Month: July 2017

While Mike kited on day one in Lefkas, I wandered from the marina into town in search of a WiFi password for a network I could see from the boat.  No luck on that front,  but I did have a tasty gyro (is there any other kind?) and take this ridiculous photo of charter boats ready to go.

Our visit to Lefkas continued the next day with oil changes for the engine and generator,  laundry, leaving the propane tanks at the fuel dock with fingers crossed for a refill, and more kiting for Mike.  This time I accompanied him to the beach to help launch him and then keep a seat warm at the bar while making good use of the bar WiFi (Game of Thrones episode 1, I’m looking at you.  HBO wouldn’t follow this blog,  would they?  Of course I’m just kidding about GoT…)

The next day we hung around until 3pm when Ioannis at the fuel dock (when in doubt,  ask for Ioannis. Kidding,  they’ll just ask “which Ioannis?”) got to work. And… propane tanks filled–woohoo!  Three more months of curried chicken and pasta with fried dry salami!

We left our golden berth and headed south intending to anchor off the Onassis’s private island.  I’m sure you can imagine how that went– threatening signs basically saying don’t even THINK about it!  So we continued puttering to Ormos Kapali, Meganisi.  We tied back to the shore in a small bay with crystal clear water for our first swim in five days and it was magical.   Mike went for a night swim and there was some mild bioluminescence in the water–amazeballs. I was a smidge concerned about the book’s warning of bold rats who will board the boat via the lines used to tie back,  but we were tied to some pretty jagged rocks and I have not heard any weird noises since, knock on wood.

The next day we rendezvoused with Dulcinea again for lunch at One House Bay on Nisis Atoko. Can you guess how it got its name?

We decided to sail together to Kastos for the night.  It was very fun transiting with our sister ship!

That night we hung out on board Dulcinea for a couple hours with the Baird-MacKenzies and the visiting Weiders before heading home to Coral for some of the aforementioned pasta with dry salami.

The next morning after another raid of Coral by David (he’s kind of like a pirate,  except he’s stealing his own stuff) we bid each other farewell again and had a vigorous sail to anchor in Ormos Pera Pigadhi, Ithaca (I vetoed Nisis Pera Pigadhi, the island close by, due to more scary rat talk in the cruising guide).  It’s a beautiful bay with two small beaches and no buildings.  One of the beaches was hosting a small group of camping kayakers. I got some varnish stripping done and we had another great stargazing night.

En route to Sami, Kefalonia the next day,  we spied a cute little boat with unorthodox sails.

Arriving in Sami we did the usual Med mooring routine,  and when we were settled,  Mike got the best compliment  a Mediterranean sailor could ask for from the Brits next door:  “I wish everyone parked like you.” !!!!!! Bliss!  Very proud of Captain Mike!  We celebrated with curried chicken, bien sur.

The next day we prepared for the arrival of our guests,  Dirk and Annie from Belgium,  but now living in Spain.  My Dad and I met Dirk in Oshkosh at Airventure 2001. He and Annie visited us in Brittany, France in May 2005 and then hosted us in Benidorm, Spain in September 2005 for a glorious week of sunshine, paella and swimming in their pool. Good times!

After their arrival we went for a swim at the beach and then popped in on the newly arrived Dulcinea to give them the grand tour and meet our landlords (boatlords?).

Last night we hit TripAdvisor’s #1 pick for Sami, Il Familia, for a very yummy meal.  I had saganaki with honey and sesame seeds (so decadent!) and lobster risotto (also extremely decadent!) Sorry, no photos of food, but here is one of the gang. Clearly Dirk inspired the haircut I gave Mike at the beach that day.

This morning we started slow with a putter around the corner to Andisamos for a swim to test Annie’s sealegs, and then we turned around and anchored in Eufimia for the night.  Mike and I were there a while ago for a night but didn’t venture ashore.  Today we rectified that with a gyro lunch and some scooter rental scouting for tomorrow.  And… I found a full-face snorkel mask of my very own! Dare to dream!

 

Very happy to leave the jellyfish in the Gulf of Corinth, we spent 3 nights in Vathi, Ithaca varnishing, polishing, and swimming. This is where we are supposed to expound on Homer’s Odyssey and talk about how exciting it is to see these places firsthand, but full disclosure, neither of us has read it.

