I woke at around 01:00 and could see that the Meteobridge was still sending data. My phone was at 50% battery so not an ideal scenario. I left everything as it was a went back to bed. The rain was still falling and continued to do so. It was coming under the upper roof due to being blown by the wind so I amused myself for a little while working out how we could modify the roof to keep out driving rain.
My alarm woke me at 05:55 but I had to get out of bed to turn it off as my watch was on the charger. The power was still off, the wind still blowing but at least the rain had stopped. I decided to turn on the water heaters just in case the power might come back on while I was out with the dogs.
Our walk was blustery but it wasn’t that dark. It was interesting to see how many people have solar panels and battery backup. Only a very few houses were lit up this morning and no street lights to ruin the morning sky. Unlike yesterday, I managed a good six circuits of the Promontory before going back to the camping. It still wasn’t raining!
I checked on the MeteoBridge to see that it was still sending data despite the fact the van voltage was down to 6 volts. I decided to hook the device up to a 12V battery which was in the UPS, so fully charged, as the UPS was turned off. This I did and off it went. There was a bit of data missing but at least we got most of it.
David came to see if there was any news of a resumption of power. He said that Nikola and Linda had been round to them the previous evening as Nikola felt at a bit lost without Sascha. I sent another message to Antonis but imagined his phone might be flat as he had no power either so could charge it only in his car. I’d charged mine via the laptop but this had dragged down that battery to only 25%.
I put everything on to charge using the solar panels as the sun was now powerful enough to make a difference. I then wandered over to see if there was any hot water in the bathrooms. Walking past David and Carol’s van, I saw that Linda and Nikola were visiting. I got the lowdown from Nikola that the road was still closed and Sascha was waiting to see if it would be opened later.
Shortly after, I went back to my van to find the power back on and a missed call from Maria. We chatted for a few minutes as now I could charge everything up I didn’t care so much. The Internet was still not working so I was using data from my phone.
I went back to tell David the power was on as he’d told me it was still off. It transpired the switch on the panel where he draws his power was off.
My next conversation was with Xanthippos who confirmed that there had been a land slip near Kakopetros which had taken with it the electricity pylons and the road as well as the telephones. It was necessary to stabilise the mountain before clearing the road and that the fix to the power was only temporary.
Not long after, Antonis came to see if I needed anything so we had a chat about extending the roof protection and his impending child.
Nikola and Linda came to see the dogs and tell me that Sascha would be staying another night in Chania as there was no way for him to return. They stayed until 17:00 and then I got out for a run. After a shower, I took the dogs for the Evening Walk by which time it was virtually dark. Both balls were quickly lost so our visit was rapidly over as it was getting late.
I fed the dogs and sat down to write yesterday’s blog now that everything was charged and we had electricity. All gadgets are now charged and I also remembered that the drone batteries can also be used to charge up phones etc. Those batteries are also now charged. Of course, if I’d had my head on straight, I could have charged my phone in the car!
The Internet is working again so I don’t need to use my phone for work or research. Given the nature of the difficulties, the services have come back surprisingly quickly so the line guys from the electricity and phone companies need a pat on the back!
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