Leonard Cohen Tribute at Preveza Jazz Festival

Three of the wonderful Leonard Cohen songs from the concert...
Suzanne

If it be your will

Dance me to the end of love

So happy we were there for this beautiful experience

PREVEZA JAZZ FESTIVAL, NEW GREEK CRUISING TAX AND WE ARE READY TO LAUNCH

 When posting the previous blog entry I had a problem which I have suffered before using the Google Blogger system, namely that whilst uploading photos (or videos – that was a first) into the blog those not loaded as the first batch cannot be added.

So in this blog post you can see the photos which were supposed to be in the previous post.

It was a good surprise to find that the Preveza Jazz Festival 17^th Edition was being held over the last weekend. It all happens free on a stage in front of the town hall, by the Town Quay where many yachts berth. We finished early and went on Saturday. The highlight was a Leonard Cohen tribute with his poetic songs being sung by three Greek women, each with lovely and very different voices.

I will post some  videos later.

A few more days of good weather have passed and Apataki is almost ready to launch. Final jobs are being done but this morning the new bow roller (for anchor chain) had not arrived from the inox (stainless steel) specialist.

My first cruising catamaran was the Heavenly Twins 26. We met Yves and his friends and looked over a late model Heavenly Twins 27, derived from the 26 and with raised coach-roof for more headroom. They set off to sail to France and have reached Corsica.

Greece has copied Croatia and introduced a Cruising Tax on visiting yachtsmen. We are an easy target as we are seen as the rich, but people cruise these waters in luxury and on a shoestring. This tax has been in the pipeline for about three years and it was launched at the last minute in time for this cruising season. Larger boats pay more. I paid 75 euros for the three months June, July and August. Boatyard neighbours and Facebook group members have had big problems in registering to pay the tax. One friend wasted 7 hours on-line without success before employing a local agent to do it for him. After three weeks of hard work and late nights I went to Sofia at Preveza All for Yachts and it was all speedily done for just 31.20 euros. That was surely money well spent and zero stress. We hear that the authorities are actively checking that boats have paid the tax so can cruise without fear.

Kiwi neighbour Don came over to fit the battery monitor for me which was a big priority for this summer. Now I can see what is coming in and going out of the batteries.

Finally after a few reminders Yard owner Dimitri delivered the new bow roller and heavy rains followed. It will be fitted on Tuesday and we have put the launch back until Wednesday. It is good to be in the boat during heavy rain to identify where water comes in and so be able to rectify it.

A few more images...

PREPARING THE BOAT IN GREECE

Each year some maintenance and preparation of any boat is needed before going sailing. Followers of our adventures and blog will know that APATAKI is a 1980 production Havcat 27 catamaran from Denmark designed by Lars Oudrup. She was moored afloat in Marina di Ragusa, Sicily, Italy during winter 2017 / 2018 before we sailed her last year to Greece.

The major work this year is renewing the copper based anti-fouling paint below the waterline. This system was applied to the boat in 2000 by the previous owner and apart from a few top-ups and some cleaning while swimming, it has been a great long term system. Regular antifouling needs to be applied each year or two years and actually the economics favour the long life of the copper system against the cheaper but annual or bi-annual coating of the “conventional” type.

My work has been to sand the old layers back with a grinder / sander I bought here in Greece to expose the copper colour to which the new paint will adhere. It is really hard work and I could only do about two hours a day for a few days. It is necessary to wear masks for nose and eyes as a lot of “dust” is flying around the face.

Once the surface is prepared it is necessary to apply 5 coats in a day and I was recommended to paint just one hull at a time. The product has a base, hardener and much heavy copper powder. I was recommended to mix half of a pack at a time as it goes hard and can’t be applied. Even halves were too much so I went to thirds but without measures it is difficult to judge the quantities.

Including final preparation and masking the line I spent almost 7 hours with minimal breaks to paint the first hull. My body needed a rest after such hard physical work at the bottom of the boat so the second hull followed a few days later.

Other painting is needed too. I prepared the deck area for Anita to paint pale grey as she did not like the pale blue which needed refreshing anyway. 

We found a paint shop which mixes colours and asked them to add the non-slip which I have. Other paints of the boat need refreshing too. The construction is fibreglass but after 25 years the gel coat was looking tired so I started painting. I use one pot paints which have shorter life than two pot (with hardener) but they are so much easier to use in hot temperatures.

The problem is that once started the fresh paint stands out from the older so we worked day after day until about 90% of outside surfaces have been refreshed.

