New destinations, as promised

Tuesday 18th June...

Linda - Three lovely nights in Meganisi, and now time for a new destination. It was very calm and still around 9.30am, so we took the chance to untie from shore and make a move without causing any issues. It takes quite a while to get sorted when you're tied to shore. Much more complicated than just raising the anchor. Dean has to go ashore and remove the lines from the rocks which we are tied to. I pull the lines in whilst making sure we don't drift onto the neighour's boat. Dean rows back to the boat, gets onboard, then lifts the anchor up, & tidies up all the shore lines and put them away. Then once that's sorted we have to drift whilst lifting the dinghy back onto deck.

It was around 10am when we actually got going out of the bay. Destination plan A, 9 miles to an inlet on the south end of Lefkada called Mikros Gialos. But when we arrived we could not get to anchor in less than 20 metres of water, because they have put a row of swimming buoys across the bay.  Yet nobody, not a soul swimming in this massive swimming area I might add. 

We had spotted a very small cove half way into the inlet so went to check it out to see if it was suitable for anchoring. It was, but again only if tying to shore because it was so deep. Deep is good if tying to shore. There was one catamaran here already so we did our thing next to him. 

First, we reversed in to check depth, positioning, and look for rocks to tie to. Next go forward again, 70 metres off shore is our queue for dropping the anchor. Reverse back whilst panning the chain out. When we are about 20 metres off shore, Dean jumps in the with shore line and swims like a lunatic to a rock to tie the line to. Then comes back for the other shore line and does the same. The shore lines need to be at about 45 degrees so that we don't swing side to side. Once this is done, he's back on board to tighten up the anchor and tension the shore lines. 

I must mention that while he was swimming to shore he saw a bright orange starfish on the rocks.

Once sorted, we realised that we were anchored right next to a big cave!

Rounding the south east end of Lefkada

The cave next to where we anchored

View to the cave taken from the boat 

Looking right into the cave, there's a beach in there!

A bit later our friends Deb & Trevor (SV Capricciosa) (who we last saw in Licata three years ago) went by and stopped for a chat, coming back later by dinghy to do some snorkelling. Then late afternoon, we dinghy'd down to the other anchorage to pop in and see our new friends Bruce & Caroline (SV Flirtie). They invited us onboard, so we did. Nice to get to know new yachtie friends.

By 6pm we were back, Dean checked the shore lines and fed the fish. There's LOADS of fish here. No chance of me getting in there.

Wednesday 19th June...

Linda -  Gorgeous morning in our lovely anchorage, which by the way is called Python Cove by some??

Dean's up early

Absolutely still water, and so clear, and so deep

First neighbour just leaving

Around midday we arrived in Sivota, the next bay to where we were, and only about a 30 minute hop. This place is renown for charter boats, and if you come here at weekends we've heard it's massively hectic....and probably dangerous too 😂. Hence, we are here on a Wednesday when most of the charterers are far far away. 

A first time for us here, and we are pleasantly surprised. Nice views, nice tavernas, very pleasant friendly people, a couple of stores, two bakeries, rubbish bins, not noisy, easy dinghy ashore, and a fairly small anchorage area which is where we are.

Around the edge of the bay there are many taverna pontoons, many of which you can use for free as long as you eat in their restaurant. But some are jam packed with boats, and we prefer to anchor when we can to limit possible damage from other boats.

Tonight we went ashore and a nice guy from Stavros pontoon took our dinghy line. That was fine because we were going to his restaurant anyway, having previously spotted that they had lamb shank on the menu. And it was indeed a lamb shank and a half, so much meat on it, delicious.

Serenading going on at Stavros restaurant

Looks like we might stay around for another night or two. 

Sivota photos tomorrow then....

Thursday 20th June

Linda - Another good night's sleep, and very pleasant morning. Complete serenity.

A morning doing bits and bobs, Dean mainly trying to sort out this bloomin' bow thruster contol box refund that they are refusing to do. It's a long story, so I'll leave it at that for now. 

