For my faithful followers, I apologise for
the delay in posting the final blog for the season. As you will read further below, the last week
of our time in Greece was rather frantic and then the weeks that followed very
busy, so that it has taken me up until almost Christmas to close the blog of
Bisou for the 2015 season.
So, let’s head back to Bungalow Bay where
we had installed ourselves for a few days to begin dismantling Bisou. The weather was kind to us as we washed,
dried and put away our sails – the halyards and sheets came down next and all
was going smoothly. With a date at
Cleopatra Marina in Preveza already set to haul Bisou, we headed up to Levkas
Harbour to have some warranty work done on the rigging. In usual Greek fashion, nothing happens
quickly, but by early afternoon on the Tuesday, we were all set to head north
to Preveza through the Levkas canal bridge…only to discover that it was
broken! Now let me explain. The Levkas canal is a fairly narrow channel
that connects the island of Levkas with the mainland – there is one bridge
which is made up of an old barge and a lever arm bridge. The lever arm bridge is just wide enough for
most mono-hulled boats while the whole barge and lever arm will swing open most
of the time for all the boat traffic in the summer (this opens the canal to ¾
of its width which is plenty for most boats – nothing huge like cruise ships or
anything). It seems that the barge part
of the bridge was broken but the lever arm part was still working. Catamarans were being forced to round the
island of Levkas (about 60 nautical miles versus the 7 or so nautical miles
through the canal) to reach Preveza.
Cursing, but pleased that we had not left things until the last minute,
we decided to head south around the island and complete the journey in two hops
– because we had already taken down all the sails and soft rigging, we would
have to motor the whole way which was frustrating but what could we do! Off we set, but about one hour into the
journey, the starboard engine started acting up, rapidly losing power when we
tried to engage the forward gear. We
stopped in the middle of the inland waterway (just east of Nidri) to try and
work out what was going on. Tad even
jumped into the water to take a look to see if we had hooked some rope or
fishing line. Realising that there was
no way we were going to risk motoring some 60nm on one engine with no sails to
back us up, we limped back to Levkas harbour with our port engine and called up
the people who had completed the 500 hour service just a couple of weeks before.
By this time it was too late for the
mechanics to come to the boat so we were scheduled for “first thing”
(translated to “about 10:30am”) the next morning. Much as we hate to be in a
harbour or marina overnight, we were forced to stay over this time in order to
get the engine fixed.
The next morning (Wednesday by this time)
the mechanics arrived and had a quick look at the starboard engine – finding
nothing out of the ordinary they had us start the engine. Still nothing noticeable so we put her into
gear (a little challenging since we were tied to the harbour wall) and tried
revving the engine. Still nothing! This went on for some time with no noticeable
problem or change in power – typical!
After a frustrating couple of hours looking at every possible thing
(don’t ask me to name all the bits and pieces that were investigated!) the
mechanics shook their heads and said that we should just head out and if there
was a problem to call them and they would come and ‘rescue’ us on their RIB
(rigid inflatable boat) purpose-built for such emergencies.
By this time it was noon and we knew we had
to get going – as we headed out of the harbour Tad suggested that we motor up
to the bridge to see if it was fixed yet.
As we approached the bridge I hailed the bridge operator on the VHF
radio to ask if the ‘large bridge’ was opening. The operator said that it was
still broken but asked how wide we were – I replied that our beam was 7.4m and
he said that the gap served by the lever arm bridge was 9m. Tad and I looked at each other and wondered
if we should chance it? There was little
to no wind, no current and the distance we would have to cover was about
50m. The catch was that as there was
construction being carried out on the north side of the canal there was a barge
on the port side, which meant that before we were through the bridge, we would
have to veer to starboard right at the end.
We decided that it was worth taking a shot at, and Tad said that we
would wait and go last so that if he had to back out at the last moment we
would have room to do so.
The Levkas Canal (big bridge open)
I don’t think my heart has ever beat as
hard or as fast as it did on our approach to the gap – with barely 800mm (32
inches) on either side of Bisou, Tad must have had nerves of steel to guide us
through. We did have some small fenders
out to ‘protect’ us but they wouldn’t have done much good against the concrete
on one side and the steel on the other!
We glided into the channel and were moving beautifully until Tad started
to turn, I ran to the aft port side to watch our rear end against the concreted
and with an audience of several car drivers holding their breath pushed hard
against the wall to keep us off, just missing our aft sugar scoop by
millimetres! We were through! Our gutsiness paid off! We arrived at the marina an hour later still
on a high from the thrill of squeezing through the gap of the Levkas
canal! Don’t ever ask me to do that
again.
The Levkas Canal with the lever arm bridge open just to the right hand side of the photo (N.B. This was NOT taken while we were squeezing through but an earlier time when the big bridge was open!)
The excitement was not over, however, as
those who have ‘parked’ in Cleopatra Marina know, there is a considerable
current in the water and not a great deal of space in which to manoeuver into
your berth. Fortunately, the marinero is
there with his RIB (yes, another high powered inflatable dinghy) to push your
back or front end and help you slide in without hitting anything. Tad is the world’s best driver when it comes
to Bisou, and before long we were safely tied up in our berth at the
marina. We needed a stiff drink after
that!
The next day was spent putting more things
away on the inside of the boat as well as taking down the canvas ‘clears’
around the cockpit. It was a busy day
but we had a fun dinner at a local taverna with friends that night as our
reward.
Friday morning, on schedule, Bisou was
lifted and trailored to her wintering spot in the boatyard. From the time she was parked until we
departed from Preveza on Sunday afternoon, we worked like slaves to get her
cleaned, packed up and ready for a long rest over winter. We were exhausted by the time we got on the
bus to Athens (a 6 hour drive) and checked into our hotel at the airport. A good night’s sleep saw us walk across to
the airport the next morning and head home via Singapore.
Hopefully Bisou is keeping dry and clean
with her custom cover made in Tunisia and everything packed away neatly. We don’t have the wonderful ‘guardianage’
service that we enjoyed from Mick and Jo in Hammamet last year, but we hope
that by being out of the water and in a secure boat yard everything will be
okay.
Our plan is to head back early May to drop
off a load of gear and then head to the USA to see Patrick (the youngest son)
graduate from University and visit family.
We’ll be back in Greece by the end of May to do some necessary work on
the boat (anti-fouling, adding a couple of cleats, etc.) and then hopefully
launch by the beginning of June to set sail.
Of course we will be watching to see how things pan out in Turkey but
the Aegean is definitely in the plans for next year.
In the meantime, your blogger is taking a
break while enjoying summer back in Shoal Bay, Australia! We are not sitting around though as we have
work to do on the house…no rest of the wicked!
Thank you for following the adventures of Tad and Robin on Bisou and we
look forward to your readership again in 2016.
