is the wreck of a steel ship, about 40m long. Most of the parts are still recognisable, and a sombre reminder of what can happen at sea.

Envoy anchored near shipwreck

Shipwreck with castle behind

Real-time blogging will soon return!
When we weren’t able to cruise during 2015 we’ve tried to keep our blog alive with relevant boating material. Soon we’ll be able to return to blogging about real-time cruising adventures including the not-so-much-fun issues that invariably arise – watch this space!
Envoy is in Lefkas Marina, Greece and we are home in Auckland, New Zealand planning to return to Greece early next month to commence cruising by late April.

Destination 4: Astipalaia Island
Where is it?: In the Aegean Sea’s Dodecanese Islands Group
How long is required to enjoy here?: Just a few days
Brief outline: A stunning butterfly-shaped island indented with numerous anchorages regarded as some of the best in Greece and well sheltered from the prevailing north-west Meltemi wind.

Astipalaia is shaped like a butterfly with many great anchorages

Must do: Take the bus to Skala overlooking Ormos Livadhi to explore the village and ruins of the 13th century Genoese castle, inhabited until the 1950s when an earthquake largely destroyed it.

15th century Genoese castle and Chora

We based ourselves in Maltezana Bay, so-named because it was formerly a lair for Maltese pirates preying on shipping plying the Aegean. Historically the island’s inhabitants had an understanding and co-existed peacefully with the pirates. We met a Croatian couple on a boat similar to, but larger than Envoy. They are professional crew for the British lady owner.

Envoy and Sarah Jane anchored in Maltezana

Here is a memorial to a French Naval Officer, Captain Bisson, who in 1862 was sailing an under-crewed captured prize-ship, Panayoti, back to France with some captured pirates aboard. Bad weather forced him to shelter here and some prisoners escaped and joined Maltese pirates ashore. That night about 140 pirates attacked the ship, and knowing that he had no chance and not wanting the ship to fall into the hands of pirates, Captain Bisson blew up the ship up killing himself and most of the boarding pirates.

Memorial to Captain Bisson who blew up his ship killing many pirates

We had one of our most delicious meals ashore yet – an enormous platter of delicious local prawns and pasta washed down with some very nice Greek wine.
We also met a butcher with a distinct Australian accent, and it turned out he was born in Sydney to Greek parents who returned to the family home in Astypalea when he was 14, and he’s stayed there since.

While Envoy is in Lefkas Marina, Greece, we are home in Auckland, New Zealand planning to return to Greece early April to commence cruising by late April.

Over the next several blog postings we’re going to describe ten of our favourite eastern Med destinations. This is based on the point of view of the cruiser rather than the tourist, for example Santorini is very special but not a great place for cruising having limited shelter and facilities.
The selection was a very tough choice – it’s easy to make a list of our favourite 20, but not so easy to narrow it down. So that you know what’s coming up, these places are, from east to west:
TURKEY – The Kekova Roads and Snake Island/English Harbour
GREECE – Simi, Astipalaia, north-east coast of Crete, Cephalonia and Corfu
CROATIA – Korcula
ITALY – Cefalu and Trapani/Egadi Islands

All of these places are not just isolated magical spots but parts of broader regions of considerable interest. Some areas aren’t featured as we haven’t cruised there – eg North Africa, France, Spain and Portugal and some not, including destinations in Albania and Montenegro, as we feel they just don’t have that magic combination of factors, and we haven’t attempted “political correctness” by including some from each visited country.
For interest some destinations that came close, but finally missed out were Kotor in Montenegro, and Lesvos, Monemvasia, Amorgos and Kavala/The Three Fingers in Greece.

Destination 1: The Kekova Roads
Where is it:
Part of the famed Turquoise Coast on Turkey’s south-east coast. To the east is Finike and to the west is Kas, Kalkan, Fethiye and the tiny Greek island of Katellorizon.
How long is required to enjoy here?: Several days.
Brief outline:
A strait protected by uninhabited four-mile-long Kekova Island with several islets offering anchorages sheltered from all wind directions. See Lycian tombs, sunken ancient ruins, a Byzantine hilltop fortress, a picturesque village, stunning natural scenery, rustic tavernas.
One must do:
Climb the summit behind Kalekoy to explore the Crusader castle ruins and enjoy panoramic views of the area.

