dredged channel to the lagoon
We were late getting going, so that it was midday before we left the anchorage. We motored out of the bay, and once clear of the point we set the main and jib. We were almost able to fetch our course across the bay, in the WNW wind, but were set into the bay with the leeway we were making. During the crossing the wind at first backed, then went lighter, so that we had to shake out the reef. No sooner had we done this when the wind came back from the NW and increased in strength to F5. Once around the point, the final legs to Killini were rather too lively, with awkward seas that seemed to be entering the channel between Zakynthos and Cephalonia. We gybed into the bay and carried our sail into the port area. We found some extensive changes when compared with our pilot, and dropped anchor in the new 'marina' area, taking lines back to the quay. The locals promenaded along the quay behind us, and the fishermen did their thing. Water, electricity, and wifi with a good signal but no connectivity.
The sight of an official looking pickup was enough to stir me into action: fortunately he was only collecting rubbish! We disconnected the power, but took advantage of the water to hose down the deck. All seemed well as we slipped out on the shortened anchor chain to recover the dinghy, but when it came time to haul the last 15 metres of chain the windlass ground to a halt! A large trawler opposite had laid its two anchors well across the harbour, and we appeared to have one of them. There was nothing for it but to go swimming. Visibility in the murky water was virtually nil, so I pulled myself down our chain and passed a rope underneath the trawler's anchor chain. Back on board it was relatively easy to drop our anchor, and pull back clear of the trawlers'. Excitement over, we motored out of the harbour to find a light NNW, so set the main and motored for some while. Gradually the wind backed westerly, and so we were able to sail and fetch our course quite happily. We dropped the sails for the passage up the narrow channel to the lagoon, and anchored off the new marina where we knew C'est La Vie was moored with Svein and Caryn still working on her.
Having wifi from some establishment ashore from the anchorage meant that I could entertain myself. There were 31 e-mails waiting, mostly concerning the CA's cruising information. It was midday when Svein rang to see if we were coming ashore! It was amazing to pick up with friends made over a short stay in an anchorage on Spain's northern Ria de Viveiro in 2004, whom we had not seen since! We chatted for some while, then Caryn made arrangements with Rachel, single handing on Vandervoe, to drive us to the supermarket. We arranged that Caryn and Svein should come aboard for supper, and I was to pick them up. All was ready at 1900, when I went off in the dinghy at high speed only to come to an abrupt halt about 200 yards from Fuga. The engine refused to start again, and another boat came off in their tender to tow me ignominiously back to Fuga. Svein and Caryn were not answering the phone, so we picked up our anchor and motored over to the marina where we could hail them, and re-anchored nearby off the small fishing harbour. They borrowed a rather unstable and narrow looking dinghy from Russell, on which was mounted a 25HP engine, and scarily came out to us. Finally we could relax and enjoy the evening, at least until it was time for them to go home in that dinghy.
It was very hot, so we put our sun covers up and then relaxed reading and working on the internet. Svein is always up to date on the latest software for cruisers, and had promised to share some open source chart plotting software and grib file software with me, so I went over to collect it in the afternoon. He had been helping out with another computer, and now his resolutely refused to log on to the marina network. As he and a friend had set up the router over the winter, this was rough justice! I went for a stroll around the site, and took some photos, calling at the marina office for a price list. On the way back I met Yiannes, one of the directors and general manager of the marina. He wanted to know why we were not in his marina, as Greece, he says, needs the taxes. I tried to explain that we lived aboard, and did not do marinas. In fairness, the daily rates at 1.50€ per metre per day are very reasonable, if you enjoy marinas.
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| The 'working berths' in Messolonghi marina | One of the fishermen't houses that line the dredged channel to the lagoon |
In the evening, Caryn and Svein had asked us to join in a farewell supper. This was taken on two cable drums for tables with dogs in attendance: sticky chicken wings provided by Ted from Tootsie, followed by Toad in the Hole, mash, onions and gravy by Caryn and Ted. It was good to meet up with Russell who told us some nice jokes, just one last one at a time, and again with Rachel.
