Week 238: Kalimera Greece!

Sometimes, I think we've bitten off more than we can chew. Then I tell myself it's just this next hump, and things will start to improve. It's either that, or we're both a little crazy. Or maybe it's all of it.

On Delfine, things are moving quickly. When we return to Belgium, Simon expects to have completed the roof panels, and I'll paint them ready to be fitted for real. We focussed on some small jobs on Monday, putting some more hardware back in place and tidying things in case work was to be done while we were off in Greece. We finished up around 3pm and left Delfine to her own devices while we headed home.

A while back, we passed a barge in Gent that looked a lot like how we wanted to finish Delfine. We messaged the owners (Andy and Nats) and were invited to come and visit. Once packed for Greece, we rode our bikes and enjoyed a lovely tour of Ebenhaezer and a drink before heading to dinner with them at the local pub. It's been a while since we did some proper socialising with other boaties (anyone, really!), and we enjoyed chatting with others who understand the challenges we're facing.

Then, on Tuesday morning, it was up bright and early and off to Greece. At this point, I am feeling very stressed and apprehensive. There's so much that COULD go wrong, is it all going to fall into place? Our bank accounts in Greece were locked out (Know Your Customer requirements and not being able to solve it from Belgium), we didn't have a spot to put Matilda for the sea trial, we had lots of meetings and of course, the boat to prepare.

To add to it all, the contract (Memorandum of Agreement) still wasn't signed and understood, meaning that there's no formal agreement in place. And then, the buyer sent someone to anti-foul Matilda (we'd discussed this but it wasn't agreed), only to get there and find out that Matilda was being anti-fouled by the shipyard. At this point, I'm ready to tear my hair out.

When we arrived at The Nest, our apartment in Athens on Tuesday evening, it was another disappointment. The management company has not been doing a great job of looking after it, and several things were broken that needed attention. Nothing major, but I am constantly frustrated by the fact they don't seem to do even the basics beyond booking, cleaning and pushing guests through the apartment. It spoilt an otherwise exciting time, being back in a place that's special to us both.

First thing Wednesday morning, we decided to tackle the bank accounts. This went a lot smoother than we expected. When we got there, our banker who opened the accounts was still with the branch. When she saw us in the queue, she walked out and said, "Tell me!" We did and she says "Sit down, I must finish here, then I will sort it." True to her word, we were sorted in the next thirty minutes. There was a lot of "hand waving" and glossing over a few things to simplify it, but the accounts are now unlocked, and we can get our money out again.

Then, it was the real estate agent who came to visit and talk about the process of selling The Nest. There have been a lot of changes in Greece, which make it slightly more challenging than it would have been a year ago, but still, she seems very confident the right buyer can be found. Changes to the rules around Airbnb exclude a lot of foreign investors, but there are plenty of local Greeks looking for a city pad when they commute in from the distant suburbs.

We then headed out to Matilda. The confusion with the shipyard was quickly sorted. I had inquired about them doing the work but not committed to it (I hadn't paid their 40% deposit, signed the contract or anything). However, I had (vaguely) suggested in an email we'd probably go ahead when I first inquired a month ago. Since then, plans have changed, but they took that vague agreement as permission to proceed, as they knew we were doing a sea trial.

Of course, despite the misunderstanding, we still have to pay for the work, and they won't release the boat until we do. When I arrived, I sat down with the shipyard manager and chatted. It was all amicable. I shared photos of Delfine, and we talked about boats and about the fact we're both married to Dutch passport holders. At the end, he says... here's what I can do for you. Suffice it to say we still paid, but we did find a way of applying a hefty discount, which eased the pain a little. And, to be fair, they DID do an excellent job of anti-fouling. I'd happily recommend them.

With those problems out of the way, my stress levels began to decline.

The next thing was checking Matilda. We decided she wasn't too bad. She was dirty, yes, but mostly nothing a big wash couldn't resolve. We picked through a few things and headed back to Athens for dinner and a rest.

We met with our accountant on Thursday morning, who was happy to see us. We sat and chatted for 45 minutes before talking about business (which took 5 minutes).

