Yacht Pipit

      

Will Santa fit down our narrow flue? - 21st December 2014

So Christmas is nearly here, a month has slipped by since our last update and we've continued to enjoy our shoreside life - you know, things like a flushing toilet (two actually!) and hot showers without having to walk half a mile in a Force 6... Having said that we did have a 6 hour power cut a couple of weeks ago that saw us cooking soup on top of the log burner! And Vathy suffered some flooding a few days ago. We have also continued to do some website work, and the observant among our regular readers will have noticed some changes to this, our very own site!

It's four years since we made a major change to the code and we felt the time was right for a further 'freshening' of the appearance. The content and general layout is much the same as we believe it works well, but the menus are improved making navigation easier (together with the 'previous' & 'next' links at the bottom of each log page which we are adding - about 160 in all!). We have tried to make the whole site more 'tablet friendly', not something we had particularly done before as they were barely invented when the site was first designed! However we have not targeted smart phones as we believe browsing a nearly 200 page website on such devices is a fairly tiresome affair. We have tested the new site in as many browsers on as many different platforms as we can, so hope it works well on yours - please let us know if you see any errors or problems, or have any comments or feedback. Incidentally the initial banner photo is of us rounding Cape Finisterre in 2011 - seems like a long time ago...

The weather is now cool enough to contemplate some more serious hikes, and being able to step out of Shamballa and immediately be on a track leading to Port Atheni, Fanari Beach and beyond still gives us much pleasure. We are intending to repeat our walk to the tail of Meganinsi, this time getting as far as is possible, but as that is over 20km there & back that will have to wait until we have a new camera battery - our current one no longer holds its charge, but after nearly 4 years and over 5000 photos that's not bad!


Home.


Port Atheni.


'The' Port Atheni tree.


Fun guy...


We have also had time to reflect on what is now nearly five years since we left the UK, thus far without a return visit, and to consider our options for the next five years. If we wanted to continue the full-time cruising liveaboard life we are well placed to do that, but we are now certain that we don't want to spend the next 5 years living full-time on a yacht, and have no particular desire to continue passage making. We do still very much enjoy life aboard Pipit and anchorage hopping here in the beautiful Ionian, but we're not sure what the next stage of our adventure holds. There are other places we want to see and other things we want to do, but what combination of yacht based living, land based living, working or not working transpires we don't yet know, but we're open to all ideas and are currently investigating a couple of potential opportunities.

It may seem strange that we are re-evaluating what to many may seem like an idyllic lifestyle (it is in some, but not all, ways) but, having met many liveaboards during the last five years, we know there is no right or wrong answer - some are continuing on their circumnavigation plans, some are continuing to extensively cruise the Med, some have come back to the Ionian, some harbour ambitions of turning round and heading for the Caribbean and some have sold their boats already to pursue other land based interests. We both share the wish to eventually return to the UK to make our home there, unless of course an opportunity presents itself there sooner!

The temperature at night is now down to single figures, so it's lovely to have the log burner going which heats the villa wonderfully. On clear days, the afternoon sun streams through the south facing wall of glass warming the room nicely and it's lovely to sit outside with a cup of char if we're not out for a walk. The patio sofa cushion has been stored for the winter, and as it is a favourite snoozing spot for the cats, we bought a small seat pad. Initially, just one cat made it her spot, but yesterday, nearly the whole gang snuggled up together with no fighting, no pushing one another off or anything like that - amazing and irresistibly cute! They were all still there this morning, so I guess it's a case of two's company, three's a crowd, and four is one very crowded but warm 3D cat jigsaw! Think we need to buy another small cushion when we go to Lefkas tomorrow...

"Meow"...


"This is my cushion"...


"Erm, I don't think so"...


There are in fact 3 cats and a kitten in this pile.


We've continued with our culinary creations and squash has, erm, featured large - roast, mashed, soup, risotto:

You might well look shocked - we'll be eating squash for some time...


We have some festive feasts planned for the Christmas period, the final details of which will be dictated by what we can find in Lefkas tomorrow. Whatever your plans for Christmas, we wish you a peaceful time and a happy & prosperous 2015.

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