On a sailboat in Greece

How does this sound:  writing to you from a sailboat in Greece..? Strictly speaking, I am in the restaurant right now, but my latest volunteer stint is on a sailboat in Greece as  I have always wondered what it would be like to live on a sailboat, and a sailboat in Greece sounds like a dream.

So I applied for a workaway volunteer stint as crew, and to help with what I like to optimistically call boat stuff, but as a friend pointed out, that just means work 🙂 (Workaway is a program where one volunteers in exchange for room and board.)

Last Wednesday, I took a bus from Zagreb to Sofia, Bulgaria, switched buses to Thessaloniki, then on another bus to Preveza where I spent the night before finishing my bus journey to Vonitsa on Friday to meet the boat, a 14.5 meter (32 foot) sailboat, and its captain, Barbara.  Barbara has tons of sailing experience for more than 35 years, with her own boat for 15 years, and has crossed the Atlantic in it, with one crew member.

I used to jokingly say that my job on a sailboat was to open the beer, but I have actually sailed maybe 4 or 5 times.  However, for the first 5 days, I haven’t needed much experience for my tasks, all to get the boat ready to sail to its winter home on Nov. 1.  So far, I have scrubbed the water line to be free of slime and barnacles, swabbed the deck, cleaned the bbq, scraped the portholes clean of silicon where the mosquitoes screens used to attach, and a few other things that I already can’t remember!

So that image of lounging on deck is out the window!

Seriously, it’s been good, and the work is enjoyable because it’s outside, on the water, with visible and tangible results and Barbara is very easy to get along with.  And we have interesting conversations, too.

A typical day starts at around 7, which is just before dawn with coffee, followed by a second coffee for me.  Then I run, come back for breakfast which always includes Barbara’s homemade kefir.  Then clean up from breakfast, followed by the task for the day, then somehow it’s lunchtime already.  Lunch prep, lunch and clean-up is then followed by a swim, which I do at the beach, a couple of hundred meters’ walk from the boat.

By then, it’s already 4 pm, so by the time we check emails and stuff, it is starting to get dark or, rather, it’s time that the mosquitoes start to find me.  By 7 pm, if it’s a night in, we seal the cabin for the night to keep out the little you-know-whats! This spoils my romantic notion of sitting on the deck at night, staring at the stars that would be so amazing!  Mmmmm, no mosquito bites or watch the stars?  What can I say, I hate mosquito bites and they love me!!

Last night, though, was visiting people to play a board game and returning after 9, the perfect time to see the stars.  And tonight I am at Dino’s restaurant, the closest one to the boat, where he lets us sit and charge our devices, which I need to do because I can’t charge my computer on board and  will be at anchor for the next 3-4 days i.e. unable to charge my computer and therefore use it for more than 5-6 hours over the next days.

And a highlight yesterday was hiking up to the refugee/sanctuary Agios Nikolas church in a cave up the hill, about an hour each way.  It was great exercise, with beautiful views.

Sitting here though, I had tasty pork souvlaki and a Greek beer, so computer “work” does have its advantages.

Except for occasionally bumping my head when I sit up, sleeping on the boat has been great. My berth is cozy.  The temperature is nice, the mattress is firm and comfortable, and though I have a heavy blanket, I haven’t needed it yet. My clothes are in a hammock on the “wall” beside the bed and there is a desk area at my feet.

Being on the boat also suits me in its economy.  There is no wasted space – I guess there’s a maxim that one should be able to find everything on the boat in the dark!  And things have to be simple and organized. We definitely eat well.  Saturday was market day and we bought seasonal vegetables and fruit, and also homemade, organic wine from a Greek named Chris!  So, of course, it was good 🙂 We bought pork chops at the local butcher who raises his own animals, all free-range and grass-fed.

The weather has been beautiful – 25-29 C and sunny during the day, and maybe 17 overnight – so a summer day in Canada!  The water is still 23 C, 74 F, very swimmable.

That’s the quick Greece update.  Tomorrow, if the winds cooperate, we will sail to Preveza for a few days then to Lefkas.