Epiphany

Jan 6th is the next biggest day in the Greek orthodox calendar after Easter. They believe this was the day Jesus was born and celebrate as such. In addition to the normal Church services they have 'Diving for the Cross' and 'Blessing the Oranges'.

Both these events take place on the outskirts of Lefkas Town and it's attended by hundreds of people. The Priests process through the town from the Churches, marching bands make much noise to announce the fact that they're on their way and everyone is gathered on the Town Quay and across the bridge ready for the happening. This year they decided to put all the Priests and dignitaries onto a Coast Guard vessel and do their bit from the water. That in itself was a giggle as they all move over to one side of the boat to watch what was going on - see piccies. A dozen young guys all line up and get their kit off ready to jump in and retrieve the cross that the priest is going to through in. You'll notice in the piccies that the sun is glistening on the water. DON'T be fooled by that it was only about 10degrees with a really cold north wind. Anyway Priest throws the wooden cross in, all the young guys jump in and the first to retrieve it gets a special blessing. After that it's the blessing of the oranges. Oranges are tied onto lengths of ribbon and when the Priest has blessed them they're dunked into the sea. This is supposed to ensure a good crop the following year. It's anyones guess as to whether it works or not. And all captured on TV for local viewing. if you could watch the local TV here you would have seen us all wrapped up in hats scarves and gloves enjoying the scene.

There's two observations worth mentioning about all this, one it's lovely to see so many activites that are really family orientated here, all generations out together and being involved together. The second is that it's amazing that anything happens at all here as the organisation always seems to be completely non existent. Having said that everyone has a great time and there's never any trouble anywhere. So another Greek tradition witnessed and survived. Before too much longer we'll be natives!!!

Piccies of the event here

Xmas Day …. Boxing Day…. and the PORK PIE

For the first time in many years I didn’t have to cook Xmas dinner, I was truly excited. Xmas day was a beautiful sunny day so we began the day with a cycle around the Lagoon, showered and changed into some better clothes than our usual slob-wear and joined friends for Bucks Fizz and nibbles. A couple of hours of that and we were off down to Vliho Yacht Club for our Xmas dinner. We had a brilliant day, lots of drinkies, lovely food and as the day flowed into evening, dancing to wear off some of that food and alcohol. We arrived home about 12 hours later, happy, drunk and very tired. Got to be one of the best Xmases I have had.

Boxing Day was a day for lounging around eating all the sweeties Santa had bought and TESTING THE PORK PIE!! It was a momentous occasion and Mark was very excited. It was bought out and placed lovingly on the table. The knife was glinting and Mark was salivating. Lovingly he sliced into the centre and out to the edge. Admired it, examined the colour and texture, and went for the taste test.

Well the look on his face said it all – major disappointment – it didn’t taste like a Pork Pie!!! Never mind we've got my Xmas cake to come…….. We cut into it after tea and it was DELICIOUS!

Pork Pies and Carol Singing

Mark decided that he ‘needed’ a Pork Pie for Xmas and so set about ordering ‘real’ bacon from the corner shop in Corfu, along with the right flour for the pastry. He then spent hours on the interwebulater looking for just the right recipe – unfortunately that didn’t exist in Marks opinion so he decided to ‘consult’ the recipes then make his own up.

I, in the meantime, went Carol singing, it involved no cost, no long hours arguing with the cooking sites and no mess on the boat. We met at our Marina community room for mulled wine, mince pies and lovely Greek sweeties to fortify ourselves against the cold before embarking on our singing tour. We sang around the town and rattled our tins, sang at the old peoples home and were rewarded with more Greek sweeties and drinks and much handshaking and hugging until we thought we were never going to get out of the place, then on to the hospital. The hospital wasn’t as hospitable but then who wants to be in a place like that at Xmas! Back into the town and some of the guys join us for a final couple of carols under the huge Xmas tree in the square. By then I was seriously cold and in need of proper food and alcohol so a few of us peeled off and ducked into one of our favourite restaurants for a late supper. Very enjoyable evening.