This map of Kekova Roads shows why it’s so special

It’s logical that we start this series with Turkey’s Kokova Roads as this is where we joined my brother in 2005 for a brief cruise aboard his yacht, Acrobat, and made our decision to buy our own Med-based boat.
Our first night we anchor in the pristine waters of a perfectly sheltered bay inside Asirli Island, close to a rustic, atmospheric bar called The Smugglers Inn, which in our part of the world would never get building consent or health and safety approvals. It doesn’t open until 2200 hours and we go there after dinner for what turns out to be a very late night. The always friendly and concerned Turks insist on escorting us safely back to Envoy and join us aboard for a nightcap.

Next morning we eventually appear and take the dinghy to Kalekoy to climb precarious steps to the summit of the 15th century castle built by the Knights of St John Crusaders on the foundations of an already existing ancient fort. Several unofficial lady guides offer their services in return for the purchase of cheap trinkets which we happily buy in return for some interesting local knowledge. The site was first occupied around 400 BC and there are many ruins and long since ransacked tombs dating from Lycian times, including some adjacent to Kekova Island submerged by earthquakes and able to be viewed from glass-bottomed boats.

Looking down on Kalekoy from the castle summit

Wild goats roam among Lycian tombs long ago robbed of valuables

On the northern shore lies the picturesque fishing village of Ucagiz where we go ashore to replenish some supplies, enjoy coffees in a taverna and wander through a traditional carpet shop. Most of the locals have made no concession to modern dress and appear unchanged from how their great grandparents probably looked.
Nearby is the village of Demre where apostle Saint Paul stopped over on his voyage to Rome and where in the 4th century the Bishop of the Church was Saint Nicholas who’s alter ego was “Santa Claus”. His remains stayed there until 1043 when some Italian adventurers removed them to Italy where they still lie. Legend has it that Saint Nicholas threw bags of gold down a chimney to save three sisters from a life of prostitution and this is how the Santa Claus tradition started. Turks are of course Muslim, but they too have Santa complete with red costume and white beard as part of their New Year celebrations.

Looking to the castle summit from seaward

Looking up the large channel between Kekova Island and the mainland

FOR FOODIES Gozlemes are a traditional savory flatbread similar to a pancake, made from hand-rolled dough and cooked in a heavy frying pan or griddle. Traditionally they had numerous varieties of fillings ranging through meats, fish, vegetables, cheeses, herbs and spices, but nowadays sweet fillings including banana with honey are increasingly popular. Recipe to serve four: 2½ cups plain flour, 1 teaspoon salt, ⅓ cup olive oil, ¾ cup water. Make the dough by sifting the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the water and oil and mix to combine. Lift out the dough and knead on your bench top for 10 minutes until silky smooth. Let the dough rest back in the bowl for 20 minutes. Divide the dough into four equal pieces and roll out thinly. Add the topping to two of the rolled-out pieces and place the other two pieces on top as covers. Brush olive oil into a frying pan at medium to high heat and cook for 5-6 minutes each side until golden brown and crisp. Serve sizzling hot with lemon. Warning: gozlemes are habit-forming!

Turkish couple row their ancient wooden dinghy around moored boats cooking gozlemes to order

Being unable to cruise during 2015 we sure had plenty of time to think about this subject and here’s what we’ve come up with.
We’ll get back to Lefkas Marina early April and hope to have Envoy back in the water mid April. ASAP after that we’ll leave the marina for a 3-4 day shakedown cruise and if all is well head towards Corfu.
We’ll clear out of Greece at Corfu and cross to Albania for about 2 weeks. Apart from wanting to spend some more time in this fascinating and by European standards very basic area this will give Envoy a spell out of EU waters avoiding any requirement to pay VAT.
We’ll clear back into Greece at Corfu and head south through the magnificent Ionian islands to the east coast and then south coast of Peloponnisos (mainland Greece). From there we’ll cruise east via the southern Cyclades Islands of Milos, Kimolos, Folefandros, Sikinos and Ios to Santorini.
Then we’ll cruise south to the central north coast of Crete and work our westwards before cruising back to the Peloponnisos coast by way of Antikithera and Kithera Islands.
Then we’ll be retracing our steps back up the Ionian Sea to Corfu before concluding our 2016 cruise at Lefkas Marina late October.

