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Post by Kinygos on Aug 28, 2016 7:00:52 GMT
15 & 16/08/16 At home in Pastida I did some work on the garden. My current project is Pitaya, the Dragon Fruit. The climate suits this cactus, as it does the Opuntia, the prickly pear, but unlike the latter the soil does not. I find a mixture of coarse sand and compost does the job. I have used this in pots. Now I am trying applying a thick mixture to the soil on my garden patch and planting the prunings from the potted plants there. Given the right soil this plant is a fast grower.
Here are the cuttings... ...and here is a well grown plant trying to get into my roof!
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Post by Kinygos on Aug 28, 2016 7:40:38 GMT
17/08/16 I returned to "The Rock" and did more "messing about in boats"* 19/08/16 I had a fishing trip with Lord Lucan and Melissa. We headed to Trachea, but the far side looked rough so we headed back and finally picked up a dorado around the Areta region. This was followed by a lunch at Kania on the top deck. This started OK, but as the sun moved I lost the shade and found it a bit too hot! (That's for you stuck in the UK!) In the evening we had the fish which was enough for three in Babis.
Melissa takes the helm. We were passed by EYA, a very fine craft ideally suited for the task, on her way to Areta. Kinygos II in Kania flying a dorado catch flag. *"There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats"; "Ratty" (The Wind in the Willows)
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Post by Kinygos on Aug 28, 2016 7:41:39 GMT
20/08/16 - 23/08/16 Unfortunately my neighbour on the pontoon has had trouble with his boat being interfered with; someone borrowed and broke his mooring buoy and later a thole pin was broken.
"What's a 'Thole Pin'?"
In the UK rowing boats are fitted with rowlocks for the oars, but in Greece thole pins are used. The oars are attached by a loop of rope to a pin sticking up. I expect you have seen them. You might find that useful as a conversation stopper!
... or not!
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Post by Kinygos on Aug 29, 2016 11:09:02 GMT
24/08/16 This was a Wednesday and I had been assigned the duty of collecting the lovely Lisa from the airport to Kamiros Skala. I got the Halki Ferry at 07:00 and had some time at home to sort some things out. My largest Pitaya now had two flower buds, originally it had four, but it is a young plant and it decided to shed two of them. You can see one yellow one in the picture. I collected Lisa and went to Kamiros Skala where we consumed a small beverage and awaited the arrival of Kinygos II driven by Lord Lucan. I drove her back to Kania unfortunately leaving my filleting table behind at Kamiros Skala! After a lovely lunch we went back to an easy mooring.
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Post by Kinygos on Aug 29, 2016 11:58:56 GMT
26/08/16 The three of us took a fishing trip heading west to Myrtos where we turned round and headed back to just beyond Kania. It turned out to be the first skunk trip of 2016, but to quote Rex Hunt, "If we caught fish every time it would be called 'catching', not 'fishing'!" I left at 15:00 to moor Kinygos II to catch a ferry to Rhodes. I struggled with the mooring which was taking an inordinate amount of strength to pull the mooring lines. Why so heavy? Well I suddenly realised that things had been interfered with. I hauled up the heavy line and removed, would you believe, a shrimp pot. This was sent into free-fall back into the depths and suddenly everything was easier! I can't help thinking that the pontoon should be better policed.
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Post by Kinygos on Sept 2, 2016 7:02:13 GMT
30/08/16 My flowers now wilted, I returned to Halki. 31/08/16 With my first officer now on the Rock we set off for a trip going west to Myrtos and back to a fair way past Kania. The sea to the north of the island was on the rough side. Lord Lucan had planned to go to Areta. I never got that far, and I suspected that he had not gone there! As we came back we saw Halcyon heading towards Kania from the other direction. I wise move! How did we do? We picked up three Dorado the last one of which was a tad smaller. We underwent emergency re-hydration at Apostolis and decided to have our fish feast at Levkosia.This went quite well!
