Dinghy kaput!

My wind scoop

I haven't actually sailed for a while. I've been spending every day aboard working on my new book from 7 am to 7 pm with a break for lunch and a nap at the hottest time of the afternoon. The temperature is often 35 c in the cabin and my "air condition" consists of a wind scoop which catches the lightest breeze and sends it down through the boat.
When the heat gets too much I cool off by taking a swim in the sea followed by a 1 litre fresh water shower.

For a few days I stopped writing to paint a new watercolour of the view. This will be an illustration in the book.

Painting the view from the boat

A storm rolling in, Galatas can be seen here on the right, Poros to the left

This is what you might call "a Greek bail out"

Unfortunately one problem was becoming a serious issue. Having my boat tied up to a buoy a few hundred metres from the shore I am totally reliant on my rubber dinghy to transport myself to the town quay to get provisions, water and diesel. 

balancing in the dinghy to use the foot pump

The dinghy was loosing air again and having to be pumped every morning which meant there was a new leak somewhere. I took the cover off and wiped soapy water over the surface but couldn't find a specific leak, it looked like I had washed it in champagne! I ended up alternately pumping and rowing like mad over to Galatas where a dinghy specialist has his workshop. After taking a water taxi back to my boat I felt rather isolated. The following day I got a phone call with the verdict. "Dinghy no good, total kaput!" It was a right off, with all the seams disintegrating!
This meant I had to buy a new dinghy to be sent from Athens for the grand total of 650€. I had to use the water taxi service several times the following days at 10€ per trip before I finally could row my new dinghy back home to the boat.

The next morning I was picked up by watertaxi again for the first leg of my trip back home to Sweden for 2 weeks. I had been asked to participate in an exhibition in Denmark called the  World Wide Watercolour exhibition  and wouldn't miss this opportunity. I had to leave Aquarella to fend for herself in the meantime which I didn't like but there are many other boats left at buoys here so I reckoned she would be safe enough.

The watertaxi came half an hour too early when I was standing there in my nightdress! (No picture of that)

To be continued...

Pick up with the watertaxi