We get off the town wall

We delay sending for money from NZ as the week closes in a sea of volatility and drama in the financial world. However by Monday we really want to get out of here but need to pay the account now that the work is finished. We are not going to use the Master Card again since checking our account. We paid our first account of Euro 635.23 with Mastercard on 7 October and note that it cost us NZD1,518.62. We knew the Kiwi dollar was sliding but that equates to .418 as an exchange rate. We wonder how Mastercard can justify this and also the fact that this transaction was not processed until 9 October – 2 days later? We dream that one day all banks will be non profit organisations, strictly monitored and made to provide services for a fair price. I am sure I am not alone in this. It would be a good result from all the pain that the world is experiencing caused by greed.

Monday 13 October - is a strange day full of “stuff”. Our friends from Inga arrive on the town wall two boats from us and we have a joyful reunion. They have been up to Corfu to pick up a friend and are heading south to Nidri. We tentatively arrange to meet up with them that night in Nidri as Richard visits Contract Yacht Services to get our account for all the work on Matelot and I check our inventory of food on board ready to do a provisioning shop.

Our food provisioning is becoming a bit of a challenge as food especially fruit and veg are not as cheap in this part of Greece as we found them on the other side closer to Turkey. This morning we are having cooked quinces with our breakfast. This golden fruit reminds me of my childhood when we had trees laden with them, albeit a little marked with codlin moth. Not so this perfect specimen which is about 3 x the size of a normal quince, bright yellow, inexpensive and makes a huge pot of cooked fruit. I have taken to watching the local women to see what they buy and following on. The beans we are eating are great long thin things which have a definitely different flavour but are delicious. They keep well too, so we buy a large bag and chomp our way through them. Now to the wine. We have been buying refillable 1.5 litre plastic bottles filled from the barrel for E3 each. We stock up and label them each with a “not before” date and put ourselves on one glass a night diet. One week later and we are well into ‘week 3”. So much for that! We should mention here that the abovementioned items do not constitute our whole diet!!

Monday night finds me having a frustrated little weep as I prepare dinner on board Matelot still on the town wall. We cannot leave until we have paid and funds sent for are not in our Lloyds account yet. I was really hoping we could be further south in Nidri tonight as our friends on Inga and Barnacle Bill are both there and it would have been lovely to spend time with them. Also, we have made a decision not to fly home to NZ for Xmas. Our tickets are good until 13 April next year, so we will tighten up on our spending for the next 6 months and hope that the NZD and the world financial scene stabilises in that time.

Richard calls down from the cockpit “Hey Darling we must visit Delphi on the way through the Corinth Canal…!” I think "I am so lucky and I should stop snivelling". One day this will all be behind us and it will seem like an amazing dream. It is true that life on the water can be a little lonely at times and a long way from our precious family and friends, but we are moving along so fast and each time we stop for a little while we suddenly make new friends… wonderful people who we enjoy so much.

We finally leave on Wednesday morning 15 October. I take an early morning walk along the causeway out to the fort at the canal entrance and take some last minute photographs… here they are. Levkas truly is a beautiful place….