So now finally this doesn’t seem like something way ahead in the future and our excitement is building!

Envoy Tech-talk
While we’ve been away from the boat things have still been happening recently on the technical front (apart from the various works completed up to mid last year and detailed in previous blogs):
-One of our bow thruster’s 24V battery bank batteries was damaged due to a short circuit caused by loose connections. Batteries in a bank should always be replaced together so we’ve got two new Deka batteries en route from a dealer in Italy to replace these.
-The hydraulic rams on our Naiad stabilisers have been leaking a small amount of oil and the “knuckles” on these rams have been worn. Parts are coming in from USA to replace these and at the same time the fluid and filter will be replaced.
-The windlass’s electric motor is being removed to be cleaned and checked. When you anchor hundreds of times in a year windlasses are subject to much more wear than normal – carbon dust collects in the back of the motor and can cause a short.
-Envoy’s hull and running gear are being cleaned off and prepared for anti fouling so this can be done within days of our arrival and we can launch quickly.
-Envoy’s large RHIB is having some maintenance done and the Yamaha 25hp outboard fully serviced so we can sea trial it on our arrival.

There’s a very long list of technicalities to be performed before we can start cruising and we expect this to take about 2-3 weeks based on previous experience. We’ll talk about this during April and hope there’s no nasty surprises!

While Envoy is in Lefkas Marina, Greece, we are home in Auckland, New Zealand planning to return to Greece early April to hopefully commence cruising by late April.

Travel not to escape life but so life doesn’t escape you 

Most years we cruise to dozens of different new bays, villages and towns and we enjoy most of them in their own way, but makes for a really special one?
Destinations fall into one of three categories – anchorages, town harbours and marinas. Wherever possible we opt for anchorages, even when there is a harbour wall to secure to or a marina nearby.
The reasons for this are:
Cost:
All marinas are fairly expensive at typically NZ$60-180 per night. While some harbours are free most charge something like half the lower end marina cost. When you’re cruising for months at a time you simply can’t afford to pay this cost more than you have to.

Mooring in a harbour is cheaper than a marina

Convenience:
It can take close to two hours to get into your berth, set up mooring lines, connect to shore power (if it works) and connect to water. In all marinas you then need to go to their office and show at least your passports, registration certificate and insurance policy and pay for your berth. In many cases you also need to go and visit the Port Police to show the same documents as well as the cruising log that most countries provide. This is less prevalent in harbours, but normally the authorities will come to find you. Leaving takes a lesser time, generally about an hour although longer if there is some complication such as another vessel’s anchor chain over yours (most harbours require you to anchor and then reverse in to the wall). In some destinations you need to visit the authorities on departure day as well, adding to the time. When at anchor there is rarely any obligation to visit authorities.
Coolness / Swimming:
There is more cooling breeze at anchor away from the shelter and concrete expanses of harbours and marinas. In the hot Med summers it’s great to be able to swim regularly and this is possible in most anchorages. Not so in marinas or harbours where it’s mostly not allowed and in any case dangerous due to the proximity of shore power and/or the water is too polluted.

When anchored it’s cooler, more private, easier and cheaper

Privacy:
You enjoy good privacy at anchor while in marinas and harbours you generally have a boat on each side with attendant noise and lack of privacy. Another factor is that many of the boats alongside you are charter boats with their crews on short holidays wanting to party all night.
Having said all of the above we choose to go into marinas and on harbour walls from time to time in cases where there is no safe anchorage, if extremely adverse weather is forecast, when we are meeting visitors, when we are doing repairs or sometimes simply to enjoy the atmosphere of special harbours.

Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy the atmosphere of quaint harbours – Envoy in Fiskhardo

What makes an anchorage special? A special anchorage must have a great “atmosphere” and this can be from stunning natural features, from a picturesque village or town or from a combination of the two. Also most important is good holding and security in all forecast winds while second best is an alternative bolt hole nearby. You want calm water with little wind chop or swell from the open sea making for a peaceful stay. Too may vessels spoil an otherwise good anchorage, particularly if there are water skiers, jet skis or ferries passing through the anchorage, often at dangerous speeds and in close proximity. It should also have unpolluted clear water for swimming.

What makes a marina or harbour special? Those really special spots are mostly adjacent to atmospheric historic villages or towns. Again, most important is security in all conditions – many small marinas and harbours are not suitable for all weather and can encounter waves breaking over sea walls and dangerous surges. Allied to this is having good quality lazy lines to secure your bow (your stern is secured using your own lines). You want access to good facilities such as shore power, fresh water, toilets, showers and provisions with friendly staff (marinaras) to assist.

While Envoy is in Lefkas Marina, Greece, we are home in Auckland, New Zealand planning to return to Greece early April to hopefully commence cruising by late April.
On a chilly October morning we stand on Lossiemouth harbour’s quayside, where all that remains to remind us this was once a bustling fishing port filled with trawlers is one lobster boat, a handful of small open fishing boats and a long outdated sign pointing to where a busy fish market operated decades ago.

Well-dressed against the cold I examine the sign which is all that remains of a once thriving fish market

The area around the harbour is hugely atmospheric including many historic stone buildings now used as cafes, shops and a museum. The harbour’s main source of income nowadays is a marina accommodating up to 120 boats in the water and 48 on the hardstand, where they are securely lashed down during winter to prevent them blowing over during severe gales.
Lossiemouth has a long waiting list for permanent berths but visitors are always accommodated and enjoy the friendly reception, excellent facilities and local marine infrastructure. It’s not by chance that we’re visiting Lossiemouth but due to a family connection – my brother, Charles, is the Harbourmaster and we can see his 36ft van der Staadt designed sloop, Acrobat, moored to one of the pontoons.
Charles and his now-wife Marie sailed Acrobat from Brisbane Australia through south-east Asia, across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea into the Mediterranean. It was here during our 2005 visit to Acrobat in Turkey that Charles and Marie became our inspiration for the Med cruising life we now enjoy. After spending several years living and working in Turkey, Italy and France Charles and Marie motored through France’s Midi Canal system eventually arriving in Lossiemouth, where they continued to live aboard while working as well as finding time to sail and explore Scotland’s rugged and remote offshore islands and some of Norway’s frigid coastline. Charles has a great sense of humour and gets on very well with most everyone – he’s also a practical and highly technically qualified guy, being a shipwright, builder and cabinetmaker. After Acrobat arrived in the marina the staff and other berth holders were soon tapping his skills until he eventually gained employment there, later becoming the marina’s manager, a position which is very much hands-on.

Harbour chairman George Reid (at left) with my brother Charles

One of the most interesting vessels in the marina at the time of our visit was Lady Kathryn, an 18 tonne, 54ft oak-framed timber motor yacht powered with two Perkins diesel engines which were more than 10 years old when they were installed in the new vessel in 1929 and still going strong. Her owner proudly gave us a tour of his vessel and explained that she had participated in WW2, loaded to the gunwales with allied troops during their evacuation from Dunkirk.

Lady Kathryn evacuated allied troops from Dunkirk

The ultimate “big boy’s toy” 
Most marinas move boats in and out of the water using a travel lift that straddles a boat and lifts it with high tensile strength strops. Lossiemouth uses a Swedish designed and built diesel-powered, remote-controlled submersible sub-lift with a 25tonne capacity. As the whole unit including the engine goes underwater the engine has a watertight hood using trapped air to keep the engine dry, and a snorkel for the exhaust to be used while the engine is under water.

Lossiemouth’s 25 tonne capacity sub-lift

Lady Kathryn being launched using the sub-lift

The sub-lift disappearing under water

Amanda provides super-efficient administration services for berth holders and visitors

If like us you enjoy wandering around marinas and fishing harbours, there’s plenty to see on Scotland’s wild north-east coast.
Our next posting will start to detail our favourite ten Eastern Med cruising destinations – most of them relatively unknown.