Christopher came to help us one day as promised, cleaning up or replacing battery terminals and other points of corrosion. Unfortunately the following day Tim, the owner of the boat he was working on, arrived and they worked flat out so we did not see Chris again until last Sunday, the day of European Parliament elections, when I drove under the river tunnel, normally 3 euros each way, free of charge to get him, then his tools, and to take him back. Lucky it was the toll free day to allow people to vote.  This time he worked on leaking taps, sink drains and the autopilot which seems to be functioning again after we hand steered all of last year.

Personal issues have surfaced in his life so the important tasks of fitting and wiring the battery monitor, and some power improvements, and some finishing of fibre-glass work remain undone.  I hope we will find a live-aboard with the right skills to do the wiring we need in an anchorage somewhere for a few euros. Budget does not allow for these tasks to be done by the boatyard or their contractors.

At the start we were hampered by bad weather, but since then most days have been dry and sometimes windy so the hard work continued until late into the evening as sunset moves close to 9 pm.

We are scheduled to launch on Tuesday 4 June if the new bow roller / anchor equipment is delivered in time. It seems the Greek style is to promise work without checking whether an outside contractor has the ability to do it in the desired time scale. A few other small jobs were done by the yard who really specialise in lifting and storing yachts more than active works.

This has been a hard few weeks of physical work, but as the boat looks better day by day that encourages us to keep pushing forward. An afternoon siesta most days gave the body much needed relaxation.

A couple of times we went into Preveza town for a break

The still photos for this blog I will post separately as for some reason I can't load then having loaded the videos !!

DRIVING IN GREECE IGOUMENITSA to PREVEZA

We snatched some sleep on the Grimaldi Ferry, as well as crossing a time zone Eastwards. 

The public address system announced our imminent arrival in Igoumenitsa and vehicle passengers were summoned to their vehicles. Dawn was breaking and clouds hung low around the mountains after the night of rain. Once trucks had left the ferry the smaller vehicles on the top deck were able to drive down the two ramps and onto the land. Going down the top ramp was no problem. Italy and Greece are both countries in the Schengen agreement so there were no formalities. 

It was still only about 7 am on Sunday morning and the roads were quiet. We followed the partially coast road south stopping a couple of times to admire the view. The sea was rough and one yacht was motoring south.

It was especially interesting to see the Archeron River delta where the river from mythology, like River Styx, is an entry to the underworld, the kingdom of the dead.   We could see places where we had anchored or walked during last summer’s sailing cruise.

The distance was short, about 84 km but after little sleep I was happy we did not have to go far as I was feeling sleepy.

We arrived at Camping Village Kalamitsi Beach, pitched our tent, took a shower and went to sleep after a delicious porridge.

The next day was Monday so we went to inspect the boat at the boatyard and start cleaning up. The winter cover had blown to shreds and some rain water was inside the boat, as usual during winter with heavy rains.

We met our neighbour at the campsite, Christopher, a young “veteran” from the US Army. At 19 he had enthusiastically enlisted to fight the good US causes but after tours in Afganistan and Iran was dismissed on medical grounds with psychological traumas, and a small pension. That was the best thing to happen to me he said. He has become conscious to fact that the US “wars” are to protect their commercial interests, and he is a gentle, sensitive man who is not suited to fighting.

Chris, like us, was there to prepare for sailing with an English “veteran” and paraplegic, Tim who bought a 43’ yacht. Chris will do much of the work to prepare the boat when Tim is away and in any spare time Chris will help us too. The two “Vets” will link with others around the world on their proposed circumnavigation and encourage them to be active and adventurous, and take them out sailing.

He was very happy to drink “tea” prepared by Anita from natural ingredients she had picked in nature plus fresh ginger and turmeric.

The view south to Levkas and the beautiful cruising area of "Inland Sea" lies beyond.

 The snake had shed it's skin

We had picked up two 10 kg bags of Siamese cat food in Italy, also some deck cushions for Peter and Annelise. They arrived in their boat at Preveza Town Quay and we were able to deliver the packages and enjoy a chat with wine in their cockpit in the late evening sun.

The weather was varied with rain on most days. We were paying 20 euros a night at the campsite to be in a tent which we consider to be high, comparing with other countries but that rate comes with our ACSI card. The full rate would be 25 euros. I asked the Italian owner if we could have more discount to stay longer. She did not agree so we paid her 80 euros for 4 nights instead of a proposed 200 and moved onto the boat. I don’t think she understands business as we paid her 120 euros less than we offered!! 600 euros a month for two people, hot showers and a tent… we could rent a flat here for half of that.

We moved to the boatyard and the amazing “million dollar” view from our cockpit.

 Green smoothie time

and in Preveza town

Our journey through Italy and 3 ferries took 10 days.