Capt Correlli & Mainland Greece

Gillyb
Fri 30 Jul 2010 16:00

 
Position: 38:31.91N 021:04.94E
 
After Lyn & Steve's visit we spent one night in vligho bay where we have been several times before but this time we were sitting in the cockpit and a loggerhead turtle put its head up beside us!  It was quite large and old looking and we saw it surface twice then no more sightings.. I wonder where it was when we were swimming?
 
Next day was my birthday and astonishingly I had about seven cards and several texts which was lovely.   We set off motoring south and had a wonderful sail in the Meganisi Channel and then reached top of Cephalonia and with sails down went into Fiskardo.  Very pretty little harbour with Italianate houses all around it.   However, it was full of charter/flotilla boats so we carried on down looking into tiny bays until we found one which was empty!  
 
We named this "goat bay" as in the evening some goats arrived to drink at the fresh water pool just near the beach.   They were completely free range but one big brown one had a proper goat bell on it and came jangling down the very steep rocky slopes in true mountain goat style. We stayed here two nights and enjoyed the peace and quiet though there were visitors to the beach during the day  (and the goats in the evening/morning)
 
On Wednesday we motored a little further south on Cephalonia and arrived in Ay Efumia.  A bigger harbour with occasional ferries.  See photo - shows large red ferry nearly losing its nose in high winds, and almost squashing nice motor boat behind but with lots of greek shouting some of the crew and male passengers managed to get a line from front of ferry and pull her nose round... it was like a tug of war team and luckily they won!
 
We knew that Captain Correlli was filmed on Cephalonia somewhere but never found him or his mandolin but we did see where he obviously spent some time.... see photo!  
 
After Cephalonia we progressed on to Ithaca,   We had had a few windy days and knew it was going to get blowy again at the weekend so we opted to go into Vathi - Ithaca.   A lovely port which looks quite protected.  We anchored in the bay and had a look ashore then Sunday it really blew and we stayed all day on the boat with gusts of 30 - 37 knots blasting across us.  Very wearing!   On Monday we went ashore again and this time had a really good walk around.   Byron was here before us and we took a photo of some real estate ripe for development!
We had lunch ashore and also found a large supermarket to stock up our galley.
 
Tuesday still a bit windy but we up anchored and went to tie up for water and diesel.  Then well stocked up we set off for yet another island this one called Atoko.  Small and rocky with amazing caves and  only 2 bays to anchor in.   We anchored in a stunning place called 'one house bay'.  It was a real zoo!  Boats everywhere trying to find space to anchor.   We did very well anchoring bravely right in the middle with room to swing - until the italians arrived - two motor boats and they rafted up together regardless of who was around.  Luckily we were not too close to them very often but the Bavaria behind got shoved!    The evening was better as all the day boats and flot boats left and just 7 or 8 of us had the bay to ourselves.   Sadly the swell arrived and we did not have a very peaceful night!   Unlike the canoeists on the beach who slept in their little igloo tents and left the next morning.
 
We did too and sailed over to mainland Greece where we found Astakos.. A very greek sort of town with no concession  to tourists and lots of interesting shops selling things like goat bells!!!   (Yes - We couldn't resist buying one!)   Its a real one - but I don't have the goat to go with it - or what did we have on the BBQ last night??
 
We have now decided that we will slow down a bit and will probably make our way back up towards Meganisi and Levkas where its not so windy and we can find some quiet bays.
 
Bye for now,     Gilly B
 
 

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