We couldn’t risk moving from where we were because we might lose our anchor windlass altogether and believe me, pulling up 5 or 10 meters of chain and a 20lb anchor is doable but 40 metres of chain would kill me (although I might lose that bit of tummy).
So we were in Vathi on Ithica which is a lovely place to be stuck if you ware going to be stuck. There was a good walk for Lilly, good shopping and stores, we had enough water for 4 or 5 days, we had internet connection so I could work so we were in the right place to do the research needed and organise the new equipment.
We knew of a little company in Corfu that specialised in batteries, we had no idea where else might be able to get some in for us but Corfu was a long way in the wrong direction. We thought we would ring George in Nidri (where we had purchased the anchor from) to ask his advice.
Of course he could provide us with everything we wanted so we began the spec and see game.
This is where you decide what you need, try and find it on the internet at a price you can afford, ring George see if he can get it shipped to Greece, no, so start again!
The windlass was fairly easy and straight forward. As long as we didn’t mind losing the rope drum, we soon find one that was in Greece and affordable. The batteries took a little longer. Bearing in mind that our battery storage cupboard currently held 5 batteries and we needed six to get the extra capacity, not only six but five of those were going to have to be bigger. We figured that we could move the engine start battery (which would be the one we had bought in Corfu), into the locker next door to the battery locker. This left us with room for five house batteries. There was no room for batteries that were bigger in footprint but they could be taller.
Now you can see the problem. Our current batteries are 100 amp per hour each making 400 amps altogether, we wanted 500 or 600 amp per hour total so would need :
5 x 120 a/h
or
4 x 150 a/h
or
3 x 200 a/h
The batteries we needed to find had to be
Deep cycle batteries (not engine start batteries as we currently had … that is why they were not up to the job)
Affordable
Able to get shipped to Greece quickly or already in the country
Able to fit in our battery locker.
This little puzzle kept Paul and George entertained for a couple of days but eventually they hit the jackpot and we were rocking and rolling.
The plan was we would head over to the anchorage in Nidri on the day of the delivery of the batteries. We could top up with water on the way. We needed to fit the anchor winless while the anchor was down, once it was fitted we could come into the town port to pick up the batteries.
(If you have ever been to Nidri on Lefkas, you will know it is a noisy place and full of ferries, you really don’t want to be alongside for more than a few hours).
In actual fact, when it came to it, being August, there was no room for us alongside at all so Paul had to ferry the batteries to and from the boat in the dinghy. George was a compete star, (another George Star) he took our old batteries, he lent Paul the battery cable crimpers he needed to fit crimp terminals, he disposed of our old gas bottles (now empty).
But the great news is, not only do we have ice, and everything in the freezer is now freezing. The freezer can no longer be a beer fridge as it turns everything to ice instantly. The anchor can go up and down as often as we need. We are happily enjoying traveling again and now we have ice, we can go and collect Sophie!