Back in Aegina Town

Yes, you read that right–we are back in Aegina Town.  That damn windlass is our nemesis.

First of all, we enjoyed our time in Palaia Epidavros a lot.  We had two incredibly calm nights at anchor.  Here is Coral bobbing happily in the bay.

Coral at anchor in Palaia Epidavros

This is the church just off our stern that woke us up at 7am each morning with bells, and kept waking me up every half hour thereafter.  Mike just got up at 7. He tells me that when I’m old like him I will wake up and not want to go back to sleep, but I still have an amazing capacity to go back to sleep multiple times in the morning, as all my past employers will attest.

This morning we got up and started puttering and Mike tried to start the generator.  No go.  He started the engine to jump start the generator, and then we decided to just move at that time since we were only planning to go around the corner into another bay where Mike could snorkel and see the remains of the old city under water.  (I’m not interested in snorkeling yet–too cold still for this fair weather swimmer.  My wetsuit is in Canada, and I doubt I could squeeze into it regardless).  We started the routine: I removed the snub on the anchor and started to bring it up with the windlass.  Halfway up it stopped.  I could feel it trying, so we thought maybe it was just caught on something, but we soon discerned that no, it was another windlass problem.  Mike used brute force to get the anchor the rest of the way up, winching by hand, and then we left the harbour to think about our options.   It didn’t take long to decide to head back to Aegina Town where we had some support.  

As a little treat, we let out the jib for part of our crossing.  Not quite full sailing since the motor was still on, but a taste of things to come.

The concern upon arrival was that we only had one chance to set the anchor, so I was nervous about the Med mooring and voted to just anchor south of the harbour.   I was overruled, because of course it is much more convenient to be a step away from shore when you’re dealing with crap.

We arrived just before 3pm and knew that the high-speed ferry was leaving at 3, so we hung back to let it leave.  In the meantime, three boats entered the harbour to moor!  I was getting a little panicky about availability of spots, but Mike assured me there was lots of room.  Indeed, our old spot was still open next to the big charter boat, so once the ferry departed we lined up to back in.

I started to drop the anchor and about 30 seconds in I realized that if it jammed I was screwed!  It had jammed almost every other time I had dropped it, but generally that just means pulling it up a smidge  and continuing down (using buttons, not muscle).  Since UP didn’t work,  a jam would have completely screwed up our momentum backing into the spot, and then it would have been a mild shit show.   It is not the same as backing up your car.  Through some miracle, for once it did not jam!  Afterward I told Mike about my revelation mid-anchor drop, and he said “look at the email I sent David before we left Palaia Epidavros”.  In that email  he expressed his concern about our one chance to drop the anchor and said “hope it doesn’t jam”.  I realized that he had been thinking about that problem all along and had avoided bringing it up since it would only make me panic.  Of course I then had one of those weird after-the-fact emotional rushes and started to cry.

It was kind of him to try and spare me the worrying, though we did agree after that it would not have been a bad thing for me to have a winch handy to try and raise the anchor by a couple of links to get things moving again, had a jam happened.  Hindsight is 20/20.   In the end, Mike’s magic horseshoe remains firmly lodged in his butt, and I am a happy beneficiary.

Shortly after we arrived in our berth, a lady showed up with two photos mounted that she had taken while we were entering the port.  They were pretty good, so I told Mike I wanted them and he kindly acquiesced.  16 Euros later we had our first personal things to hang on the cabin walls.  I will take photos of the photos tomorrow and post them.

We’ve only been gone from Aegina Town for 2 days, but in that time summer seems to have arrived–hot weather and lots of noise and people.  After the solitude of Palaia Epidavros it was quite jarring, but still comforting to know I could visit all my regular haunts.  Case in point, I headed to Tenekedakia pronto for pita gyros, this time the chicken ones.  The chicken was great, but they serve them with a mustard sauce instead of the tzatziki that is served on the pork ones.  Tomorrow I live right:  pita chicken gyro with tzatziki!  I predict they will herald me a genius!

Mike spent the rest of the afternoon working on the windlass after an email consult with David and a phone consult with Lucas.  He didn’t have the heart to try things out today, but I have a good feeling.  I’ll leave it to him if he wants to share details.

Dinner at Panta Rei (where we reconnected with our adorable regular waitress, Liberty), and now Mike is conked out while I sit here “borrowing” WiFi and listening to a bunch of drunk Greeks 3 boats down singing songs and playing guitar. It is a strange thing when a huge number of people know all the words to a song you have never heard in your life.

Ah, guitar has now stopped and I am treated to the sound of 80s pop music drifting out from the waterfront tavernas.  We are surprised at all the American (and Canadian–I heard some Moist!)  music that is played here.  Adele is ubiquitous.   In France twelve years ago I got pretty plugged into the French music scene, but I don’t see that happening here.  I guess they are catering to tourists? Ah, now I hear Dancing Queen, one of the first songs I ever truly loved (after Goodbye Yellow Brick Road).  No complaints! On to Staying Alive, and now the somewhat more contemporary Flo Rida’s Low.  Hit the floor and party on, Aegina Town!