First and last week in our beloved Greece

 So what happened chronologically anyway:
We left Israel on Sunday, August 8th. After a night in Napfleon (a sweet town in the Peloponnese) for the boat administration, we continued to Kilada, Ester's shipyard location. In April 2021, due to the Corona closure, we spent quite a bit of time there taking care of the boat instead of sailing. The city itself is not that great, a little shabby. On the other hand, the view is amazing and the closed bay is protected on all sides and very beautiful. On land the temperatures were inhuman. The gauge in the car we rented reached up to 48 degrees (not in the shade) but felt like 50 .. The goal is to prepare the boat for going into the water as early as possible the next day, on the other hand not to work in the hot hours. We drove to Ermioni, a lovely town a 20 minute drive away, well worth a visit. This is the place we prefer to stay, while Ester is in Kiladas' shipyard. We decided to work towards sunset and early morning. The work we did in April allowed us to get organized relatively quickly which included installing sails, massive shopping, water refills, some cleaning, and haide! The next day at 10 a.m. Ester went down to the water. Always an exciting, happy and also stressful moment. Only after placing it in the water you can run the engine and check that it works. At this point we are still tied to the crane, throttle forward in neutral, 10 seconds of pushing a button, and ... there! The engine starts and the splashing of the engine cooling water in the happiest noise I have ever heard.
Trying for the first time to upload a video - Ester is led on a crane from the boat yard to the water.

Just in case it did not turn out well in the video, a picture of the crane

We part from the crane and sail to the heart of the bay. There is no shortage of additional tests before setting off. One of them, checking the dinghy engine, the rubber dinghy with which we go down to land, when we are not moored in the marina. We always try to be on anchor. Much more pleasant, calm, quiet and cheap :-) Plus, much less hot. A light breeze that blows most of the day and night, and lots of jumps into the water to revive the soul. From that moment on, our situation is much better. Even if there are glitches, and as I promised in the previous post there were, we are on the sea. And this is just the beginning ....

Sunset on Kilada, finally from the bay when we are in the water.
The kind of things you see from here and not from there. A bit reminiscent of India, no?

So here's a series of glitches that were discovered an hour after we went down into the water in Kilada Bay:

1. Dingy engine not working. We found a mechanic, repair took two days…

2. Water desalinator not working, chapeau to  Udi that diagnosed correctly a pump that broke down, found a replacement and repaired (not trivial, this is a complex system).

3. Water we filled in the shipyard is very salty, non-drinkable and difficult to remove salt from bathing with (will be treated with the help of the desalinator and the next mooring place).

I think this is the first series. Not a bad crop for the first hour ...

On Thursday we finally set out in the direction of Pilos, the point of departure from Greece. It is not necessary to sign passports but to sign boat documents. First cruise day after almost a year. Not a good start… We lifted sails and enjoyed a perfect cruise until a string burst, one that allows the main sail to roll back into the boom. Necessary, but not critical. You can lower a sail in a hurry and tie it. But, Udi  gets on board and replaces a torn rope with a new rope while sailing. Grandma and kids do not worry, Dad is tied in these situations with a harness to a strap that is stretched on the deck. We continue happily. Checking the desalinator, it works but not for drinking water level. Was expected, so we set up in advance a colon that waited for this moment. Will be addressed later. Then - if you look at the map you will see that before the first night mooring we surround the first finger of the Peloponnese. We knew in advance that the wind would increase in the "cape" area. Before we arrived, as we got closer the wind increased, and we greatly reduced the size of the sails. At some point a very strong gust came, and we realised we had to lower sails and take control of the steering wheel. The wind reached up to 40 knots! The is the strongest that we experienced (trying not to go out to sea in winds exceeding 20-25 knots), not recommended (family, not dangerous!). At the same time we received a live demonstration, what happens when you do not reduce sail in time. we saw a sailboat next to us that struggles with the wind with a sail that is probably torn / stuck in the open position. Not nice…

We went through this challenge whole and safe, and so we accumulated a second lesson, in a situation we had not yet been to.

End of day mooring on a tiny island called Alfonisos.

Added to the grocery list of faults, our batteries behave strangely and do not charge in the way we expected according to the voltmeter and current. A little worrying. We will follow tomorrow.