After a slappy first night near the fuel dock, we moved and dropped anchor next to a little island in the bay (with a church on it, bien sur) and last Saturday they had a wedding there.  When Mike got up at 7am the next morning they were still partying.  Impressive! There was a little thunder and lightning during our time in Vathi and Mike rescued an Italian runaway dinghy.

On Tuesday we headed southwest to Eufimia, Kefalonia, which felt like a teeny tiny version of Vathi.  That is, until the charter boats started to roll in.  We got a good couple of hours of entertainment watching boat after boat try to berth at the dock in windy conditions. Then, true to the Ionian weather patterns, the wind dropped out after sunset and we slept peacefully in our calm anchorage.

Wind the next day from the northwest meant fun sailing up the channel between Ithaca and Kefalonia. Traffic! Great practice for deciding who has the right of way,  and are you REALLY on a collision course? Thinking that a 2pm arrival at the little harbour of Fiskardho would make for easy docking,  instead we found a swarm of sailboats jockeying for position as ferries came and went among the throng. Not our scene! We backtracked to a little cove that wasn’t full, and dropped our anchor for a great night where the stars didn’t have any competition from street lights. Oh, and a fine chicken curry!

In the quiet of morning we snooped around Fiskardho harbour and decided it was worthy of an early arrival to avoid the congestion, but the promise of a refilling station on Lefkada kept us moving north, and a beautiful west breeze convinced us that Vasiliki, straight north, was a good next stop. Well….

Over two hundred windsurfers speeding over the water in a swarm of organized chaos, swanky resorts lining the beach with row upon row of new boards and sails rigged in the stables. Since I’m a fan of windsurfing, you’d think that Vasiliki, Lefkas, should have been on my radar, but as it happened, this was just where the wind carried us as we sailed north. All was calm when we sailed into the bay, but by 4 pm it was pretty clear that we’d stumbled on one of the biggest windsurfing holiday destinations in Europe. Huh.

Not one kiter in the bunch–undaunted, Kathy launched me from the beach and I had a fun kiting session, though gusty and squirrely wind at times. The wind that had quite suddenly appeared at 4pm shut down for the night at 8pm, and apparently this pattern occurs almost like clockwork all summer long. Unfortunately for kiters, the geography that encourages this wind effect means that the steady breeze happens very low on the water’s surface, and I  can attest that up where my kite was flying, things were not so perfect.

To add to our delight in Vasiliki, the next day Coral’s owners, David and Carolyn, sailed into the bay on their new boat for our much anticipated rendezvous!

Wonderful to see friends and be hosted for a fun evening aboard Coral’s big sister, Dulcinea. With boat guests making for a count of 10 people aboard, it was easy to see why David and Carolyn have taken it up a notch. Dulcie’s guest John is a windsurfer, so we agreed over afternoon drinks to rent gear later in the day and join the melee, and what a great session! Admittedly I eventually ended up way downwind and had to be ferried home by the resort rescue boat (all part of the decadence!), but I’m blaming the underpowered sail I selected. John, by contrast, had so much power he was getting driven upwind. Hey, two old men survived winsurfing in Vasiliki! Unqualified success!

Dulcinea is truly a marvel–a floating three bedroom apartment plus crew quarters.  I’m still dreaming about the beautiful blue upholstery in the salon (this is Kathy writing again, in case you hadn’t guessed).

We will be hooking up again in the coming days. Maybe I’ll drink less next time, maybe not–this crusty old bird was happy to be socializing again!

The next morning we all cleared out out of Vasiliki, Dulcinea heading south to Kefalonia and us heading northeast in search of propane in Vlikho.  Vlikho is a funny little bay, very protected, pretty swampy looking and a breeding ground for a new jellyfish we had not yet encountered–the Mediterranean fried egg jellyfish.  They are freaky looking and not harmful.  I’m a little surprised that there are so many boats anchored in a spot that isn’t nice for swimming, but maybe people just park them here when they aren’t on the boat because the bay is so protected?

Our search for propane was futile.  After a march to the gas station with our tanks we were told that we had a male connector but needed a female, or vice versa, I forget. We consoled ourselves with a great meal at a restaurant CM recommend, Seaside.  Behold more food photos of Mike’s snapper and my chicken risotto.  My belly was very full and happy.

