The start of a new season

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For six months over winter Dreams was stored on the hard (dry dock) at Basimakopoulos Shipyard on the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece.  

Before we left her at the end of October, we had worked long days for a week, winterizing her to protect her from any possible damage and wear and tear from wind, rain, UV, rodents, birds, insects, mould, rust, electrical damage to name but a few. 

There were 168 items on our todo list and by the time we walked away, we felt that we couldn’t have done more.  If we’d missed something important then it would be a lesson learned for next year.

We enjoyed being back in England over winter, spending time with family and friends and sleeping soundly in a bed that didn’t rock, but as March rolled around we started thinking about getting back on board and excited for our second season on Dreams.

We arrived back at the shipyard last week and began as we had finished last year; with a week of hard work and 221 items on our todo list.  

When we first set eyes on Dreams she looked great. We’d arranged for her to have a fresh coat of anti-fouling and a polish, so the hulls looked like new.  Once on deck though it was a different story; 6 months of dust, dirt, pollen and bird poop meant she was covered in a layer of grime. Inside she was as clean as the day we’d left her, not even surface dust and more importantly no mould which had been one of my concerns.

First things first, we set to work with the pressure washer to get rid of the worst of the dirt.  A full soap and scrub down would have to be done once we are launched and back in the water. 

The next few days we worked methodically through our task list, inevitability with Mike doing the blue jobs and me doing the pink jobs.  Certain things had to be tackled together, in particular rigging the sails which took the two of us over 5 hours.  We hope that now we’ve done it once we will be quicker and more efficient next year!

It was my job to provision the boat which was much easier to do with a rental car.  For a few hours each day I’d leave Mike tackling his jobs and zip off to one of several supermarkets armed with my very long food list.  In Greece, we are typically never very far from a butcher, a baker, a green grocer or a small supermarket, but last year I felt that we spent a bit too much time seeking out food supplies, so this year I wanted to stock up on shelf staples, especially heavy and bulky items.  By the time we launched all the cupboards and floor storage lockers were full as were the fridges and freezer.  We won’t go hungry!

By Monday afternoon we had done everything we needed to do pre-launch, so we left the boatyard early and treated ourselves to a massage at a local spa followed by dinner and a few beers and an early night before launch day tomorrow.

Launch Day 2025 – Tuesday, April 15th

The shipyard were launching a lot of boats today. It seems that mid-April is a favorite time to start the season.  We were told to be on standby from 8:30 am but anticipate that we may not be launched until mid to late afternoon, so we were expecting a lot of hanging around.  We were pleasantly surprised when we were told at 9 am to be ready in 30 minutes. Pleasantly surprised but also a little thrown off as we still had to return our rental car and put on fenders and dock lines.

The shipyard has state of the art equipment with remote controlled hydraulic boat trailers and a travel lift that can hold up to 160 tonnes.  Watching your boat being lifted onto a trailer and maneuvered through the shipyard then transferred into the slings of the travel lift and lowered into the water holds a mixture of excitement and fear.  These guys are professionals though, so no need to worry.  

By the time we were in the water there were another 3 boats queued up behind us, so no time to hang around. Engines on and cast off into the next 6 months…