With a clean bottom, beautifully painted crisp line of black anti foul paint and the shiny mirror like reflection on the hulls, we were at last ready to go back into the water! Well almost!

To get Mossy Joe back in the sea we had the reverse process of hauling out which I thought would be less stressful but that was not the case. Firstly, once the first few ‘stilts’ had been removed from under the boat and all 15 tons of it were dangling from the slightly worn straps, a final task had to be completed. This comprised Jacques walking under the boat with a brush, painting the sections that were not visible when the supports had been in place.

The next pre-launch activity was the loading of the new fridge using a slightly unorthodox delivery method.

And an even more unorthodox installation method!

With the new fridge successfully installed we had finished the internal fixes and updates. There still remained a couple of jobs externally that could only be done once the boat was back in the water. Unfortunately, they both involved ‘someone’ going to the top of the mast, all 25 metres (that’s 82 feet in old money!) of it!

The first job up the mast was to put something through something else (official nautical terms) so that the main sail could be raised. The second job was an essential part of the process to ensure the mooring light would work. You may remember from blogs last year that the light was very temperamental. This is a real problem as when the boat is anchored at night the only clue for other vessels that we exist is the constant white light at the top of the mast.

Jacques and I discussed him going up with me winching him albeit with the use of electric winch not with me sweating and swearing whilst manually winching him up! The problem with this approach is that any hoisting, manually or with the aid of electricity, requires experienced hand to eye co-ordination, especially on the way down so as not to drop too quickly or risk swinging in to the rigging and getting stuck.

This, we decided, was no go as an option and of course, before you ask, me going up was not even a consideration! I had asked the marina if they had a technician who could go up for us but the best they could offer was the use of a ‘cherry picker’ crane (see blog from Nisyros situation last October!) for Jacques to use to lift him to the top. Despite the huge cost of this we would have taken up the option but we would have to wait a week which we could not do.

One of the good things about having such an unusual boat is that people stop to talk to you about it! One such person was the lovely Mark, an engineer and a scouser (a Red thank heavens!!) in semi retirement having a few weeks on his boat, Mea Cara, away from the British ‘spring’!

I mentioned our predicament to Mark and asked if he would feel confident winching Jacques up (and down) and he said more than that he would go up for us!

After putting the thing through the other thing, Mark’s next task was to capture information about the offending mooring light, complete with any reference codes so that we could order a replacement. Mark took a number of photos and videos whilst swaying at the the top, what an incredible job he did. Not at all scary looking down!

Huge thanks to Mark, the ouzos we shared that evening were (I’m not going to say a drop in the Ocean!!!!) a small token of our appreciation for this help.

So with the boat beautiful and safe, inside and out we were ready to leave but not before the arrival of our darling friends Claire and Hayley!

We had a wonderful long weekend together, starting with a sail from the marina around the coast of Leros to the beautiful bay of Panteli where we had previously had dinner with the Let’s Go crew. Such a charming and authentic spot, I was very keen to share it with the ladies, anchoring in the bay rather than another night in a harbour.

The sail around to Pantelli was a short eight mile, one hour long trip so we were incredibly lucky that we happened upon a couple of dolphins that just wanted to play under and around the boat! What a dream start for the weekend!

Having arrived in the clear water bay and with the sun shining, our guests took to the (not very warm) water for a swim! Brave ladies!

We then prepared for dinner at one of the splendid small tavernas on the beach and that meant the inaugural launch of the newly serviced dinghy! Despite the skies now being full of thunderous storm clouds and fork lightening in the distance we were excited to go ashore and with only slight trepidation got into the dinghy. Our safe landings into, followed by us being happily seated on, the dinghy was a great relief and I told myself I needn’t have worried that I had forgotten to round up everyone’s valuables and put them in the dry bag. It was a five minute journey to the shore and what could happen……….?? Look at our happy smiling faces……….!

Fifteen minutes later in almost pitch darkness, both Jacques and Hayley were fallen off the dinghy and into the sea!!!!

After a few attempts, which was not unusual, Jacques had managed to get the outboard motor working and we had cast off from Mossy Joe heading across the stern of the boat to take our course to the dinghy dock. Except the motor had other ideas and would only function in reverse! This was funny at the time but as the minutes passed and Jacques attempts to correct the fault were unsuccessful, the dinghy either floating away or going around in circles and the lightening and rain approaching we gave up and reversed back to Mossy Joe. We were laughing at this point.

I jumped out first to secure the dinghy’s line to the boat and helped Claire out by way of climbing from the dinghy using the swim ladder – so far so good. The dinghy was now bobbing about and when Hayley stood up to make her controlled dinghy exit she grabbed the handles of the swim ladder which would have been fine had the dinghy not then moved away from the boat meaning that Hayley became a human ‘bridge’ with legs in the dinghy and hands on the boat, the gap between boat and dinghy becoming ever greater despite me pulling the line to bring the dinghy and Hayley closer to safety.

Jacques was also still in the dinghy, his arms around Hayley’s legs trying to bring her whole body onto just one floating option, which meant when one went, they both went!! Oh No!!!!!

As ever at times like this, I do not have any photo evidence which is a shame because the lightening flashes in the sky would have made it a masterpiece I’m sure! Good news is that nothing was lost as sea except some dignity and pride. And we did all laugh a great deal over Greek salad, pasta and wine on board later that night!

The next morning, having experienced Leros to its full, we set off for Kalymnos which you may remember as the earthquake island last year. More on this next time.

Before leaving Leros physically, spiritually and in blog format I would like to tell you about the fascinating role the island played within WWII. For such a tiny island, it has secured a place in both Greek and British history although sadly it is for tragic reasons as HMS Intrepid was bombed by German aircraft in Lakki harbour in 1943.

Starting on 26 September, after days of dropping threatening leaflets, the Luftwaffe unleashed continuous attacks on Leros, enjoying complete air superiority. On that day, bombers sank the Greek destroyer Vasilissa Olga, the British destroyer Intrepid, and the Italian MAS 534 inside the harbour of Lakki. The submarine base, the barracks of the naval base, the workshops, and four of the five fuel depots (but not the one which actually contained fuel) were destroyed; seven German bombers were shot down.

Intrepid had a busy war. She rescued troops trapped on the Dunkirk beaches; laid mines off the German coast; escorted shiploads of tanks up to Murmansk for the Red Army; searched for the mighty German battleship Bismarck; sank a U-boat; participated in the deadly supply convoys to starving Malta; covered the Allied landings in Italy; escorted the surrendered Italian fleet from Taranto to Malta before heading up to her grave in Leros. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leros

So, farewell to Leros, a special place and many happy (and now very funny!) memories!

And a happy hello again to Kalymnos!

Back soon with more adventures of the Stevenage Mermaids!!

Sail safe, be kind

Tracey xx