52 Degrees Celcius!

Upon Mike and I awakening, he was the first to talk about his feelings of stress and fatigue and how he didn’t want those to interfere with enjoying our friends while they are here. We talked about how a lot of the potential stressful conditions have lessened because we made it through the Aegean which he stated would put his mind at ease. Also how we are now in more protected waters and doing short days due to having Lucca on board. And we need to soak in every minute with our friends because it is going to be a long time until we are with loved ones again. Just talking about his feelings seemed to lift a weight off and ‘Mikey’ was back! He was playful and engaged with Lucca and the difference between the two of them was so apparent. It’s funny how Lucca would call Mike ‘Michael’ or ‘Mikey’ depending on the mood. Michael when Mike was in his ‘boat mode’ and Mikey when he was just simply having fun. On our second day in Galaxidi we realized that we were not going to be able to anchor in this heat again. We heard from a local that it was unusually hot and was going to peak on Wednesday and Thursday and subside on Friday. Perfect timing for the Pereras! At this point we realized that we weren’t going to be able to anchor out anymore because it is just too uncomfortable and possibly dangerous for Lucca. While Lucca napped, we rode out the heat wave in the shaded cockpit and watched the thermometer rise. At noon in the shade it read 42 degrees celcius. A bit later we put it in the sun and the thermometer maxed out at 52 degrees celcius! Despite being in the shade and drinking beer to help us ignore the sweat dripping down our bodies, we all had some pretty good laughs together including Mike who was back in true form! Heather and I even cooled off our toes in Lucca’s ‘swimming pool’ complete with cracker bits floating between our toes! It really was amazing how just putting your feet in luke warm water could make you feel so much better.

We also tried to come up with some ideas of what we can all do to entertain ourselves the next 4-5 days while the Pereras are still on board. This town is cute but there really isn’t a whole lot to do. We came up with the idea to rent a car with air conditioning tomorrow and drive down the coast to check out some of the places we could have visited by boat. Ahhhh, air conditioning sounded so divine. But to cool off today we headed to ‘Club Med’ to spend the afternoon. This is where all of the tourist from Athens were spending their day. After much scouting for an empty table, we finally found one and planted ourselves for the next several hours. We spent the time swimming with Lucca and watching Heather do her impressive synchronized swimming tricks to make Lucca laugh. God, there is nothing like his giggle when he is playing in the water. We ordered cocktails, shared some food, stepped on sea urchins, watched the beautiful people. And I have to say it is a bit alarming when you are sitting next to a 12 year old girl in her thong bikini and padded bikini top, in her big sunglasses (and I swear peroxided hair) and thinking she is uber cool. Weird and a little sad.

We finally pulled ourselves away from the rich and hip to head back to the boat and get ready for dinner. The ladies mission was to grocery shop for dinner tonight. And this was a second attempt since earlier in the day we failed due to everyone being closed for siesta. We need to take a lesson on this. But we headed out again after 6pm when everyone emerges from their shaded courtyards again. We stopped at the grocery store (a glorified mini-mart), the ‘fruit shop’, a mini-market that should have been called the grocery store, the bakery, the butcher, and then another mini-market. We were a sweaty mess when we were done. But all was made better by mixing up some mojitos while Shan made his delicious Black and Blue burgers. And it must have been the heat because Mike and Heather were the first ones to crash tonight.