Our journey back to Greece was a little meandering. We took in the Southampton Boat Show, a night with friends who were staying in the New Forest, horse riding in the New Forest – fantastic, but took me nearly 2 weeks to recover, due to not being on a horse for years and a couple of nights at Lake Garda.
Garda, which is in the north-east of Italy, just below Lake Como, is less touristy than Lake Como and extremely beautiful. It’s the largest of Italy’s fresh water lakes, some 30 
miles long, stretching from north to south and from 1 -10 miles across and incredibly deep in parts – 350meters. The southern lakeshore is low, rolling land and fairly built-up. In contrast, the dramatic fjord-like northern end is surrounded by towering mountains and cliffs. Most of the lakeside towns are popular holiday resorts; and differ in character. We stayed at the south east corner in Garda itself. Spring and autumn are the best times to visit as it apparently gets very busy during the high season. We had a very pleasant couple of days there, lovely sunshine during the day, fantastic food in the evenings and were treated to a FREE live Jazz night, unexpected and very good.
Back in Lefkas we got straight back to work on Summertime and have been putting in some very long days, trying to get her finished by the end of the year. We may be over optimistic with that but that’s what we’re aiming for. Her bottom had 7 coats of Epoxy over a period of 4 days a couple of weeks ago, with just 3 of us doing it; it’s a long way round a 47 foot boat with each coat. We were mightily knackered at the end of the week!! But her bottom looks lovely. Right now we’re concentrating on woodwork inside particularly for me varnishing and there’s lots of it!!
We had some sad news a couple of weeks after arriving back in Lefkas, our beautiful dog Lewie sadly had to be put to sleep following a stroke. Lewie had been staying with our brilliant friends John and Janet since we
’ve been out here and it was very upsetting for them to have to deal with poor Lewie and heartbreaking for us not being there when it happened. I have the photo shown here of Lewie on my desktop, it’s so realistic that for the last year that it’s been there I mentally tickle him around his ears every time my computer is booting up. Now I do that with a heavy heart. We’d had Lewie from a puppy but unfortunately he hated the boat, if he hadn’t hated it with such a passion he would have been with us. He was a fantastic dog, loving and intelligent and will be sadly sadly missed.
On a more enjoyable note, the Winter Racing series has started again and last Sunday we had pe
rfect sailing conditions for the race north of the Island, sailing up to Prevesa and back for 2 laps. A longer race than normal, with it taking 1 ½ hours per lap, but was brilliant, not least because we were 2nd over the line and won by miles on corrected time. This year we’re sailing on a Dehler Optima 101, a bit bigger than the J24 we were on last year and a very good boat to sail. We’re hopeful we’ll be up there in the prizes at the end of the year.
miles long, stretching from north to south and from 1 -10 miles across and incredibly deep in parts – 350meters. The southern lakeshore is low, rolling land and fairly built-up. In contrast, the dramatic fjord-like northern end is surrounded by towering mountains and cliffs. Most of the lakeside towns are popular holiday resorts; and differ in character. We stayed at the south east corner in Garda itself. Spring and autumn are the best times to visit as it apparently gets very busy during the high season. We had a very pleasant couple of days there, lovely sunshine during the day, fantastic food in the evenings and were treated to a FREE live Jazz night, unexpected and very good.Back in Lefkas we got straight back to work on Summertime and have been putting in some very long days, trying to get her finished by the end of the year. We may be over optimistic with that but that’s what we’re aiming for. Her bottom had 7 coats of Epoxy over a period of 4 days a couple of weeks ago, with just 3 of us doing it; it’s a long way round a 47 foot boat with each coat. We were mightily knackered at the end of the week!! But her bottom looks lovely. Right now we’re concentrating on woodwork inside particularly for me varnishing and there’s lots of it!!
We had some sad news a couple of weeks after arriving back in Lefkas, our beautiful dog Lewie sadly had to be put to sleep following a stroke. Lewie had been staying with our brilliant friends John and Janet since we
’ve been out here and it was very upsetting for them to have to deal with poor Lewie and heartbreaking for us not being there when it happened. I have the photo shown here of Lewie on my desktop, it’s so realistic that for the last year that it’s been there I mentally tickle him around his ears every time my computer is booting up. Now I do that with a heavy heart. We’d had Lewie from a puppy but unfortunately he hated the boat, if he hadn’t hated it with such a passion he would have been with us. He was a fantastic dog, loving and intelligent and will be sadly sadly missed.On a more enjoyable note, the Winter Racing series has started again and last Sunday we had pe
rfect sailing conditions for the race north of the Island, sailing up to Prevesa and back for 2 laps. A longer race than normal, with it taking 1 ½ hours per lap, but was brilliant, not least because we were 2nd over the line and won by miles on corrected time. This year we’re sailing on a Dehler Optima 101, a bit bigger than the J24 we were on last year and a very good boat to sail. We’re hopeful we’ll be up there in the prizes at the end of the year.Next race is Round the Island. Last year it took us 27 agonising hours, this year we’re praying for a bit more wind, not too much though, it can get quite lumpy on the west side of the island being open sea all the way to Italy!!
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