Today was a busy day! As you may recall, we have an obnoxious squeak on the port (left) stabilizer and a leak that has gone from slight to more serious on the starboard (right) side. The necessary parts arrived this morning, and by 1000 the repair guys were working away. They started on the starboard side. The leak was coming from Continue reading
Our flight back to Crete was at 0530, which meant we were up at 0245 and out the door by 0330. We were surprised that the bus to the airport was full. Early morning flights must be common. Flying with a sinus infection is not fun. We were back to Kosmos by 0800. Christi self-medicated and went to bed. It has been 4 days now, and except for occasionally rousing for food and restroom, she has stayed in bed pretty much the entire time.
While Christi slept, Eric worked on a few chores around the boat, including fixing some chips in the gel coat, more cleaning in the engine room, trying again to hunt down the exact spot of the starboard stabilizer leak (it is somewhere near, or at, the locking pin or the cylinder), and the never ending task of organizing. A Nordhavn 57 pulled into the marina the day we got back from Athens. It is always fun to find a fellow Nordhavn on our travels. Eric spent some time chatting with the owner and helping him with some boat maintenance and repair issues. But Eric spent the vast majority of his time on the most important task of all: complete the quest in his video game, Oblivion. He is pleased to report he finished his game and saved the world.
We figure now is a good time to get caught up on our food reporting. We tried a dish called seafood saganaki. We were expecting the battered, pan fried cheese topped with seafood. We were very surprised when out came something akin to a stew with a rich tomato sauce. It was really good.
Another staple of Greece is souvlaki, which the rest of the world calls kebabs. Pictured here is a souvlaki sandwich, on pita bread, topped with tomato, onion and French fries.
We tried a dish that consisted of Continue reading
First thing this morning, we called to check status on our bag. Yes, they would ship it a second time. It would go out today, to be delivered tomorrow to the front desk of the hotel, where someone was always on duty. It didn’t sound like they were going to charge us for the shipping. We had the front desk talk to the agent to confirm shipping details. We went to the front desk later in the day and told the next crew to be expecting our bag tomorrow.
Thanks to guidance from one of the dive crew, we found a tour company that offered tours to Luxor. Two good things today! It is a group tour package, with bus, tour guide, hotel, food and admission to attractions. While it is no by means cheap, it is probably overall less expensive than the “limo” when you factor in hotel, food, etc. The tour leaves the day after tomorrow, so we booked another dive trip for tomorrow.
We got to work on chores. Eric gave Kosmos a Continue reading
When we got up in the morning, the wind still hadn’t changed. We didn’t even contemplate re-anchoring in another spot for a couple of reasons. One, we wanted to check out and we needed to be here to do so, and two, if we were to move, we would probably have to pay that $500 fee. At least staying here we may be able to get out of it.
We bit the bullet and got to work on getting ready for sea, despite the rocking. We had originally planned to leave today, but it wasn’t going to happen. There was too much to do between getting the boat ready and errands. Plus, the wind was coming from wrong direction, so it would be a rough ride. The weather forecast still said nice weather with occasional localized storms, so hopefully by tomorrow this crazy “localized storm” will have cleared up and it’ll be a nicer ride.
By late morning, the winds calmed down to the low teens, but it was still rollier than we are comfortable in. Claire from Fafner came over and changed the navigation light for us. She is a brave (or maybe crazy) girl, climbing up there in less than ideal conditions. We thought changing the light bulb would be easy, but it turned out to be something of a puzzle box getting the cover off. After sitting up there in the rocking for a long time and after lot of tries with assorted tools, Claire finally located the hidden magic screw that held the cover in place. The light bulb was quickly changed and the cover replaced. Thank you Claire!
In the afternoon, Claire and Jeff went to shore. Since Alex and Karen were staying behind, they offered to give us a ride. Even with the calmer winds, the seas were rough. Our first stop was an Internet café we heard had a fast connection, called Shell. They served food, but it was Continue reading
Yesterday, we spent the day doing chores. Eric changed the engine oil on the main engine and repaired the broken bilge pump. It turned out the intake valve inside the pump was broken. Fortunately, we have a rebuild kit on board. We also heard back from American Bow Thruster, who said there wasn’t much we could do about the stabilizer squeaking. Eric also thinks he has figured out the problem with the secondary autopilot. He thinks there is a loose connection somewhere, because the computer seems to lose communication. And to round off the repairs, Eric is now 100% sure that the issue with the inverter is simply a matter of one of the lines of LCD screen going bad and that the inverter itself is fine.
In the evening we had our heroine and Johan over for dinner as a way to thank them both for their hospitality to us. The dinner conversation was once again fascinating and we had a wonderful time with our guests. We have to say that through these two people we have really gained a lot of insight into the culture. Since both of them had to work the next day, it wasn’t a late night. One thing worth mentioning is that school is taught in English, which is why most people’s English is so darn good. The native tongue of the land is called Dhivehi, a derivative of the Indian Sanskirt language. Another item of interest is that neither of them could explain to us the significance of yesterday’s holiday.
Today, Eric went diving with the same dive shop. Christi couldn’t go because her ear was still infected. Both were drift dives along a wall, on the west side of Male near Garbage Island (yes, the dump). The first dive had Continue reading