Another Day Another Bay (quote from Tony)

After a fabulous sleep Greg and I head up the hill for the scenic walk to the look out of Spartikhori, wow it’s really beautiful.  Although it’s only breakfast time Greg manages one more ‘wish you were beer’ shot as we have some breakfast and little look around the village.

Spartikhori lookout



Spartikhori panorama



Over breakfast we decide to head for the Peloponnese as Olympia is the most furthest southern place we want to visit and the forecast is for little or no winds for the next few days.  We return to the harbour and bump into Tony. He advises that Poros is a good stopover in Cephalonia before we get to the Peloponnese.  So we now have a plan.

After we pick up our bread we head for the yacht and we plan to meet up with Gill and Tony around the 7^th September and Jo and Trevor later on in Corfu.  We wish them all happy and safe travels and we head out of Spartikhori about 10am.

We take the scenic route rather than the direct on to Poros. We motor between Ithaca and Cephalonia.  Again the water is Azure Blue and so inviting.  We stop at Stavros on Ithaca for lunch and a swim.  We manage to feed the friendly fish as well. 

Starvos, Ithaca

Fish frenzy

We keep heading  South and are still planning on arriving at Poros tonight.  We have one stop for a swim as its really hot and then put up the headsail for an hour.  We can see Poros in the distance and start preparing for the mooring .  Just as well as we get the last place on the wharf, stern to.  It’s a lovely little harbour.

 We’ve been told to check out the Rock Bar which we do.  It reminds us of the Rock Bar in Bali but not quite so expensive.  It has a great lookout.  We then find a Seafood Restaurant for dinner close to the wharf. Great view but unfortunately it’s very disappointing, as they have no seafood at all!

Cooling off

Poros at night

View from rock Bar

Rock Bar Poros

Poros Beach

Best Day ever (so far) Meganisi

We both have a great sleep and wake early to get ready for our next adventure.  After coffee Greg fills the water tanks and I wash the cockpit lounge cushions.  The come up like new.  We fill up with diesel, which should last us for the rest of the holiday.  We head out of Levkas through the very narrow and shallow canal but don’t have any problems.

It’s then a beautiful morning, we put up the headsail and enjoy a lovely morning tacking  South to Meganisi Island.  We are sailing at an average of over 4 Kts, it’s really pleasant and so beautiful.  We are enjoying the sun and scenery and then we bump into Tony and Gill. They have been at Nidri for the last 2 nights .  We have a good laugh and arrange to meet up at Spartikhori.

Later that afternoon  Greg finds the most fantastic place to anchor and we tie a rope to shore.  It’s called Thalia further Sth from Scorpio Islands owned by the Onassis family.  It’s really pretty, the water is aqua and we can’t wait to jump in!



Thalia



How Aqua?

We are in heaven and don’t want to leave this place.  We snorkel and see a few different kinds of little fish and just chill out.  What else can you do?  Apart from eat a lovely lunch of smoked salmon sandwiches… yes very yum   I’m not sure how Greg and I will hope going back to reality at the end of September.

To ensure we get a good possie on the wharf we leave about 3pm and head for Spartikhori.  There is a flotilla already docked up there and many other yachts.  The lovely local man from the Taverna helps us tie up, we go stern to.  Even here the water is so clear and clean.  After we get sorted we have a swim and then Gill and Tony arrive, they are meeting other friends, Maureen and Noel.  We get invited to their yacht for Gin and Tonics later on.  This should be fun.

We decide to check out the Taverna for happy hour and have a few beers and ouzo’s and then head back just in time for G&T’s.  We have a good laugh with our English friends and they share more info on the Ionians.  Maureen and Noel have been coming here for more than 20 years.

We all have dinner together later on that night which is delicious and we get to order our bread for the next day.  We are not sure of what or where we are going next so guess we will work it out tomorrow.

Afternoon Delights Spartikhori

Paxos to Levkas.

Based on Gill and Tony’s suggestion we have changed our sail plan and decide to travel down the inside of Levkas not go around the outside.

Rockin'

n rollin

Greg chooses speed over comfort for our 5 hour trip as we are planning to make the 1pm bridge opening at Levkas.  We get away without any problems, like having some else’s anchor chain over ours and head out of Mongonisi by 8am.

It’s a pretty rough ride as we have a cross swell picking up to 2 mtres by the time we hit Levkas.  The winds also are picking up as predicated and these trips are definitely no for the faint hearted.  By the time we make it to Levkas Town, Greg makes a great decision to stay at the Marina due to the winds picking up, which is the right decision.  Docking is fun with winds gusting to 25Kts however we arrive safely and are happy to be tied up.

