We are certainly taking advantage of every minute, even though preparing PACIFIC PEARL for our departure. The slideshow below shows more images of our splendid surroundings here....
Few more photos of this beautiful island which we love so much...taken this am out walking..8/25/2015 After an unsettled stormy weekend, the weather is now absolutely glorious, a fraction cooler thankfully......and, as tourists are now few and far between, life for us is perfect bliss! We are certainly taking advantage of every minute, even though preparing PACIFIC PEARL for our departure. The slideshow below shows more images of our splendid surroundings here....
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Yiannis Boutaris, the dynamic popular Mayor of Thessaloniki came over to chat recently, in French...we are anchored not far from his summer cottage. Then later on he returned with 4 bottles of wine from the family's Kir Yianni Estate in north western Greece, not far from Thessaloniki (the second largest city in Greece)...such a lovely gift from a very kind charming man....
Check out www.kiryianni.gr They also have a wine bar at Athens airport. Anchored just by us, our dear Canadian friends, Barb and Con, have experienced a very stressful week , not having a working motor on BIGSKY with family onboard!
Always so difficult to have technical problems, as we all well know!! However, an excellent local mechanic, Gerry, finally now has the boat on the move this afternoon.....fuel pump repaired, spare part sent down from Germany rapidly....as I write, they are actually doing a 'test run' with mechanic onboard. Bravo Gerry!! Huge thunderstorm last night, still overcast today....thankfully we did not budge, with 70 metres of chain out! The boat is nicely washed down after the heavy rain...certainly needed it! Another big meltemi blowing down through the Aegean, could blow again tonight, but we are nicely protected. Beautiful schooners slowly passing by .....the end of August is rapidly drawing closer....we are taking it slow, taking advantage of our final couple of weeks here in this extra special endroit.
Bruno completing jobs on his list before we sail off towards the southern Aegean. That's us towing BIGSKY last Friday.....we knew that Barb and Con, with family onboard, were casually cruising by the impressive monasteries near Mt Athos. But, late afternoon, we received an e mail informing us that they were very slowly sailing our way, as motor 'en panne'...not working at all, impossible to restart.....with NO WIND whatsoever, they would possibly be spending the night out there drifting around!
Bruno and I therefore decided to lift anchor and attempt to tow them in, which thankfully, all worked beautifully as calm flat seas, but we did arrive in the dark after a spectacular sunset 'en route'. As we have been in this anchorage all summer, it was not a problem ....then we managed to assist Barb and Con to set their anchor securely by pulling Bigsky in reverse, which weighs by the way 34 tonnes!! (Pacific Pearl is 15) However, of course it was Saturday the 15th August...THE biggest weekend of the summer and a public holiday, so absolutely impossible to organise a mechanic until the beginning of the week. In the meantime, Tony 'Ron Glas' helped Con to diagonise the problem....'a suivre' after the mechanic's visit tomorrow........ UPDATE 20th August...apparently the problem is in the fuel pump, new part being sent down from Germany....today? tomorrow? Con kindly invited us all (Ron Glas, Elsa May & Pacific Pearl) over to the local taverna for dinner on the 15th to celebrate their wedding anniversary..so kind of you...merci beaucoup! Great night! Below, an extract from this morning's long article in the 'GUARDIAN'... the situation sounds like it is becoming dangerously 'out of control', especially on the island of Kos...so very sad. Especially as here, we are well away from these problems, enjoying our delightful summer vacances....will a solution be found for these poor migrants? "Having made the short boat crossing from Turkey to the EU, the refugees have been frustrated to find themselves essentially trapped on the Greek islands. Authorities are attempting to register them all before they are taken to Athens and tacitly allowed to move onwards through Europe.
But due to the unprecedented scale of the crisis, Greek police have been unable to process them fast enough, leading to bottlenecks on islands such as Kos. At times, the authorities have been unable to supply enough food and do not have enough space to house so many migrants, with more than 1,000 new arrivals landing from Turkey every morning. The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, said last week that the country, already battling an economic crisis, lacks the infrastructure to also deal with a migration crisis." SO privileged to be invited to NIKI & JOHN's enchanting summer hideaway on the island....wonderful people! Last Sunday evening, with our group of friends here, we enjoyed farewell drinks on PACIFIC PEARL for Will & Carole, MUSKRAT, who departed yesterday >> > Sporades. We will catch up with you in September......enjoy your family! BRAVO....WE HAVE JUST WATCHED THE WALLABIES (the AUSTRALIAN RUGBY UNION TEAM) BEAT THE NEW ZEALANDERS....huge effort as the NZ team is practically unbeatable!
On the boat at anchor, via internet! Not bad! Next Saturday, the return match will be played in Auckland...maybe not the same story?? UPDATE .....Australia were well beaten in the return match!! Flag taken down immediately!! The weather is very sultry and steamy.....last evening, we had the most spectacular thunder and lightning show...too close for comfort! That is us above..photo taken by Barb and Con on BIGSKY anchored nearby. Difficult photo to catch, but shows that we were not far....actually we were surrounded by it all, finishing off with short flashes of wind up to 49 knts and heavy rain, BUT all over in 2 hours...thank goodness.
At least the boat had an excellent fresh water wash down! Possibly more thunderstorms around tonight and over the coming weekend.... |
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