14th – 17th April
Leaving the bosom of Bosham, we took the late night BA flight from Heathrow to Athens. After four hours in the airport, with unsuccessful attempts to snooze on a bench, we were eventually transported by Aegean Air to Samos where we arrived exhausted. We were met at the airport by the car hire guy, Vasili, jumped into a tiny Skoda and headed off to the marina, arriving before 8 a.m. Everything was closed, even Marco’s café, so we went into Pythagoria for coffee. Back to the marina which was now waking up and Dimitris told us there were at least two boats ahead of us to launch. Gabriel, the yard manager, kindly decided that we would be launched first so that we could get on with the work of getting Dreamcatcher back together again. With my eyes barely open, I had to manoeuvre out of the launching bay and into a marina berth with a cross wind – miraculously without an hitch and with much praise from Michaelis!
We took a decision a few years ago to replace or upgrade all the important parts of Dreamcatcher. As well as the usual maintenance, this winter Zlatko overhauled the steering, dropped the rudder and replaced the pins. Gregori and his brother Kaleanthis replaced the main in-mast furling gear. Peter replaced a section of the wooden toe rail under the starboard aft cleat to stiffen it up as it had become loose.
Having not spent a winter in Samos Marina before, we were so happy and relieved to see that all of these jobs had been done really well. It is a joy to have a relationship with each individual who works on the boat so that we can communicate directly and avoid misunderstandings. Other marinas employ their own staff and any works have to be organised through the office. Much of the detail gets lost in translation. The job is never quite what was expected and often a lot more expensive than the estimate.
There was some finishing off to do of the woodwork which was installed in stages so that the Sikoflex could go off before the final finishing. Then, of course we discovered some new SNAFUs – the two year old water pump failed, the generator wouldn’t start and the Frigoboat seemed to have leaked all its freon away. Thank God for Zlatko who made these problems his priority so that we could get away.
Later, the Greek Gods, Gregori and K, arrived and David expected to help them carry the enormously heavy Genoa from the car down the long jetty. Greg hefted it onto his shoulder and strode confidently along, across the passerelle and onto the foredeck. With sails on in a twinkle, we celebrated the new furling gear which can now be operated by hand without the use of a winch. Another huge improvement in addition to the new genoa furler which we replaced last year. There is nothing more scary than not being able to reduce sail if these bits of kit fail. We had taken them for granted until we had a problem last year. A even more terrifying situation might be losing your rudder. So we now feel much safer on both these counts.
We splashed out this year and engaged Cleopatra to clean the interior. What a wonder! Three hours of work that we didn’t have to do and a good job in difficult circumstances as the boat was unexpectedly in a great muddle with Zlatko working down below.
Having arrived on Monday morning, we were ready to leave by Thursday lunchtime after Yiannis rigged up a temporary shower switch in the master head. This had been forgotten but was not a huge job – it needs to be replaced properly in the summer.
This was only a day behind our best hopes. Our plan is to celebrate Easter in Patmos. After the delay, we would miss the Good Thursday ceremony of the washing of feet by the head priest of the monastery of Saint John the Evangelist. So we decided to take our time and spend the night in Arki instead.
Dreamcatcher Log 