Cruising progress 2022 (Click to enlarge)
30th June 2022
After 2½ years we finally arrived back at the boat on 17th April and as luck would have it, I started showing Covid symptoms the following day, testing positive a couple of days later. Mike tested positive the following week. Luckily it was just like a mild cold, but we both continued coughing for three to four weeks.
We'd hired a car when we arrived and the next day drove into Preveza to stock up with all the essentials, beer, wine, water etc, which was very fortunate as we were stuck on the boat for the next couple of weeks. The weather for the first few weeks was cold, wet and windy. It had been quite a bit warmer at home!
In the middle to May we took a ferry across to Corfu for a couple of nights to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law, Niall and Nathalie, who were over for a ten day holiday. It was great to finally see them again, as it had been about six years since we last drove down to Norfolk to stay with them. We stayed in a very quirky apartment in the centre of the old town, just a couple of minutes walk from their hotel. We thoroughly enjoyed our short break and visited Mon Repos, where Prince Phillip was born. It's been converted into a not very interesting museum, with only a few rooms which were decorated and furnished beautifully. A real shame as it's a lovely house, although the grounds have been sadly neglected.
The only other touristy thing we did while we had the car was drive down to Nidri, about an hour away, primarily to visit the local chandlery and then on to one of our favourite restaurants in Vlycho for lunch. On the way back we stopped at Nidri Waterfalls. It's best to visit in the spring as they are normally bone dry by the summer, luckily there was plenty water when we visited.
#After a lot of hard work over the weeks Mistroma was finally ready to be launched on 4th June and we spent the next ten days on Preveza town quay, carrying on with work that couldn't be done on the hard, as well as meeting up with old friends not seen since 2019.
We revisited Vathy on Ithaka for a few nights and late one afternoon heard shouting and when we looked to see what was happening saw a large power boat and yacht had their anchors locked together. There was a lot of charging backwards and forwards and some other anchored yachts narrowly avoided being collected. This went on for a couple of hours before they managed to separate themselves and calm was restored.
We stayed in an anchorage on our way over to Messolonghi in the Gulf of Patras. The entrance is through a narrow buoyed channel which widens to a large lagoon several miles inland, where we will probably stay at anchor for 5 or 6 nights. Messolonghi town is quite a long walk from the lagoon.
As many of you will know Mike has had his Irish passport for the last couple of years and he obtained his Greek Registration Card in May, which was required before I could apply for residency. Messolonghi was where I had an appointment to start the process. After all the months of trying to sort out what was required, the final event was a bit of an anti-climax. Everything seemed to be a bit of a box ticking exercise; however I now have a certificate confirming I have an application in process, which is valid for 1 year. I've had my fingerprints taken and hopefully should receive my biometric residence card in the next couple of months. If you're interested you can read the full saga here.
