Cruizing and Boozing: a sailing chronicle

Cruising & Boozing: a sailing chronicle
by Peter Kirkby

WEEK 2

This is not an article, but rather the "log" of our two week sailing trip, during October, 2005, in the Ionian Sea. Our vessel was a Sun Odyssey 42.2 - kindly loaned to us by Kavas Yachting, to whom we are most grateful. Apart from some minor malfunctions, which, after all, can be expected in a vessel some 10 years old, and at the very end of a busy season, was in good order, well equipped and not a bad sailor. The crew on this very pleasant trip was:

"Uncle" Peter (English): The skipper and bilge-pump attendant
Steve (English): Renowned fishing expert !
Ricky (English): Helmsman and assistant bilge-pump attendant (our vessel had a very sophisticated and efficient bilge-pump BUT, it was positioned in the front bilges, when all the water was concentrated in the aft, therefore, the use of the traditional "sponge and bucket" was necessary).
Ian (Scottish): Helmsman and ships drunk. Ian -and his wife Uta- were the winners of the "one week cruise" prize draw and this trip was their prize (I hope they enjoyed it). Ian's position was to make sure that everybody had his glass full (not to be drunk himself, as you might have wrongly guessed)
Uta (American/German): Uta was the only representative of her gender onboard, so she was honourably authorised no duties (who says the 2 sexes are equall?). Yet, Uta has many sailing skills and never refuse to provide assistance whenever asked
Alex (Greek): Co-skipper and the coffee maker -a rather academic position, as all my friends (when not drinking beers, gin, whiskey, wine, etc.) were tea drinkers, so I had to make my own coffee :)

The whole article is written by Peter and some inserted side notes by Alex. Only to be fair -and give to the rest of the crew (and anyone else who feels like it) their chance to express their thoughts and feelings, I opened a section in our blog for that purpose. The pictures in the photo-gallery were contributed by Uta and Ricky.

view the photo-gallery of the crew, our boat and some events

Peter, Steve and Ricky arrived in Levkas Marina early morning this day to be met by Michael -the company's manager. The boat was delivered, together with all the necessary paper work and Port Police formalities, shopping was done by Steve and Ricky and the trip began in earnest..

1st October, Saturday, Lefkas Town to Spartakhori

Left Lefkas Marina 1600 hrs, with Steve at the helm, with a warning from the Port Police that a force8 gale was imminent. This looked totally unlikely and was ignored -justifiably, as it turned out. The rain had stopped and we motored the 11 nm to Spartokhori, on Meganissi island, arriving at 1752 hrs. to be met, as usual, by Babis, Panos and mother Asimos Konidaris. The wind had, by this time, got up to force5-6 but we were all so tired that sailing was not on the agenda.

The harbour was packed with flotillas and Babis was moving everyone to the harbour quays from his pontoon, as the wind went round to NE. We were told to stay on the pontoon as soon as Babis decided that the wind was going to die anyway. We could not connect to shore power, as we had not been given an adaptor to do so with a domestic plug attached to the end of the shore power line! We had a few problems with the bimini, until we learned the art of folding it into the stowed position.

Then it rained again -stair-rods- for three or four hours, but that didn't matter as we enjoyed a magnificent dinner and a good night's sleep.

2nd October, Sunday, Spartakhori to Vassiliki (Levkas)

The pontoon is actually called Port Spiglia, self built by Konidaris brothers, with lazy lines, showers, toilets, restaurant, bar, ice and a warm welcome. Water and electric is in the pontoon.

We topped up the water tanks, bought fresh bread and ice, showered, had breakfast, and left at 1235 hrs. destination Frikes. This was changed to Vassiliki, after getting a forecast of NW 6/7 decreasing to 4/5. Vassiliki is in a bay on the S of Levkas Island, sheltered from the N. The forecast rain did not materialise.

Steve and Ricky had made the climb up to the village of Spartohori in the morning to see the magnificent view over the area, including the Onassis island of Scorpios and Nidri, etc.

