We Are Sailing - Greek Islands in South Ionian Sea

---

I viewed this part of our journey with a bit of trepidation; sailing as a novice skipper with Eileen as untrained and inexperienced crew. We had hired a skipper for three days to ‘show us the ropes’ but after that we would be on our own with only mooring assistance at the end of each day. Would we survive?

We stayed the night at Cliff Bay Hotel, Palairos; a good spot with a lovely outlook. The owner very kindly gave us a ride down to the marina with our luggage. We had to wait most of the day to board “Lito” because the yachts needed to be cleaned. As each group boarded, the Odysseus team worked to complete running repairs and familiarise each skipper with their yacht. To provide a little more comfort, Eileen took the more airy front cabin while I took the starboard rear cabin leaving the port rear cabin free for the skipper (boys at the back in case of snoring! – E).

As would be the pattern each morning, we had a briefing with Tim about our destination for the end of the day, weather forecast, hazards to avoid, suggested options for things to see and do along the way, and the destination berthing layout and arrangements. Nikki followed on with information about the facilities at the location, provisions shopping, water availability, tavernas, and where to have a shower.

Following the briefing we met Ron Hancock who would be our skipper for the next three days. Ron is an expat Brit in his late 50s. He keeps himself busy with a variety of business enterprises including skippering, delivering yachts, organising house construction, and working on boats. He owns a couple of yachts and is very familiar with all the places we sailed.

Day 1

Eileen walked to the next marina to buy some aqua shoes while Ron and I went over things on the yacht. Ron is a quiet man with an undemonstrative demeanour. He did enjoy a chat though and he has some interesting stories to tell about his past, and a few stories he did not share, I’m sure! He had clearly ‘lived’ his life.

Our final check before sailing revealed "Lito's" fridge was not working so the base crew re-gassed it just as Eileen returned from a successful shopping trip.

We got underway and our first stop was Variko Bay for anchoring practice. The anchoring would be the bane of Eileen’s yachting life because the chain kept bunching up rather than falling nicely into the hold. By the end of the trip Eileen had mastered the knack of flicking the chain with a metal bar to keep it flowing in an orderly manner. (Imagine me kneeling over the open hold at the tip of the bow, with my face 20cm from the motorised windlass in the hold, one hand holding a 45cm metal tube to lift and throw each metre of chain from under the windlass, the other hand using the windlass remote to raise the anchor. What an effort ... and a sight!! – E)

We sailed to Kastos on Kastos Island and arrived in time for the welcome punch party where we met the others on the flotilla. Eileen cooked chicken, not quite the Moroccan delight anticipated as we were short of a few ingredients, and then our weary bodies hit the sack.

Day 2

We sailed to Kioni on the legendary Island of Ithaca. We were blessed with a good wind and practiced tacking, and reefing the sails. We even practiced man overboard drill when Ron noticed one of our fenders bobbing behind us. Ironically it was one Ron had tied on! A fender in the water is not easy to retrieve so Ron jumped into the dingy, while I lined up the boat. Great team work!

At lunchtime we anchored in a small bay for lunch and had a snorkel. Dick, Elaine, Mike and his partner also anchored in the same bay. We enjoyed snorkelling together amongst the fish while Mike threw bread overboard. Before we raised the anchor, Ron took me through navigation and then we set off to practice while Eileen took the helm.

We had a pleasant dinner at Avra Taverna and then Ron recommended a local Jazz bar. It turned out there was soccer game on at the Jazz bar so Eileen headed back to Lito and Ron and I had a couple of drinks. I tried “Raki” the local fire water which is a cross between Benedictine and rocket fuel. When I came back from the bathroom Ron was in deep conversation with a couple (I mention them because they feature later). Several drinks later, we sneaked back onto the boat. Our illusion was shattered the next morning when Eileen thanked us for attempting to be considerate upon our 2am return. When I asked what gave us away, she laughed and said “your loud whispering before you got on the boat!”

Day 3

Vasiliki on Levkas is connected to the mainland by a bridge so Ron had already arranged road transport home for the end of our last day together. Vasiliki is famous for wind surfing so I was delighted to have good sailing across the channel from Ithaca. Towards the end of the day we had a bit of fun; man overboard drill under sail. In a feat of extreme skill and good seamanship (read luck!) I retrieved the tied together fenders on the first attempt.