Friday, some rest from new mishaps, wonderful and calm sailing. The batteries are not right… a little worrying. It did not stop us from celebrating the first Friday of our trip in a charming restaurant where we picked up 9 years ago, in our six-month trip, Alon and Michal, dear friends from work, on Rosh Hashana (the Jewish new year). Documentation of the meeting and two weeks sailing together in the previous blog. We showered, got dressed, I in my best clothes (not anything really fancy…) and went down to the beach for a fine seafood meal! A fun opening to what I hope will become a tradition whenever possible, a good Friday dinner! During the afternoon and evening, conversations with the children and Shabbat Shalom wishes, to those who are available. Those who do not, receive a message and contact us when possible.

Circle the fingers of the Peloponnese from Kilada to Pilos.

The right finger is decorated with lines - the area of the crazy winds

Another day of fine sailing brought us on Saturday evening to Pilos, a city we remember very well thanks to the beautiful bay, sweet city, and Babbis, the man and the legend… I wrote almost an entire post on Babbis in the previous blog, welcome to read, a lovely story. In short (for the sake of the lazy / too busy to switch between blogs), we found Babis in a dark store of "all kinds of items for farmers" in a big mess, in our search for a rubber sealer. We had a conversation that lasted several hours during which we heard his family story, among other things, and learned that he was the captain of huge cargo ships, and had to retire for family reasons. But the longing and love for the sea remained deep inside. Relieving longing and boredom during the long hours in the store, he became an obsessive collector of classical Greek music, from all sorts of eras and styles, including rare recordings. Everything is stored neatly on the computer in a collection of folders. A small portion transferred to us via USB, from which we acquired knowledge and familiarity with our favorite music. This time another crazy detail was added to the story, Babis set up an acoustic room in his house full of radios and systems that allow him to follow the ships he commanded during his years at sea .... Maybe I stimulated you enough to open the link to the relevant post from 9 years ago ...
In the previous round we reached Pilos in early September, out of season in torrential rain, and stayed 3 nights until the rage passed. We were two boats in a small port, made contact with a lovely Spanish couple (men). The town was quite sleepy then. This time it looks completely different. Turns out we fell on a holiday weekend in August, and the Greeks are celebrating as if there is no tomorrow and no Corona. The town square is crowded, children are running around, taverns are packed to capacity, the small port, the city pier and the bay are crowded. There is no chance of finding an electritian that will check the batteries until Monday. We enjoy the charming bay, the bustling square and life and evening and another evening of gyros.
This bay became famous thanks to a fascinating war story, which took place here in 1827 between the British navy and a combined navy of Turks and Egyptians, one of the highlights of the naval struggle for control of the Mediterranean, known to lovers of maritime history. In the Gulf there were 89 warships of the Egyptians and Turks, arranged in a circle. The British Admiral, under cover of darkness, entered the circle of enemy ships with 26 ships, and within four hours managed to sink the entire Turkish / Egyptian fleet in this "innocent" bay.
Some pictures from Pilos:

Stunning sunset in the Bay of Pilos

Towards sunset in the bay of Pilos
 against the backdrop of perforated cliffs
 that close the key of the bay to the open sea

Going for a visit at the town with the dinghy, the motorized rubber boat

Sunset from the fort that dominates the bay


Where is Udi?
A cool shop in a small alley that sells dolls
At noon, owners went for a traditional Greek nap
And the puppets shown remain outside
(Udi is not for sale!)

The end of the matter, an electrician arrived at Monday morning, said that the batteries needed to be replaced, drove an hour to Kalamata and an hour back. Vigorously took out and put in new batteries, and promised 10 years of battery life…

All that is left, is to make a bureaucratic exit from Greece and fill diesel tanks towards the crossing to Italy.
Diesel for the boat, also not a simple matter. Many places do not have a gas station and at best you can order a refueling truck. Here the business was not simple. For two days we tried to coordinate a truck. We did not need much, only 80 liters, but for a long voyage we wanted to set out with full tanks, being ready for all the trouble and wind that might not come. When we docked at the municipal pier to change batteries, a diesel tanker arrived at the neighbors' boat…

They ordered 20,000 liters !! I did not make a mistake with zeros. The truck came from Athens, especially for them. To be sure about the quality of diesel, they order from a specific gas station in Athens, and from there send trucks around Greece to meet them. So what's the problem with lending us 80 liters? The fuel pump fires at a rate of 250 liters per minute, just think how long it takes to fill 80 liters, and what would happen to the little Ester....
The amount of wealth reserved for certain people in the world is unbelievable…
Eventually, we were refueled at 7pm, returned to our spot in the bay, happy and kind-hearted, with full tanks and new batteries. Complete shopping and also ...
A quite large basil plant in a pot called the "baby" because it requires supervision and care, joined the journey. Hopefully we will find a mint friend.
Tomorrow early morning away to Italy :-)