Jemmaroo with the dark blue sail cover and bimini at Panormitis Symi
JEMMAROO IN THE
IN 2019 Graeme and I visited the east coast of America from New York down to Miami in late April, early May to look at the possibility of cruising what is called The Great Loop on the inland waterways along the east coast of America and into Canada. We looked at some boat options which can really only be a motor boat due to depths and bridges along the way and we discovered several things. Due to the value of our dollar compared to the American dollar the prices were quite high and I personally did not like the thought of cruising along the rivers and canals as the water quality for swimming was very poor so we made the decision not to go ahead with this as a cruising destination. This trip meant that we left Australia quite late for us to travel across to Jemmaroo to cruise around and we finally left on 7 August together with two friends, Christine Ragless and Rosemary Gould, in tow. Due to delays for our flight from Doha to Athens we were a day late arriving in Leros but eventually we all made it. We had arranged for the marina to put Jemmaroo in the water but when we arrived it was still on the hard as the new batteries we had ordered had missed the ferry. The marina put some ‘loan’ batteries in to get us into the berth and we eventually tied up around 5pm all feeling very tired and grumpy. While this was all happening Chris, Rosemary and I did some non-perishable shopping so we could survive the next morning. We all trooped up to the bar at the marina and had a very welcome and necessary ‘happy hour’ before driving to Dimitri’s Restaurant for dinner. We had to cool our heels for a couple of days while we waited for the batteries to arrive and be fitted so we filled our time with visiting our friend John, the Australian/Greek butcher, and placing an order together with sourcing the fruit and veg and smallgoods etc. It was very hot so we helped our jet lag along with a lie down with the air conditioning going. The wind was not being helpful and we were unable to put the mainsail and jib on so everything had to wait until Monday to be fixed.
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Early Monday we visited Customs to have the boat taken out of bond and sort out the new Greek Cruising Tax but nothing in Greece is as easy as it sounds. We had to go back to the marina to get the paper work and then to the bank to pay the tax followed by Customs and then back to Agia Marina and the Port Police and Immigration before we were finally officially on our boat. No batteries were in sight so we had a bit of a rest and around 4pm it all happened - eight batteries and three electricians plus two helpers with the sails and we were very, very busy. We finally left the mooring around 6pm and made our way north to an anchorage between the top of the island and some fringing islands to spend the night. The island was packed with tourists from Turkey as Ramadan had just finished and even the bays were crowded with boats. The next day, Tuesday, we motored north to a bay on the southern end of Lipsi and anchored. There was a wedding on shore and multitudes of boats were coming and going. Given the number of boats around we decided to leave early for Marathoi so after first motoring into the bay where Lipsi town is for photo opportunities we entered the anchorage at Marathoi. It was crowded but I spied a red buoy being dropped into the water as a boat was leaving. Like seagulls at hot chips we were onto it. It took two tries to pick the buoy up as I had forgotten the sequence to turning the bow thruster on and drifted off on the first try but was spot on the second time so then it was in for a beautiful swim, a lazy lunch, a game of cards and a rest in that order. The colour buoy you pick up determines which restaurant you are meant to visit but our colour was booked out with Ramadan party goers so we booked at the next one in line. As Murphy would have it the outboard would not start and the mechanic on board decided it was due to old fuel so with a clean spark plug and new fuel it eventually obliged and ran beautifully but when you loaded it up we did not go anywhere – the trials and tribulations of cruising!! Our next door neighbour towed us in and all was right with the world for dinner at least.
