What next? Sivota

After some great coffee and fresh pastries from the cake shop we head off.  It’s a beautiful morning with a fresh breeze.  Once we get away from the town we put up the main and head sail, then the wind drops right off of course.  We drop the head sail until we get further past the land masses then haul it up again.  We are heading Nth to the Sth end of Levkas to meet up with Gill and Tony in Sivota.

Chillin

Ouzo time

After a pleasant time sailing up to Levkas we arrive at a beautiful little village tucked away on the Sth called Sivota (another Gill and Tony special).  It’s really pretty and still very much untouched by tourism.  We find a spot on the wharf and reverse in; a perfect landing.  There’s a small rock bar behind us so we have a few cold beers and watch the view.  Not long after Tony and Gill come in and Greg helps them tie off.  They are both well and winding down their holiday as heading back to the UK in a few days.  While we are catching up a large tripper boat arrives and reverses back beside us.  There are about 150 on board and it stays about 90 mins.  The wind changes and next thing the large boat is leaning on ours and pushing the rest of the yachts.  There are no crew to be seen to so we try to fend off out yacht as best as possible.  Someone finds the Captain and Greg has a few words with him about lifting up his anchor to get the pressure of our yacht.  It all turns to a calamity then as his crew have issues holding the ship and then our neighbours next door start abusing the Caption of the tripper boat and the Captain starts threating them.  It’s on for young and old, meanwhile Greg and I are trying to protect the port side of the yacht from getting ripped off as the boat finally gets away.  Well that was fun!  And to top it off and pommie a few yachts down from us chucks a brown eye at the Greek Captain as he pulls away.  It will make a great sailing tale.

By mid afternoon Sivota harbour is packed with loads for flotilla groups.  The wind has picked up to 20 Kts as very inexperienced people try to reverse in.  Next minute we have two flotilla staff on board using our VHF trying to give instructions to George as he tries to reverse in next to us.  Oh great!  It looks like of the four on board no one has a clue and the forth is busy watching and not bothering to even fend off.  After fouling our anchor and lots of shouting  they arrive without damaging anyone or anything.  We fix the anchor chain and all is well.  A thank you would be nice for assisting but not forthcoming. 

We invite Gill and Tony over for bubbles and have a few laughs and meet up with them after dinner.  We are so buggered  as we still haven’t caught up on lost sleep as yet.  Luckily we do have a good nights sleep here.

Sivtoa harbour

Rock Bar Sivota

We are woken to the sounds of the local priest celebrating mass, a special mass as it’s Sivota’s name day today.  The women of the village have baked special cake to give to everyone and smells delicious.  After a quick breakfast we say farewell to Gill and Tony as they head back home. 

Vathi Town Ithaca

After a great night’s sleep we head back to the village of Vathi on Ithaca Island for some supplies.  As it’s almost lunch time we indulge in a early lunch of pizza and salad.  We then decide that we might as well stay here the night.  We have already picked up a great place on the wharf and are happy with our location.  By late afternoon the wharf gets very busy and is full by sundown.  We do hear that a ferry is coming in tonight and then realise we are at the spot closest to where the 300+ft ferry will arrive.  To be safe Greg ties on two springer lines to ensure we are not pushed around too much.  The wind has already picked up to 20Kts and we are protecting the rest of the fleet.

We walk around the town, do some shopping and get some more supplies.  We have dinner by the water and Greg orders the lamb speciality which he loves.  It is slow cooked in baking paper  with eggplants and feta cheese.  It melts in your mouth.

After our night cap and an episode of Mad Men we get to bed about 11pm but are soon woken by the sound of a large ship.  The ferry arrives at 1.30am and we get pushed around by it’s stern thruster.  We both get up to watch but I get bored and go back to sleep.  Greg stays up waiting for it to leave which it doesn’t so by 3am he hits the sack as well.  I get woken up about 6.30am, the ferry it getting ready to leave as the very large lorries back onto the ferry taking supplies to the next village.  By 7am the ferry has gone so now just waiting for the next thing.

Night Ferry

Since I'm up I go for a walk all around the Bay its very pretty with beautiful houses and apartments on the water.  Some of them remind me of the apartments in the movie Shirley Valentine.  I’m pretty sure I was here in 1998 and remember dancing for hours on our plank with the girls.

