26 July 2013, Preparations at Cleopatra Marina

Exiting day, so many things can go wrong in preparing for a sailing holiday. The boat had been suffering from a severe water damage during the winter. Were the long repair and cleaning list really executed? Was the boat still possible to live in or just disgusting with stained and moldy interior? I had ordered a new incredibly expensive main sail to be delivered from Sweden to Preveza. Had it arrived, and would the sail really fit in reality to the measures given? And was all parts delivered? How about the port police, did I have to report my sailing start to them and what kind of tricky questions could they ask. The launching of the boat into sea was ordered already at 11:00, would we have time to shop all food and bed clothes (since the old ones were mouldy and thrown away) before the launching? Cleopatra Marina is situated on the other side of the 1-2 km wide sound from Preveza, at which times did the boat taxi/shuttle departure/arrive? All the shopping had to be done in Preveza town across the sound. 

We started early arriving to Cleopatra Marina at 8:30 in the morning. A quick check on the boat revealed that the boat did look the same as when leaving it in August 2012! What a relief!! All the repairs and cleaning seemed to been done properly! We were able to postpone the launching to 14:00 giving us time to do all the shopping in Preveza town and the visit to the port police (which went really smoothly). Also got time to purchase two internet prepaid Vodafone internet SIM-cards, and this year it seems to work and instructions were given in English instead of Greek. So much easier, even if I still do not understand why it was not possible to top up the GBs directly from Internet instead of being forced to visit a silly Vodafone shop somewhere. Is Vodafone a real true Internet provider? No.  

Anyway, the boat went into sea and the heavy and tedious work of getting the sails, the sprayhood and the bimini mounted. To put all the lines in place, to test that everything really works at it should Sounds easy, but take such long time and is really exhausting in 32-35C. The mounting of the gennaker block at the mast top had to wait until Saturday morning, since no marina staff would be available until Friday morning. After a nice dinner at the marina restaurant we fell in deep sleep. All windows open, and no duvets….