When Alan England found himself stranded in Greece without a crew to
assist his return passage, he made a rash decision he was soon to regret...
‘I was not
enamoured of
my crew’s lack of
contribution’
Preveza Marine Boat Yard
is where we got Linga Linga
ready for her tripRE
AL(^) LIF
E
THE LEARNING CURVE
Al
am
y^ /
A
lan
E
ng
lan
d
I
t all started late in August
2009 at the unfi nished
Preveza Marina where we
had berthed a number of
times over the years, the
cost being 200 cigarettes as
payment to the unoffi cial
manager. However, a few days after our
arrival, for no apparent reason, we were
told to move berth and leave the next
day. The 200 cigarettes I offered as
payment were refused. Maybe he had
received a better offer?
Linga Linga was not happy at having
to move – she refused to start and
caused me to fl ood the engine, to whichI panicked. Fortunately, I was able to
get Preveza Marine Boat Yard [now
named Ionian Marine] engineer Spiros,
to inspect the engine. The diagnosis
was loss of compression on one
cylinder, which had obviously been
the cause of the poor starting we had
experienced over the years.
The next problem was how to get
Linga Linga to Preveza Marine Boat
Yard. The following Saturday the
cavalry arrived in the shape of my friend
John’s Westerly Corsair, who towed
us across the bay and alongside the
jetty. Half an hour later Linga Linga
was in a cradle with water and power.SICILYMA LTAITALYGR
EE
CESiracusa Ionian SeaKefalonia
ZakynthosCorfuGozoALBANIA0 200nmPrevezaMarina
Preveza MarineBoatyard (now
Ionian Marine)
CleopatraMarina0 5 cablesPrevezaMarinaI was most impressed by the
helpfulness and effi ciency of the yard.
At 0800 on Monday morning Spiros
was banging on the boat saying he was
there to remove the engine, and by
noon it was in the workshop. The
following day the engine was in bitsThe route to fix our engine
woes, then on to Malta