While Envoy is in Lefkas Marina, Greece, we are home in Auckland, New Zealand, planning to return to Greece late March.

THE FIRTH OF MORAY
The next best thing to boating is wandering around interesting marinas. I’m lucky to have seen plenty of them around the world, but few as interesting as fishing harbour-turned-marina Lossiemouth in Scotland’s largest Firth – the Moray on the north-east coast.

Fishing-harbour-turned-marina Lossiemouth

Bordering the Highlands this is wild territory, where temperatures can struggle to reach double figures (the days we spent there were around 7dC), vicious North Sea gales and huge waves often lash the coast and the har (fog) severely restricts visibility.

This scene looks peaceful but these massive harbour wall stone blocks were  knocked down by huge breaking waves

The Firth’s 500 miles of shoreline includes salt marshes, mudflats, rocky shores, windswept cliffs and surprisingly, many stunning sandy beaches. But even in summer the water is a very chilly 12dC, discouraging all but the most masochistic of swimmers. Nevertheless hardy types enjoy kayaking, surfing windsurfing and sailing.
The Firth holds abundant wildlife both within and outside its Special Area of Conservation, one of Europe’s largest marine protection areas hosting seals, whales, dolphins, lobsters, scallops, many varieties of fish and hundreds of bird species.

Unlike the Med Scotland is very tidal

Picturesque Cullen harbour

At its western end the Firth leads to the famous Loch Ness and the 60-mile-long Caledonian Canal completed in 1822 and providing access to western Scotland. At the outer eastern end is the closest of the North Sea fields – Beatrice, with drilling rigs towering out of the sea.
Numerous whisky distilleries surround the area, many of which are open for the public to tour, enjoy tastings and lunches.

This whisky shop near the distilleries has an unbelievable number of whisky brands

Whisky bar near distilleries

LOSSIEMOUTH
The quaint village of Lossiemouth’s harbour is found at the mouth of the Lossie River, blasted out of solid rock in the 1830s as a trading port for the nearby town of Elgin.

The narrow harbour entrance is parallel to the beach to reduce the surge from large waves

Access to this area is by train or air to Inverness 40 miles to the west of Elgin.

The RAF has long maintained an airfield here nowadays home to Tornado fighters, Sea King Helicopters and the 617 Squadron – famously known as the Dambusters. It’s common to see these Tornados thundering overhead at low altitude.
Fishing became the mainstay of the economy and the first modern seine-net boat was designed here. Lossiemouth was Scotland’s second largest whitefish port and a fascinating quayside maritime museum brings back to life the tough times the hardy fishermen endured. In its zenith Lossiemouth was home port to about 80 fishing boats and the present chairman of the Marina Board, George Reid once owned 18. He explained to us the industry not only provided employment for about 400 boat crew but also for an infrastructure of a further 600 associated workers including packers, drivers, chandlers, mechanics and riggers. Nowadays all we could see is a solitary lobster boat plus about six small open fishing boats.

The fishing fleet now consists of a solitary lobster boat plus the small boats in the foreground

Close-up of lobster boat (lobsters are plentiful)

Although we assumed fishing died out here in the 1980s due to over-fishing and depletion of stocks, George says this was only part of the story and the other part is the EU largely forced the UK to abandon fishing. Many of the displaced workers subsequently found employment in the oil industry centred around Aberdeen.

Trawlers still operate from some ports including MacDuff

This is exactly my idea of a traditional still-working Scottish trawler

Next posting read more on the marina itself plus a highly unusual submersible travel lift and the 54ft wooden motor yacht that went to Dunkirk.

