Greek Odyssey 2014

It was all a bit of a 'Spur of the moment' adventure but after a text message to Mrs DIY, from a friend suggesting that "why don't we go to Greece and charter a yacht", after some very fast organisation and five weeks later we had left the New Zealands winter behind, and were climbing aboard a sailing boat in the port of Laverion (Athens, Greece) headed for the islands of the Cyclades.

Mikonos

I was going to put a lot of pictures of our fantastic holiday but after looking through the selection all I could find were pictures of sailing, sunsets, lots of blue and white houses and 4 people eating and drinking and generally enjoying themselves.
So I have only posted a few that covers one of the best holidays we've ever had.

Washing Day!

You get to Know the Greek Waters Pilot very well

The Joy of an Autopilot

The Greek Wine was Great

Mrs DIY arriving in port just before us, but Wet!

The wind was really good, even had some 30-40 knot winds which made the sailing fun, the temperature was around 30C and the water very warm, even went swimming.
Would we go again? yes!

Time just Flashes Bye

Were did the last four months go?
One day it was summer and now it's turned to winter.
The good bit is that I have been able to get the boats heating system working and have found the pesky leak that was filling the bilges with water every time it rained, so now we have a dry boat.
The gallery sales have been very slow, but steady, I will just have to get used to the fact that I will never make any $$$s out of painting pictures.
Charlie the dog has grown  and is almost full size, with his coat now covered in black spots, we had a dog trainer come around to sort out some training problems (mine) after 2 hours of intensive work both Charlie and I were totally exhausted.
The training has worked and now we, have an understanding that I'm the leader, well sometimes...

A Quick update on the Wairarapa Earthquake

• Public Id: 2014p051675
• NZDT: Monday, January 20 2014 at 3:52:45 pm
• Wellington and Marlborough region intensity : severe
• Maximum intensity : severe
• Depth: 33 km
• Magnitude: 6.2
• Location: 15 km east of Eketahuna

Martinborugh the place we live is in the South Wairarapa not far from the epicentre of the quake described above.
We were standing outside discussing when we should take the dog for a walk when the ground started to move and our cars began to rock quite violently on their suspensions
Our little dog (Charlie) came racing around the corner and tried to hide behind us.
Although the quake was quite severe no damage was done to the house, nothing had fallen off the walls etc
So carried on and took the dog for a walk..