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Post by Kinygos on Sept 2, 2016 7:12:26 GMT
01/09/16 We had a trip with my chum and pontoon neighbour Thanasis. We set off just after the Cat left and before the Prevelis arrived. By 11:00 we were finished after two triple headers. I don't think Thanasis was quite ready for the chaotic hurly-burley which is sport-fishing! Some are quite slow to respond to "Fish On" and need to be encouraged to move (apologies for the language and shouting; not for sensitive ears!). As you will see in later videos some newbees move very quickly and with enthusiasm! With five good sized dorado in the fishbox we had enough and retired to Apostolis for a beer and a mardle. No matter how delicious a food is two fish feasts in a row is a bit much so, after I had cleaned them, Thanasis took one and the other four went to my chums in "The Coven" to be frozen for later.
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Post by Kinygos on Sept 11, 2016 11:43:42 GMT
02/09/16 Friday. We did no fishing today, due to a certain wedding anniversary! A nice event marred for me by my back deciding to give me a hard time. I had to remain seated (not always the case) Others were dancing, including my first officer and his wife. I was forced to drink beer to dull the pain! 03/09/16 Saturday. We attempted a two handed fishing trip and suffered the expected result; a quadruple header. Result chaos! There was a time when people used to say to me, "Why can't you go fishing on your own?" I suspect that they had in mind the guy in the woolly hat on the riverbank with an anorak and a flask, or perhaps the fly fisherman (I do that!). However, as is obvious from my videos, sport fishing is not like that. You will see here that even two is not enough at times; most times in fact! At the end of the video I state the bleedin' obvious, but in the middle I state that perhaps we should not set out with less than three people on board. Thankfully Sari will arrive soon! There was a fish feast at Babis that night with the Tale of the Tangle! Funny how these things look better in retrospect. 04/0916 Sunday. We had a strange trip, after which we were introduced to a strange cheese! We had Stefan (Brought in a marlin last year) and Michalis a local boat owner. It turned out that Michalis was only coming to observe, something he forgot to tell us! We managed a couple of dorados. During the post fishing rehydration Michalis produced a (curd?) cheese which was interesting, if bland. Something that could be used for savoury or sweet dishes. A bit like a precursor for feta. Later Melissa and I met and befriended a small cat (no longer a kitten) at Minori! 05/09/16 Monday. A trip with David and my fellow pontoon resident Philippe resulted in a skunk trip due to Philippe loosing a dorado. We dropped the guests off and collected Frau Chalkibert for a lunch at Kania. We returned from there with Melissa to welcome the returning Lord Lucan who had been putting Halcyon to bed for the winter. 06/09/16 Tuesday. My second officer arrived today and Lord Lucan and Melissa left. Chalkibert and I had another trip round the island and returned with three dorados. When you watch the video you should notice a strange sound while the second two fish were brought in. This was not from the engine but from the boarding ladder on the bathing platform. It was vibrating due to uneven running from the engine. A portent of problems to come. It is easier to spot these things retrospectively!
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Post by Kinygos on Oct 17, 2016 18:35:49 GMT
07/09/16 This was the first trip with The Full Crew. Our guests were; Carol, Peter, and the best waiter on the island! That is, of course Nicholas from Costas Bar. Let us get the bad bits over first. You will notice that the vibration is still there. Nicholas succumbed to a touch of mal-de-mere on the boat and Sari to what we assume to be heatstroke after the trip. The good bits were firstly that the sea was calm so Carol got her first trip round the island. Secondly we got lots of dorados (kynigos). Thirdly all the guests got the chance to bring in a fish or two. We finished with eight in the boat and three which escaped. With even the finest eating fish in the sea some of us did not want to eat it twice in two days so three went to Nicholas’ family, three to Maria’s taverna (by request), and two to Babis Taverna. We are sportsmen (and women!) and these fish were gifts. In the video you will hear the conversation interrupted by a multiple hit. Later we get a shoal of dorados attack, with just one hooking up to be bought in by Carol. There is a bit of fish jumping going on. That evening Sari stayed in and drank “Coke”. The rest of us met up with others at Steki Bar and had a fish feast or a non-fish meal at Babis with just the largest dorado.
