Saturday, 12 December 2020

Making a splash

 

I have a new toy. Finally gave in and got myself a GoPro as an early Christmas present. I know you're supposed to buy Christmas presents for other people, but, well, you know how it is. Took it out on the lake this morning, and am entertaining myself by watching through the hour of footage it captured.

Some bits are more entertaining than others.

House of the Rising Sun

 


I've had a very enjoyable Saturday morning blasting about the lake with my Laser. No racing, no agenda, nothing organised, just took the chance of a spot of nice weather and a bit of free time; Nikki asked me to drop her and her mum off in town to do a bit of Christmas shopping, so I figured if she was going out I wouldn't be missed.

I'll be racing tomorrow morning as usual, so let's hope I haven't worn myself out today.

Before I left for the lake this morning though, I had a very pleasant twenty minutes or so with my morning cup of tea and the piano. I've never tried accompanying myself on the piano before, but I obviously knew the chords to this one as Mum taught be to play it on the guitar when I was about six, so I thought why not? 

Wednesday, 9 December 2020

Geneva: in conclusion

 

And so in summary, two weeks of harbour hopping across Greece reduced down to a few simple metrics. Even with the photos now posted, without accompanying dialogue I guess it loses some of the poetry of the trip. But I think over a month on now, I have to accept I've missed the opportunity to properly write it up.


I've noticed that's a frequent theme on this site, following any protracted length of time away. I should learn to journal these things as I go; I often spend too much time running around on my return having to make up for the time I've spent away to actually have the time to properly describe where I've been and what I've been up to. And that's an opportunity lost.


So Dad and I flew to Greece where we met our friend Mark, who had been kicking around enjoying his retirement aboard "Geneva", a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 389 he'd had on charter for most of the summer. We pottered around in the Ionian for a few days until another friend Vernon joined us, then met up with a fleet of five other yachts led by Rich, the guy who had organised the Athens trip. 


We then spent the next ten days sailing east roughly in the direction of Athens, stopping at various harbours each night, sometimes together, sometimes on our own, transited the Corinth Canal in convoy and finally delivered the boats to Athens.


The weather was amazing. We swum most days, and drank every night. Made good friends, sailed beneath the mountains and sky with them, and did our level best to drink each other under the table when the sailing was done.


Actually, on that last point I do exaggerate. But only a little.

And so, reduced to the final bones, in summary:

14 nights aboard
11 harbours visited
5 bays swum (10/12 updated - I'd overlooked Parga)
1 bridge passed
2 canals transited
426.94 nm sailed
82 hours 48 minutes underway
1662 photographs taken