FOR FOODIES Think of Scottish food and you first think of porridge and haggis, but a more popular “national dish” these days is a rich seafood soup called Cullen Skink. We’ve enjoyed delicious clam chowder in Massachusetts and traditional bisque in France, but Cullen Skink has a smokier flavour than the former and is heartier than the latter – just the thing to warm you up on a cold Scottish autumn day. Cullen Skink originated in the medieval seaside town of Cullen on Scotland’s east coast, now a popular summer holiday and surfing resort. It’s based on smoked haddock, which is a popular and heavily fished species found on both sides of the North Atlantic generally reaching a size of about 600mm in length and 1.5kg in weight. We haven’t tried, but guess Cullen Skink could work well with any smoked fish. The balance is potatoes and onions. First the onions are lightly fried in butter. Meanwhile the haddock is separately lightly poached. Add milk to the onions, then small chunks of potato. When the spuds are nearly cooked, add the haddock and simmer for about five minutes. Add salt, pepper and chopped parsley, then serve piping hot with fresh crusty bread and butter – it is absolutely delicious.

While Envoy is in Lefkas Marina, Greece, we are home in New Zealand

APOLOGY – it’s been too long since our last post – sorry about that and we’ll now be more regular once again. Please look back on the last three posts which have now been “brought to life” with the addition of some great images.

Still having our rental car, by the way costing about 20 Euros (NZ$35) a day, we visited some of Lefkas’s west coast that we hadn’t explored aboard Envoy, in particular two stunning beaches.
Kalamitsi is accessed using an extremely narrow, steep winding road making us thankful it was now off-season with little traffic. The beach is secluded and gorgeous consisting of a series of small coves with crystal clear water set between large rocks affording each cove complete privacy from the others.

Great isolated beach at Kalamitsi

Agios Nikitas is also very special – without the spectacular approach but has a stunning beach overlooked by several great tavernas. Just the place to swim before enjoying a cold beer as we watch the sunset.
This is an ideal time to visit Greece as the weather is warm without being sweltering, the sea is still warm and most of the tourists have gone.

Looking down on Agios Nikitas on Lefkas Island

The picturesque taverna-lined lane to Agios Nikitas beach

Agios Nikitas beach in late afternoon

My father and stepmother have friends of about our age living in Lefkas and while there we met with Gene (his wife Vicki was away). Gene and Vicki built a Herreshoff sailing yacht on which they lived and cruised the Australian coast for many years. Nowadays they’re “over owning boats” but occasionally enjoy boating with friends. Gene says they love having retired in Lefkas, mostly because of the acceptance and friendliness of the local people, the respect that people have for each other and the young have for the older, the less materialistic lifestyle, the great summers and mild winters and the low cost of housing and living. Of course this would probably not be feasible if they still needed to work. Lefkas is an ideal Greek island to live on as it’s connected to the mainland by a bridge over the Lefkas Canal. As we have mentioned previously there’s no refugee issue in this area of Greece and little sign of any economic problem. Recently they bought a donkey named Henry and have great fun walking him and attempting to train him. Donkeys are still widely used throughout the Greek countryside for transport over rough terrains.

TECHNICAL We’ve found the contractor we use in Lefkas, Sailand, to be very good technically and nice people to deal with. Just a few days before leaving Lefkas I mentioned to Sailand’s owner, Andreas, that we’d like to pay him some money (as we hadn’t asked us to pay him anything for the last 11 months). He replied casually, “don’t worry about small things like that”.
In our absence during this year Sailand did some maintenance for us:

Lugger main engine:
– Alternator rebuilt and sent to Athens for balancing
– Gearbox oil replaced and suction filter cleaned
– Primary Racor filters dismantled, cleaned and new drain seal kits fitted

Wing Engine (Yanmar):
– New engine mounts fitted
– Alternator reconditioned
– Leaking raw water pump reconditioned
– Heat exchanger reconditioned, including rebuilding and machining some corroded parts
– Coolant circulation pump replaced
– Injectors checked by specialist shop and replaced
– High pressure fuel pump reconditioned by specialist shop
– Gearbox oil replaced

Generator:
– Starter motor removed and checked (last checked more than 10 years ago but needed nothing more than greasing)
– Partially carbon-clogged cast iron exhaust elbow replaced with stainless steel unit
– Heat exchanger reconditioned
– Coolant circulation pump reconditioned
– Some coolant hoses replaced
– Injectors checked by specialist shop and replaced

Main head holding tank: – Breather pipe connection to tank replaced and new hose fitted due to blockage 

Still to be done is to remove and check the Maxwell windlass electric motor.

No Foodies section in this posting.