Back to the shipyard, we walked over to Matilda, only to find she wasn't there anymore! They'd moved her. They were undergoing a giant shuffle of boats in preparation for our launch. We were three rows deep against the back wall; now, they'd moved the boats in front and had Matilda sitting on a trailer in the middle of the yard while they shuffled other boats around. We climbed aboard and started the deep clean. Now and then, we'd jerk and move as we got pushed around. By the time we were finally parked, the cleaning was nearly done.

She was still filthy, but now the worst of the dust and dirt had been moved off, and she was ready for a proper clean on Saturday. The other frustration was a big Saharan dust storm! Our fellow med sailors will be familiar with the fine red dust that gets deposited over everything. As fast as we could clean, Matilda was getting dirty again!

The launch went very smoothly on Friday. Matilda was ready to go, and we tested what we could. At exactly 11.30 they came and loaded her back onto a trailer and backed us down to the launch ramp. It was fun sitting up the front, watching the traffic as we drove down the road and once in the water, the engines started first time.

We headed off into the gulf, and tested things a bit, running her up to cruising speed and faster. Everything seemed to behave. Then I started the generator, which stopped with a "Raw Water Flow" error. That was something new! Happy all the other systems were behaving, we headed into the marina and docked up, then started to tackle more jobs.

I tested all the steps of the raw water flow. Is the seacock open? Can I run water from the seacock through to the impeller? Is the impeller intact? Everything seemed fine. I ran an Onan-Cummins generator mechanic who couldn't possibly get to the boat for weeks! But they listened to what I described and said, "The blockage must be after the impeller—check the heat exchanger." Okay. I pumped freshwater past the impeller, and it all came flooding back out.

I disconnected the end of the hose from the heat exchanger, and lo and behold, there was the issue. It was FULL of old impeller parts. This is very frustrating. For those unfamiliar with an impeller, it's part of the seawater pump. It's a little rubber "cog" or "starfish" with arms. It sits inside a housing, and the rotation of the impeller pushes the water through the system. Over time, they wear out. No biggie. It happens all the time; you replace them each year, and they are fine. Sometimes, when you go to replace them, the bits of the arms have broken off. A decent mechanic will go, "Oh, if the arm broke off, it went somewhere", but instead, a lot of them seem to just replace the old impeller with a new one and test it, then decide, "She'll be right."

Over time, bits of old impeller arms build up in the heat exchanger, eventually stopping the water flow. In our case, because the boat had been sitting, I think the water evaporated, and salt crystals formed in the gaps, blocking it completely (despite flushing the system with fresh water when I left).

It was trivial to clean them out and flush the system again. Plug it back together, and there you go! Working generator again. Of course, there's always something else. The cover on the heat exchanger has a small crack, and the gasket is shot. I tried to jerry-rig a new one with some cork, which works "kind of" and will let us run and test the generator for the sea trial, but it needs to be replaced (which should be a €50 part... a trivial exercise, but I can't get one on the weekend). At the moment, there's a small drip when it's running. Nothing tragic, but not right either.

That took us to the end of Friday. By the time we got back to Athens, we were exhausted. We decided to leave The Nest and move onto Matilda on Saturday. Besides allowing us to test the systems, it gives us more time to relax by taking out an hour and a bit of commute each way.

All day Saturday was intensive cleaning. Today, we took it easy in the morning, did another couple of hours this morning (cleaned the windows and the tender) and finally, we're ready for the sea trial on Monday.

We're relaxing this afternoon, then taking the tram into Glyfada for dinner and to somewhere different this evening.

It will be a big week this week. We do two days of sea trials with Matilda, and building work is starting on Delfine (floors are getting sanded and refinished). Assuming the sea trials go okay, we have to arrange where to store Matilda until the contract closes (or if they don't go well, we make different arrangements to store her elsewhere!)

We're back to Belgium on Thursday, unless we need to stay to complete a few things for Matilda... it's a very uncertain future at the minute but, overall, it's good. We're happy to be back here in Greece, but we're even happier to be winding things up. We've got enough on our plate with one boat, we hope the new buyer finds Matilda to their satisfaction so we can move on and focus on Delfine now.

Until next time,

Tim & Karina