On Wednesday morning, we wave Stella off for Athens and I discover that the truck missed the Tuesday night ferry from Italy, so it’s now expected on Thursday. The pontoon is full and there’s a boat booked in that hasn’t arrived yet, who will need our space. We’ll need to anchor off – probably. The wind decides to get up unexpectedly and we’re distracted helping fend off some of the boats on the other side of the pontoon, which are being blown on. Somehow, the lazylines aren’t quite where they need to be and the large yacht on the outer end has an engine problem, otherwise that would’ve helped keep it off. In the meantime, each gust sends all the yachts shifting sideways. When they’re finally secure, we go back to fret in our cockpit – with the strong gusts, it’s not an ideal time to leave the pontoon and find a spot to anchor in the, now very busy, bay. “If we have to, we can do it” I chant to myself at regular intervals. I bob up and down, looking for boats coming in from the dark sea and sky outside the entrance – “there are 2 coming in , no, it’s alright, they’ve both got their anchor lockers up. There’s another coming in, but he’s towing his dinghy, so he’s probably not coming on here” – please, please, let the boat booked into ‘our’ space have stayed put, wherever they are. Neighbouring boats are on the beers, wine and G&Ts, but we’re sticking to water and tea in case we need our wits about us. Finally, at about 7.30pm, Richard goes along the pontoon, noting all the names of the boats there for the night. He’s about to clock off, so even if the other boat arrived late, there wouldn’t be anyone to berth them. We’re OK to stay. Exhausted, we have a simple meal and an early night.
On Thursday morning, a text confirms that the truck made last night’s ferry and is expected in Nidri about 1300hrs. The pontoon is fully booked for tonight and we have to leave by midday. We anchor opposite in Tranquil Bay and immediately get a text saying the truck is at Avram Builders’ yard and can we all make our way there in 30 mins. We launch the dinghy, lower the outboard, and go ashore to look for the mattress. IBA are really busy and there’s no-one free to take a van up there today. We set off up the road out of town in the midday heat and eventually see a lorry parked outside a builders’ merchant. A forklift’s unloading something and we ask the driver about our mattress. As he walks us up to the cab to consult his list, we see it, already unloaded on the verge – a large plastic wrapped 30kg package labelled very clearly SY LOULOUDITSI. We sign for it and realise that, even separted into 2 loads, there’s no way we can carry it back.
The driver waves us into the office and we explain, with very little common language, that we’d like him to store it somewhere dry for us until tomorrow. He sends the forklift out to the lorry again and we carefully lift the mattress onto it. With much miming, we all agree on a space among pallets in a barn type structure and the mattress sits on blocks to protect it from any rain water on the ground. We walk back to the quay and dinghy back to the boat. On Wednesday, the mattress was at sea while we were on the pontoon. Now, we’re anchored in the bay while the mattress is firmly ashore. So near, and yet so far. In the back of my mind are 2 more questions – Will it be comfortable after all this? Will it fit? I adopt the Scarlett O’Hara approach – I won’t think about that now, I’ll think about that tomorrow….