Gillyb's Web Diary - Bill's Guest Blog Part 6 (Mesalongie to Port Leone)

Bill's Guest Blog Part 6 (Mesalongie to Port Leone)

Gillyb

Wed 14 Sep 2011 17:56

Thursday (Mesalongie to Port Leone): The odd thing about the Ionian is that there is precious little wind in the morning until the wind machine gets turned on in the afternoon and blows for 4 or 5 hours. Given that there was precious little wind, we motor sailed to Port Leone on the Island of Kalamos and anchored in a stunning bay. We dropped anchor and whilst swimming ashore to attach the stern lines to some rocks, I accidentally touched some sea urchins that left several spikes in one of my pinkies. We all enjoyed a cooling swim followed by SAD's and then Catherine, James and I went ashore to explore a small village that was deserted in 1953 after an earthquake destroyed the aqua duct that provided the villagers with their water supply, forcing them to leave. The village was a little eerie and we wondered amongst the old buildings containing various items of machinery including an olive press and church, with bell tower still intact. From a vantage point we observed Graham and Gilly preparing a BBQ so we hopped in the dinghy and headed back to the Gilly B.

At this point the poor little wounded soldier had his finger looked at by Gilly. She tried (very delicately) to prize the sea urchins spikes out with tweezers but eventually handed over the task to the ships assassin (Graham) who attacked the finger with great gusto, extracting the spikes in a jiffy. It would have been weak and unmilitary of me to squeal like a girl so I adopted the ships manly pose, closed my eyes and thought of England instead.

We enjoyed the most restful night of the trip so far and after a morning swim we breakfasted on a delicious bowl of Gilly's famous 'birchers muesli'. After breakfast the morning entertainment arrived in the form of Ocean Pearl, an ultra modern and mega expensive gin palace. The general consensus was that she was rather ugly but see the photo and make your own mind up.