Athens

We stayed overnight at Zea Marina in order to satisfy our everlasting lust of marine chandlers. That and Sushi.
Zea Marina Athens

There are a number of them on the boulevard around Zea marina, but the highest density is found close to the commercial port across the hill. While on the move in somewhat remote areas finding some specific parts can be a challenge. But Athens has a reputation to keep as it is the center of one of earths ancient civilizations. Thus we found our circlips and capacitor with relative easy. The capacitor was the primary challenge and it took 2 chandlers with blank stares until number three pulled out the business card for the rockstar shop that had our desired model in stock. We tried some more chandlers in the marina area in vein until we resorted to walk to the one of the business card:

Capacitor
Capacitor

From there on finding the circlips was easy.

CirclipCirclip

Route plan
Patroklos island

On top of the hill: Temple of Poseidon, Sounion

We passed the Temple of Poseidon while on route from the west to the east coast of the Attica region .

Wind scoop

As we empirically established temperatures in Greece can reach >30C. Thus we wake up a little earlier to enjoy the cooler morning hours such that we can relax during the hot afternoon. To keep the indoor temperature somewhat manageable we installed some wind scoops.

Wind scoop above the port hatch.

These tunnel the breeze above deck to the cabins below. We first did some POC trials using a towel (not great) and a piece a plastic foil (much better) before we found some commercial model in the local chandler. As shown in the picture it’s a simple little scoop shaped sail out of spinnaker cloth that is positioned above a deck hatch. As soon as we installed these the Meltemi started. Thus we had to take down our wind scoops in fear a damaging them due to the strong gusts of wind.

Boat works in Nikiana

Summer arrived and Ocean Wolf left the marina and has been on anchor in the Lefkas area.

After some diving lessons and while waiting for delivery of some gear we spend time on some boat works to bring things back to former glory. The welder came to replace some rusted area with a fresh bit of steel. Then came oxalid acid treatment to remove rust, primer, epoxy filler, rinse and repeat etc.

Zinc paint
Welding done
First rounds of epoxy filler have been applied

The engine room fan exhaust under the step to the doghouse is also in need of rust control.

The doghouse is being varnished as well. This will require perseverance to get to the required 12 coats . We established that 4 coats is not sufficient to prevent water from reaching the wood. This means getting up early (before the temperature gets too high).

Mid varnish

Some wood veneer was glued back were water caused it to get lose many moons ago. The greatest satisfaction was achieved by working on the Speich Clear View window. Thus far we only saw it blocking our view instead of enhancing our view.

Clear View window in doghouse.

That is we never saw it in working order and there was a lot of dirt that built up between the outer spinning pane and the main window pane. Our goal was to clean this to restore some clarity of view. After liberal use of our plastic hammer we managed to loosen the spinning pane. Success! Soap and water did wonders and more importantly found out that the motor worked fine without the window attached. We subsequently managed to reassemble everything and lo and behold: we have a functional window! What does it do you ask? When turned on the clear view window spins at approximately 1700 rpm which makes any water disappear in a split second. Thus even in heavy rain this will allow for a clear view through the window! Aside from that it’s just cool to have a spinning window.

Spray water, but not on the clear view window

Argostolli

After a few days in Ithaka we head to Kefalonia. Here we hope to see some turtles while staying at anchor while wind picks up.

Sadly the predictions for wind and rain turn out mostly accurate. The promised turtles remain unseen. We suspect they are in hibernation.

We use the time to rewire one of the electric winches It bypassed the future battery monitoring system in its original installation. For this we had flown in some bad *ss cables. Lots of time was spend under the floor and under the chart table. Eventually the new cable was installed and fixed in place with tie wraps. And the winch still works.