We tidy up, put the laundry in and we have a little shop at the supermarket.  The winds are now gusting up to 30Knts and it’s interesting watching all the yachts move around on the berth.  We are soooo glad we are not on an anchor tonight in these winds. 

We head out for dinner and walk around Levkas Town looking at the shops and deciding what to buy tomorrow before we head off.  The forecast is for the winds to die down tomorrow for our rendezvous on Meganisi. 

We have the most delicious mixed grill with pork skewers, and chicken and different sausages with salad and local wine its really yummy and we are in a food coma.  I think we will sleep well tonight. Back at the Marina the winds are still gusting but not as strong, it’s still very noisy as some yachts have ropes clanging together.

fishing

Levkas lighthouse

Levkas sunset

Happy Hour

Day 2 in Levkas.

We head out for breakfast in town and while Greg visits the barber I do some shopping. We are planning on leaving for either Nidri or a village further Sth of Levkas.  We get side tracked as Greg decides to buy additional anchor chain, as you can’t have enough and it’s then too late to leave.  The forecast is also suggesting 20Knt winds so we decide to stay another night in Levkas and take a look around.

Once the anchor chain has arrived and connected to the existing lot (we now have 70 mtrs) we head back to town and hire a shooter for the afternoon via Dalton’s the meat restaurant we went to last night and have a gyros, more yummy! 

We ride down to Nidri about 17 Kms Sth and have a swim and look around.  It’s a really scenic ride.  We then head Nth to the top end of Levkas to the beaches renowned for their wind and kite surfing.  There are a few guys out surfing buts it’s too windy and not real pleasant.  We head back to the yacht and get ready for cocktails.

We return the scooter and go back to our fav place for happy hour (actually we love their horse’s doovers very posh!).  Dinner tonight is on board the yacht; we are having fresh figs with blue cheese and prosciutto and other goodies.  We are knackered so have an early one.

Nidri Beach

Levkas Marina

Levkas harbour

Wish you were beer

A comment from the Captian

Big Vathi Ancorage

Big Vathi Marina

Athens airport

Lakka

Katakolon Beach





Katakolon

Poros harbour

Poros Rock Bar

Spartikhori Lookout

Spartikhori Taverna

On top of the world, Dubrovnik

Mljet



Vis, Konoba Dalmatian



Hvar



Gustame Cafe Dubrovnik

Corfu

Levkas



Mongonisi

Brna, Korcula

Thalia, Meganisi

Nidri Beach, Levkas





Valtou to Paxos, Mongonisi

We wake up with our first hangover, so it must have been a good night!  After a coffee and some breakfast we head South to Paxos.  It's a lovely motor sail down to Paxos and every time I look up Greg is scrubbing the decks.  One of our taxi drivers in Corfu told us that Paxos is paradise, I hope he is right.

catching dinner



hangover cure



man at work

We decide on a Cove called Mongonisi which is a tiny island connected to Paxos by a man made bridge.  It’s renowned for it’s olive oil apparently.

Wow we love Mongonisi, it’s a beautiful place and we decide to stay a few nights.  We also meet our first friendly yachties.  Tony and Gill and Trevor and Joe, all from the UK.  They sail around the Ionians every year and have lots of great info to share with us.  We have dinner with them on the Saturday night and enjoy some traditional Greece food.

This is the perfect place to stay and I think our favourite place so far.  It's a pain having a sore finger, Greg has made it as water proof as possilbe for me so I can cool off.  We try out all our floation devices; noodle, boogie board, mini fenders, air bed plus snorkle around the bay.  There are also local shetland ponies that come and say hi to us and we feed them some apples and pears.

Mongonisi Beach

The finger

Trophy cabinet

Dinner with friends

The locals.

Day 2 Mongonisi, Paxos.

After a walk around the Bay we make some coffee and have some breakfast at the Taverna.  Gill and Tony are heading off today so we say our farewells and will be meeting up with them again on Tuesday afternoon on Meganisi.   Greg and I spend the day sunbaking and swimming; we are officially relaxed!

After it cools down a little, Greg installs the VHF radio and it’s working so that good news.  We have some bubbles with Trevor and Joe and then later on have dinner at the Taverna.  Unfortunately there is no Greek dancing tonight.  We have quite an early one as I think we caught too much sun today and we want to head off early tomorrow morning at the crack of 8.

work in progress

Mongonisi Bay

Dinner time