Windy!

Windier than yesterday first thing in the morning. The alarm has moved to 04:45 so it was quite dark as I looked out across the field. The moon was higher in the sky so I didn’t use my torch much even though clouds were filtering the moonlight. It was not too warm but I was aware it would become cooler as the day progressed.

Our trip to the river and back was brisk. Some of the dogs crossed over and Skinny disappeared as is fairly usual for him. We hastened back beneath a grumpy-looking sky, a mixture of grey and black but no rain is forecast until Sunday night. It was 06:00 when we reached Grammeno Beach for the second time and only 06:35 when back in the van. I had intentions of going into Paleochora for some shopping as I knew Saturday would be windier.

I fed cats, drank tea, rejigged my brain then took Isabella and her ball for a walk. We didn’t hang around too much on the windy sections but I felt it was too windy to be cycling to Paleochora and perhaps I might survive without shopping, in the interest of comfort.

There were some sunny spells during the course of the day, indeed nearly 6.5kWh was produced on a predominantly cloudy day. There were no great calls upon my time so I amused myself and wandered the camping to check for mail at the office. The day passed reasonably harmlessly.

Michaelis and Nikos were working elsewhere so there was not the shouting of the day before. They were setting out the decking in front of the new van over the poo tank. I notice they are using box section rather than wood for the supports as it’s quicker and probably cheaper.

Michael Winkler moved his van behind the restaurant kitchen where it’s more sheltered from the wind. They’ve been a few times to Crete so know where to look for reliable forecasting. They have a pop-up roof on their VW van so it’s not a lot of fun in a strong wind. Hopefully, in their new location, they’ll be able to sleep tonight.

There was a number of visitors in the afternoon including Georgia who was doubtless inspecting progress. Others went in and out including Frank who kindly went to see Heike and to pick up 60kg of pussy/Isabella food. I spent some time decanting the pussy food into the plastic pots kindly donated by Sonja and Sandra. They have yogurt each day and were previously discarding the plastic containers. They feel comforted they are now being repurposed.

The wind freshened as the day progressed so there was plenty of flapping tent sides. I needed to make some repairs where stitching has come adrift. Oskar ’helped’ with this. The wind will become even stronger if the forecast is correct with gusting over 100km/h in the most exposed locations around 07:00 tomorrow. Isabella’s ball will really fly!

I made food for all and turned on Manolis’ borrowed oil-filled radiator which seems to do a good job of keeping the van warm. It has a thermostat which I’m in the process of mastering so uses less electricity and is less disruptive than the fan heater. When it’s really cold I can supplement it with the gas stove. The fan heater is very quick but directional and scatters the dust and fluff of which there is plenty.