Berthing was a comedy of errors. Tim gave no instructions because Ron was aboard. Ron’s hat blew off and just as we lined up our berth he tried to retrieve it at the bow with the boat hook, but he missed. We started to drop anchor and I’m still not sure who gave the order! (It was Ron just before he jumped into the dinghy I had tied near the bow -E) We backed into our berth between a larger yacht with five German men, and one of our flotilla yachts. It looked as though our anchor was over the ‘Krauts’ anchor chain and they were not happy. Two of them had been giving Eileen an earful during berthing and when they asked her “where is your skipper” Eileen pointed to Ron who was now rowing after his cap in the tender! This added fuel to the fire and the Germans continued their tantrum. Eileen was feeling a bit overwhelmed and shaky. Later, Tim told Eileen she should have told them to “f**k off”. Once Ron retrieved his special cap, I had a last beer with him before he departed by taxi to Palairos.

We dined at the recommended "Penguins" where the food was ordinary but the harbour view was great. They gave us a litre of red wine to take home to compensate for the dry chicken dish. When we opened it some days later, it was surprisingly good!

Day 4 - We were on our own!

We had an exciting start to the day when we left the berth and the neighbouring ‘Krauts’ were still worried about their anchor.

Just after we cast off, our anchor chain ‘backed-up’ a little in the hatch (a “Lito” issue) and Eileen was quickly dealing with it when one of the ‘Krauts’ started shouting at her to “don’t stop, keep going!” She knew what she was doing so she told him politely and firmly to ‘butt out’. He thought he knew better and he continued the tirade. Up she stood, shaking the long metal bar at him as she shouted back “JUST SHUT UP!!!” As it turned out, Ron was right about the Krauts chain; it was fine. However, for the rest of the week whenever we saw a German flag, Eileen would say “Oh no! Is it them?” and I would tease her saying “I think it might be.”

We sailed straight to Fiskardho on the Island of Cephalonia. This is the island where the movie “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” was filmed. We all travelled in our dinghies across the bay to explore the cave near Focki Beach.

A few of us climbed up above the cave entrance to a jump off point into the water. I looked over the edge and decided it was too high when suddenly the first man jumped; turns out he was a paratrooper! I took another look and scuttled back. The second and third men jumped. Another man turned back leaving me with Tim who had never jumped but was recovering from a broken foot. Just then I heard two loud ‘whoops of encouragement’ from Eileen inside the cave. I stepped forward for a third time to the precipice. No going back now. With fear pulsing through my body, I jumped. It was long way down and time stood still until, ‘whumph’, I hit the water. Wowwww, what a buzzzzzzz!!

It was Andrea’s birthday (from our flotilla) so the group celebrated with cocktails on the waterfront at “Theodora’s Cocktail Bar”. Afterwards Eileen and I adjourned to the much vaunted “Lord Falcon” restaurant. We had a delightful Thai meal and it fully lived up to its reputation.

Day 5

It was windy overnight and the weather was still slightly heavy, but it had eased considerably. Tim warned us of the wind and the swell in the channel. We decided to sail and we set a reefed main and gib. The yacht was nicely balanced and we handled the increasing winds well as we ventured into the channel. The sea was lumpy with a fair sized swell running. We had experienced much larger on “Ave Maria” out of Cartagena, so we were comfortable.

Once we were across the channel I decided to shake out a little more sail. This meant Eileen took the wheel heading us into the wind while I released the sail and tightened the main. Unfortunately the main was jammed and it didn’t pop out as expected. By the time I got the main out, we had lost boat speed and were almost in irons and on the opposite tack. This caused a little panic in the crew, but was nothing to worry about. We built some boat speed then tacked back on course.

As we got further into the channel the wind was directly on our nose. We decided to save time so we motored up to “Skorpios”, an island owned by Onasis. We were going to anchor up for a swim but it was quite breezy so we sailed off to little Vathi on Meganisi.

We berthed right on the main square. Eileen was feeling a little stressed over the excitement of the day’s activities so we decided to give the group meal a miss and headed to the “Rose Garden Restaurant”. The meal was excellent and it perked up the crew no end.

Day 6

The rest of the flotilla was heading back to Palairos for their departure the following day. We had three choices; to stay in Little Vathi (sit on the back of the boat drinking Gin watching the world go by), to go back to Palairos and have a day there while all the yachts were cleaned for rehire, or to venture out on our own to “bare-boat”! Before Ron left us he gave us a couple of suggestions for our two days alone and, much to my surprise, Eileen agreed to bare-boat.

