Days 348 and 349: 28th and 29th May 2018 - The club opens and we find friends for a couple of days

Monday

The usual drudgery of boatschool not helped by the fact that we had chosen to anchor near a Beach Club with English kids on holiday,  then over to the beach to see about hiring a catamaran later in the day. Much to our disappointment they were not allowed to hire us one. Other years this had been an option but it had not yet been agreed for this despite us being told previously that we would be able to. Seems we had hung around a couple of extra days for nothing and the kids were pretty upset.

Anyhow, we got our paddleboard out, rigged our rope swing and had some fun before lunch regardless. After our after lunch electronics time to stay out of the sun, we headed to the beach again and were spotted Jonie, one of the friends the kids had made the previous night. The kids had a great time playing on the paddleboard whilst the adults enjoyed a nice chat on the beach. Emma had grown up in East Wittering, Patrick West Wittering so they enjoyed chatting about their childhood homes.

We asked if they had been to the local town yet but they thought it sounded like a long way with kids. We were planning on going round there to fill up with water the next day so offered to meet them there in the afternoon and give them a lift back via the "scenic route".

Once they went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner we paddled, swam and rowed back to prepare a dinner from the our ever dwindling supplies. 

Tuesday

A busy day so up early to crack on with some hand washing before school. The morning's learning  went surprisingly well with AJ completing 2 days worth of tasks much to his pride and amazement. Patrick has now taken a more active role in the schooling which is helping no end. I still marvel at Esme's ability to model any maths problem with Smarties... they are her essential go to manipulative... funny that! The kids then enjoyed some early electronics whilst Patrick and I got Laurin ready to move. We finally left at about 12:30 and motored round to Sivota, showering on the way, using up the last of the water in the tanks.

Once moored in Sivota we had to wait around for the lady with the card for the water so I headed off to the nearest shop to pick up some supplies. It was crazy expensive (2.60 Euros for a packet of Oreos anybody?) so I came back to the boat and explained to Patrick I would walk further in to town to the bakery, picking up Gyros (either pork or chicken with chips, tzatziki, tomatoes and onions) on the way back. By this time our friends from the hotel had found Laurin and were happily on board drinking beers with Patrick.






We ate our Gyros... a big hit with the crew of Laurin, and headed out of the little harbour. AJ helmed out of the marina and then Jonie and Wilf had a go much to their delight.

We then tried to anchor at the little bay we had abandoned early in the morning some days earlier, however we dragged at the first try and decided against a second attempt, the kids being particularly interested in the naturists on the only other boat in the bay. We motored over to the another beach opposite that looked interesting with some caves to explore, hung around long enough for the tripper boat to vacate a great position and dropped our hook. The men took the kids exploring by dinghy whilst Emma and I enjoyed a little peace and quiet. Once the caves had been explored the dinghy expedition headed for the beach. After a while we could see that the girls and Wilf were very intently building a Tepee like structure. It was lovely to see them working together.

Meanwhile the menfolk relaxed at the edge of the water whilst AJ played around the dinghy!

All too soon we heard rolls of thunder, and noticed that time was getting on if we were to get our guests back to the hotel in time for dinner so once all on board Nick helped Patrick pull the anchor up, we were a little concerned that the boat in front was on top of our anchor and we may have to interrupt their beer drinking but happily we freed our anchor with a couple of yards to spare!

We anchored in a different little bay once back close to the hotel and AJ and I swam whilst Patrick and Esmé took our new friends back to their hotel. They had had a lovely time and left us with some very welcome wine and beer as a thanks. Unfortunately they also left us with a hat. Nick, Emma, if you want to retrieve it drop us a comment and we will hang around until lunch time so you can collect. (Might have to pick you up from the flotilla pontoon!)

After a light dinner Esmé wanted to explore ashore. We were all tired and didn't want to go so suggested this could be a good time for her first solo dinghy passage! It was a quiet night and I was prepared for a swim if need be. We had no need to worry, she did beautifully, remembering to pull the dinghy up as much as she could and put the anchor in the sand, though the original yoga baby does have some strange rowing techniques!