Tuesday 10 September 2019 – near Venitsa

The technical department told us to contact them at 9am to find our when the plumber was coming to do the work. With this in mind we set the alarm for 8:30 with a view to going over before breakfast.  It was therefore something of a shock when at 8am as we were half asleep and undressed that there was knocking on the hull and shouts of ‘hello’ from the cockpit. The workmen were here ready to get going.  Hurriedly we put on some clothes to make us decent and let them in to start.  They worked on the heater for 2 ½ hours and seemed to have no trouble.  They took it out without incident and rotated it by 90 degrees as instructed by the manufacturer.  They did not think it needed a non-return valve.  After many goes the water seemed to come out at the right temperature from each side. The problem with charging from the engine was caused by the internal water system for the engine being empty! Heaven knows why the engine didn’t overheat, but for a change luck was with us. 

With the hot water system seemingly working (only time will really tell) we were ready to fill up with water and leave just about in time to meet their noon deadline (they already agreed to be a bit flexible).  We decided to go to Venitsa, a little town on the inland sea from Preveza.  We have been there before.  As we were leaving the harbour I asked R whether we were continuing up the channel or going back.  This was so I knew which side to keep the Red and Green Buoys on.  Richard’s reply was that it didn’t matter because he was taking a short cut.  That was about 5 minutes before we hit the shallows and finally went aground!  Lucky we are in a Southerly with a lifting keel, so we could get out of trouble and then go back and follow the buoyed channel!

As we set out the wind was only 5 knots from directly behind, so sailing was going to take too long even on a short run. However when we were about 2-3 miles from our destination I pointed out to R that we now had 15 knots of wind.  We put up the Genoa and motor sailed the rest of the way.  By the time we got to Venitsa it was gusting 17 knots.  When we were here before we anchored around the corner in a pleasant bay but Richard wanted to explore the possibility of mooring on the town wall.  Only two problems with that.  Firstly we had no idea if there would be any spaces. Because of this Richard didn’t let me put out the fenders, lines and sort out the dinghy. He suggested doing that if and when we found a space.  There was indeed a space and people ready to help take our lines.  But the second problem came up.  I couldn’t move the dinghy forward in the wind nor get all the preparations for mooring.  We finally gave up and went to the anchorage which was much more protected.  Maybe we will go back in the morning but with everything prepared.

Here we are in this very pleasant anchorage.  So far the water heater seems to be doing what it should. My only big worry now is that the fridge doesn’t seem to be as cold as it should.  There is always something!