There were a few jobs to do on the computer while we had the wifi link. I updated the web site, and ordered a fender cover kit from Fender Socks in the UK for David to bring out, and had a quick check on the bank account. All this took time, so it was midday before we went ashore to say our goodbyes. Then it was a case of getting the motor off the dinghy, and the dinghy up, and taking down our sun covers. We motored down the dredged channel, and then set sail. It was a beat yet again, but with one short tack and a long one as we kept south of the shallow lagoon that stretches 12 miles west along this coastline. The wind then veered westerly, so as time was getting on we started the engine. As luck would have it, as we reached our turning point to head north along the east coast of Oxeia island, the wind veered NNW against us, and freshened to a high force 5. We had taken in a reef as a precaution, because gusty conditions seemed almost certain between the high island (421m) and Koutsilaris (434m) opposite it on the mainland marking the end of the lagoon. There were fish farms along the east side of Oxeia, and in the bay at the northern end of the island, the latter making it difficult to anchor there. It was a little uncanny for us to be skirting around shallow waters seemingly miles off the now low lying shore, where the mouth of the river Akheloos reaches the sea in a kind of delta. We were briefly able to sail again, just able to fetch the course up to Petalaa, although another fish farm intervened. We were surprised by the number of yachts at anchor in the bay, but headed north inside the bay and had no difficulty finding a spot to anchor at the far end of the line, where the depths were just coming down. As we relaxed and enjoyed the wild, open scenery around us, fish kept jumping clear of the water: something big was on the hunt.
I was woken by the rattle of the windchute in the forehatch, and was surprised to find that it was a blast of north easterly that was coming at us across the wide and exposed bay. Looking at the grib forecast, this had indeed been predicted, being a sort of spin-off from a Meltemi blowing in the Aegean. We had thought that we would while away the day there, but having visited the bay and seen the hills, we had done it. It would probably remain a bit exposed from any direction that the wind cared to blow. So we had breakfast, and set off for the Panteleimon, a much smaller inlet just north of Platygiali bay, where there is a ship breaking yard. By this time, of course, the easterly wind had disappeared, and had been replaced by a light north westerly that was not worth hanging the washing out for. Once again we found the west coast of Petalas island to be cluttered with fish farms. I had a mild surprise when we encountered not far off our planned route an exposed rock (Xeropoula) that was not marked on the e-chart that we were using. It does however feature on the latest C-Map charts. Pontikos is also encumbered with fish farms on its eastern side, and there were more south of Glossa Pegonias, on the entrance to Panteleimon. There were two fish farm installations in the run in, but plenty of room to skirt by them, and another in the southern arm inside which we attempted to anchor. Twice we dropped and the anchor came up with mud and weed having failed to bite. Instead we settled down on the northern side, close to the 'port' with three low jetties sticking out into the water. There was a farm there, with cattle, goats and pigs that seemed to be running fairly free, and some old ruins. Another house was hidden behind two palm trees. The cattle seemed to be drinking from the sea, but there seemed to be nothing growing to eat in the barren, rock-strewn landscape. In the evening we listened to their bells as they moved up onto the hillside to graze, and as the wind changed we enjoyed the farmyard smells.
I was aroused at 0100 by the phone going, and leapt out of bed. Jacqui, my daughter who lives in New Zealand, was serenely announcing the arrival of a third son, Hamish at 0700 their time.
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| The old farm house at the head of the bay |
We came too in the morning. The cattle had returned to the farmyard, and porpoises were cruising in the bay. We motored out of the bay, and set sail. The light breeze which had started with some east in it, was heading west, and as it did so headed us. Instead of leaving Kalegiros to port, we dodged between Echinades, the largest of the group of 9 islands, and Karlonisi. There were several fish farms in the bays close into the islands on their eastern side. We noticed a yacht tucked into the lee of Tsaklonisit. The new chartplotter software we are trying, OpenCPN, kept alarming that according to the AIS we were on a collision course, and sure enough as we passed through the channel, a ferry came in the opposite direction. The wind became quite fresh, and we had a very pleasant sail, taking in a reef in the main near Atokos island. As we came under the lee of Ithaca the wind fell dead, and we motored in the last few miles to Vathi. We made straight for the fuel dock, and for the first time since leaving Cyprus we were able to fuel alongside and so had full tanks and full spares, but were considerably poorer for it at 1.41€ a litre. We tried to anchor in the south west of the harbour, but there was a catamaran already there, and not really sufficient room. We settled for the north east side of the harbour instead.
