Greece - Getting Back
Back again, it’s good to be back, warm days and nights, warm people, goat bells, creative street paving, toilet paper bins, whitewashed tree trunks, Greek flags a flying and the tomatoes… sunshine in every bite. We needed to get back to NOETA, VAT concerns aside, it had been 9 months and another 9 months would mean a year and half away from a significant asset rusting away in a boatyard.
We had planned to head over at the beginning of April but lockdown and closed borders meant we weren’t able to get connecting flights through to Leros until mid-July. Securing flights was an adventure, our bookings were cancelled three times and rebooking became somewhat of an art, making sure our transit times were short and overnights were in welcoming countries. It took us three days flying Tauranga-Auckland-Los Angeles-London-Frankfurt-Athens-Leros through empty cavernous airport terminals, everyone keeping a safe distance, face masks de rigeur. Our biggest challenge was getting food and drink in the airports; all were down to one terminal and most shops, cafes, bars were closed, some may never open again…
LAX was a new PB - 1 hour through immigration, baggage claim, security, customs.
We landed down in Leros on July 14, our rental car was waiting, and we went straight to the boatyard; it was great to see everyone again! Big pats for Bella and Ralph. They had had some big storms in June and although we thoroughly cleaned her before we left we came back to rust and dust. The airport is literally over the fence from the boatyard and every now and then you hear sirens – fire engines deployed to clear the runway of crows before planes leave and arrive. We noticed the sirens were becoming more frequent, more planes arriving every week.
We had booked accommodation for 2 nights at Elpiniki, a lovely private hotel up the hill from Alinda beach, run by Elpiniki and her son Dimitrios. It was very basic, self-catering supplemented by the daily gifts from Elpiniki – melon, dessert, moussaka, melon… As it turned out, NOETA was going to take longer than couple of days to ready, so 10 nights later we moved onto NOETA in the dusty, hot, windy boatyard, the 3 metre ladder keeping us agile.
It was great having a car and we made frequent trips back and forth to Lakki and Blefoutis. Lakki, 20 minutes - a haircut for the Captain was a priority as was a mirror for the first mate 1400 x 300 mm. Blefoutis, 10 minutes - a sheltered swimming bay tucked behind the military base and a perfect way to wash off the boatyard dust at the end of the day. I had been swimming daily in Lake Rotoiti for several months, the temperature was getting down to 14°C, it literally does take your breath away, so suddenly swimming in water above 20°C was effortless.
COVID means that it will most likely be just us this year which was why it was great to have a lovely week or so playing with the Mons, past and present. Tony and Janet had flown up from Auckland to hand over Mon Desir to new owner and very fine Scotsman, Stuart Campbell, drink a few G&Ts with the odd shot of tequila thrown in, before winging their way back to 2 weeks managed isolation, it was sad saying goodbye, we had fun.
After 2 weeks of unpacking, cleaning, provisioning, retrofitting our new 57kg Mantus anchor, finding and fixing the leak in the anchor locker, replacing our halyard with 12mm Dyneema, and waiting for our new silicon antifoul to dry, it was off to Lakki to visit Ria at Customs and the police to reinstate our Transit Log and pay for our Cruising Permit, then au revoir to our friends at Artemis Leros Boatyard.
Wednesday July 29th dawned a beautiful, calm day and our third season began….southwards to Rhodes!