Monday 24^th August – Órmas Marathia – Vlikho Bay, Levkas

38:40.911N 20:42.019E

We set off early this morning with a hint of wind in the anchorage, but once around the headland there was none at all and so we motored up the mainland coast past Kastos and Kalamos towards Meganissi.  En route the wind built and we were able to sail for about an hour, making 7 knots for a time, before it disappeared.  By this time we were nearly at the small town of Mikita which had been recommended to us as a possible anchor spot, so we took a look on our way past at the beach and small harbour.  As an anchorage it looked OK for settled conditions but was open to the west.

After this we motored across still waters to a very small bay on the north of Meganissi for lunch.  The bay was empty as we entered and dropped our hook but we were spotted by a passing yacht which promptly altered course and headed in just ahead of Cape and blocked the remaining space.  We stayed for some lunch and then headed on up past Scorpios to rejoin Cape in a bay they had found across towards Nidri. 

The plan was for Cape and Pyxis to meet up with Cape’s friends Johann and Christine and berth on the pontoon in Nidri where the charter company they work for keeps its two large catamarans.  This pontoon is attached to a small hotel and for a €10 charge you are able to stay on the pontoon and use the hotel facilities. Unfortunately we had one of the worst experiences of our trip whilst here and we didn’t end up staying long; sadly we cannot now recommend the Armonia Hotel pontoon as a stop over and we certainly hope never to encounter the belligerent couple on the boat we had the misfortune to berth next to.

The story is long and involved.  Suffice to say, we put our anchor down mid river and went stern-to the pontoon with an Oceanis 36CC, Coconut, on our port side; this yacht we subsequently realised had a smaller yacht rafted to it on its port side, stern out.  Just after we had set our lines and gone onto the pontoon we spotted white water at the head of the channel and very shortly after we were being hit with 30-35 knot winds from out of nowhere on the port beam.  As the wind increased and the fetch built in the channel mayhem ensued with many anchored boats upping anchor and heading down into Vlikho for shelter.

We quickly realised that, although the yacht next door was on a tailed mooring, its lines were too loose; it was being blown down onto Pyxis and Pyxis was carrying the full weight of the three boats on her anchor.  As the wind built and we adjusted our lines to try to ease the load we became seriously worried that we might lose our anchor as Cape’s main anchor had not held as they came in and they had had to set a kedge. Thank goodness our anchor held.

As the fetch built in the channel the yacht beside us was buffeting down against us with the swell causing the yacht’s mid cleat and toe rail to push up and down closer and closer to our gel coat as its fenders were too low and our fenders were being pushed to their limit trying to hold them both away from us, with one of them being popped out.  I struggled to hold our fenders in place.

The skipper and his wife arrived out of nowhere; he fired up his engine into ahead to keep his boat off the pontoon and they proceeded to try to sort out the other boat on the port side, which turned out to also be their boat.  When I pointed out his boat was damaging ours and lying on us and our anchor he became quite defensive trying to blame us.  In the melee Richard managed to ascertain that their mooring line was still fine, and holding firm, but that it simply wasn’t set tight enough. 

The guy then disappeared, apparently to get a dinghy to so that he could kedge out the outside boat.  David went around in Johann’s rib to help but was told he wasn’t needed.  As there was an abating of the wind, Richard, clearly more interested in the potential damage to Pyxis if the wind returned, was waiting no longer and tightened the boat’s bow line which pulled the boat a full two feet away from Pyxis, showing that all this had been totally unnecessary if this guy had set his lines tightly; in the meantime, I had bruised myself quite badly trying to insert additional fenders to prevent damage to Pyxis.  The guy returned at this point and needless to say entente was not cordiale, particularly as we then started looking for any damage to Pyxis caused by his boat.

Fortunately the wind then dropped completely and some semblance of calm was restored but we then found ourselves caught up in an ongoing feud over the electricity connections on the pontoon which are in short supply as Johann kindly tried to sort out an electricity supply for us for the night.  The story involves the same yacht and relations degenerated further.  It turned out that the guy next door to us has been there with his boat all season and has actually become the defacto harbour master for the small pontoon on behalf of the hotel. 

We heard that various discussions were being had with the hotel owner and that we should go up and check out what was being said.  So we went up to the hotel with Cape to speak to him about the problems we had encountered.  It was apparent that truth had been a casualty of the situation; of the events told to him one was that we had no fenders - anyone who knows us, knows how laughable that is.  It was clear that the guy on the boat next door wasn’t happy having us there.  Richard was incredibly patient and reasonable and told the owner what had really happened, putting the record straight.  Unfortunately personal loyalties won out over fact and reason and it was clear that this was not a place for us to stay; we were not welcome. 

As we prepared to leave David and Sarah suggested that we get the insurance details in case of any damage to Pyxis but the guy was not around so Richard took some photos of the scene and the stern of their boat which has their SSR number on it.  So after all this we left and were joined by Cape. 

Both boats went down to the old favourite Vlikho Bay and anchored up and went to the yacht club for beers and burgers – we felt we’d deserved it.  The food and company were great and furthermore we bumped into the chap we had met in Argostoli who had recommended Messolonghi to us and were able to thank him.

Back at Pyxis we enjoyed a quiet night at anchor in the bay.