Ok so here's the scoop:
1. After I set it all up for them this morning, I tell them "you must keep the fire at a steady heat" otherwise we wont eat until midnight. You have to keep adding charcoal. Then I go home to get ready for Easter Mass.
2. No sooner than I walk in my door after Mass, the phone rings: "Come quick, your FIL and BIL are arguing on whether they should drop the lamb to the lower level". I tell them in no uncertain terms, "No toucha!" "I be there in 5 mins."
3. I get to the house and walk over to the spit and the fire was almost out. Oy vey! I start adding charcoal frustratingly. I said if you drop it down the skin will burn and crack and the joints will break. I get the usual response - no it wont! I say you're telling a Greek how to cook a lamb on a spit which I've been doing for the last 30 years??
4. Finally at about 4:30 it comes off the spit and we start carving it. And we dig in. As suspected, some parts were still not throughly cooked but after a few glasses of homemade wine, overall it came out pretty good!
The baste we use is just two sticks of butter melted with lemon juice. Gives it a crispy juicy taste.
Moral of the story: let the Italians stick to wine making and the Greeks to roasting a whole lamb.