The boat now known as Lesanda...

Once again we have the temporary "redeye" factory.

 Driving down to Vassiliki the other day we noticed that the temporary still for making tsiperou had started up again, which means the grape harvest is in full swing.  There were several locals Greeks sat chatting inside as the raw spirit fire water was being  produced.  They are selling off the product €5 per litre, I did think of buying some but I really do want to keep my eyesight as long as possible.

Who needs an engine or sails, this is Eco - fishing!

Saturday was Sandra's birthday and the day set aside to do the all important job of renaming the boat with no name.  We asked Kev to officiate over the proceedings which involved throwing into the sea an ingot bearing the old name of the vessel after having first removed from the boat all things which bore the name but prior to having anything on which had the new name.

Kev officiates over the renaming ceremony.

This is easier said than done so having already endowed her with her new decals, we covered them up for the duration of the ceremony.  Kev offered copious quantities of champaign to Poseidon and asked the ancient sea god to remove the old name from the records whilst thanking him for keeping her safe in the past and also for her safekeeping in the future.

A little libation for Poseidon

Then he turned to the gods of the north, south, east, and west winds and with yet more cheap champaign attempted to curry their favour.  Sandra and I had to drink the remnants of both bottles as skipper and first mate.  Then a little party with a few close friends and a few toasts to the boat and her future and also removing the covering from her new name so the world can now see her as she should be.  Following this Kev and I went to watch the footy on the TV!!

Liz has front row seat at the name unveiling.

I don't claim to know much about the superstitions around changing a boats name but we thought it would be wiser to be safe rather than sorry, and it was an excuse not to do anything much that day.  It was certainly the most unusual birthday that Sanny will ever have I think!

 On Monday we had arranged to move the boat to the next village up the bay to have her new steelwork and canvas work installed.

A new name for a fine vessel. 

So it was to Vlicho or Velcro as some people may call it because many of the people who turn up there never seem to be able to get away from the place!  The trip was eventful as when we set off we discovered that the anchor was stuck.  It had been set there by the Sailing Holidays people and we had not shifted it since taking ownership of her.

A bit of bovver.

At first we thought it was the guy moored next to us who has crossed our anchor as when we pulled on the windlass there was movement on his anchor chain.  We got the guy to un-moor and lift his anchor from ours but found he was in the same situation.  Fortunately he had a very powerful windlass and with both of us lifting we found the nature of the problem.  On this pontoon there had been lazy lines installed (for mooring without an anchor) this had almost vanished and through neglect had just rotted away.  This meant that all the kit on the bottom had just been left in-situ.  When we eventually got it to the surface we had five anchors, thirty yards of rope and about the same of chain dangling from our anchor.  Fortunately the owner of the pontoon came in a dingy and cut it all free for us but lost my very good knife in the process.  He was very quick to tell us that they are having proper lazy lines put in over the winter and this won't happen again! 

Bright shiny new steel work being installed.

Anyway we are now safely moored at Vlicho and the steel work is well on the way to being completed.  In the picture you can see they are just making templates for the canvas for the new spray hood and cockpit enclosure.  If all goes according to plan the next blog should be written from the good ship Lesanda.