Mo had had a particularly disturbed night, having been entertained by a female singer on shore until 4 am! I went ashore for supplies, Mo still declining to come in order to safeguard her broken toe. I had to return a couple of times. The first was in panic because I did not have my shoes, but had simply left them on the quayside when I changed my mind where to tie up the dinghy, and the second was because I was fully laden. We did not have far to go to Frikes, and as there was little or no wind we just motored, visiting Kioni on the way. Kioni seemed quite sheltered, and the sort of place you would come to eat at a fish restaurant. At Frikes, we decided to anchor off the beach in a spot (Ormos Limenia) we had used on our last visit, but did not have our act together to get a line ashore to the conveniently spaced olive trees. We checked out another beach, but this proved to be a swimming beach with buoys off it, and too deep. Better prepared, we returned and anchored alongside a couple of French yachts. It was a great beach for swimming and I spent a while cleaning the dirty tyre marks off the side from the fuelling berth, and along the waterline. We were joined later by a couple more boats that squeezed in somehow, so that we had to run a second line ashore to keep ourselves clear.
In the morning, we swam, and then got ready to enter Frikes harbour. As we entered there was one boat lying stern to the southern wall who soon left, and we decided to lie stern to the wall a little further in. Another Brit boat came in and lay alongside in the corner, parallel with us. We went ashore to treat ourselvers to some Metzes for lunch, and while we were there a large yacht with Croatian charterers on board moved off the northern wall and put himself alongside our wall, behind another small charter boat. Later a flotilla of charter boats came in, the leader managing to get themselves alongside between us and the Brit, and they then proceeded to build a raft astern of the larger yacht, who was refusing to allow people to berth alongside as he planned to leave early in the morning. A charter boat now alongside the flotilla leader was threatening to impale her anchor into our topsides, as although we had the stern pinned tightly the bow was free to roam on the anchor in the fresh wind. We therefore had to lay our kedge to stabilise the bow, while the raft was being stabilised by berthing head to toe and laying their anchors out too.
The whole objective of the visit, and the reason for coming into the harbour, was that we wanted to visit Ian and Julie in their 'shack' nearby. Ian picked us up in their van at 6 pm and drove us up to the shack, which overlooks the north west side of the island. Since coming to Ithaca and buying the shack four years ago, they have re-worked the roof using the original tiles, and renovated the insides which are more like a tardis than any shack that you might imagine. Outside, the 28 olive trees have been pruned so that last year they yielded 80 litres of olive oil. The gardens include walnut, tangerine and pear trees, and Julie and Ian plan to work on the garden once the sailing is over for the season. We enjoyed a barbeque, and tore ourselves away near midnight.
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| Relaxing in front of the 'shack' | The view to the north from the shack |
After one cuppa, and with the second cooling ready to drink, we got up. I had decided it would be a good idea to extricate ourselves from our berth, and so allow the charter boats inside us to leave their berth quite easily, whenever the time came. I went ashore to buy some bread and some of the cheddar cheese that Julie had told us about, and returned to find Mo up and taking the awnings down. We let go and pulled ourselves up, retrieving the bower quite easily, although covered in thick mud. Unfortunately the kedge did not come so easily, and it transpired that one of the raft of charter boats had laid its anchor over our anchor chain. In trying to pull it, I must have pulled at an awkward angle, as I collapsed in agony onto the foredeck, and for a while could not move because of the pain in my back. I managed to get a rope around the offending chain by going down our own chain, but this did not get us anywhere as there was weight on it, and their anchor was well dug in. The lead crew came along, and we decided to undo the chain to our kedge, and tie a line to the end of the chain to enable it to be unwrapped. This left Mo adrift in the harbour on Fuga, so she had to retire to the cockpit to look after Fuga. Eventually we (and the flotilla) got under way, long after we would have done if we had simply stayed tied up and let them go first!
As we were still in some disarray, and had not had breakfast, we motored to the beach behind Ag Nikalaos I, a little way to the north, where we anchored. After breakfast, and tidying up all the warps, cleaning and recovering the kedge from the dinghy, we were glad to get in the water. Alongside us, and also swimming, were John and Priscilla from the US yacht Apria. They knew many of the 'Kemer crew' who either were or still are in Alanya. They were on their way to leave the boat in Messolonghi. They very much enthused about the Azores, where we plan to visit next year, having enjoyed their stay there. After this interlude, we set off for Nidri, again under engine as there was still no wind. Eventually a breeze did set in and blew up the channel between Meganisi and Levkas, so we unfurled the jib and made gentle progress for a while until it died. We made for Vliho bay, and anchored there: Nidri looked busy and so was Vliho.