After MACSEA was all tucked up in her plastic protection ready for winter we headed off in a rented car with Warren and Helen to Cleopatra Marina, Preveza where our new boat, RUKUS, was waiting on the hardstand.

Cleopatra is a VERY nice marina with great facilities – and of course you pay for it, hence the reason we wanted to get RUKUS back in the water asap. The cost to haul out (for the survey a month ago) and put back in the water (splash), plus the hard stand for one month was equal to what we paid for 7 months at Almira for MACSEA. The next day we said goodbye to Warren and Helen who were off the Athens airport and their flight home to California. We started reading manuals and trying to figure out all these new systems on our new Catamaran. The previous owners had only taken off their personal possessions so we had a lot of sorting and discarding to do. We spent a very busy 5 days sorting things out and cleaning the outside of the boat (the inside was left exceptionally clean and nice). I was able to test run the washing machine with 4 loads of sheets and towels – what a bonus. Deb, my sister, and Kurt (brother-in-law) arrived on September 8 by taxi from Athens (EUR 150) and the boys celebrated their birthdays and the new boat with good Greek beer – Vergina of course – bit of a laugh.

September 9, (John’s Birthday) was launch day. Last minute running around to get the outboard motor fixed (needed a new carburetor) and then at mid day the lifting began. Firstly loaded onto a trailer and pulled out into the clear, then onto the 300 Tonne travel lift for her ride to the launching dock. A bit stressful for us but these guys are professionals and all went smoothly.

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Well it was good to get scary thing number one over and done with. Not wanting to push our luck we motored across the bay to Preveza township and anchored – or tried to. The remote which operates the windlass decided to be temperamental and not co-operate. Luckily we were able to drop the anchor manually (only 5m of water so not too deep). John spent a few hours fault finding and finally we were working again. What a relief. Dinner on board, plus plenty of beer, and an early night was called for after the stressful day.

Next morning we were ready for departure. Hatches all closed, check. Engines on and running smoothly, check. No loose objects to fly around in the event of turbulence, check. OK time to winch up the anchor – windlass not working – bum. More cussing and swearing from the Captain. Eventually (a couple of hours later) found that the terminals and connections to the remote were badly corroded and one wire was loose, hence the intermittent nature of the working/non working windlass. A trip by dinghy back to Cleopatra Marina and the boys had a new remote. A few more hours and connections installed and working. This took most of the day so we ventured into Preveza and had a very good meal at the Mythos Taverna.

We were up early the next morning in high expectation of our first open water passage to Paxos when one of the toilets (‘heads’ in marine speak) decided to totally block and no longer flush – of course this was after someone had used it. I won’t go into the pooey details, suffice to say this is definitely a blue job! Kurt is a builder so is a very handy man to have around and not much fazes him. Another trip to the chandler to buy replacement pipes and fittings. Apparently it’s all chemistry – uric acid combined with salt water (sea water flush) creates a calcium deposit in the pipes. Unless it is dissolved regularly the deposit builds to such an extent that the pipe closes up and you are literally ‘in the shit’. OK, so that problem got sorted. Staying at anchor another night because it was too late to go anywhere now.

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Yay, finally anchor up and we motored away from Preveza on our NW course to Paxos. The wind was very nice 10 – 15 kts from the right direction to put the sails up. Both main and jib worked perfectly. We had two fishing lines out and finally caught our first fish – ever in 2 years of trying in the Med. A small (by our standards) Mahi Mahi. We despatched him humanely and he was soon filleted and cooling down in the fridge. The four of us shared a very nice side dish of cerviche with our meal that night.

The wind, contrary to forecast, built to 23 kts so we had another learning experience – reefing the sails and balancing the boat. Predictably the wind died out to nothing as we neared our destination – the harbour port of Gaios on Paxos. Very beautiful harbour and quaint little town – another good recommendation from our friends on Windhover.

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