DarNico

“Dar” means home in Arabic, so DarNico means home of Nico, the dashing pilot who has been perfecting his Amel 2000 Super Maramu for the last six years so he can go sailing with Anne the beautiful french woman whom he met in Aix en Provence.  We first ran into Nicolas on pontoon 6 at Corbière last year while we were fixing Camino. I borrowed a lot of his tools and a friendship developed.  This spring he invited us to take care of his boat while he and Anne are attending family events in the Pyrenees during August. Ruth and I arrived in Greece at the start of the month and Nicolas spent a few days teaching us about his boat. Together we changed the oil, the water filters, adjusted the main sail, installed two AIS switches, changed the bulb on the port running light, checked and cleaned the strainer of the salt water intake and replaced the 3-way valve of the water maker. Along the way I had a change to learn the ins and outs of this magnificent sailing vessel.

On August 6 Nicolas and Anne left Corfu. Darico is in ship shape.
 

According to the instruments we currently have:

· 475 liters of diesel tank is 600 liters

· 550 liters of water tank is 1000 liters.

· oil and liquid levels in the engine room are all in good order
 

For some unknown reason the electricity on the quay went out but thanks to the solar panels our lithium batteries are at 91%
 

Tonight we will remain at the Mandraki marina and tomorrow we set sail to Syvota about four hours South East from our current position. 

We filled the water tank, checked the oil, liquid levels and at 9:40 am we motored out of the Mandraki marina. There was no winds to we made the transit to Syvota on the motor. 

The bay was full when we arrived, luckily Nicolas had bought long mooring lines and beautiful straps which allowed us to execute a perfect Mediterranean mooring.  We dropped the anchor in the middle of the little bay in ten meters of water and slowly reversed. Once the anchor was secured swam to the shore with the first line which we fastened to the rocks while keeping the line under a little bit of tension so it stayed out of the prop. Once the first line was secured we reversed, took up slack and secured it. Then we repeated the procedure with the second line. Now we are attached to two shorelines and 50 meters of anchor chain. We are very secure. We could easily handle 50 knots of wind but tonight we will get no more than 5 knots. It should make for a good night’s rest.

The bay is gorgeous, crystal clear water, a nice beach and plenty of fish who were very appreciative of the leftover croissants that we had on board.  

It is almost full moon, last night the bay was spectacularly beautiful. We decided to stay another day.  We spent the day swimming, paddling, and organizing the boat. In the evening we swam ashore with our clothes in a dry bag. At the end of our bay there was a submerged sandbank connecting the island to the mainland. There we climbed the stone staircase and to our surprise there were two fresh water showers build into the rock face.  Refreshed we walked another 30 meters to the restaurant that was overlooking the bay.   The sun was setting when we swam back to the boat, at the other side of the bay a red moon was lifting itself from behind the hill.