Plan Z

We are a bit late in reporting recent events—not that anyone
is hanging on our every word—but there have been quite a few
events lately and it has taken us a bit of time to digest them.
Or them to digest us: we have the feeling that we have been
processed.

As August was ending we had a plan. We would finish our 90 days
in Greece—90 days is what Greece allows furriners from the US—and
do a graceful overnight to Brindisi. At our leisure we would
go to Sibari—on the instep of the Italian boot—and get Horizons
ready for winter. Then we would move northwards by train to
Venice and thence to Vienna and Munich, returning to our native
country on 15 November, having looked at Lippizaner stallions
and some alps.

Notice, please, that conditional auxiliary verb “would.”

The meaning of which is, something else happened.

We did not do much sailing in the Ionian in August. We had arrived
in this lovely inland sea in August, when the Italian charterers
and flotilla-ers arrive. Charterers are hard enough to deal
with, but flotillas are composed of fleets with captains who
have had two or three days to learn to sail before setting out.
They fill up harbors quickly. We soon learned that to go to
the pretty places we wanted to see, we had better leave early
and plan on spending the hours at dusk on the bow of the boat
looking fiercely at anyone attempting to anchor too close.

We ended up spending quite a bit of time on the hook on lovely
Vlikho Bay on Lefkas , where charterers leave from, but never
stay, because the water isn’t perfectly clear and it isn’t romantic.
They are looking for crystal clear water, but we prefer good
holding and a functional town with internet nearby. We were
able to call our son and daughter in law there on the due date
of their second child, and we were able to get a call from them
a week later when their daughter Quincy was born.

We decided to move up the chain to Paxos, where there is another
large bay but little phone service, to wait out a large wind,
and then go up to Corfu to leave. We hatched the plans described
in the second paragraph.

We pulled up anchor on the first day forecast for good winds
to head north up the strait to Corfu. The strait is narrow and
a shipping channel with Albania on the right. Good to do in
good wind and daylight.

With the anchor and sail now up, we increased the engine speed
to motor beyond the island and into the channel. Suddenly, at
no more than 1200RPM there was an enormous vibration from the
engine. Laurie went below and saw the engine almost leaping
from the compartment. Jack slowed it down to 1000 and the vibration
stopped. What to do? With 1000 Revs we could motor into the
entrance of Gouvia Marina in Northern Corfu, but we would have
to sail there. Oh well, the wind was fair and we had straightened
out the last problem we had with the mainsail only the week before.



When we were close enough to Corfu to have cellphone coverage,
Laurie called a friend in Gouvia and got the name and number
of their good mechanic. She called the mechanic who agreed to
meet us the next morning.

Suddenly, even though sailing and not motoring, the engine started
vibrating, worse than before. Jack put the transmission in reverse
gear, the vibration stopped, and he went below to find that only
one nut was holding the propeller shaft to the transmission.
Now we wouldn’t even have the engine to enter Gouvia.

We had been making good progress north, but the wind was shifting
and when we were off the south end of Corfu over an area of shoal,
the wind stopped. After an hour of fiddling around, staying
off the rocks, but not able to gain any steerageway, we called
the Port Police, who are the local Coast Guard. Even if the
wind came up, we would never make it to Gouvia before dark.


The Port Police said they could not come for us, as we were not
in immediate danger, but would call a rescue vessel who would
call us. The rescue vessel called a half an hour later, asked
for our position, and said they would be there in one hour and
forty five minutes. Forty five minutes later the Port Police
found us and hovered nearby until the rescue vessel came.

The rescue vessel would not answer our question as to how much
the tow would cost. They indicated there was too much noise
from their engine and they didn’t speak English. By now, we
had taken our sails down because although the wind had come up
and we were now sailing slowly, they needed us to be still to
take us in tow. So we were at their mercy. And, we figured,
the Coast Guard had called them and was standing by, how bad
could it be?

After the six hour tow in increasing winds from the north we
found out. After being delivered to Gouvia, someone from the
rescue vessel jumped on our boat and in good English had us sign
the Lloyds’ towing contract. Moments later, the owner of the
towing company, came on board and through his interpreter demanded
20,000 euros for the tow. His best offer was 12,000 euro if
we paid cash.

Laurie went to call the insurance company while Jack continued
to bargain with the owner and the translator. Of course, it
was Labor Day. When Laurie came back to explain that we would
have no answer from the insurance company until 4pm the next
day, things grew noticeably cooler, but the two men agreed to
return at four the next day.

By nine the next morning the mechanic had come. He couldn’t
diagnose the problem with out lifting the boat, which we had
suspected. We arranged to have the boat hauled the next day.
We had a visit from the towboat owner and his translator, but
we still didn’t have an answer, as the insurance agent in the
US had to forward the information on to the underwriters claims
department. The captain was not amused, but agreed that he would
wait until we heard from the underwriter before starting proceedings.(By
maritime law, if provision for payment is not made within three
days the towboat owner can put a lien on the boat and while the
captain did not want to go through the insurance company, he
did want his money).

Our son called that day to tell us that our downstairs neighbor
had noticed a problem with the heat pump, which our son didn’t
want to handle because his wife, who had given birth three days
before, was now in the hospital. We called our neighbor who
agreed to handle the problem with the heat pump. Laurie looked
for flights back to the US, which she figured she could make
by Sunday. Jack would be left to figure out what to do from
then on.

The next day, we were hauled and it was clear we needed to replace
the shaft, which was bent.

We got an answer from the underwriter. Of course they would
rather pay 12000 that 20000 and if we fronted the money they
would pay the claim.

We got the news from our son that his wife was out of pain, off
the ventilator and would be coming home that day. Laurie didn’t
need to come, the boat would get fixed, and we could still leave
Greece before our visas expired. (In Greece, there are huge
fines if you overstay your visa and a visa renewal, which you
can’t get anyway, costs 500 euro per person.)

Now it was Friday and Captain X (we won’t tell you what WE called
him) had gotten a fax from our broker telling him that the money
had been wired to his account. When he had received it in his
account he would give us the receipt and we could leave. We
figured that would happen on Monday, and the weather was favorable
to leave by then or Tuesday, with Thursday being the day our
visas turned into pumpkins. Things were looking up.

Saturday at 6 am both John and Cheri called. The new baby was
now in the hospital, they had spent the day there and Cheri’s
mother who had been with them for a month had made arrangements
to leave on Sunday. It was not at all clear how serious the
situation might be.

Fortunately, Laurie knew the flight schedules from earlier, booked
a ticket and got to DC Sunday afternoon. Good she did, as by
Monday John had come down with an evil GI bug. By Tuesday, it
had been determined that Quincy was fine, the fever though still
of unknown origin, was gone and she could come home, so mom would
come home too which would make things easier with Nico, who so
far had not seen much good come from his sister’s arrival.

By Wednesday, John was quite a lot improved but Laurie had the
bug. Thursday night the 13th Jack arrived, having gotten out
of Greece with arrangements made for the boat, receipts procured
and the boat healed about four hours before his visa expired.
By Saturday, he had the bug.

It took until about the end of September before everyone was
well in DC and things approached normal.

Now, Quincy is just about ready to smile purposefully, Nico has
begun to accept her as part of the family and his life, John
has gone back to work part time and we have gone to the condo
for a while.

In fact, things are so close to on an even keel that we decided
to take a cheap flight to Ireland, see it, go on to Venice by
Ryanair and Austria by train, and come back to the US on the
flight from Munich that we booked in April when we were sure
the worst was over.

We keep learning.