An eventful first week as liveaboards. A hasty departure from the quayside in Preveza (due to an overflowing holding tank!) led to a lovely sail up the North...
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So we arrived a week ago and we flew to Preveza. I managed to get a
really good flights. The boat was stern
to on the town quay. Once I arrived I
wasn't really bothered about going
anywhere to be quite honest, I was just..
I'd done that huge massive task of
leaving a country really. We wandered
around a bit and then we had to go and
get a cruising permit so we went to go
find out where to get it and then we
were told that you have to first go to
the bank and you have to go in and pay
50 euros but the bank had a queue of
about 150 people. 387 what number q and then we had to find another
office where you get a form and they fit
in a form I don't even know that office
was and then once you've done all that
then you have to go and find the Coast
Guard office and you go there and then
they need to see your insurance it needs
to be translated into Greek and and they
fit in quite a few forms as well as
probably about ten forms you have to
fill in the process is quite lengthy but
eventually when you get it you have this
paperwork that is supposed to show it
every ports which no one's really asked
for it yet there's quite a few things
that we had to get for the boat just
basic stuff like the baskets to put
inside the huge cupboards so things like
that we bought electric hot plates
does that help ensure power and lots of
other little things like rugs to try and
make it a bit more homely we found some
Chinese shops and various little DIY
pawn shops which have sold all the
little things that we need so I was just
quite happy where we were when we left
the dock for the first time it was quite
a sudden departure because we had to
leave because the tanks basically the
black water tanks were overflowing you
can't just pump it out in the bay so as
soon as we got out to sea we entered the
tanks and my first job
was cleaning the overflowing poo tanks
so our first job is to get away from
that poor because of all the shit
dripping down Bo
when we get far enough out we need to
empty
first
so that was the first job the kids were
feeling a little bit seasick I'd say it
takes a while to get your sea legs it
wasn't really rough luckily so it wasn't
too bad yeah they kind of got on decks
they kind of they were lying down
sleeping a bit and I'm just getting used
to it really adjusting a little one
actually he was quite up for getting
involved in the sailing and so we showed
him how to use the autopilot which we
called Auto and as soon as he works out
how to turn it on and off that's what
you did most the journey was he would
turn it off then he would steer and then
he would turn it back on again and he
loved being in charge of that but
obviously we made sure that we
supervised to him when he did that so
our first trip went fine we got the
sails up it was really lovely and then
we arrived in Parker and we dropped
anchor just that we have to squeeze in a
swim before we leave the kids jumped in
off the side of the boat and we all
enjoy ourselves so much
so we had to leave that Bay because it
was supposed to be the southerly blowing
us on to shore so we left and went to a
bay that was going to be more on the
north of an island but as it happened it
was a lovely baby turns up it's really
nice the kids went in swimming again
but then the weather switched around to
the north and it was quite strong winds
and it will get us to from the bay to
being too rough really to go around to
the other side so we stayed in that
they're both over to our port side they
seem to be whole people right but
they're up on deck as well we've got
very much larger ship over here and
they've tied a shoreline on there quite
steady boat and they seem to be fairly
steady but they have been out putting
extra lines out as well
I suspect everyone's just preparing
merely for the winds to pick up a bit we
were supposed to be southerly which
means this plane would have been ideal
because we'll be dragged off the shore
when - you came around to the north west
so we kind of get both got scale tonight
is a 49 up to 55 miles per hour winds
tide on and we've got that ready to the
launch if we need to
I'm just yeah just sort of assessing the
situation really kids are absolutely
fine they've watched a movie they're
chilling out they're feeling a little
bit ropey they want to go to shore but
we're not going to go to tomorrow
because we feel like we ought to stay
really on the boats anchors been holding
so far the wings do pick up but we we've
got a plan if the anchor does slip so
it's almost none of those things fail we
should be right
you