We had intended to set the alarm, but I forgot! It was 0830 and the sun was well up and it was getting warm when we woke up. We set about putting the bimini back up, followed by our sun awning over the cockpit. After breakfast we put the furling drum and guide arm back on the forestay, and then hoisted the jib back up and rolled it away. After that, it was a case of tidying up generally. We were able to cool off by going in the water for a while from time to time. We decided to make for Meganisi, but once were were under way we changed our minds. David and Claire on Skot were at One Tree Bay, so we decided to go there as it was new to us. We could not sail because of the unfinished rigging. We arrived, we saw the tree, and we anchored near Skot at the eastern end of the bay. David swam over to pay us a visit, as we scoffed a very much delayed lunch. After that, it was a case of swim, rest, swim, ...nerd and sudoku.
We spent some of the morning on a cleaning spree, Mo on the stanchions forward, John on the starboard topsides where the generator exhaust water at midships causes soiling. We alternated this with spells in the water. We finally left around 1400 hours for the short trip back to Nidri, where we positioned ourselves on the hotel pontoon once more. Unfortunately, although I called in to IBA on the way in, Mike did not appear, and it took a telephone call to IBA to find that he had been called out on a breakdown. So there was no action on the rigging front. Mo busied herself with washing, I collected e-mails from the hotel wifi on my original 6€. We then went for a swim and met up with a family staying in the hotel on holiday, and invited them out for the day on Wednesday.
Mike arrived soon after 0800 hrs and commenced by cleaning and oiling the bottlescrews and threads, before tuning the rigging. This seemed something of a black art (he called it the folding rule method), and he went to tremendous lengths to get the mast straight, upright (given we always have a starboard list due to our 'things' and full water tanks), and correctly tensioned. He then finished off at the spreaders by fitting the end caps and taping them on. Meanwhile I had fetched three cans of fuel from the 'petrol' station using Mike's trolley. After lunch I went to pay the bill which was fair but excruciating.. LLoyds credit cards were refused, and even the trusty Barclaycard took a call to the bank. It was more trouble than raising cash for the caravan in NZ! I continued to the chandlers and doctor, before returning to the boat, where Mo was anxiously waiting as I had been gone so long. We then had to go out foraging, and put in to a bar for refreshments along the way. We decided to remain on the hotel pontoon another night, so that we could use the hotel swimming pool and wifi, save generating power, and pick up the Hobsons more easily in the morning.
As arranged, the Hobsons arrived on the pontoon around 1000 hrs. and after a quick tour of the boat we set off. There was no wind, so we motored. We were unsure how long Catherine would survive happily without a swim, so headed for the passage between Meganisi and N. Thilia, where there was the possibility of anchoring off. The beaches did not look too inviting, so in the end we passed them by. Catherine tried her hand at steering as we dodged the large number of boats using the narrows between Meganisi and Levkas. We headed back across to Ormos Rouda, on the south east corner of Levkas. We anchored at the head of the bay, which is otherwise quite deep and steep-to. The beach was crowded with people enjoying themselves. It was not long before we were all in the water off the back of the boat. Catherine needed virtually no encouragement, despite her earlier misgivings.
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| Catherine at the helm | Swimming from the boat |
After a leisurely lunch we decided to take the dinghy up the bay to see the caves at the eastern side of the entrance. Unfortunately a breeze had come up and there was quite a chop, coupled with some nervousness as to the fitness of the outboard that was making a bit of a screech having been run flat out for over a mile. The cave we found was a bit disappointing and its low roof combined with the chop prevented too close an examination. We had hoped to visit the cave on Meganisi where it is alleged a submarine was hidden during WWII. We tried sailing on the way back, but the winds were flukey and light, so soon gave up. After a change at their hotel, the Hobsons rejoined us, and we all went up to Dimitris at the south eastern end of O. Vlikho, anchoring Fuga nearby. Afterwards John ran the Hobsons back to the Armonia in the dinghy. It had been a most enjoyable and happy day, which will hopefully convince Catherine she likes sailing, as the family have just bought an Enterprise dinghy!
