We left for Zakynthos bright and early last Saturday (Mike motored over while I slept). My wakeup call was “We’ll be at the Blue Grotto in twenty minutes” “What’s the Blue Grotto?” “You’ll see”. Of course it was a magical intro to Zakynthos’s crazy, rugged coastline.
We continued around the north shore and ducked into a small bay to check things out. This photo may appear to be just some rocks on the bottom of the sea, but in fact it is a photo of giant boulders 60 feet under the surface of crystal clear water. Magical!
Continuing around the northwest corner we visited the spot that was the impetus for our trip to the island: Navagio Beach or Shipwreck Beach. I saw it on some Buzzfeed list (probably) a few months ago and it has been on my radar ever since. It is a popular basejumping spot, but we didn’t see any nutbars jumping off the cliff taking selfies. The beach is stunning, but absolutely lousy with people, and since you can’t get there by car, the tour boats are constantly bombing in and out, honking their horns to warn swimmers that they are about to be run over as the boats all back right up to the beach. The crazy tourists are climbing all over the giant, rusty shipwreck, hope they’ve had a recent tetanus shot. Mike and I showed up at around 10am. We anchored off the beach, had some breakfast, went for a couple swims, took some photos and then at around noon, once we had seen the sun light up a chunk of the beach, we continued south.
We had sort of planned to return to Shipwreck Beach for the night when it would be empty and super cool, but alas as we brought up the anchor the windlass misbehaved. Again. I shouldn’t complain, we’ve had two months of reliable service from it. Mike’s diagnosis is that the up button got stuck, which ultimately caused the main breaker in the boat to blow and stink up the joint. Luckily we had a spare fuse, but we have been unable to replace our spare so far, or the windlass button for that matter. And so we delicately tread on the windlass button with a safety system in place that consists of a winch handle and a giant mallet. Don’t ask.
The whole west coastline of Zakynthos consists of crazy cliffs and caves, it was a pretty special day.
We stopped for the night in Ormos Keri on the south coast of the island. Most of this bay is protected breeding ground for loggerhead turtles, but the beaches are full of hotels and drunk tourists (or “lager louts” as the cruising guide refers to them), so I fear the turtles may be losing that battle. Also not good for the turtles, we woke up to find a mini rusty oil slick surrounding Coral. Yuck.
The next morning we started our journey north again with plans to meet Dulcinea the next day. We anchored just off the coast south of Poros, Kefalonia. We aren’t used to braving a night without a bay protecting us on most sides, but it was a very quiet night and the unorthodox anchor spot meant we had only one neighbour. Next stop, Kioni, Ithaca!
We arrived in Kioni shortly after Dulcinea and snuggled right in next to her for the night, both of us tied back to the shore right next to an adorable local swimming hole.
Hmmm, let’s zoom in on Mike…
I am tickled to announce that Ducinea’s guests were interested in my ukulele progress, so we had a little singalong! Some Johnny Cash, George Jones, Elvis Costello, Kenny Rogers and more! I have never been that person who breaks out the guitar at a party, mostly because I can’t play the guitar, but it was fun to be the uke girl, albeit with my handdrawn chord chart and my phone showing me what to play for each song. All in good time… God love Judith, she was quite offended that the other boats didn’t applaud us when we were done.
The next day Mike went on a little hike with Robert and Judith and then stretched it out with CM.
The next day we didn’t stray too far, popping down the coast for a return to Vathi. Mike has a hockey buddy, Bow, who was doing a cycling/cruising trip on this kind-of pirate ship with his family and after studying their itinerary we decided to surprise them in Vathi. Apparently we can’t read itineraries because the boat never showed up. But you know who did show up? Dulcinea! Also this guy, spewing fumes…
We collected some other friends of David and CM’s from a neighbouring boat, Lars and Lena from Sweden, and all headed over for before dinner drinks which lasted until 9pm. Very Greek timing, but I felt bad for the starving Canadians who had to wait for us to leave to get their dinner. We didn’t feel bad enough to leave before 9, clearly. Mike and I went to shore and had some pretty darn good pizza. Not Italian style, a Canadian style pepperoni pizza.
The next day we joined Dulcie in a bay just south of Vathi, Ormos Filiatro, for a nice swim in clear water. (Vathi bay was pretty murky. I did not indulge this visit). She was anchored and it was a quiet day so we just tied up to her.
After lunch we hit the water again and not five minutes after leaving the bay spotted… a pirate ship in the distance! Mike radioed the captain and asked him to alert Bow, and sure enough when we passed by there was the whole family and then some out to greet us! Two ships passing in the afternoon.
We rendezvoused with Dulcinea again on the dock in Sami for a final night of town debauchery together. Calamari, Greek salad and pizza were ordered from local restaurants and Tom and Julia delivered it all–we need some boat kids for Coral! Then we all went out for ice cream. Good times.
The next day we all headed back to Ormos Filiatro for the night. We tied back next to a giant motor yacht which was subsequently joined by two others. A couple of tenders delivered multiple families for a rousing afternoon on water toys of all shapes and sizes. Happily, all the boats left for the night, though we did enjoy the music for the afternoon. We joined Dulcinea on the other side of the bay for a drink with the new guests, Heather, Malcolm and Megan, and then retired to Coral. The next day while I went for a snorkel (spotted a lone jellyfish and a lone starfish), Mike and Megan took Tom out wakeboarding. The kid is a natural!
Next stop, Port Leone, Kalamos, a town that was deserted when their water supply became compromised. It’s a lovely spot and we tied back next to a boat full of beautiful Italian party boys–no complaints here! We swam to shore to explore a bit. There is a church that is still maintained, but that’s about it. There appears to be a taverna, but it was closed. If you’re not open on a Friday night in August, when are you open? No worries, a giant luxury yacht backed in across the bay and kept us entertained until the wee hours with VERY loud music. They also managed to break one of the rocks they tied back to, the sound of which gave both me and Mike a near panic attack.
In the morning we continued on to Sivota, Lefkas for a possible final night with Dulcinea, but the forecast was for screaming wind and the harbour was pretty full, so we continued north for a return to Vlikho. From what David relayed the next day we did the right thing–lots of dragging anchors and screaming yachties. Vlikho was pretty populated, but the bay is so big that no one got too close. Except the jellyfish! They seem to have tripled in size and density since our last visit! Clearly they don’t sting, there were kids waterskiing, but oh man I would never get in that water.
We pacified ourselves with a lunch at Seaside where I ordered the exact same thing as last time, chicken risotto.
That brings us to today! We had a very windy, splashy motor up the canal to Lefkas Town and managed to get onto the town dock, albeit a little askew. I blame the wind. Tomorrow I head home for Ma and Pa’s 50th wedding anniversary and Mike will be left on his own to pine. I’m sure that’s how he’ll spend most of his time. I look forward to following the blog from afar!
(For those of you wondering about the status of the backgammon tournament, after 232 games Kathy leads by two but is still very cranky that she has been backgammoned but has only gammoned Mike. I will play another ten thousand games if that’s what it takes!)
Gorgeous photos as usual. Looks like August has been well spent!