Galaxidi, patience and the international project!

Galaxidi, patience and the international project!

Mr Basil..... suffering the consequences of a near sinkage

the aftermath on board. just he beginning of the jobs!

Bungs bungs bungs!

It took a while to settle in to the laid-back life of little Galaxidi.  Nerves and tension dominated the feelings of the days that followed us tying up alongside in her little marina (much to the dislike of the lady who came to collect the money for electricity and water – wow she was a stern one!).  With no shaft, nor engine to power it though, we thought we had a pretty good excuse for being there.

'Ragged Company' alongside

Lovely laundry

Having realised life onboard was not nearly as sociable as we’d first thought we were pleasantly surprised and even overwhelmed by peoples', (generally talking about fellow sailors / boatmen), kindness, friendliness and generosity over our two weeks there. 

Solving the lack-of-shaft problem was the obvious priority although the repairing the engine came pretty high on the list.  Advice followed from every angle with solutions of all extremities; from, 'leave it (the boat) and road-trip home' to 'take a full tow, take her out the water, order a shaft from the US and wait to refit it on-the-dry!'..... hmmmmm.  Weighing up our options and with some fabulous hands-on-Swiss-advice we began, during the drying and clean-up (took about five days to dry things out fully and get things back in order), to dismantle the parts that would complete the shaft assembly. 

Naval archs / Engineers at work you may say but I’m telling you, a degree in this stuff doesn’t help!  (Well maybe it does for the general background but it stops there).  All in all the first stage became a educational and even fun experience; practicing our snorkelling and breath holding skills, taking under-water surveys of the rudder and skeg, measuring to the .1mm diameters, lengths and thicknesses, getting thoroughly oily fingernails, hands, arms, noses.... the lot, dismantling engine/gearbox parts, de-seizing the only two screws that were meant to be holding the old shaft in place, (finding out that these had siezed a long time ago.. :( ), learning how the seal worked and wondering how the safety device in-front of the skeg failed!

And so we ended up with this!

anything missing...?

that'll be the shaft then.

Although initially I was unsure why one would carry around a spare propeller (or old one), I quickly came round to the idea that it was/is a fabulous thing to do and will now encourage all sailors to do so!  The shaft itself however was the issue because we definitely didn’t have a spare of these kicking around.  1.7m of solid metal, dia = 28.6mm, not the European standard 30mm of course, 28.6mm on the dot please.

Ex-colleague George (not GG but another Greek one), and his contacts to the rescue! 

After our Swiss help and advice, we sent the parts by bus to the big smoke of Athens / Piraeus – brilliant!  So that was the easy bit..... waiting was the difficult bit for us Northerners.

Fi - waiting for the bus to arrive in Galaxidi

As a good bit of luck had it, JG’s parents, abandoning their Ionian island plans (:0( ), came to distract and join us in Galaxidi.  The weekend was a strange mixture of wonderful summer-holidaying and boat-stressing although the trip away from the village was much appreciated!

Freshly caught tuna steaks for dinner onboard, Joelle, Bertrand & JG

Bertrand on the helm! fi & jg

Starting with the classic Delphi, a seriously hot culture fix, from the sphinx to climbing up to the stadium at the top, (my favourite part – I’m sure they should open it up once a year for a contest!). 

Delphi

The naval of the world in Delphi

The most impressive of the treasuries

JG and Bertrand happy in Delphi

JG and Fi in the amphitheatre - Dephi - walking

JG and Fi - Y ? in the amphtitheatre Delphi

Delphi's stadium - awesome

Delphi's incredible watering system

grrrrrrrrr

Wonderful ruins with fabulous views over olive groves and the Gulf of Corinth.  Continuing up we made it to the mountains – they even sold fur, real fur hats, scarves, jackets, full-on winter gear, in the village we lunched in.  The ski resort

yes it is true - skiing is possible in Greece

and bees

buzz buzz buzz

 were a real surprise and a delight to experience especially with a cool mountain breeze to accompany it.  Following a major road-trip, on and off and around the beaten track, we made it to visit Leonidas – what a splendid chap he is!  (Thermopyles)

My very own, Leonidas (JG)!

 Fi n JG - Y walking in the thermopyles

More of the spectacular mountain views followed a night in a hotel (:0D ) in Lamia finally ending with a Greek-style lunch on the sea-shore. 

beautiful mountain lake in Greece

Before long Bertrand and Joelle returned to Athens - Paris and us to our boat and the problem-solving, getting to know the neighbours, and watch the fishing techniques!

JG and the Geese & Ducks

Mr Goose (nieghbour no.1) enjoying the puddles at night - (Fi)

(FI - Y)

Fi - walkings

Octopus fisherman in the marina

slightly more upper-class neighbour behind me (first of it's kind, custom built beauty!)

It was a long week but we managed to get the engine started and stopped (by itself.....) then started and stopped, by itself again..... and then finally started and running for as long as we wanted!!!  Unfortunately some other friends returned from the Gulf, this time with a snapped shaft (we met them only 5 day previously with no rudder!).  Again however, helping Slovenian hands and advice were much appreciated as were the large beers at the end of the day.  Having had a lot of sea water around or close to the engine, the battery compartments and other systems such as the fridge, convertor etc. we had quite some concerns that things would not function.  To our surprise however, things seemed to tick on and so we could concentrate on the shaft, when it would arrive, how to assemble it when it did and to find a diver and mechanic to help.

inbetween jobs.... cleaning

loosing the beard.... :0(

styling a tash!  NICE JG!

It was a joyous Saturday lunch-time walking the streets of Galaxidi, shaft and parts fresh off the morning bus in hand(s), with many an-onlooker and with our Danish friends / neighbours cheering us on! 

Express delievry Greek style - city to city bus

shiny and new shaft - & a happy JG

Shiny and new we admired it except the one 30mm ring left, presumably as a safety precaution, near the head of the shaft...... soon to cause much of an issue.  So...... installation.

Danish, Egyptian, Scottish and French troops ready? 

Shaft ready?

Lines ready?

Hammer anyone......?

With encouragement from our Danish neighbours

The Danes on their boat

we decided to try the whole installation ourselves.  A mean feat however, with ladies on deck holding shaft in place using two lines, all men in the water with a hammer here and there and there again, a re-organisation, an ouch when the bung popped out, a quick squashing of packing into the seal so to not let too much water in (3x) and finally more of a hammer and a pull and alignment of the engines gearbox to the shaft..... Not perfection we’re sure but RC now had a SHAFT!!! And we managed not to sink her whilst doing it! :0).

JG and Finn trying the installation

That's a SHAFT!

Wee dram anyone?

Well, the drama wasn’t completely over as we discovered on her first trial the following day – engine in low revs and we’re vibrating like a..... washing machine!  Being a Sunday our patience was tested but we were quickly distracted by sharing a drink and a tale with a very friendly Welsh man.  Now, when you’ve been on the water for 30+ years there are plenty of stories to tell.  After the welsh survey, two weeks after our initial arrival, we contacted our friendly Greek mechanic who came to reposition the engine to try to reduce our vibrations. 

Hoping that our tests on the shores side were adequate we were then faced with a new challenge – how to leave Greece ASAP...... meaning yesterday please (msg from the Customs men).  With an expired transit log we left Galaxidi late on that Monday night ‘on-the-run’!

Goodbye Galaxidi, Chris gives a friendly and very helpful send off

This is Pirate Crabbie,

Over