Big Vathi

Life doesn't get any better than this.  We are on our yacht at about 10pm at Big Vathi and directly across from us is a large group of locals singing and playing musical instruments.  We sip our Ouzo and enjoy the evening singalong.  Day one has been perfect!

After a good nights sleep we head into the town for coffees and pastries. They are delicious and we try the local Ithaca cake of honey and rice. I have a naughty spinach and cheese pastry.  We do a little more provisioning, purchase a prepaid data card instead of a phone card as we can use Skype for phone calls.

We depart Big Vathi around 10.30am.  We immediately have a problem raising the anchor as the charge to the battery is not working.  We can only raise the anchor two metres at a time to ensure the charge does not over heat and catch fire as it's red hot.  We quickly realise we still have a problem with the battery charge and diode and maybe the anchor engine as well.

For safety purposes we turn off all our house batteries to ensure there is no fire and motor to Nidri on the engine battery where we hope to find a mechanic who can fix our problem.  Unfortunately we won't be able to see our friends.  We SMS them of our plans and they are all happy to meet us at Nidri so that's great.

It's another beautiful day, sunny at 28 degrees and little wind.  We make the most of the conditions for improving our tans.  Greg has down loaded a European dance album so we listen to a few of the tracks, some great others not so good.

We head for the Scorpios pontoon at Nidir and get a spot for two nights.  Richard from Scorpios Charters will arrange a mechanic to drop by this afternoon.  Jo and Trevor are already in Nidir and Jo calls by to say hi.  Gill and Tony will be arriving a little later on. 

Greg and I take a stroll around the town and refamiliarise ourselves.  We are disappointed to find our favouite bar is no longer.  

The mechanic is supposed to come around 7pm.  In the mean time we invite the gang over for some bubbles before we are head out for dinner.

We are going to a quirky restaurant with has no menu, so basically you get whatever they are cooking up fresh.  Tonight's its mussels and chicken, followed by a salad and roast pork and finally the steamed bream, absolutely yummy.  And I almost forgot, we had a chocolate fondant as well.

We have loads of laughs as we catch up as it's been two years since we've seen Gill, Tony, Jo and Trevor.  Last year we couldn't quite get our diaries to match up.