We sailed, on and off, in winds which came and went, down the channel between Lefkas and Meganisi and then across the bottom of Lefkas. Arriving at Vassiliki it took us a couple of attempts at berthing, as the "down" button on the control switch of the anchor windlass didn't work and we had to learn the knack of manual operation. The odd light shower of rain didn't help.

The harbour slowly filled up, mostly with privately owned boats of various nationalities, some berthed alongside. The wind-surfing club, famous for the consistent winds in the bay, was packing up that very day for the winter and windsurfers were conspicuous by their absence as we came into Vassiliki. Usually, the bay is packed with them.

The Zeus Bar was heaving with the wind surfing fraternity starting a night of end-of-term partying.

We dinned at the Penguin Restaurant, and got the usual welcome from Gary & Mary. We ate well, received a couple of bottles of wine for the ship's stores, a night-cap on the way back to the boat and another good night's sleep. We had arrived at Vassiliki at 1650hrs that afternoon.

3rd October, Monday, Vassiliki to Fiskardo (Cephalonia)

The morning was spent shopping -for bread, a few odd bits for the galley and a fishing Steve, who had been given a large "kit" by a friend, containing all the necessary lures, hooks and whathaveyou for fishing. BUT fish are a part of Greek Mythology in the Ionian so a massive haul was not expected -more on this story later!!

There was no wind at all so a bit of fishing was tried on the way to our next destination -Fiscardo, on Kefalonia Island. We motored at different speeds, trailing various lures. Result NIL
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Side note: My dear Peter, as I was explaining to you during the whole trip, the basic ingredient for catching a fish is a fishermen -not a fish feeder
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We arrived at Fiscardo at 1320 hrs, after 10 nm., having left Vassiliki at 1110 hrs. We berthed stern-to outside Tasia's Taverna as, at that time there was plenty of room. Slowly the place filled up with four flotillas and many charter boats, as well as private boats, until it was completely full, even along the wall outside Nicolas Garden Taverna.

One of the flotillas had an English hostess, as opposed to the usual antipodean, an appalling Hooray Henrietta, whose shrill cackling was just awful, as she addressed her flock!

Our shopping efforts still included sink plugs, as the boat had only one plug for four sinks -two different sizes, of course. It appears that sink plugs are as rare as fish in the Ionian, and we never did find any. All it meant was that we had to wash the dishes in a bucket and rinse them in a sink.

We had our usual cocktails in Theodoras Verandah Bar and our meals at the Captains Cabin, where we got the usual warm welcome from Tassos and his beautiful daughter. he told us that the partnership with Barrie Nielsen into the Villa business was going well. We also learned that Sailing Holidays had moved their base Mourtos to Plataria, as the new facilities there were much bigger, and the business had grown over the last few years.

The kitty took a hell of a battering here at Fiskardo. Nothing changes -it is still the most expensive place in the Ionian!

We left Fiskardo at 1020 hrs, destination Ithaca, with a choice of Frikes, Vathi or port Kioni.

4th October, Tuesday, Fiskardo to Port Kioni (Ithaka)

On our way out we had "caught" the anchor of one of the Nielson flotilla boats, which had been laid over ours but the engineer for Nielson, in his dinghy did the honours and untangled us. The forecast was "variable" 4/5 and we sailed a goodly distance and then decided that we should go to Kioni, having learned that the flotillas were going mainly to Vathi and Agia Ephemia (Cephalonia). Steve decided to have a day "on the wagon"!

We arrived at Kioni at 1425 hrs, after 14 nm. Anchored on the main quay, although the anchor wasn't holding perfectly. But we were closely packed in in so didn't worry too much.

The harbour soon became full and it was amusing to watch the antics of some of the late-arriving boats attempting to tie up in very shallow and rocky waters in a part of the harbour normally a "no-go" area. The fun really started when the wash from passing ferries caused mayhem and panic.

Steve and Ricky decided to try their hand at fishing once again (when will they learn!) and disaster struck. Steve fell climbing over some rocks grazed his legs and arms badly and ripped off one of his toenails. There were some plasters in the First Aid kit and we went and bought more at the local supermarket along with some antiseptic liquid. He was very sore.

