Sami, Kefallonia    15^th June, 2012.

Yesterday we had a lovely restful day people watching before we went for a swim in one of the bays.  Fiskardho is very pretty and for us the scenery just gets better and better.  The weather is wonderful and the water is warm at 30 degrees.  No more hanging around to get in!

Three super yachts joined us in the harbour at Fiskardho last night which made us feel quite small. We saw the day before the owner and his wife of Diamonds Are Forever come ashore.  An American self made millionaire who charters out his ship for £360,000 in the summer and for the Caribbean season in the winter £460,000 a week.  Money makes money they always say and it must be true looking at that beautiful ship.

At the other end of the market the Sailing Holiday people celebrated their last night until 5.30 this morning but the music was not too bad!!!

We were up early this morning in order to sail down to Sami which is in a large bay on the east coast of Kefallonia.  The wind changed direction and came straight at us so we motor sailed the twelve miles into the huge bay.  As we motored down between Kefallonia and Ithaca we enjoyed the mountains which are very high but beautiful with trees covering most of both islands. We passed a small island with a house and what looks like a church on it.  Sami is a charming village town which was completely rebuilt after the 1953 earthquake.  Filming of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin took place in the town and surrounding coast.

Kefallonia’s archaeological finds date its first inhabitants to about 50,000 BC.  In Mycenaean times the island flourished and remained Greek until the 2^nd century BC which it was captured by the Romans.  It was squabbled over by many powers but from 1500 to 1700 it shared the Ionians’ history of Venetian occupation.