We need to make some plans for work and maintenance over the winter, so where else would we go but Nidri, which seems to have become our base. We’re also hoping to meet up with Phil again to talk more about the design of our new gantry.
We leave Preveza at 1230 after filling up with diesel from the mini-tanker that drives along the quay. In light NE winds we unfurl the Genny and motor sail down to the Lefkas canal, going through the bridge at 1400hrs. A short, gentle sail once we’re through the canal and we drop anchor in Tranquil Bay, Nidri at 1650.
The next day we move onto the IBA Pontoon, having arranged for Phil to come and show us his initial design. We’ve got lots of questions for him about the dinghy hoisting arrangements, the solar panel sizes, where the passerelle will mount etc. etc. He’s very friendly, straightforward and easy to deal with and his experience in such designs is invaluable. He constantly finds ways of improving the design to make it more practical and more aesthetically pleasing.
Meanwhile, the talk among cruisers is now all focused on the extreme weather that’s forecast for next Tuesday onwards. Like many others, we book onto the pontoon for Tuesday to Thursday to avoid being caught up in the mayhem of boats dragging through anchorages. And Nidri’s normally pretty well protected, even with some NE gusts. With prevailing winds from the North West, there are notably few obvious choices round here for good shelter from North Easterlies.
We start talking to IBA about asking them to look after LouLouDitsi over the winter when she’s ashore in Cleopatra. Mike & Mary used to put her to bed and leave her, but there was more water in the bilge than usual when we all arrived out here in April. And we still have leaks when it rains. Although it feels as though we’ve only just got back, shockingly we are less than 4 weeks from our lift out date. We go back to making copious To Do Lists. . . . And watching those wind charts . . .