A cranky crew on Stella Maris
 
After very little sleep we got up at 7.00am (I know it’s outrageous) to head back to Corfu. We had to leave early because we were going to be heading right into wind for the whole journey. We had been motoring for about 4 hours when we noticed a very odd smell on the boat. I know what your thinking, but on this occasion it wasn’t Miles. Understandably we were a bit concerned about this so we set about trying to sail and turned the engine off. Turned out it was one of the batteries, which we have now sorted out. We were making good progress and had planned to get to Parga which was about 30 miles away. Then we made the decision that was going to turn a doable day into an endurance day we decided to keep going to Mourtos so we would have less to do the next day. By the time we got to Mourtos we had been sailing and motoring for about 10 hours, needless to say we were both getting a bit tetchy (no change there then). We anchored up then found we had a real problem only one beer on board the boat. Miles pointed out that letting rations drop so low is in fact a keel hauling offence!! Next day we motored back to Gouvia as we just wanted to get there. We booked into the marina for 3 nights as the engine needed an 150 hour service and we had arranged to go sailing with some friends (Ian & Mandy very nice boat called Moli). We all had an afternoon out on Stella maris where we demonstrated what it is to get ‘tippy’. Then yesterday afternoon we went out on Moli (Sun Odessy 43) and experienced sailing in a calm relaxing environment. Tim & Bruce will be pleased to hear that Miles is up on deck as I type marking up the anchor chain!! After a couple of weeks of just I think the technical term is ‘dumping out a shed load of anchor’ we have decided it might be a good idea to know how much we have put out. He’s now done that and decided he wants to add some rope to the chain, any excuse to go to the chandlers, he went to get the rope and they have said they need the chain to splice it onto. So if you are up to date with your blog reading you will know that we now have to take off the new chain that we put on a couple of weeks ago and take it back to the chandlers. Hindsight is a wonderful thing readers! Love & all things boaty Captain Miles and Deckhand Karen XX
Friday, 18 August 2006