This morning we continued north up a pretty narrow channel and settled into the marina in Lefkas Town for two nights.  We had already told the guy how long we were staying when we got the price–60 Euros/night plus water, electricity and shower privileges!  Yikes!  Usually when we go to the dock it’s a municipal marina that charges about 7 Euros/night.  Guess we’re living large for the next two days.  It is actually freaking hot, so I’m taking advantage of the shore power to indulge in some of Coral’s A/C for a few hours. No complaints!

Mike headed to the beach and did some kiting, returning to report that Lefkas definitely was kite central for the Ionian. We might be here a while….

 

 

We made it!  A rendezvous with Team Baird is now imminent!

To bring you up to date, when last we blogged we were hanging in Galaxidhi. First of all, can someone please explain to me what the difference is between Lamb and Meat from Baby Sheep? Maybe I don’t want to know…

After acquiring our fancy new phone, we headed to Delphi in our rental car.  I was getting pretty hangry, so we stopped for lunch in town before hitting the historical site.

Pizza in our bellies, we proceeded to the site.  It did not disappoint!  It was a steaming hot day, but the ruins were spectacular enough that we hiked all the way up to the top, marveling the whole way that such a place in the mountains would even exist.  Seriously, if I lived in a time without cars, I would be dwelling at sea level at all times, but maybe that’s how they kept the riff raff out.

We returned to Galaxidhi where we braved dinner at the taverna we could see from the boat in the hope of getting some WiFi I could use to download the season finale of Silicon Valley.

The WiFi was a NoGo, but we did make some delightful new boat friends, Paul and Janet!

The next morning while I slept, Mike went for an early morning walk and did some Greek rock stacking.

We then pulled up the anchor and headed west in the Gulf of Corinth.  Next stop was Trizonia, a small island with an apparently abandoned marina that is freaking full of boats.  We anchored in the bay–the water was pretty murky, but it was so hot we went swimming anyway.  That decision may or may not be related to the earache I’ve had ever since.  Mike convinced me it wasn’t worth going ashore, but I’ve since heard otherwise.  Note to self–don’t trust Mike.  You’d think I’d have figured that out by now!  He redeemed himself with some delicious bean burritos for dinner, using the perfect avocado we had waiting in the fridge.

The next morning we continued west, stopping in Navpaktos for breakfast and a stroll.  The guidebook said it wasn’t as nice as Galaxidhi, but I would argue that point–it’s a great spot with medieval walls around the harbour and lots of cute shops with reasonable prices.

This was our last stop before passing under the Rio-Antirrio bridge, as seen on The Amazing Race.

We soon arrived at the marina in Patras where we backed into our berth for the next two nights.  Shore power allowed us to indulge in the ultimate luxury–air conditioning.  Yes, Coral has air conditioning!  Generally Captain Mike would never permit the drain that it would make on the batteries (it’s all about the batteries, folks), but the combination of shore power, oppressive heat, thumping music, and the stench of Patras convinced the good captain to close up the boat and have at it.  Ah, sweet relief.

The next morning we headed to the train station for a little tourist adventure.  First some breakfast, where the restaurant menu offered a little taste of home.

We had purchased our tickets the night before for the Kalavryta-Diakofto Railway, a narrow-gauge, rack and pinion railway through the mountains.  A lovely day awaited us–bus to Diakofto, an hour to Kalavryta, lunch and an afternoon in the mountains, and then the return journey.

For some reason, the lady at the train station put us on a bus that arrived in Diakofto at 11:15, the exact time the train was to depart.  Needless to say, we missed the train.  So, we walked to the beach and drank until the 2:30 train, fell asleep on the train because we were half in the bag, did not get off the train because the last train back left in 2 minutes, and then missed our bus back to Patras, waiting another 2 hours in Diakofto. It was a boozy, Diakofto kind of day.  I’m not really complaining–I’m Irish, what’s not to like?