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Post by carol on Oct 18, 2016 7:37:30 GMT
Thank you Simon, it was a great mornings fishing and an even better evening eating them here's to more of the same next year.
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Post by Kinygos on Oct 18, 2016 20:13:04 GMT
08/09/16 We had a pair of new guests today. I did my pre fishing talk and something amazing happened... they listened, and despite never having done this sort of fishing before they were close to perfect! Apparently Chalkibert went home to Frau Chalkibert and said how good the day had been with new people. The only slip-up was when Paul shouted "Fish On" in anticipation when he saw a dorado attack the spread. It was not on at all! Very nice to have people keen and excited by sportfishing on their first outing! The wind was up a little today. The pair of them took the two Dorados for the evening meal and I gave the Little Tunny to Petros (The Shop!)
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Post by Kinygos on Oct 19, 2016 8:45:39 GMT
09/09/16 Last year I “mislaid” a small leather coin holding purse. Well… I went swimming round the boat and I forgot to take it from my pocket so it fell out. Sari found it the next day and enlisted the help of Richard to dive and retrieve it. This year Richard and Sue were back and I decided to repay them by taking them fishing. To avoid too many repetitive videos suffice it to say that it was a flat day, we went round the island, caught some fish and came back. Meanwhile someone had decided that on a nearly empty pontoon I was taking up too much room and a pair of yachts had been moored “adjacent” to my laid mooring. Inshore of me were some Greek recreational boats using the traditional floating ropes; get too close mooring stern-on and you foul a propeller! The adjacent yacht was within one metre of the line back from my mooring buoy. I pull in by the stern mooring lines, but I could not easily get a boat with a beam of 2.5 metres into the gap. This picture shows the position of my mooring buoy and the starboard bow line of the yacht. The camera exaggerates the space in the foreground Consequently I moored side-on at the end of the pontoon, and you get an idea of the “crowded” nature of the pontoon that necessitated placing that yacht into my space! “Somebody” decided to remonstrate with me over this. I pointed out that I had a mooring, but that, due mismanagement, I was unable to use it. Until I received normal consideration my boat would stay where it was! 10/09/16 We set off with just the crew, caught a few fish, and when we returned we retracted the outrigger poles and attempted a mooring into that gap. Pulling the lines in resulted in the stern lines going under the boat; where else could they go? There were administrative persons on the pontoon yelling at me about this, using the full extent of their knowledge of such things to offer sage advice. Sadly I ignored them, raised the drive leg, and the ropes came free to complete the mooring uneventfully. When I see skippers stern mooring their yachts with “knowledgeable” people shouting at them and saying, “This captain no good” I always wonder how easily I, or indeed said “knowledgeable people”, would manage the same task. I have never tried to moor a sailing vessel of that size stern-on, and I suspect neither have the “experts”. I am always hesitant to criticise people for struggling to do something that I cannot do! The fish were prepared prior to a trip to my house in Rhodes. They would be a gift for my lovely next door neighbours. I was disappointed when I got home to find that my putative dragon fruits had fallen off. My pollination had failed! I can only assume that they are not self fertile!
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Post by Kinygos on Oct 19, 2016 9:11:10 GMT
11,12,13,14/09/16 Time spent back and forth to Rhodes doing boring things!
15/09/16 I began the day fully intending to refuel when I got caught by Richard (a yachtsman) who wanted to know about how to catch fish. It is a strange thing that yachtsmen consider sailing a boat to be a skilled and complex thing whereas fishing is easy. All they need to do is have the magic lure and they will catch fish like I do. On the other hand I cannot understand why I can’t sail my boat with a broomstick and a towel. It should only take five minutes to sort out my problem! So I said, “OK let’s have a look”. Apart from the fact that the reel was on the rod the wrong way round, the line was massively out of scale with the 30lb tackle, and too short everything was fine! Sorting it out took most of the morning so we never got round to working out how to sail my boat with a broomstick and a towel.