The plan had been to go to Ithaca, but first to check for e-mails and get an order off to Maplins. We moved up from our anchorage in Vlikho, and anchored off the Armonia where I could use the remains of my wifi login. I tried unsuccessfully to wrestle with Maplins' website: in retrospect I may not have logged in correctly. However, I kept going down blind alleys, into Paypal, unable to order the quantity of cable, appearing to send the goods to Cagliari, etc. I abandoned the exercise at some point, and went ashore to pick up the dinghy strop from IBA and a couple more shackles for the new guard wires at the entry gates. I remembered then that I had not 'cleared out' from Nidri, so had to return to the boat to fetch the Greek transit log and crew list. In attempting to talk to Maplins to try to get an order in, the Greek phone ran out of credit, and I was cut off half way through. I tried using Vodafone, and fouund that I could not log in to the website as it was blocked! By this time I was crawling up the wall with frustration. We needed to get the Greek phone up and running, so both went ashore to buy a top up voucher. Mo came to keep me in order, and we walked along the front and up to the bank to get some more cash having achieved our main objective, then stopped at Cafe de Paris for a drink where Panos seemed to recognise us from last autumn's visit. We returned to the boat much more relaxed. Somehow, later that evening, I found the correct way in to Maplins, and got the order placed ok for delivery to David, ready for next week.
The next morning we were determined to get away! I prepared a couple of e-mails that I needed to send, and the plan was to hover off the quay where there was free wifi, as I thought my hotel-based wifi had run out. Miraculously, it had only been another glitch, and the e-mails soon went along with a couple of updated files for the web site! There was little wind at first, so we hoisted the main and motor sailed down the channel between Lefkas and Meganisi. Further south, a breeze came in from the south west, and we turned off the motor and started to tack down the channel. I wanted to see the cave on Meganisi known as Papa Nicolis' Cave. As we came out of the channel the wind freed and became very light, so that we drifted past a cave. Without reference to the pilot I imagined this was 'it'. However, once we had had lunch we put the engine on and then came by another cave with a larger entrance, outside which a couple of yachts had anchored. This was evidently the one. The water was fairly deep, and the dinghy in davits, so we simply motored on by. It was not long however before a breeze came up, the engine went off, and we were soon sailing along at around 8 knots on a broad reach, with 13 knots apparent. We headed for Atoko, originally billed by the navigator as our lunch stop, and as we came behind the island (333m high) the wind gusted down from the mountainside. We found a spot in One Tree Bay. There were numerous boats, mainly large Italian yachts and a large motor yacht, anchored. We swam and relaxed as more boats came and went. After supper, as the wind continued to gust and we were swinging around near a catamaran, we decided to move away and re-anchor. A group of identical ribs, with tents, anchored together in one corner, kept us entertained with their music.
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| One house, and a chapel, actually | The entertainers.. |
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| Who did they imagine would take it away? |
I was up in time to photograph the sun as it rose above the mountains on the mainland opposite, and the small house above the beach. We had had a peaceful night, as the gusts had eventually died down. Now the light wind veered 180 degrees, and swung us all towards the shore. We were sandwiched between two catamarans, and from the deck I imagined that our anchor cable was around the one behind and inshore of us. We swam and snorkelled, and despite having a good look I was still mystified as the cable lay in grassy weed beneath us. Quite soon the catamaran left, and I realised that he had been on a very short scope, just off the beach, and I must have had a mental aberration and let out far too much! Fortunately our chain was caught around a clump of weed, so we had not blown onshore!
I swam ashore to investigate the house and a cross I could see just above the trees in front. I was surprised to find a small chapel (not mentioned in the pilot), with a bell tower, and tried the door. It was unlocked, and inside there was an altar, a carved wooden altar screen, 'high stools' for a congregation of about 7 people, a model ship hanging from the ceiling, religious pictures, somewhere to light your candle, with lighter. The silver cup for communion, and other items, were all in place on the altar. This said more for the visiting population than the accumulation of rubbish scattered around or piled up at one end of the beach, and even human excrement that had not been buried. The house was much more substantial than it appeared above the trees, being built on two levels, with good quality doors etc. Rod Heikell mentions that the well just above the beach, in front of the chapel, contains sweet water. A large disused pipe runs from it up to the house.