Memories of Shirley Valantine

Our local cafe Caramela's

After some great coffee from Caramela's and fresh pastries from the cake shop we head off.  It’s a beautiful morning with a fresh breeze.  Once we get away from the town we put up the main and head sail, then the wind drops right off of course.  We drop the head sail until we get further past the land masses then haul it up again.  We are heading Nth to the Sth end of Levkas to meet up with Gill and Tony in Sivota.

A quite little anchor

landslides

It’s about five hours NW over to Ithaca and we are in luck we find the best place ever for the night.  Its very close to Vathi a small town on the East Coast of Ithaca.  We anchor up and tie the stern to a couple of rocks.  The water is crystal clear and there are lots of little fishes swimming around us.  It’s sooooo good to be able to have a swim and cool down.  We have a relaxing,  fun afternoon.  When the last of the boats leave the area we row to a close beach for happy hour.  We’ve bought some Ouzo and ice with us.  We sit on our floating cushions from the cockpit and try and stay upright in the water.

home tonight

waters so clear

feeding the fishies

afternoon delights

Ouzo time





Killini

We get away at about 1pm heading Nth West from Killini, we are hoping for a quite night before heading back over to Ithaca.  We see our first turtles and dolphins in Greek waters and have to contend with NW winds gusting to 20 Knts which slows us down so we don’t arrive until 5pm.  Again it’s a very shallow harbour and not really marked that well on either the charts, pilot book or gps.  We take our time getting into to harbour and have to reverse stern to with 22Kts cross winds.  Sometimes the yacht is very difficult to handle with just the two of us.   The anchor holds well thank god and we tie off safely.

Within 30 mins it seems like all the town is walking by to check us out and make out they are the owners of the fishing boats next to us.  Trust me half the boats in this harbour are not sea worthy.  One gentleman starts talking to us and is practising his English on us.  He seems quite friendly.  I prepare dinner, a speciality of mine called leftover Saganaki, it’s actually very delicious and Greg is awards me a hat.

I’m very hot and bothered and soon Greg realises that the fan in the saloon has been installed back the front; instead of blowing air out it’s sucking it in; no wonder I could not feel anything.  Anyway he can rectify this straight away and we have a cooler saloon to watch an episode of Mad Men.

There are many large truck ferries arriving during the night and the harbour is busy with fisherman repairing their boats.  Once again we don’t get much sleep as everyone seems to take a walk down the wharf and stop at our yacht and play load music.  We can’t wait to get out of here and would not recommend this place as a stopover.

It’s a spectacular sunrise as dawn breaks and I’m up and making coffee.  We get moving and depart about 7am. We are heading for Ithaca and some quite little bay where we can hopefully get a good night’s sleep.

 

Sunrise as we leave Killini

Leaving the Northern Ionian Islands for the South.

We are pretty happy with our progress and sail plan as we are heading to Katakolon on the Peloponnese Island, it’s separated by the Corinth channel to the mainland.  We plan to visit the ancient site of Olympia and also be there so we can watch the Belgium F1 on Sunday.  We will most likely stay 2-3 nights here.

We have a pleasant motor sail across to Katakolon with a steady breeze of 10-15 Kts from the NE.  We should arrive about midday.  It’s a very shallow harbour and the depth gauge goes down to 0.0, that’s no water under the keel, however we manage not to touch the bottom.  We go stern to the wharf and Capitan Leon guides us in.

Helming along to LMFAO

Captian and Tennille

We finish off the pasta for lunch then go and find the local beach for a swim and get the paperwork stamped for our arrival.  It’s a pretty small port, designed to cater for cruising ships and those wanting to visit Olympia.  We will hire a scooter tomorrow and visit Olympia.  Meanwhile happy reading!

Saturday night is pretty quiet, just a bite to eat at the local restaurant and enjoying the view from the harbour.

Sunday is busy.  After a very bumpy sleep we have breakfast and arrange transport for Olympia.  We change our mind from a scooter to a car as it’s pretty hot and further away than we excepted.  A great decision as for only 50 Euros we get the car for 24hr so we can do a final shop as well.  We get away later than expected and arrive at the Ancient Ruins about 1pm.  We buy entry tickets and roam around the site dating back to 1100 BC, it’s incredible.  Similar to Pompeii but older I think. Anyway we find the spot where the Olympic torch is lit, doesn’t look like the TV shots so happy to move on now.

