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….
This is all super cool, but what has me reeling is the JO Boat with the massive waterslide *AND* freakin’ basketball court!! Seriously?!? Anyway … keep on keepin on!
I know! I forgot to mention the basketball court, glad you noticed it! That blew my mind too. They also had a giant floating trampoline in the water off the stern. Looks like a fun crowd to hang with!