We dinned on suckling pig that evening, with Steve breaking the "on the wagon" vows, for medicinal purposes!!

5th October, Wednesday, Port Kioni to Spartakhori (Meganissi)

Left Kioni at 0955 hrs and decided to sail around the east side of the island of Meganisi and return to Spartakhori, as the boys had liked it so much on their first visit earlier in this week. We also decided to take a look at the three bays on the NE side of the island and see if perhaps Stanley Potter was still around in his yellow catamaran.

Rain showers were forecast, but never materialised, with a dying wind E 3/4. We sailed on and off all day, drifting for lunch, a magnificent chilli con carne made by Steve with chillies from his own garden. Toilet rolls were duly put into the fridge for future use!

We had a look at Abeliki bay, which had been developed a lot since our last visit -no enhancing the place- and at Vathi, where no marina was found despite rumours circulating to the effect that one had been built. There was no sign of Stanley Potter. Arrived Spartakhori at 1515 hrs after 23 nm.

Far less people here than before, with the Nielson flotilla, on a 34ft yacht who had never been on a dinghy before, never mind a yacht, had not had any sailing experience or tuition -an incredible situation which cannot be good for themselves or those sailing around them. The poor chap hadn't a clue how to even set the sails for varying wind directions.

Again filled up the water tanks

6th October, Thursday Spartakhori to Preveza (Epirus - mainland)

Left Spartakhori at 0935 hrs destination Preveza, it was sunny but with no wind despite the forecast of SE4. Ricky did his first undocking and we headed out past the submerged rock near Skorpios, which the local fishermen have now marked with a pole and yellow flag. Why they don't dynamite it is beyond belief, when you consider how many flotilla yachts pass this way.

We motored as far as Lefkas Town Quay and tied up to await the opening of the swing bridge. This duly happened at 1200 hrs and the bridge opened completely to allow access to a large catamaran, as opposed to simply lifting the left end section. After clearing the bridge we found a NE5 and sailed almost to the old fort of Preveza, having had difficulty in finding the outer pair of buoys to the dredged channel, in the chop. We finally found them, taking a lead from another yacht, and tied up alongside Preveza quay, the new marina being completely full. This proved to be a slight misjudgement as during the night a gale blew up from the E which made life very uncomfortable until 0330 hrs next morning, when it suddenly stopped.

The engine had been difficult to start in the morning and we traced the problem to a loose battery terminal. That night we dined at Peter's favourite restaurant, where he frequently dined when he used to spend weeks in Preveza, at Cleopatra Marina Boatyard, where he wintered his own yacht "brothers-in-arms", a Jeanneau Sun Fizz 40. We also spent a couple of hours sampling the pina coladas at the "in place" on the waterfront.

7th October, Friday, Preveza - Mourtos (Epirus, mainland)

Next morning we had a telephone conversation with Alex and changed our intended destination of Gaios (Paxos Island) for Mourtos, to get ourselves nearer to Corfu for the Saturday leg.

We left Preveza at 0830 hrs and got the sails up at 0905 hrs, with a beam wind from the NNE 4/5. Then a gale warning came in over the VHF of southerly gales. We did reef down, but at 1150 hrs the wind died, only to re-appear at 1252 hrs from the SW. It finally died again at 1503 hrs and we motored into Mourtos, tying up at 1534 hrs. A journey of 47 nm in excellent time. The boat sails well in "Cruising and Buzzing" mode i.e. not no its ear, with sheets eased and a very slightly delayed arrival.

Mourtos has changed dramatically since our last visit some years ago. Massive building had taken place with bars, tavernas, supermarkets, etc. along with holiday accommodation all brand new. No doubt the use of the place by the Sailing Holidays Ltd people (and other flotillas) had brought a lot of prosperity. What will happen now that they have moved to Plataria remains to be seen. We even managed to acquire some Guinness in the supermarket!! Our search for sink plugs again failed. We avoided the Canadian owned taverna where everything is steeped in garlic, to which we had been directed on our previous visit.

WEEK 2