Mo has a way of noticing things amiss, and finding things that mere mortals such as I cannot see, or ignore. It was with some trepidation, therefore, that I went below when summoned to 'Come and have a look at this'. Oily water was spread over the bilges below the fridge.. and was soon found in the bilge by the batteries, and to starboard by the engine. There was not very much, but chances were it was coming from the generator. So the dry goods came out, the base of the locker unscrewed, and the fibreglass 'soundproof' cover taken off. There was nothing obvious, but the generator was too hot from running to work on, so had to be allowed to cool. Meanwhile the water (which did not amount to much) had been sponged, and some more water poured down into the bilge as a rinse. Once cooled, the metal cover could be removed. I checked the manifold bolts, and these were ok, but the exhaust temperature switch that I had fitted into the manifold was loose. Having broken one of these off in the manifold previously, I am ultra-sensitive to this possibility. Having tightened it, we put everything back. By this time the bay was crowded with yachts, motor boats and ribs.
At about 1600 hrs we decided to leave for Vathi, on Ithaca. Having made sail once we were clear of the vagaries caused by the island, we briefly enjoyed a fast beam reach before the breeze died away earlier than usual. Arriving in Vathi we were immediately charmed by the place. A procession of boats arrived, with church bells, hooters, and pyrotecnics. We were too late to witness the procession to the church, headed by a band, but found a crowd both inside and outside the church trying to listen to the service through a very poor PA system. We briefly toured around the harbour, full of large motor and sailing yachts, in the dinghy, and returned to Fuga for once feeling like poor relations.
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| Part of the quay at Vathi, on Ithaca | We did not discover what this is a replica of, the Odyssey? |
In the morning we went ashore at Vathi. It is a very pleasant little town. We picked up some fresh fruit and vegetables, bread and some bits from the well stocked supermarket. On the way back to Fuga, I picked up some petrol for the outboard at the refuelling station: I had competition from two large gin palaces who were loading thousands of litres, not just 10! I had planned to divert up an inlet with a beach at its head, but in the event there were so many nice beaches along the shore that you were spoilt for choice. We anchored off the last beach available to us, before we cleared the headland on south east Ithaca and headed for Poros on Cephalonia, and had a quick swim. Even so we were joined by two large motor yachts in close proximity.
Poros proved to be problematic. The wind had increased to a northerly F6, and we had been forced to put in two reefs. As we approached the harbour, a very large ferry in the entrance sounded its horn, and started to pull up its anchors. The ferry berth is apparently new: it is not shown in our pilots (Heikell 2003/4) and runs parallel to the new breakwater at the NE side of the harbour. There is therefore no room to anchor in the harbour (as suggested in the pilot), which is very small, and swell caused by the wind was making the yachts berthed on the SW quay jump about a bit. We were not set up to go stern to (dinghy up on davits, and ropes in the locker), so decided to make for an anchorage on the south of the island instead. In doing so, we cut inside the Kakova shoal (in a minimum of 5.5m depth) and skirted the reef off Ak Mounda. The late evening light was not ideal for this, but looking back you could see the shallows on either side that we had missed (using electronic charts backed up with the depth sounder). We anchored off the beach just east of the village Kato Kateleios in 4m. In the morning, you could see from the dinghy the extensive reefs that lay between us and the village, and further off where there is a drying rock. Change is afoot there. A new breakwater has been constructed to the west, under the point, and works were ongoing (one supposes) to construct a quay and small harbour to the east of this. What for remains to be seen, but a small tug and barge, large crane, digger and bulldozer were all hard at work, with massive boulders presumably unloaded from the barge and with lorries coming and going with material.