Unchartered waters

We depart Vathi at about 8am as the village bells toll at the crack of 7am here. We want an early start as we have a way to go. We are heading East; leaving the Ionians and heading into the Gulf of Patras. We have chosen Mesolongion which can be found on the south side of the Greek mainland; it's our next port of call mainly because they have a laundry service, I know how boring....

We motor all the way as the winds seem to like our route and keeps blowing directly into us. Its a very narrow channel on our approach to Mesolongion and we see a few turtles along the way. We have to be very alert as the local fisherman have dropped lines and nets across the channel entrance and are very difficult to see as they use dark blue floaties.

We arrive by 2pm and the locals help us dock. It's a bit of a kuffufle due to the wind but we finally are secure. First stop is the Marina and check out the laundry service.

We have a bite to eat at the local Sunset Cafe, owned by Spiros who comes all the way from Melbourne. The white wine is really nice and serviced in a little carafe bottle that looks like a Orchy bottle. Very cute.

Its's really hot and after numerous trips to the laundry to check on the washing and then the drying which does not seem to work very well I give up and hang some of our our wet clothes all over the yacht, looks like a Chinese laundry, but hopefully it will dry quicker that the using the dryer.

After showers we walk into town, about a 20 min walk and find the town centre and stop and have a drink. It's a very busy square and the locals are very friendly. Unfortunately the bugs are out tonight and hungry. We try a few shops looking for bug spray and finally find some citronella spray which works. We a looking for a taverna but seems there are mainly cafes in the main area of town. We settle on a BBQ grill place and Greg enjoys locally caught grilled prawns.

We head back the yacht for a reasonably early night and enjoy a good nights sleep.