Ayios Euphimia, Kefalonia – Tuesday 11 September 2018

We had the quietest night we have had in a long time.  So all credit to our saviours who moored us up well last night.  We had a leisurely breakfast but were still ready to leave by 9am.  We were on our own untying the ropes but that went smoothly.  Richard used the dinghy and I pulled the ropes in.  When the last rope was off we started to swing but it was fine and we didn’t go anywhere near the boat next to us.

So Richard gave me the dinghy seat and oars and ropes and he tied up the dinghy. Then it should have been the easy part - taking up the anchor.  There was of course nearly 60 meters of chain to take up.  It all started very well, but just as the anchor was off the sea floor and I could see it suspended in the water the windlass jammed and seemed to cut off.  Before I would have assumed it was the safety switch and just gone to put it back on.  But we don’t have that system any more, instead we have a safety switch for the whole boat’s electrics.  I assumed this must have switched off and went below, took up two floorboards over the battery compartment and turned it back on, I thought.  Of course it hadn’t tripped at all and all I did was turn the entire boat’s electrics off.  Well I put that right and still the windlass was jammed.  So I did what I thought needed to be done.  I pulled the last 10+ meters of chain up by hand.  It nearly killed me. Then I was left with a whole pile of chain on the deck which I couldn’t feed though the windlass. Eventually I worked out that the chain had jammed and really all it needed was to be let out a bit. The down button started to work and finally I was able to get all the chain in the locker.  On consideration I think the problem was that the chain piled up in the locker and didn’t have room to fall down leaving room for new chain to go in.  Richard did look in the locker and the chain was piled up and needed patting down.  It was the first time we have used so much chain.

So I was exhausted with my anchor efforts and just collapsed.  We didn’t have far to go to get to Ayios Eufimia.  We got here in good time to get a place on the town wall.  The wall is run by the town who have mooring men directing you where to go.  They are the best we had.  They told us exactly where to drop the anchor and how to steer into the fairly tight space we were assigned (of course both surrounding boats left as soon as we arrived).  We were here last year in bad weather with Keith and Glenys and had to anchor because the wall was full.  But I did remember that it is a quite high wall and I was concerned that our passerelle would not reach far enough.  But we were just able to get it safely on the wall although it is at a rather steep angle.

Anyway we are nicely placed with water and electricity and a little beach where we can swim. But of course something else broke.  Yesterday we thought that the pump that takes the water from our shower out of the boat was a bit sluggish.  Well, it has now completely packed up.  This means that the shower can’t drain.  We have to take up the wooden floor and sponge the water out into the sink.  Not a fun job. I can’t put up with that for long. So we are planning to return to Lefkas and see if they can replace the pump.  It is just a small standard bilge pump, so we hope it won’t be a problem.  At the same time I have persuaded Richard that we should replace the batteries.  They really are having a problem holding charge and I can just see them going completely any time.  The only problem is that Lefkas is too busy at the weekends when the charter boats have their handover.  So we have to make do until Sunday evening.  In the meantime we will stay here tomorrow.  It is a nice place and we can re-provision.

Oh the boat that rescued us yesterday is here and said hello.

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