Race Day dawned with heavy rain (just like Wales but warmer). By lunchtime, the rain had stopped and the sun was out, but the forecast force 4 never materialized. I hadn’t had a chance to look at a chart, but as luck would have it, the Regatta T-shirts had the course printed on the back.

Bryn and Beth acting as race crew and navigation charts.

And they’re off!

We were 10 minutes getting to the start line (after the gun had gone) but once we had crossed the line, we fought our way bravely through the field (overtaking about half of it) at the dizzying speed of 2 knots. It took us 2 hours to get the end of the Meganisi channel (2–3 km), but we got some great practice in tacking (and avoiding other boats).

The rest of the fleet at the start line.

Tacking our way bravely through the fleet.

The south end of the Meganisi Channel was always going to be a turning point in the race. When we got there, there was still no wind, so we took the distinguished honour of being the second boat to resign from the race due to lack of wind. At this point in the proceedings, a decent berth in Sivota seemed more appealing than another 6 hours tacking around the island of Arkoudhi!

We had the last decent-sized hole against the quay wall in Sivota, where Angie, Robin, Wendy and Tony (CIRUSSLY BLUE) were already installed ready for the party. The boats were eventually going in bows-to to the boats already stern to (dovetailed in two layers against the quay), with the rest of the boats battling for a space to anchor.

The party was great – fantastic band, good burgers, and bring-your-own wine. Bryn signed himself up for a stint cooking burgers, and the two of them found a small crowd of other kids to play with so they were happy. We later learned that out of about 160 boats that started the race, only 8 finished! The rest gave up due to the lack of wind.

Bryn the Burger.

The next morning, we waved goodbye to Angie, Robin, Wendy and Tony who needed to head back towards Levkas for flights home.

CIRRUSLY BLUE heading off.

Back to 4-Boat Bay

From Sivota we headed south to Cephalonia, to our current favourite anchorage – 4-Boat Bay. We had the bay to ourselves the first night, and I was woken early by the sound of goat bells – early enough to see the sun rise over Ithaca.

Goat-bell alarm clock.

Sunrise over mythical Ithaca.

The next night the wind changed direction and blew up (putting us a bit closer to the beach than we wanted to be) so we upped anchor and scurried into Fiskardho in the dark, where we anchored in the middle of the harbour until morning.

Fiskardho

We were stuck in Fiskardho for a few days waiting for a S/SE to drop in the Ithaca Channel so that we could carry on south. We’re not sure what the actual wind speed was because our anemometer (windy-ometer) stopped working a while ago. We know what direction the wind is blowing from, because we have a rather fetching pink ribbon tied to the port shroud, and a white one tied to the starboard shroud.

Fiskardho is a picture-postcard fishing village of pretty coloured buildings clustered around a buzzy little harbour. It is the only village on Cephalonia that wasn’t flattened by the catastrophic 1953 earthquake, so it still has most of its original buildings. The surrounding hills are cloaked in pine trees, including (according to Rod) the slim, tall pine – Abies cephalonica.

Fiskardo.

We explored the ruins of a Norman Church…

Norman remains (and David).

B&B reckoned that this was a skull-shaped window – beats the usual rose window anyway!

…the Venetian Lighthouse…

Exploring the Venetian Lighthouse.

Through the round window…

…and picnicked and swam off a rocky ledge (couldn’t find a sandy beach for our sandwiches).

Swimming off a rocky ledge.

Cephalonia by car

When the wind kept on blowing, we hired a car and went all around the island. It was fantastic to see the coast, bays and anchorages from above – from the twisty mountain roads. We did a whistle-stop tour of Assos, Sami, Poros and Argostoli, and squeezed in some wine tasting and a swim off one of the sandy beaches on the south of the island.

Assos from above – we had previously anchored under the cliffs in the centre of the photo.

Myrtos beach.

We stumbled across the Robola Cooperative Winery, where we tasted a wine or two. We also learned a little about how wine production in Ancient Greece influenced modern wine making, about wine production in Cephalonia, and about how wine production in Cephalonia is influenced by the island’s geology and seismic activity.

Near Argostoli we saw a Doric-style lighthouse at Ák Áy Theodhoroi, and the reconstruction of a mill built by Stevens (an Englishman) in the 19^th century. The wheel is powered by the sea, which pours into sinkholes leading to subterranean channels, eventually emerging 14 days later in a brackish lake in Melissani Cave near Sami.

The Doric-style lighthouse at Ák Áy Theodhoroi.

The sea-powered waterwheel.

One of the sinkholes, with the waterwheel in the background.

On the way home, we relaxed for a while on the sandy beach at Skala (one of the sites where Loggerhead turtles lay their eggs in the summer), and – in the absence of any snow – B&B made a sandman.

The beach at Skala.

The CAPE sandman assembly team.