A couple of days later after much deliberating, Mark is biting the bullet and making his much talked about Pork Pie. He’s been into town and bought the minced pork and sets about covering the boat with flour and all the other ingredients he needs for his masterpiece. Well you can see from the picture, it looks like a Pork Pie, and it will be admired as a Pork Pie for a few days…..

The last Race

The last race of the winter series and the weather forecast was for increasing winds and maybe rain. We set out clothed for wind but not rain – this might be a mistake but no time to go back and change now we’re already pushing it for time. We get down to the race area before deciding on the jib because the wind is building all the way there. At the start area it’s already around 15 knots so we opt for the smaller jib. We get organised with the main up and run up and down the start line to get a feel for what we’re in for – it looks like it’s going to be wet and lively, wind up to 18-19 knots, that’s a lot in a little J24. We’re off heading down the coast to Nikiana, the windward mark. It’s hard work, the wind is still building and it’s a case of just holding on up on the rail trying to keep the boat somewhere like level. As we get closer to the mark for the first time there’s animated discussion as to whether we’ll hoist the Spinnaker, or if the Spinnaker will even hold out in this wind!! Well the helm is just as much a dare devil as Mark so ‘up it goes’. We all hold on for dear life as we hurtle back up to the upwind mark, it doesn’t take us long to get there and now we have to get the dam thing down and try and keep everyone on board. Some boats had given up and gone home, others are struggling to keep going. We round the mark and head down to the windward mark for the 2nd time and down comes the rain. And it rains and rains and rains so visibility is reduced considerably. More boats give up and go home – but not us!! Round the windward mark, now we’re in winds of about 22 knots and still we hoist the Spinnaker – this time we take off like a scalded cat, the whole boat is humming – Mark and Tony(helm) are whooping, the girl on foredeck with me is looking scared and the pit man can’t believe he can have any more fun. The waves are up along with the wind and we’re flying down them reaching speeds of 13 knots!! Out of control or what. We keep this up to the point we all think it’s going to go completely pair shaped or the spinnaker is going to blow out so we decide as we’re still all on board it might be wise to take it down. We’re not far from the upwind mark by now and round it going like a bat out of hell and back down for the last leg. As often happens when sailing here we get nearly down to the mark and the wind dies completely and we really struggle to get round but just as we do the wind picks up again and it’s on the beam for half the leg then on the nose for the last ½ mile and we are wet all the way down to our skin!! We cross the line in 2nd position with half the fleet having retired. What a way to finish the series.

A night of entertainment

Described as off the wall entertainment complete with a four course meal aboard a 97 year old herring boat. Well if nothing else it will be different was our view. And different it was. The main saloon/galley area of the boat (fish hold) is theatrically set complete with stage lighting. The hosts/entertainers are French, Dutch and South African.

The captain wearing large leprechaun ears floppy hat and Dutch clogs welcomes us aboard for the evening. He rides his bike around town similarly attired! We all sit around a very large table, decorated with a model of the boat with its bow decoration of crossed knife and fork (yes the actual boat is decorated with a large knife and fork on the bow). Ouzo and wine is served immediately to get everyone in the party mood. The first course is introduced with a long ‘blow’ on a very strange trumpet like instrument; following it was a short “scary” movie depicting ‘the attack of the giant kittens at sea’. The ‘special effects team’ (read captain and assistant), covered the model ship with tuna fish paste to encourage the kittens to crawl all over it and eat one of the cast (bread person again with the paste trick). Sounds naff, it was but funny. The next course is introduced by a short act with female finger puppets throwing themselves out of the windows of a tall suitcase – not quite sure why other than to provide an excuse for the first of the entertainers to show himself in a dress, which he continued to wear for the rest of the evening (worryingly comfortably). That course eaten, the next was introduced by a French street performer/acrobat standing on his head, then on his forearms allowing him to pick his nose while he’s upside down. The dinner was rounded off with the Frenchman and his piano accordion performing a sketch with the captain seductively dressed in a slinky long red dress and finishing off with a clog dance. Sounds bizarre??? – then my work here is done!


Read more about the interesting history of the Ship of Fools

More pictures of the evenings entertainment

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 :-)