Up at stupid o’clock on Sunday, October 1st to fly out to Greece. We arrived on time, grabbed a taxi and we were in Lavrion on Nimmie by 3pm. We started the fairly laborious tasks required to ensure all is well when we launch her into the water but the main one was to give her a good clean inside and out after all the work done over the past year. By 8pm we were knackered so walked round to the restaurant in the marina for a well deserved meal and cold beer. The fridge needed re-gassing and couldn’t be tested until she was in the water as the fridge uses water to cool – hence no cold beers!

We were launched by about 1pm the following day and it was fingers crossed the engine would start and we could get round to our berth. It had started to get quite windy so with a little help from the marineros, all was well and we were safely tucked up. It’s quite nice that there are pontoons in Olympic Marine although they are not exactly full length! We knew that high winds were due Tuesday and Wednesday but that gave us plenty of time to get her ready for her journey to her new home in Samos. We had decided that we wouldn’t put the genoa on until late Wednesday evening as gusting over 30 knots was just too windy! By now, we had been into town and done some food shopping (although the mini market in the marina is pretty good) and eaten at our favourite restaurant.

The three days in the marina were perfect for doing those jobs that only become apparent once you’re in the water like a leaking toilet, a cupboard that didn’t want to open, headlining that needed re-gluing and a few other things that felt like Nimmie was trying to tell us something. This included realising that the workmen (I use the word advisable) had obviously left one of the windows open in the galley (kitchen) and not only had water poured all over the cooker but it had got into one of the burners so it needed to be painstakingly cleaned and dried out. However, what we were not prepared for was the handle on the engine seawater inlet stopcock shearing off in Jo’s hands! We had just been checking the engine and had closed the stopcock to check the impeller and then tried to open it again when the handle literally came off in Jo’s hand. Well, that wasn’t expected but at least it happened in the marina and not somewhere where we couldn’t get assistance. The handle had sheared off in the closed position so no water can cool the engine, meaning engine would get about 500 metres before overheating. Not good. This of course happened on the Wednesday evening and we were planning on leaving on Thursday morning for Samos.

After consulting with the boatyard on Thursday morning, we agreed we would be lifted out and the valve changed. We then started to wonder whether the through hull fitting was also damaged which could be very serious. Caution then got the better of valour and we decided that she needed to be lifted out and have all the seacocks and through hull fittings checked as it felt like a hot summer and not having sailed her for 15 months may have done more damage than we first thought. Add into the mix that there is a Boat Show at Olympic Marine so the travel lift is out of action for at least two weeks, meaning that if we did encounter a problem having left the marina, it would be difficult to get lifted out and there wouldn’t be any room in the marina either.

So, rather than be lifted out and fixed so we could be on our way, we decided that we would be lifted out and remain here for the winter. It feels like Covid, life and Brexit have all conspired so we have hardly been out to see Nimmie and as a result, when we are with her we spend the entire time sorting out maintenance issues.

Consequently, we have come to the very sad decision that we need to sell her to someone who can give her the TLC she needs and spend more time on her than we have managed over the last few years. However, we would have a few more days on her before she would be lifted out.