Here we go again, back off to Greece to see if Barberry is still where we left her. The plan is for a few weeks of relaxing, trouble-free (ha ha) sailing around Corfu and the Ionian Islands, also meeting up with our son Patrick and his companion Chloe for a week of sightseeing on Corfu island.
We had spent a long, cold winter in Donaghadee, mainly waiting to go to Greece and trying to stay warm. We have little to show for the time, other than a few watercolour paintings, a worn hollow on my favourite sofa and maybe a new house. And (edit by Kerry) a lot of sewing work by Fraser, see later…
I had also spent most of the winter packing, unpacking and repacking Barberry essentials, such as my many winter sewing projects, which included a rather large bimini (boat canopy), who I will refer to as Ben the Bimini. So we had Ben and one very large bag of sailing stuff (including a spinnaker) ready to go with weeks to spare. Ben is 6’5” tall with a 20cm waistline, rigid and weights nearly 20kg, so makes an interesting travelling companion. We had a final big bag for people essentials. This was stuffed full with hours to spare and seemed to contain mainly underwear and a vast array of pills and medications to last us the six weeks.
The first weather warning arrived before we had even left Donaghadee. Storm Kathleen was on her way and due to reach her peak, (at well over 40 knots) over Belfast international airport at around 0945 on Saturday 6th April. Coincidently, the same time as we were due to flight to Gatwick, with an onward flight to Preveza. We both took panicky wobblers on Friday. Will EasyJet cancel the flight if it’s too windy? Will we miss our connection? Will EasyJet even care? Not worth the risk, we decided. Kerry started pressing buttons on her laptop and came up with a flight on Friday evening to Gatwick. We could then stay overnight at the airport Travel Lodge, and casually continue our journey on Saturday. The changes cost over £300, but sure isn’t it worth it for peace of mind? As it turned out Kerry had just been paid about that amount for a recent yachting article (easy come, easy go…).
Patrick came with us to the airport, so that he could drive Kerry’s car back to Donaghadee. He hadn’t driven her car before. Kerry drove there and, as we arrived, I thoughtfully reminded her of the new traffic arrangements at City airport (the last time we flew she got caught out at the first roundabout and somehow ended up on the road back to Bangor). She assured me that she had it all thought through this time and knew what she was doing. She did not explain that she planned to stop illegally at an airport mini roundabout, as she did not want to pay for parking. We jumped out at the roundabout and I ran for a trolley as Kerry dragged Ben and the two bags out of the boot. Patrick jumped in the driver’s seat and hurriedly familiarised himself with an unfamiliar, modern car, which has about a million gadgets. He eventually got it into drive (the lever is cleverly disguised as an extra indicator switch) and took off into a stream of roundabout traffic, causing a few honks! He went twice around the little mini roundabout, discovering the limited turning circle of Kerry’s car, before Kerry gestured the correct exit and he took off like a bat out of hell. Maybe not so used to a 200 bhp hybrid car!
We dropped off Ben and the bags, which were all deemed ‘outsized’, which is a shame, as Ben was looking forward to the conveyer. We felt a lot better after ridding ourselves of over 60kg of baggage and had a smooth flight to Gatwick, where we then had to retrieve Ben and the bags and get them into a shuttle bus to our overnight hotel. Fortunately we found trolleys, otherwise I’m not sure we could have actually done it. Just getting them into the bus was a major feat and we struggle to find anywhere to put Ben until I found a Ben-sized gap, next to the luggage area. Two kind young lads helped us with the other bags when Kerry’s 22kg clean and jerk into the luggage holder went horribly wrong. As is typical of such journeys, we arrived at the hotel at nearly midnight, feeling very tired, to discover a long queue at check-in and a crashed computer system. Eventually an elderly computer whiz arrived on the scene, pressed a few buttons and got things moving again. In the mean time I located yet another trolley, which we managed to wheel all the way into our room and keep for the next day!
At least we didn’t have too early a start the next morning as our flight didn’t leave for Greece until 15.45, so we had a lie-in followed by a leisurely breakfast. I went for a walk then wrote this blog before we set off again with Ben and his baggy friends. We landed in Preveza at 2200 ish, and by some miracle, so did our bags. The next challenge was to find a taxi capable of taking Ben’s 6’5″ length — maybe a people carrier or a large van? All the taxis were Mercedes saloons. The driver of ours, totally unfazed, flung everything in his tiny boot, with more than half of Ben’s length still sticking out, then closed the lid with a bit of ratty elastic. As he sped off, bouncing in and out of potholes, I winced at every impact, but somehow we made it to Cleopatra Marina, where Barberry has been sitting patiently waiting for us, and Ben seemed okay.
We hauled all the bags up to the apartment we’d booked for a couple of nights, then shot off through the darkness to check on Barberry. She was still there, and looked exactly as we’d left her. Huge relief. Next week, Kerry will talk about the work we did to get her ready for her next adventure, and our first couple of days back on the Mediterranean Sea.