This has been a very lazy week, back in Naxos, waiting 3 days in the bay to get into the marina and then once in the marina catching up on jobs on the boat.

Prior to our arrival in Naxos, the night before we left Kalantos to come here, a scary and yet life affirming incident took place which saw the boating community come together to assist a crew in distress.

I have mentioned before the Navily app which is like Booking.com for boats. It tells you which bays are safe to anchor in, if there are tavernas on shore, which marinas have water and electricity, what the costs are etc. Another feature I had not noticed was the ability to use it to message the nominated captain on other boats.

My first experience of this was in the tiny marina at Kalantos when Louis from Ariana messaged me to ask if there was room in the marina as they were heading there – I replied to say yes and the next morning via the app he thanked me for my help and said they had indeed found a space and spent the previous evening there. I then replied late afternoon suggesting they come say hello if they had time.

No response until 8pm that night when my phone started buzzing and I found another feature I had never seen before and that was the ‘New assistance request’ sent by Louis with the words ‘we lost our direction’. There then commenced a flurry of other Navily users in the vicinity offering help and suggestions and after some discussion that the crew from Ariana, who were French, should write their situation in French to be Google translated, our very own French hero, Jacques, stepped in to directly call them on the phone.

This is an excerpt of the Navily chat which now had 13 contributors on it…

What was very bizarre was that from the Taverna we were at (up one of the hills mentioned in the last blog) we could see them and they were not too far from where we were. However, without a rudder, getting to safety would be very difficult and it was now way past sundown and not long until it would be pitch black.

They somehow rigged up a temporary rudder and made their way into the bay and dropped anchor. Whilst this was happening the Coast Guard showed up and all the time we could see Ariana waving their distress light. It was really a sobering moment to know that they were so close to safety yet it could have ended up in disaster.

The next morning as we left the marina we sailed over to see them and check they were OK. They said yes they had repaired the rudder and that they had beer so all was well! Phew!

Fast forward a few days and back in the Naxos bay and then into the marina. We have now been here a week and I almost feel like I live here! Highlights of the week have been……

Having dinner and drinks on a few evenings with our friends who after leaving Mossy Joe were renting an apartment in Naxos.

Back to our lovely rooftop cocktail bar “Swing’

Guess which drink was called ‘Shopping Therapy’!!

More cocktails and Jacques teaching Jake and Kyle his favourite party piece with a napkin!

Jake catching his first fish with his new fishing rod!

A boat load of Ozzies rafting up alongside us 2 hours before the England v Australia Semi Final!! There were some ‘discussions’ about who would win over the virtual boat ‘fence’ and good natured banter as they crossed our boat to get to the quay to find a bar showing the game!

Needless to say, they were very sheepish on their return, with me still ‘Yippeeing’ and dancing around the boat!

The other activity of note this week was our athletic style boat cleaning which is exhausting in 30 degrees of heat but the boat does look very lovely now. I have to say also that the Ozzies were great at following boat etiquette by removing their shoes and washing their feet before walking across the deck.

And finally yesterday after 6 weeks of being battered, bruised and chipped I took my feet and my toes for a pedicure! Now I know the skin on my feet must have been hard – not wearing shoes for most of the day and jumping on stone quays will have that affect – but truly I have never had a pedicure before where an high speed electric sander was used – and not just on the very tough parts but also on the backs of toes, heels, everywhere!! The pain!!

Anyway, this is the result – not sure it is my shade but when presented with a shelf with over 200 bottles on it and being asked ‘which colour’ and not knowing enough Greek to say ‘the incandescent coral rose with a hint of glitter’ I just gave up on saying ‘ No, no, back, no, forward, no, no, no, yes, yes, no, back again’ and just went with the next one that her fingers alighted on!!

And yes I know I need to moisturise!!

So a week without any boating but we are sure to make up for this in the coming days as we await the arrival today of our next guests, our lovely friends and sailing buddies Kay, Chris and Alice. Hooray!!

More soon

Stay safe and be kind

Tracey

p.s there is a rumour that the winch is actually now somewhere in Greece!!