Story of Olympia

Old ruins

Where's Zane?

Actual site of the lighting of the Olympic flame

Back at the harbour we have a light lunch at one of the local cafes on the water and then find a bar for the F1.  It’s a great race and spectacular first lap.  After the race we go back to the yacht and I start our washing and Greg does some maintenance.  Three loads later the yacht is now looking like a Chinese laundry as I have to dry the clothes myself.  Greg is changing over the fans, installing an oscillating one in the saloon and 2 fixed fans in the A berth up front.  Bang! Greg has blown up something, he is OK but one the fans needs to be replaced now, oh well.  I’m not so sure about the oscillating one either as it’s not really working.

A local farmer has been visiting us to sell us his home grown produce so we arrange for a delivery before we depart tomorrow.

We have a bite to eat at the harbour and try for an early night.  Its another bumpy night and neither if us get much sleep.  We have a quick coffee and then head out for the big supermarket just out of town, it will be our last big shop of the trip.  We get loads of goodies and head back to take a look at the wine Trail, unfortunately we cant find the Wine Estate and end up at our first sandy beach for a coffee.

Katakolon Harbour

Greg's parts time job to pay for the Moet

Back at the harbour Greg returns the car and gets the paperwork stamped so we can leave and I get the yacht ready.  We say farewell to Captain Leon and get our delivery of green groceries.  It’s very cheap and the home made wine is in a 1.5Litre water bottle, so can’t wait to try it.  Tomatoes,  figs, grapes, cucumber and wine all for 6 Euros.

Dry Dock

 

50 Shades of Blue (M Rated)

Which one do you prefer?

West Coast of Zakinthos, Greece

Smugglers Cove here we come!

We both have a very restless night and get up at 7am.  We head into the village for breakfast and WI-FI. We find a lovely Café and enjoy some very strong coffee and delicious omelettes and we catch up on the blog stuff.

We depart Poros Harbour about 10am and we are heading for the Island of Zakinthos, destination Smugglers Cove. It’s on the West Coast and is rated the number one beach in the world.  There is also a ship wreck on the beach so we can’t wait to go there.  This is one of our sought after destinations for our trip as Greg found it on Google Earth when we were preparing our initial sail plan.

Once we hit Zakinthos Island, it has amazing caves all down the west coast and colour of the waters are different shades of blue.  It’s truly beautiful.  The white baron cliffs are all cracked and it looks like there has been lots of landslides.

Blue Caves

 There are day tripper boats all around and people are swimming around the caves.  We arrive at Smugglers Cove about 1pm it’s pretty crowded and the water colour is hard to believe.  We drop and anchor for about 30 mins and take some photos and have a swim.  As we are drifting we don’t stay too long but long enough to appreciate it’s beauty.

Blue Caves

Smugglers Cove 1

SC 2

SC 3

Further Sth down the coast its just more of the same; caves and amazing waters.  We drop anchor further along and have a swim and we row into the caves for a look.  Sssshhh don’t make a noise in case the cliffs crumble.  We survive that adventure.

Rowing into the caves

Biggest Flag ever!

Just when things can’t get any better, they do.  We arrive at our final destination around 5pm.  We pick up a mooring at Keri a small village at the sth west end of Zakinthos.  There are lots for small boats and someone is doing a sounds check on shore.

I make a little snack as we have not eaten since breakfast; crab and avocado cocktails with a spicy sauce, it goes down real well.  After showers and a cat nap we row ashore for dinner.   There is obviously something happening in the village as there are loads of people everywhere.  As it turns out the village is celebrating the last full moon of summer as summer finishes tonight as well.  There is a festival on the waters and the small boats drive around the bay with colourful lights and they are all packed with people.  We watch the spectical from shore.

We find a great place for dinner called Keri Taverna.  We are in luck as they have lobster spaghetti for two on the menu, its only 40 Euros bargain!  All the meals look awesome here and they are run off their feet tonight.  The lobster is massive and so delicious; we end up taking a large serve of pasta back for lunch tomorrow.

Keri Harbour

Lobster Spaghetti

On shore

Full Moon