Water and diesel tanks full, the next day we headed to Mesolongi, apparently the place Lord Byron died, and a major salt cultivation spot in the Mediterranean.  More importantly, it’s where we once again bumped into our new friends Janet and Paul!  We went for drinks and the next thing we knew it was 1:45 am and we’d had bar peanuts for dinner.  Again, not complaining!  Our waiter was impressed with my new Greek phrase “another round”. He said I either must drink a lot or travel a lot, lol.  He returned later to apologize if he had offended me, but I assured him it was no problem, he was correct on both counts.

We had planned to hang around Mesolongi for a few days while I crammed some varnishing in before the Bairds see Coral again, but it’s a pretty swampy bay that we both were less than keen about swimming in, and it’s freaking hot.  And so now we find ourselves anchored in lovely Vathy on the island of Ithaca!   No jellyfish in sight,  a dinner of pork and couscous with the yummy peanut sauce Marc and Deb brought from home, and I am a happy girl.  I was afraid that the summer boat crowds would be oppressive, but it doesn’t feel any worse than what we’ve been experiencing for the past two months.  I am a little leery of encountering the charter folks again, but if that’s all I have to complain about, life is good!

Side note, we have a neighbour flying a flag that is a white iron cross on a red background. Anyone know what that represents?

Well, not quite, but Kathy did get a couple of minor jellyfish stings the other afternoon as she bravely swam back to the boat from a beachside taverna. Oh, and I knocked a glass of water over the same night and killed my crappy ZTE phone. Good riddance! I now blog to you from a shiny new Samsung J5. Sadly not waterproof, but at least I won’t subconsciously be trying to drop it overboard.

Rented a sporty VW to go phone shopping and visit the ruins at Delphi today, while Coral hangs at anchor in Galaxidhi. Living without a smartphone for 2 whole days was barbaric! Oh sweet Windytv, Googlemaps, and Gmail!

Whew, feels like a bit of a whirlwind for the past few days. Skirting giant cargo ships outside of Athens (think of turtles crossing a highway in a friendly nature reserve – pretty safe… but), we sat out some very gusty weather for two nights, anchored off the quiet beachtown of Peranis on the south shore of Salamis Island. No wild salami or perani spotted, probably for the best.

And so on Tuesday we closed up phase 1 of the sailing adventure by motoring through the amazing 5 km Corinth Canal, out of the Aegean Sea and into the Gulf of Corinth. A cool €231 for the transit, which is only €0.046/metre!

The gulf feels like a very different beast, with few easy anchorages, choppy waters and variable, gusty wind. These photos do not reflect that, but trust us.

We’re parked today under the north shore off of yet another beachtown, Paralia Saranda, but here we needed all the chain on the boat to stay put in 20 metre deep water. You know I trust our windlass, so letting out 80 metres of anchor chain is always fun. Good thing we’re the only boat in the bay!

Oh, and a follow-up from Canada Day: I got my fireworks! An amazing 30 minute show. Clearly the budget for the 150th celebration got way out of hand.

 

July 1! Wow! Definitely a party vibe in the beachtown suburbs of Athens, but I think they’re celebrating Saturday, rather than Canada Day. We’ll have sweet disco thump reverberating from 6 different beach clubs til the wee hours tonite. Maybe we’ll get invited aboard the neighbouring 200 ft megayacht.

That’s mega-dinghy in the foreground.

To back up a bit: Yesterday’s wind never cooperated for our little passage back from Kythnos to the tip of the mainland, to park under the shadow of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion.

The diesel engine purred along for 4 of the 5 hour trip, and our batteries are nice and full (which is the standard rationalization when not sailing). Some nice snorkeling this morning off the cape, and almost accidentally made my first speargun kill when firing just to unload the spear from the bungee and almost impaled a 3 inch wrass. He looked disdainful. Possibly embarrassed for me, not sure.

So, a short chug up the mainland coast today, with about 25 boats charging by us escaping Athens on a Saturday. I felt like a salmon. Our destination, Varkiza Beach, is in search of a suburban gas station that sells propane (autogas is slowly growing in popularity in Europe). Coral’s american propane tanks are a real beeyatch to get filled, and today’s walking/bus riding/begging adventure proved fruitless. A combination of regulations and wrong adapters foiled my pleading at 3 stations. Oh well, I’ve had a swim, I’m into a big beer, and I’m looking west waiting for those 150th fireworks to start!

Happy Canada Day !