It's been 50 days since we launched Bon Bini and cast off our lines in Preveza. It feels much longer, and like it was a lifetime ago that we were full of anticipation and packing our bags to fly to Greece. I've got a bit of a fascination about the concept of time, and why some days fly by in a blur, whilst other days seem to be multiple all rolled into one.

This comes down to variety; the more new memories you make, the slower time feels. It's why the first few days of a holiday, when filled with new experiences, seem to go on forever. Then, when you're settled into your holiday routine, time seems to speed up. And it's also why your memories of work all roll into one kinda memory blob, with nothing much to differentiate last Tuesday from the previous Wednesday. With nothing dramatically different going on, your brain doesn't bother storing the details of each individual day. So if you want time to slow down, do new things and make new memories. :)

We've travelled 530 NM so far, sailing from the Ionian around the Peloponnese and into the Cyclades. The Peloponnese was quite different to what we imagined, although I don't know what we imagined really. The peninsula isn't a place where foreign tourists flock en masse, so luckily for the locals, it lacks the tourist crowds that plague the Ionian and the Greek islands in the summer. You don't find any charter companies here either, as there are very few marinas, and the wind can be tricky.

The towns we visited are, unsurprisingly, less refined than those on the tourist trails, and the people are friendly but a little more harsh somehow. They're just a bit tougher, more direct and overall less smiley. We suppose that, unlike the islands, where life revolves around tourism and where overt friendliness comes with the territory, the Peloponnese is more rural, traditional, and shaped by hard work and history. The locals here aren’t used to sugar-coating things, they’re proud, practical, and straight to the point. We found, though, that the more we got chatting, the warmer they became.

The weather in the region is also pretty strange, and in some areas, the wind blows in the opposite direction to the forecast, which made deciding where to anchor quite exciting. Early in the season too the weather is always unpredictable anyway, but the locals and our fellow sailors all agree that this year has been particularly unsettled. We've had strong southerly gales, a spate of >6 strength earthquakes, tsunami warnings and low temperatures. Even the companies that produce the different weather models can't agree on what we can expect. If they agree, the colours are the same.

It's been a very sociable season so far and we've met some lovely new friends. We met a lovely couple in Preveza who we'd been chatting to last year, so we spent some great days and nights with them. Then with so few boats around this early in the season, and everyone travelling to the same places, you bump into the same boats, and inevitably get chatting. A wave turns into a chat, which turns into a sundowner, which turns into dinner, which turns into a friendship. We've also met some friends from last season too which has been amazing! Part of what makes this lifesytle so fun is the small encounters you have with people every day; the ancient butcher who can talk for hours about the "good old days", the staff dancing in a cafe at 11 am as if they were in a club, Spyros the chandler whose wife works for the EU commission, and the waiters in Preveza who know the same people as Dad and I do in Lindos!

We've also had far fewer commitments and admin to contend with than we did last year. Tom was working a full-time job from the boat, which meant we had to wrap our days around his work schedule. We battled for 8 weeks to receive parcels we (stupidly) shipped from the UK (Brexit Bonus #1). With well-meaning promises from the import agents of "We're expecting the boxes tomorrow!" we had to hang around and wait. At the same time, we were working on Tom's residency visa to allow him to live in the UK. As well as having to prove the legitimacy of our relationship and provide details of every single trip he's taken in the last 10 years, he also had to take a half-day English test at the consulate in Athens (Brexit Bonus #2). With that date looming closer, we had to get moving. As soon as we did, however, guess what, the bloody boxes arrived! At that point, we were roughly halfway between Preveza and Athens (in a gorgeous town called Galidixi), so we decided to hire a car and drive an 8-hour round trip to Athens to collect the boxes. We didn't know at the stage we'd be back there 2 days later, hauling Bini out to fix a leaking thru-hull. Then on top of all that, we also had to work on our Greek residency to allow us to stay more than 3 months in Greece, which was an absolute headache (and for me is still ongoing), Brexit Bonus #3.

This year has been blissfully commitment-free (so far, anyway). Tom started the season working but finished that role in early May so now we're free to go where the wind takes us and fully explore the places we visit without the tie of video meetings and to-do lists. The money was great of course, but we’ve realised it’s the freedom to live by our own rhythm that matters most. We're finding ourselves much more tolerant and patient this year. The temperature has been lovely and cool, and we're still living in jumpers and PJs! The only problem with that though is the sea has also been cold (18 degrees 🥶). We don't have a hot water shower on the boat, so no matter the weather, we're jumping in the sea and hosing off with the cold deck shower. If we get dementia after all this we will not be happy!

When you're living on a small boat, little things can start to grate on your nerves. Too much wind, not enough wind, rolly anchorages which send everything flying and prevent you from sleeping, endless mosquitoes, not having quite enough space to get comfortable, and stupidly loud motorbikes roaring past at 3 am. This year though, none of it seems to bother us. What also helps is we're exercising a lot more, and drinking a lot less (aside from the occasional beer), so both of those help boost our mood, and our tolerance!

Our plan from here is to head over to Rhodes, where we'll haul the boat out of the water in early July and go back to the UK for the summer. It's too hot and too busy here then so we'll make a bit of space for everyone else. We'll have a fully renovated flat to return to which is very exciting (it's been taken back-to-brick, so we're glad not to have been around for that!), and we'll catch up with family and friends. The plan is to come back to Greece in September and spend a few months taking Bon Bini back to Preveza for the winter.