Southern Ionion Adventures

Thursday 1st May....

It's Labour Day here in Greece (AKA May Day). Even Lidl is closed!! How Rude. But luckily the Self Service Launderette is open, and we made the most of it by doing two loads of laundry this morning. Whilst we waited for the laundry to do its thing we sat in the nearby cafe, Dean with iced coffee and baclava, me with a tub of salted caramel ice-cream. Of course, the early morning ice-cream treat is purely medicinal to soothe my sore throat that the anti-histamine tablets seem to cause. 

Back on board Thesee, Dean puts up some lines for hanging the laundry to dry. It's brilliant because the warm sun and fresh breeze has it dry faster than Dean can drink a rum and coke 😂

Later we took another walk around the main tourist area. We found a lovely back street with lots of crocheted bunting. It looked fab. 

Crocheted bunting

Crocheted flowers

There's a few old buildings here, left over from the 1953 Ionion Earthquake. It looks like this clock base was built on top of some old ruins, but that's not shown in this photo. We stopped for more ice-cream too. 

Lovely flower surround this shop window

Old building that must have survived

We ate out yet again tonight, at a place Dean spotted yesterday. It was very nice, and instead of my obligatory chicken fillet and chips, I chose lamb shank and potatoes. Dean had Beef Stifado, one of his favourites. 

Friday 2nd May...

It's a condition of being on the yacht charter pontoon, that we have to leave before 9am on a Friday, because the charter boats are due back for the weekend. We were on the ball and in fact departed about 8.15am and made our way down the Lefkada canal. It was so serene at this time in the morning. Not a breath of wind. This is our third time on the canal. Well it's not a canal as we would know it in the UK, but rather a narrow channel for a mile or two. 

Passing Lefkas marina (the pricey one)

Calmness along the canal

No-one else around

Time to take it all in

Getting wider here, but we still have to 

stay inbetween the red & green markers

Wow, a castle up there too

It took us about an hour to reach Nydri. This photo is of a chapel near the entrance to Vlycho Bay anchorage.

There's a number of boats in the anchorage but it's a huge area so never an issue finding a space. People call it Velcro Bay because the sticky muddy bottom holds the anchor like glue. It's everybody's 'go to' place when there's bad weather forecast. In fact, it's quite nice to come here this time for pleasure, and not for neccessity. 

One of our friends is already here, Sarah on SV Wandering Star. We got together in town for coffee and catch up which was really nice because we haven't been together since Turkey two years ago. On the way back Dean noticed another boat which we knew from Turkey, so we stopped by to say hello to Mark & Sandra (SV Tuscany). They kindly invited Sarah and ourselves over for sundowners at 6pm. A couple of bottles, a lot of chit chat, and an enjoyable couple of hours later we made it back to Thesee. Hence, no blog writing tonight.

Sunday 3rd May...

We met up with Sarah again this morning. She lead us on a fabulous walk around the bay and all the way down to the little chapel that I had taken a photo of yesterday. We took a packed lunch and plenty of water. It was such a pretty walk and I reckon about 7-8 miles there and back. We even saw a tortoise crossing the road! It's been hot today so we reckon we deserved to stop at the taverna for refreshments at the end of the walk. 

Beautiful wild flowers in this garden here

Many very nice houses with pools

Orchards

Amazing flowers

A taverna

Views across Vlycho bay

Thesee down there

The tortoise, he was a big one,

and he didn't hang around too long crossing over.

Tortoise reaching his destination by the fence

More views

Off the road, and down the path now to the chapel

Sarah climbing up to see into the little chapel

in the rock face

Dean's turn

Now me

On the way back we saw this stick insect on the road, his long lanky legs were wobbling him in the breeze. I'm glad I managed to get this photo in focus. In fact, I just read that stick insects purposely wobble themselves to resemble foliage blowing in the wind!! This is exactly what he was doing.

At least, I think it's a stick insect

Cala Lillies

Heading for refreshments now

Sunday 4th May...

I think we've worn ourselves out, because it was 9am before we got up this morning. And even then, I didn't want to. The hay fever is still hanging over us and sometimes we sneeze in unison. 

Today was an easy day though. Dean booked us and Sarah in for Sunday lunch at the local yacht club. Yes, it was a proper Sunday lunch too, with all the trimmings even cauliflower cheese. 

Mmm mmm

It's been quite a windy afternoon in the anchorage. We've been chilling on the boat, reading, crosswords, facebook etc. The norm. Watching out for AW's. 

Drinking Sangria was a great idea..

with real fruit too🍓🍓

Monday 5th May...

Having trouble trying to remember what day it is at the moment. I have to keep checking back on my previous post every time I come to write the day's blog.

Well we decided to stay here in Nydri for one more day. Sarah our friend on Wandering Star has friends (Claire & Keyna) coming and we are already aquainted with Claire. In fact, Claire was the very first person we meet in Licata (our winter berth way back in 2020).

So we had a restful day on board, then about 4.30pm we tootled off into town for a few groceries and then met up with Sarah, Claire, and Keyna for cocktails. How lovely. 

Is that my taverna??

Nice hotel pool here on the waterfront

Claire and Dean chit chatting at cocktail time

Tuesday 6th May...

Last night we received a message from Kevin & Bev, friends on SV Kailani. Like a lot of other friends we have, we met three years ago in Finike, Turkey. I seem to be saying this a lot, but when you've been travelling around the med, you tend to find friends in every port! Ha ha. Just like the saying 'a sailor has a wife in every port!'

Anyway, Kevin and Bev have sailed across from Sicily to Greece. They are anchored in Vathy, Ithaka and had spotted us on AIS in Nydri, Lefkada. So today, instead of heading to Kefalonia (as planned) we headed to Ithaka to meet up. 

However, we set off about 9.30am and the weather just deteriorated as we went. Along the route we experienced light winds from all directions of the compass, and half way between the two islands the rain poured down and the wind got up to 20 knots. We had tried to sail at first but it was so unpredictable, the sailing didn't last long. As we neared Ithaka the wind was back down to 7 knots. It was just mad.

Anyway, after about three hours we arrived in the anchorage at Vathy, Ithaka. They had received the bad weather too, but it was calm now and we found a nice spot to anchor, although it was quite busy with boats. During the afternoon it was one long procession of charter boats arriving on the quay, it was absolutely full to the brim. Quite astonishing for so early in the season. 

Later on we met up with Kevin and Bev for drinks and dinner on the quayside. It was a fabulous evening with lots of discussion and the food at the restaurant was super. Kevin & Bev have the exact same boat as Thésée so a lot of info was exchanged, amongst catching up with what we had all been up to the last couple of years. Somehow we managed to get through 2.5 litres of wine too!

Thésée anchored in Vathy, Ithaka

Wednesday 7th May...

The jollity continued this morning meeting up for coffee and pastries, then Kevin lead us all on a gorgeous walk to two bays at the top of the anchorage peninsular. It was so lovely, and coming back down the hillside into our anchorage, the views of the whole bay were spectacular. 

All the charter boats leaving this morning

Starting our walk

Dean and Bev

Arriving at the first beach... Minimata beach'

How beautiful and calm.

Now off to Skinos beach

Here we are at Skinos beach

Not sure what that's all about

50 shades of Green

Returning to the anchorage now

There's a tiny island out there

Quaint old dilapidated buildings along the sea road

We all needed a long drink when we got back to town, and so off to the same restaurant as last night for refreshments and a light lunch. Now this afternoon, time to chill out on Thésée and plan our next move for tomorrow.

The next blog post will be called 'Kefalonia'