We said farewell to those from our first week flotilla and ventured around to Sally’s Beach, Abelike Bay also on Meganisi Island. We sighted a lovely spot so I backed in to check the depth. A man in a dinghy from an adjacent boat agreed to take a line ashore. I motored out, engaged reverse, lined up, and gave the order to “drop anchor”; it was all going perfectly ... ‘til this point! When I threw the stern line, it tangled and the man had to stop to untie it. We started to drift sideways until eventually I was hanging onto the bow of the adjacent yacht with Eileen scrambling to move the fenders. The ‘good neighbour’ finally made it to shore and pulled us back in line and tied us off to a rock. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Pheeewww, we were safe. After tying and adjusting another line, we were done and could relax.

We enjoyed a swim and a snorkel before we walked to the top of the hill where we could see back to little Vathi. I took numerous shots of the boat from every angle at the anchorage because of the very real sense of achievement that I felt. Eileen cooked a Greek omelette and potatoes for dinner and we relaxed over a celebratory bottle of wine.

Day 7

We motored quietly around to Port Atheni. I decided on a stern-to berth so I lined up and started to reverse. I gave the order to drop anchor and I tentatively and slowly reversed. There was no one around to catch a rope. By now Eileen’s usual calm and well practised anchor chain updates, had turned into excited shouting with a bit of panic thrown in. When I responded to her call, I found her bracing herself on the bow stanchion. She was holding onto the last bit of rope attached to the 52 metres of anchor chain now lying on the bottom! Together we managed to get the end of the chain up and back onto the windlass for another attempt. This time, with someone waiting to catch my rope, I reversed so the anchor chain lay out nicely; 40 metres out and a line thrown ashore ... perfecto! Again a huge sigh of relief!

We walked up the hill to the Town of Katomeri. It was very hot and everything seemed to be closed. I called through the door of a Taverna, and the lady opened up and served us a drink. Later we walked to another bay for a swim before having a nice dinner at “Niagas Taverna”.

Day 8

A text arrived from Tim giving us our destination; Sivota on Lefkada Island. After studying the charts and reading the guide, I plotted our course and we weighed anchor. We stopped at a quiet cove in Kapali Bay where there were no other boats. We enjoyed a swim and a snorkel without bothering to get our swimsuits wet! Later we watched a large multi coloured fish chasing smaller fish. A delightful stop over!

At Sivota we met the other three couples on the flotilla; Paul and Lorraine from Newcastle, doctors Andy and Hedydd from Wimbledon, and Laurence and Suzanne. It was great having other couples on the flotilla because we all enjoyed sharing our day’s experience.

We enjoyed a nice group meal at “Taverna Delphinia”, getting to know our fellow yachties. Paul is a dynamo of energy and positivity and I think Lorraine is along for the ride; a pleasant lady caught up in the fun. Andy and Hedydd are purposeful and confident, and competent sailors who enjoy the water. Laurence, a mechanical engineer, has a dry English sense of humour that I enjoyed while his wife, Suzanne, has a lovely warm personality and a real sense of fun. I noted that Laurence worked at warp speed getting the yacht organised when exiting or entering harbour. They were a great group to be amongst for a week’s sailing!

Day 9

It was back to the legendary Island of Ithaca to the lovely Polis Bay. We were the only flotilla in the quiet bay where we anchored, rafted and tied to the shore. We enjoyed a snorkel from the yacht along towards the caves. The most interesting thing that we saw was a large CRT television lying face down in about 4 or 5 metres of water! There were not many fish but I found some rope floating in the sea and caught on a rock. After a short discussion with Eileen we decided it would be useful and so we took it back to the boat.

Tim got out the wind surfer and I had a go, my first time in 20 mumble years. There was just enough wind to waft me around the harbour and I enjoyed a nice sail. Getting back to the yacht was amusing as the wind tumbled around the bay at surprising angles. Later, I watched Tim on the wind surfer struggling to get back to the yacht in the fluky wind. Here was my chance to be a hero! I got in our tender and gave him a tow using my prize possession, our new rope. As I was towing Tim, I noted a fishing boat turn up to the spot where I had found the rope. I heard a couple of loud exclamations from the fishermen and then I watched them set a net from the shore directly out to the middle of the bay. Well, that would account for the lack of fish life and the rope ‘caught’ on the rock!

In the evening we towed Laurence and Suzanne in their dinghy across to the wharf then we walked up the hill to Stavros village. There was a park in the main square with a tribute to Homer and the travels of Ulysses. All ten of us dined at “Polyphemus Garden Restaurant”. We had a lovely meal here, our best meal in Greece, made all the more memorable by sharing the entrees. If you are around Ithaca make a beeline for this place!