Richard joined Chalkibert and me for beer O’Clock… and bought the beer!
So back for refuelling… ooops a yacht picked up a laid mooring so I did the diving thing and freed it. For some reason they showed their gratitude with beer.
Mmmmmmmmmmm Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!
Needless to say I went back for a siesta. The evening meal did not include alcohol.
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Post by Kinygos on Oct 20, 2016 13:51:36 GMT
16/09/16 We took Richard fishing today. In reality Phillipa his wife is the angler but she “had other fish to fry”! Allowing for the fact that Richard was a sailor, not an angler, he showed a lot of interest in the process realising the “towel and broomstick” analogy. We lost two Little Tunny and the sea prevented a circumnavigation so we turned back to collect a Lesser Amberjack in the region of Krevati/ Nissos/Ftenagia; this is a good place to catch them. Richard got there quickly but Chalkibert was not going to risk a skunk trip, so grabbed the rod and brought the fish in! We returned to the pontoon, moored alongside, prepared the fish, dropped Richard off, gave him the fish, and picked up Frau Chalkibert. Thence to Kania for some modest viands and beer; mmmmmmmmm beeeeeeeeeeeer! That evening at Apostolis while having a beer with my Second Officer, Richard turned up with a Kiwi friend and bought a round. What a nice guy! 17/09/16 We took Richard (not the yachtsman) out again to collect two small Little Tunny, a larger one and a Dorado. The video is included to show: 1) a small fish taking the lure, but not opening the clip on the outrigger tagline. 2) a larger fish opening the clip on the tagline. 3) the fact that once the line went slack the fish came off! This is why reeling technique is so important. Richard had the two small ones. We kept the larger Little Tunny (steaked) and the Dorado. These went to Lekosia’s for tomorrow. A tip for fish steaks (or darnes to chefs); do not gut the fish! Cut the darnes, poke out the guts. (They are only attached either end so once the darne is cut they fall out) Scrape the kidney from the dorsal surface of the body cavity. And that’s it! Done this way when they are cooked they do not open out in an untidy way, but remain as a ring. (I realise that many of you do not wield a knife in the kitchen. That was for those who do) That evening we had a meal at The Black Sea, during which Chalkibert’s crown fell out causing much consternation. My professional opinion was ignored. “A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” Mark 6, 4. Put more succinctly “Familiarity breeds contempt”! Thankfully Chalkibert knew I was right and ignored the squawking and flapping! 18/09/16 Today, with Dave and Don, we went round the island to collect a couple of Little Tunny. Don has pre-fishing Instruction. Phone picture from Sari Virta Phone picture from Sari Virta Dave obviously finds fishing relaxing! Not a "busy" day! Poor Don never got near to bringing one in. He will try again next year! After beer and filleting the fish (for Giorgo the builder) I went to see Christine to sort out an email problem. She was using a Microsoft email program. Chalkibert had failed previously, so I used lateral thinking and installed Mozilla Thunderbird; instant success! Phone picture from Sari Virta That evening we had the Dorado and darnes at Levkosia’s.
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Post by Kinygos on Oct 20, 2016 14:08:00 GMT
19/09/16 Today we took an old friend Steve fishing. He had been out on my boat a few years ago. Photograph by Sari Virta. It was at the end of this trip we realised we had a fuel blockage problem. During the trip we were aware of something not quite right. When the trip is over we always do a few minutes of full throttle to clear the engine. 2400rpm is a bit slow for a 1700 turbo diesel and it does the engine good to let it run free. This time she refused to rev beyond that 2400. This was the end of fishing for a while.
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