Day 365 to 367: 14th to 16th June - One year anniversary

Thursday

Our one year anniversary passed in quite a low key way. If you'd asked me before we got to this stage I would have said that I expected us to mark this special day by going out for a meal and celebrating. However having just blown 600 Euros on a trip to Athens we need to tighten our belts for a while. Add to that the fact that we felt the need to stay on wasp infested Meganisi due to forecast southerly winds, and the fact that AJ seems to be developing a phobia for wasps, it wasn't quite the celebration I had been hoping for. However we did meet a lovely UK based family who flexi school, spending October to Spring Bank in the UK with their boy attending mainstream school, and then spend Spring Bank to October homeschooling in Greece, alternating between their house in Sivota and their boat. We had pleasant late afternoon drinks before they went back to their boat for dinner and returned without kid for more drinks in the evening whilst our kids enjoyed the much awaited movie "Wonder". All in all it was a pleasant day, but we are keen to leave this anchorage tomorrow.

We've also been thinking a lot about the rest of our trip after leaving Greece in August. It's coming up to decision point about how we get back to the UK. Our original plan was to winter in Spain and then go up the Atlantic coast, however although this is still possible we are questioning if it is the right move for our family. We would be sailing, against prevailing winds and currents, with a lot of long days due to the distances between safe ports\anchorages. Thus, leaving very little time for boat school. Also there is increased potential for some heavier weather than some of us are comfortable with. Another unknown is how long we may need to wait for good weather in port and how much this might cost. Patrick is dead set against going back up the French canals as he doesn't want to go up the Rhone with a strong current against us, and we are both leaning towards the reality that shipping Laurin back on a lorry might make more financial sense. If this is the case then we also need to question if it is worthwhile spending the winter in Spain or if it would make more sense to sail as much as we can this season, end with another road trip somewhere and come home a little early, particularly if we can't find a community of boat kids in Spain (the kids are very unsure about attending Spanish school which may still be an option). We have all learned so much from this trip, growing both personally and as a family, the kids have become more independent than we would ever have allowed them to at home. However we're not sure if there is much added value in continuing past Christmas this year. We are finding home school quite challenging and returning earlier may allow us to relax a little about this, it would also allow us to relax the finances a little and enjoy a few more side trips and meals out. One of the surprises of the trip for me is how much the kids get out of the side trips to historical sites, capital cities and associated museums. For this reason I'm really glad we decided to come to the Med rather than crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean. No decisions as yet but these discussions are now happening on a regular basis.

Friday

Boatschool in the morning and then after much discussion with the crew of Dizzie who are having plotter problems we agreed to meet them in Nidri. It took a while to extract ourselves from our anchorage as the chain from two boats was over our anchor chain, and another boat had laid their chain over the other two. Luckily the guy on the big motor boat (complete with portable Jacuzzi to take to the beach) had dive gear on board and their guy went down to sort out the mess. Esmé is getting really helpful on deck now and she enjoys working hard to pull in the long lines! As we motored away from the bay we could hear thunder all around, but thankfully not close to us, although it looked as if Dizzie might be having fun waiting for the bridge at Lefkas. However as we approached Nidri the storm was getting closer.

After one failed anchoring attempt we motored to a larger gap to try again and witnessed a really weird phenomenon where we could see rain falling all around us but we were stood in a patch of no rain. Literally 10 metres away all around us we could see raindrops on the water! However very soon the deluge hit us as we tried to anchor with winds swirling all around. The wind strength wasn't that high.... 20 knots at most, but it made digging the anchor in almost impossible due to the fact it changed direction so frequently. All boats in the anchorage seemed to be facing in different directions.

However eventually it subsided enough for us to be able to re-anchor again and this time get it to hold. We retreated down below to dry up and rest. Once the rain had stopped we went up to view the aftermath. Our big truckle buckets which we use for hand washing were half full.... about 8 inches of water in 1 hour! The dinghy was also ankle deep in water!

It wasn't long before Dizzie arrived and all kids were excited to see each other. We decided to pool resources for dinner and enjoyed a lovely evening catching up and eating a large mishmash tea cooked on their rail mount BBQ.

Saturday

Woohoo... the weekend and no boatschool! We all packed swim stuff and headed to the Athos Hotel. Not sure if we were meant to be able to use their pool if we weren't on the IBA pontoon but we figured it would probably be ok if we bought drinks at the bar. Patrick and Justin went on ahead to see if they could find any help with the plotter and Lynita and I followed with the kids.

We parked ourselves at the bar and ordered a drink while all 4 kids splashed, swam and played in the pool for a good 3 hours with only a short break for food in the middle, after which I headed in to Lefkas on the bus while Patrick took AJ and E back to Laurin for some downtime. Unfortunately I got the bus timetable a little wrong, meaning I only had 1/2 hour to shop once there or I would have another 2 hour wait to get a bus back. The timetable at Nydri seem to show the time busses leave Nydri to go to Lefkas, and times they leave Lefkas to return rather than the time they will arrive at Nidri to travel in the opposite direction.... seems strange!

I legged it into the nearest supermarket to the bus station which is pretty good, did a good impression of a supermarket dash and headed for the tills where the lady looked at me packing like I was some crazy woman... I think I would have beaten even the fastest Lidl checkout worker! Out of the door with a minute to go, thew a bag of bananas at the kids begging at the door (I had seen them previously and thought they looked really hungry but didn't want to give them money) and ran for the bus station with granny trolley, rucksack and two shopping bags. I saw the bus reversing out of its spot but luckily it needed to go through a barrier onto the road in front of me first, so, waving like a mad woman I flagged it down... no way did I want to wait 2 hours in the heat with cold meat that needed to be in our fridge. Thankfully they saw me, opened the luggage hold, helping to throw my bags in before I got on into the lovely air conditioned seat and we were off. 7% charge left on my phone was just enough to call Patrick and ask him to bring the dinghy to meet me at the pontoon! Result!

Back in Nydri we packed food away before I headed over to Dizzie to deliver meat and pick the kids up. We then enjoyed the still warm roast chicken I had bought in Lefkas while we watched "Wonder" as a family. AJ struggling not to give us a commentary, (he's the king of spoilers) despite the fact that we have all read the book. It was a lovely end to a lovely day catching up with friends.