They say it’s good for the heart to do something each day that scares you!
 
Well we’ve had a fortnights worth in the last couple of days. We left the marina on Friday morning as scheduled new Bimini in place. On the previous day Miles had decided that it would be a good idea to have ago at changing the impeller pump (cools the engine, so it’s pretty crucial), just to make sure he knew how to do it should a crisis occur. He wasn’t 100% happy with the job, but we decided to leave on the Friday and make a short journey down to Benitses. Incident number one that day, we went for fuel at a petrol station just outside the marina, the idea is you pull alongside in your boat and they fill you up. We have never done this before and made the mistake of queuing when what you should do is just barge in. Once we had learnt this lesson we saw a spot and went for it. Incident number two Just as we were pulling in an alarm on the boat went off to, it was warning us that the engine was overheating. This added to the panic of an already highly charged situation. We managed to get fuel and leave with the engine still going. Despite the engine not being quite as it should we cracked on and headed for Benitses, getting sails up ASAP so we could turn the engine off. I (Karen) had fingers crossed it would start again when needed. Good sail to Benitses and engine did start, coming into moor up was once again quite entertaining, nice Welsh man was on hand to help us out. Incident number three another panic ensued as the engine alarm went off again. Needless to say as soon as we were moored up Miles had the impeller pump off. He knew what the problem was and was sorting it out. We went for a drink on Spirit of Mourisco (nice Welshman’s boat). Incident number four.That night we experienced our first storm (boy was it a humdinger) We were up in the middle of the night adding extra lines and moving fenders,as the boat was being blown back to the quayside with some force. Miles joked that we couldn’t even leave as the impeller was still out of the engine !! Next day was clear and calm. Impeller pump in place we headed off back to Platarias, not much of a sail there as there was no wind, what a contrast to the night before. Once again we made an entrance with our attempt at mooring up, this time helped by a nice American. We had a nice night and although more storms were forecast they didn’t appear. Love Karen & Miles (shaken but not stirred) XXX
Saturday, 5 August 2006