After lunch our friends Deb and Trevor (SV Capricciosa) arrived and a bit later we went ashore for an ice cream and to have a chit chat with them. We first met Deb and Trevor in Spain and have crossed paths now and again over the last few years.

Happy after his Cherry & Vanilla ice cream

Friday 21st June...

Linda - Happy Midsummer's Day! 

I'm actually writing this on Midsummer's Day +1  (i.e. The morning after), because we dared to stay out late last night wining and dining. We had moved onto the 'Vibes' pontoon because there was a slight blow due, the wind direction kept varying, and having not been here before we weren't sure what it would be like as there's a valley and the anchorage isn't that big to swing about with boats close-ish, Also, it was Charter Day, all the boat due back and we wanted to be out of the way.

The pontoon berth was alongside, Dean backed into the small gap easily, even missing the big block he noticed under water! We were next to the restaurant, but that was OK because it's a bit upmarket, lol.

View from our cockpit

The cocktail bar

View of Thesee from the cocktail bar

Oh my word, it was bloomin' hot today. The cockpit thermometer read 40 degrees at one point. Luckily, there was a beach only two minutes walk away. Dean went for a swim whilst I sat under a tree in the shade. Here's some photos from the beach area...

Dean isn't naked, honestly he has shorts on!

Drying off

We could see Thesee from the beach

Still 39 degrees when we got back

Time for a cocktail

Dean chose a Captain Fin, I chose an Amari

Both rum based of course!

This cocktail cabinet is upside down,

the bottles standing on the open drawers.

I love it 😍

Well, the pontoon berth is free, but you have to eat in their (pricey) restaurant. We knew this, and had already checked it out the other day.  We had a late afternoon snooze and then went to dinner. Not a lot of choice but we managed to find something other than fish.

About 9pm we spotted a big moon rising, it reminded us of the Supermoon which we saw last year in Leros. Unfortunately on a photograph the moon is TINY...

Well, a stroll around the harbour followed and we finished off with beer and ice-cream in a cafe we spotted the other day called 'Litriovi'. It's very olde worlde and unique with mill stones and old machinery. It reminded us of a bar that we used to visit in Royal Clarence Marina, Gosport, UK.

Saturday 22nd June....

Linda - The third 'new destination' this week... we are now on the island of Kalamos. About 10 miles to the east of Sivota. We reached our 'new destination' about noon. It's a bay near the southern end of Kalamos called Porto Leone. There was lots of room so we tied to shore. The wind comes in all directions in this bay and we soon found it 'on the nose'. It picked up a little and we weren't sure the anchor was dug in as much as we'd like, so we moved to the other side of the bay and tied to shore there.  I don't think we've ever tied to shore twice in one day before. Anyhow, we are happy with our new spot, and we have more anchor chain out here too which is a good thing. 

There's nothing here except a Church on the hill. Apparently about 50 years ago there was an earthquake and it cut off the water supplies, the few residents left and never came back. 

Approaching Kalamos

Tied to shore (the second time)

Our neighbour

The Church

Old windmill??

Sunday 23rd June...

Linda - Only a short 3 mile trip up the coast of Kalamos this morning to the only village on this island. There's a small harbour here, and we were lucky enough to get a space here on the quay. We had read that it gets extremely busy in the harbour, and indeed it did. Thank goodness for George! He runs the main taverna, and it's well known that he helps people to moor, directs them where to drop anchor etc and invites them to dine at his taverna.

Watching the fish this morning before departure

You can clearly see the seabed at depth of 6 metres below us

The beach area just before the harbour

Looks very picturesque

We had arrived by noon, which seems to be a good time as overnighters have departed and there's a good chance to get a berth. When we arrived there were only about 8 boats on the quay. Tonight there must be 40 boats in this harbour. We watched throughout the day as the quay filled up. It's not very wide and we had to drop the anchor at about three quarters across to the other side, then reverse back and tie to the quay. 

