We made the most of our time in America, spending time with friends and family, enjoying all the holidays, and taking lots of motorcycle rides, including excellent road trips to Key West and to Florida's Panhandle. Finally, after seven wonderful months in our homeland, we boarded a plane to return to our little ship on the night of April 30, 2014.
The journey began with a drive to Orlando Airport in a gully-washer of a rainstorm, with severe weather alerts that resulted in the delay of multiple flights, ours included. The additional several hours spent in the airport turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since by the time we arrived in Frankfurt we'd missed our connection to Athens. Lemons became lemonade, as we were given meal vouchers by the Lufthansa staff, and our trip was now divided into more comfortable segments with a later flight to Athens. (Instead of 12 hours in Athens airport, we'd only need to hang out for five.)
We landed in Athens at 0100, had a few naps and some wonderful coffee, boarded a bus at 0600 to the city center, and from there caught one more bus for the three-hour ride to Messolonghi and our marina.
We felt grungy and jet-lagged, but were thrilled to see our Sand Dollar perched high atop her jackstands “on the hard”, having apparently behaved herself during our absence. (The dinghy, however, must have gotten a little frisky one windy day, as she'd been been blown to one side of the foredeck, despite having been tied and tethered.) Ken wasted no time in snatching a nearby ladder to prop against SD's hull, and we were quickly back aboard, anxious to see how the cabin had fared. We were delighted to see that she looked exactly as we'd left her, which was a nice surprise after past years, when we'd left her in the tropics and returned to musty smells and moldy surfaces.
With hose and brushes and soapy water we cleaned her decks, and rousted out the handful of spiders who'd taken up residence in the rigging. I took care of the spiders, as Ken maintains that they aren't bothering anybody. Wrong. They were bothering me. He has no clue how to kill one, as when it plays possum he believes that it's dead. I, on the other hand, am on to their tricks, and prefer to bang
them with the back a long-handled brush until they are dismembered.
We've been tackling a few boat projects each day, and hope to have SD “splashed” by next week. We should be able to get underway in 10 days or so, by which time the weather will hopefully have warmed up a little. There's still a bit of chill here, as late spring segues into early summer. Days are warm, but at night we definitely need to sleep under our blankies.
But we are happy to report that all is well. Days are sunny for the most part, the little marina shop has good wine, cold beer, and delicious fresh bread and Greek yogurt, and the showers have lots of hot water. Ken is doing his part to support the local economy, as by the time we'd been back for three hours, he'd already checked out the marina chandlery and bought us a brand-new anchor. Little by little, we're all getting back into cruising mode, so our next post will be from “somewhere out there”!
To see where we are, click on the “YOTREPS” gadget.
To read about our early years, go to: www.tripsailor.com/kstuber
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