Day 10

In the morning Paul and Lorraine were keen to set sail but the rest of us decided to walk back to Stavros to visit the local museum. It was a lovely walk and an interesting little museum holding artefacts from the Island.

Once back to the yachts, we set sail for Frikes on Ithaca. We enjoyed a lovely sail with just a good amount of wind. Frikes was jammed with yachts because four flotilla companies made the same destination decision. We were the last boat of our flotilla to arrive so we were rafted on the outside which meant we had to climb over four other boats to step onto the quay. On the bright side we did not have to use an anchor, which made Eileen happy. It wasn’t long before two more boats attached to the raft – seven in total.

We headed off for dinner with Laurence and Suzanne. As we were strolling along the water front I heard a woman yelling “Derek, Derek” and waving vigorously at me. Much to the astonishment of my party, I strolled over and chatted to her. That got the rest of our party speculating! (He forgot to mention she threw her arms around him and gave him a hug! Suzanne looked at me and immediately noticing my confusion, she said “Umm ... are you ok?” Her thoughts were obvious! – E)

This was the couple Ron had been chatting to on our last night together while he and I were out for a farewell drink. They had come from Kione for an evening’s (day’s??) drinking. They were still hard at it when we called it a night later in the evening!

Just as we sat down Andy and Hedydd joined us and ordered Ouzo. “Mmmm ...” I thought and then I ordered one as well. Suzanne joined us in the Ouzo club but Laurence and Eileen did not partake. We enjoyed the meal at “Rementzo’s”; fairly standard Greek taverna fare but good company!

In the morning we had to wait to depart because the sleepy boys tied alongside took a while to get going. We had heard them ‘clomp’ across our yacht at 2.30am!

Day 11

Today’s target was Kalomos on Kalomos. We had been warned about rising wind in the channel. We dropped the sails when it got strong and gusty. Rather than motor straight up the harbour we motored into Port Leone then hugged the coast on the way north.

Once again we were the last yacht in so we were rafted up on the outside which meant we had a good view of the harbour. We watched George the harbour master direct the traffic and drop anchors for people. As the winds were strong and predicted to get stronger Tim laid out a couple of kedge anchors.

Nicky had been unwell earlier in the week so we had a delayed welcome punch party. After dinner onboard I sat on the deck in the dark and listened to and felt the winds get stronger and stronger. It was warm and I was sans shirt. The buffeting felt almost like being in a spa pool. It was one of those special quiet moments of pleasure that you stack away in your memory to be recalled during a difficult time.

Day 12

The morning was calm and beautiful as we climbed the steep hill to buy our morning bread in a local bakery (very yummy!) before setting sail for Pirates Cove at Abelike Bay. We enjoyed an easy sail after the winds blew out overnight. Our planned quiet swim at Kapeli Bay did not eventuate because it was packed with boats so it meant we were the first boat into the mooring at Pirates Cove. We had a swim near where we moored, but it was fairly gungy. Dinner at the Taverna was the worst we had in Greece and would recommend making this a ‘cook aboard’ night if you ever come here on flotilla.

We enjoyed drinks on Laurence’s and Suzanne’s boat, both before and after dinner. Suzanne and I polished off my miniature bottle of Ouzo after dinner.

Day 13

We said farewell to Laurence and Suzanne who were off bare-boating for their second week then we set sail for the Odysseus base at Palairos. As the wind was nonexistent we motored into Spartakhori for a look because this was the only major harbour on Meganisi that we had not visited. We then motored around the western, northern and eastern sides of Skorpios for a real nosey nose at the Onasis’s island. We anchored up at Variko for a swim, snorkelling and some lunch.

The final bit of navigation was to head back to the marina. Interestingly if you did not adjust for magnetic variation you headed straight for the Sunsail marina, as I observed another crew do!

That night we had dinner with our former skipper Ron and his lovely wife Lyn. We went to “Costas” at Pogonia for a delightful meal. It was the last ever night of the “Skippers Bar”. Eileen headed for bed at midnight while I stayed on a while longer enjoying the last ever gin they served (they had run out of beer earlier in the evening. When I called it quits before 2.00am Ron and the party was still in full swing but with an ever decreasing range of drinks.

Reflecting on the fortnight’s sailing I felt a real sense of satisfaction. We had some highs and lows, made some new friends, saw some sights, had some fun but most of all we did it together!

---