David's Diary: Thursday, May 8, 2003

Arriving in Argostoli, Cephalonia, Greece

As the sun rises over the Greek Ionian Island of Cephalonia, I am alone in the cockpit. It has been a long night and I haven't been asleep since yesterday afternoon. Late yesterday the Autohelm, the instrument that automatically steers a course for us, was not working properly. It was holding a course, but giving an incorrect compass reading. I was about to doze off around 01:00 today when the boat went more than ninety degrees off course. Karalee and Jocelyn were on watch and I was called out immediately.

Karalee was extremely unhappy and she made sure to let me know it. We had been parallel with another sailboat since dusk and our course change had put us on a collision course. The other boat changed direction and went around us, but it was an uncomfortable feeling. Jocelyn hand-steered for another hour, then I turned the Autohelm on and off. This appeared to correct the problem and around 04:00 Jocelyn went to bed. I stayed up and watched the Autohelm until daybreak. On my watch I spotted little other traffic, but Jocelyn reported that at one point last night she had fourteen freighters on the radar.

On the Quay at Argostoli

I finally went off watch at 06:30 and immediately fell asleep. I only get a short rest, as we approach Argostoli at 09:00 and tied up at the customs quay at 09:45. I take the kids, who after almost two full days on the boat are ready to stretch their legs, to the customs and immigration office. We are passed around to various offices until forty-five minutes later and a hundred and ten Euros poorer, we are cleared into Greece. We leave the customs quay and ten minutes later we are tied up on the main quay. It took us one day and twenty-two hours to make the passage from Siracusa, Sicily, Italy, to Argostoli, Cephalonia, Greece.

Lunch in Greece

Surprisingly, I have lots of energy when we arrive. It is always exciting to be in a new country. I take Jocelyn and Allen and we explore the main part of town. We investigate options for getting a local SIM card for our mobile phone and getting connected to the Internet. Then we find a small cafe that seems to be popular with locals where the three of us stop for our first Greek meal. We'll be ready for a nap this afternoon, but right now we just take in the ambience of a new town and a new country.