Tuesday, the 19th January, 2010

For the last couple of days there has been rain – not real teeming rain – just enough to stop me from working outside. The smallest amount of water on the hull makes the process of burning the paint off take twice as long. Today it has stopped.


It is windy instead! So windy in fact that the ferry doesn’t leave. (I am not going on the ferry that doesn’t leave, so it is incidental. I merely mention it because it gives you – the reader – some idea of just how windy it was.)

Well, at least it is not raining I hear you say. And to be honest I am glad it isn’t. My biggest problem right now is that a couple of days ago I tied a 96m2 kite to the front of the boat and at the moment it is threatening to pull the boat clear off its stands.

Let me paint for you a picture of a Greek dry dock. This area (about half an acre) contains about fifty boats of various shapes, sizes and values. At the lowest end is Natasha, valued at about 18 rupee – and at the top end some 12 berth motor boats that come in at about £½million. All these boats are out of the water, supported on an assortment of oil drums, bits of old telegraph pole, logs and anything else that comes to hand. The easiest way to imagine it is to place 50 milk bottles upside down, propped up with match sticks, each bottle about half an inch apart. And do all this on ground that is as flat as the local motor-cross track. You get the idea?

The thought of very expensive domino toppling comes to mind. I find myself starting to think about how much insurance the boat yard owners have got. I wonder what the fastest way out is if the boat falls off its oil-drums. I don’t get much sleep that night. I get out on deck about every half an hour to check the tarp, secure it better where I can etc.