The Evia Channel and Hauling Out

It was time to move into the Evia Channel, the area between the eastern side of mainland Greece and the large island of Evia.  We had arranged to haul out Songster at a boatyard, called the Boat Club, situated halfway up the channel.  It may seem counter-intuitive to haul out our boat during the peak summer months of July and August.  However those months are quite hot in Greece, the fierce meltemi winds blow for days on end and the charter fleets swarm all the anchorages and harbours.  We prefer to avoid all that and do some land travel to cooler climes.  So our spring sailing season was drawing to a close.

We had a good sail from Kea to Porto Rafti on the mainland then stopped at some delightful anchorages on the west coast of Evia.  We took note to return to these places at the end of August when we return from our land travels.

 

 

Some of the pretty anchorages on the west coast of Evia

 On our final day in the water, we motored up the Channel in a dead calm and picked up the mooring off the entrance to the Boat Club.  Early the next morning we were hauled out.  It all went well except the cradle used caused a bit of damage to the hull.  Fortunately nothing too major that a dab of gel coat repair couldn’t easily fix.  

The metal extenders to push the cradle into deep water

Fotis helping us winch Songster into the cradle

Metal extenders removed and we are towed into the yard

The proprietors of The Boat Club are delightful.  We were greeted warmly and while Petros and Fotis were blocking up Songster, Seya provided us with a much needed cup of coffee and some sweet breads for breakfast.

Our 'Welcome to the Boat Club' breakfast

The next week was spent getting Songster ready to be put to bed for 2 months.  There were two major jobs to do.  We had to order parts for the generator as its raw water pump was leaking and we needed a new mizzen sail made.  Both tasks were quite straightforward.  It is a real advantage to be only one hour from Athens.  The generator parts were couriered to us in 24 hours and a representative of Quantum sails came to the boat yard to give us a quote for a new sail.  The price was reasonable and we will pick up our new sail on our return in August.

Songster up on blocks

We spent the rest of the week cleaning, scrubbing and doing the odd repair and maintenance job. After an unusually cool and wet spring, summer has come to Greece with a vengeance.  The temperature was creeping up into the high 30’s all week and our last two days at the yard temperatures were over 40.  It was quite unbearable.  We would do our chores early in the morning then rest in front of a fan in the heat of the day, go for a swim in the late afternoon then finish up some other chores when it cooled down a bit around sunset.  Usually when we are on the hard we have no refrigerator.  Fortunately Bob had figured out a way to run our water-cooled refrigerator while on land using various hoses and buckets.  Also having the Boat Club right on a nice and popular beach was essential in the hot weather.

What we do for a cold beer!

Our beach at the Boat Club

So we said goodbye to Songster and Greece for a little while.  It has been a good spring season.  We did more miles this spring than all of last year.  We are getting much better at setting the sails and balancing Songster to sail at her best.  We still feel like newbies.  This sailing gig is an ongoing learning curve but the slope of that curve is beginning to get just a little bit flatter. 

 

Bye Greece - see you again in 6 weeks