The next thing we know, boats started rafting up opposite us. Basically they drop their anchor right by our boat and reverse back to raft against other boats. I would love to see a picture of the seabed tonight with all the anchors and chains. I think we shall have to wait for them all to leave tomorrow before we can get our own anchor up. It could be fun and games.

Blue Thesee on the quay

Boats rafted to each other opposite us

George's taverna

A few cafe bars here

Thesee

We had a stroll around to find the rubbish bins, they were here by this little beach outside of the harbour.

First boat opposite us, then the rafting up started

Old style anchor!

A friendly kitty sat next to me in the bar

We enjoyed a Sangria

So we duly ate dinner at George's and it was very good. A huge Greek salad to start. Then the obligatory Chicken Souvlaki, and a Pork Chop.

We had some meaty left-overs which we usually save for the cats. We fed some in the taverna, but saved some and had a stroll down the quay. We found the tiniest kitten, no bigger than a rat. It appeared that this kitty was blind. We approached slowly to put some chicken down for him, and his mum. 

💓💓

Monday 24th June...

Linda - Today's 'new destination' is Ithaca. Or perhaps it should be called Windy Ithaka?? 😕 grrrrr

But first.....at 7.30am we set off for a short walk to the beach, only about 15 minutes away. This was the beach we passed yesterday on the boat, but as always once you get up close it really isn't that special. after all. It was a nice walk anyway. 

We made sure to get back to the harbour before anyone started lifting their anchors. Amazingly, we only saw one issue when someone dragged across another chain. It was all a bit of an orderly fashion, last in, first out, sort of thing. 

We departed around 10.30am and all was well, heading across to the tip of Kastos and down the east coast, heading on about a 20 mile sail across to Ithaka. Yes, I did say 'sail'. Main and genoa reefed we were doing about 7 knots most of the way. 

On reaching the entrance to Ithaka, all calmed down and it was very serene. How lovely, except when we got into the anchorage it was blowing 15-20 knots, and the bloody wind has been going ever since. That's 6 hours so far, we haven't even been ashore, but we did manage to Cobb BBQ a chicken! 😂

Entrance the bay at Ithaka

Din Din's 

Tuesday 25th June...

Linda - Well the bloody Ithaca wind went on until gone midnight. Dean had sent me to bed to rest (I can't sleep when it's like this) and he followed at some point, as I obviously HAD gone to sleep! There were so many boats in the anchorage at close quarters, some moving about in the dark, and a lot of shouting. Two photos that I took earlier in the day.....

Morning finally arrived and it was calm. We popped ashore to get our transit log stamped in and out, then back to the boat, anchor up, and we were away. Just before we left, a huge four masted sailing ship came in and anchored too!!

Not wanting to stay any minute longer in windy Ithaca, we departed for Meganisi. This meant having to sail north between the islands of Ithaca and Lefkada. This is where all the wind funnels through and it's always funnelling. Today within about two minutes the wind went from about 4 knots to 18 knots. Luckily we had seen it coming and we already had the main sail reefed. It stayed like this for about an hour rising to over 20 knots a few times. In fact we had to put two reefs in at one point. 

And of course, we also have to deal with the superfast ferry approaching and crossing in front of us. Not a a single boat around and we end up yet again crossing paths with a ship within half a mile. 

At Meganisi we checked out a new anchorage but we couldn't get a good spot as it was quite small, so we went to Atherinos instead. We were here recently for a few days so we knew what to expect and also, WE LIKE IT HERE. It's sheltered, there's restaurants and bars, very clear blue swimming water, and within walking distance of the main village should we need anything. Plus there's a cocktail bar just across the other side of the bay, so we had to pay a visit obviously.

We are only staying for one night because tomorrow we are going to head north to Lefkada. Only 6 days left until Thesee goes ashore. 

The next blog post will be called 'Lefkada & Preveza before lift out'