Four men and one women in a little boat

You might remember that I mentioned we were going to be doing the ‘Round the Island’ race on the J24, well we completed that marathon last weekend. You might also remember I described the J24, as a race boat with NO creature comforts, so it did turn out to be a bit of an ordeal!!

We started early Saturday morning in gloomy weather, with a forecast of rain and winds up to force 5. At least we'd be going fast if the forecast was right. We motored up to the top of the island through the floating bridge and got ourselves ready for the start. It was going to be a spinnaker start - always interesting.

We got away pretty good in light winds and were soon up in 4th place. After a couple of hours the wind died, then we got very light wind, then it died, then it picked up a little, then it died, then it picked up a little, then it died - get the picture - it was like that for the next 14 HOURS!! We had spells of lovely sunshine but mostly cloud, not overly warm as you’ll see from the piccies, we’re all in wet weather gear. We rounded the bottom of the south west tip of the island in the last of the daylight and sailed agonisingly along the bottom of the island to the Meganissi Channel. North now up the Channel and we did have some wind for about an hour, enough to get us up near Nidri. From then on it was painfully slow all the way to the finish and Ligia. We crossed the finish line around 3 am Sunday morning. I for one had lost the will to live by then and just wanted my bed!!

How did we do?? Surprisingly well, we crossed the line in 4th place and thought we probably would get 3rd on corrected time. We were right, we did get 3rd, we were only 17 seconds behind the 2nd place after 16 hours of sailing. Frustrating or what!

It was definitely one of those races best looked at after the event but needless to say we won’t be doing it again on that boat.

Have a look at the piccies from the race here

Pictures of the Summertime refit here there are a lot of pictures in this slideshow now and it takes a while to load so you'll have to be patient :-)

Autumn in the Marina

Although you wouldn't know it by the temperatures, (in the mid to high 20's every days for the last 3 weeks) Autumn has arrived in the Marina. Within the Marina all the flotilla boats have been put to bed and the busiest place is in the yard. Lots of boat owners are doing all those little jobs before the weather really changes and they feel more like spending time in the pubs.

The flamingoes have arrived from wherever they have spent the summer along with the pelicans, herons and cranes. It amazes me the variety of bird life around this island.

Autumn was also celebrated with a pontoon party, where all the new comers had an opportunity to meet each other and those of us who have been here one or more winters.

We're busy everyday on Summertime and work is visually leaping ahead now after seemingly many hours of work that is covered up. I'll be putting a link to the Summertime slide show at the end of each of the entries from now on if for anyone interested in seeing what we're up to when we're working.

Today (Sunday) we had race practice on the J24, the boat we'll be crewing on for the winter series. We're a United Nations boat, 2 brits, me the Kiwi and 2 Swedes. Our first race is round the island next weekend, which could turn out to be a rather cold as it will take us a minimum of 12 hours to complete and probably longer. The boat has NO toilet, NO sleeping room and NO means of heating water or food - watch this space to see how we managed to survive the ordeal!!

Monday is the start of the Marina radio net which I've volunteered to do once a week. it helps keep everyone abreast of whats going on in the social scene in the Marina. So with my keep fit and daily cycle rides around the lagoon I'm having a busy time.

Pictures of autumn in the Marina here

Pictures of the Summertime refit here there are a lot of pictures in this slideshow now and it takes a while to load so you'll have to be patient :-)