Have I got news for you!!
jenna
Jim / Elaine Soens
Sat 19 Sep 2009 12:32
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38.08N 020.21E
Arrived at anchor in the beautiful bay of
Taormia @ 17.15 on Tuesday and went straight for a swim in the crystal clear and
warm water. Fantasc setting with the town up on the hill above the bay and
a couple of small liners anchored near us. Decided to eat on board and go ashore
tomorrow to explore the town which J & E had been to before. Got up to
heavy skies and rain in the morning. After b/fast and a break for
the weather to dry up we got in the dingy and by the time we got ashore it
was starting to rain. Walked towards town to get a taxi but were brought
to a halt by torrential rain and sheltered in the awning of a cafe. After
10 mins decided to go inside and have a coffee. As it was 12 noon by then
decided to have lunch. J,E, and I had soup and D had a pizza. Soup
was suppoed to be minestrone but was a bag of frozen veg boiled in a stock cube
and for this we were charged €5.80 each. D's pizza was €6.20 and was quite
good. The total bill was €35 which included 2 coffees & a beer, to add
insult to injury €7.40 was incuded for cover charge. Told the owner
he had ripped us off and he just growled away in Italian at us. Still
raining so jumped into a taxi to go up to the town (approx 5 miles uphill)
€25. Raining even worse by the time we arrived so straight into a small
church to shelter for 20 mins. Slightly eased off so decided to look around the
town. 50 yds down the main street and down came the rain again so we
dodged into a lovely little shop selling Sicillian delicacies. After an
hour of the most torrential rain any of us had ever seen before and quite a bit
of money spent by E on goodies we decided to look for a cafe as once again the
rain eased. Not gone 10 yds when, yes you gussed it!! the heavens opened again.
This time into the awning of a cafe and ankle deep in rain. It then came
over so dark that we thought night had arrived early and it was a bit
scary. However by now we decided to call it a day as J was getting a bit
worried about Jenna and we were all soaked. When it next eased off we got
taxi back to the Marina €25.
Had to bale the Dingy out of about 8 gallons of
water and braved a very choppy sea back to the boat which was thankfully OK. By
now the beautiful crystal clear water of yesterday was a dirty churned up mess
of floating rubbish washed from the land. Watched the 2 liners and 2 sail
ships trying with great dificulty to get thier passsengers back onboard off
tenders. Jim made us laugh by remarking that we had spent the best part of 100
Quid on a bowl of dodgy soup and a soaking and nothing else to show for
it. The sea then got really choppy and J thought we had better move to
the other side of the bay where it was a bit better. Much calmer here
initially. After dinner and about 22.00hs we went to bed. D & I
woke up after a very rocky night to find that J & E had been up most of the
night as we had been hit by a floating tree and had a large bamboo cane caught
up in the s/board prop. Took off at 07.00 for Italy & Roccella Ionica.
After a fairly choppy day we arrived into the calm Marina at 17.00hrs.
Nice to be still again. Nothing here except a restaurant. the town being
3Kms away. Had dinner in the restaurant and very good meal. J, E and I had
fish & D had pizza which is served here by the 1/2 metre and VG. Back
on board for a lovely trouble free flat calm nights sleep. Left there at
11.00 this moring and now nearly 1/2 way to Kefalonia.
Now Saturday and just approaching Kefalonia after
what seems a very long sail. Good flat sea to begin and E & I did the
late watch. I went to bed about 23.30 and woke up a lot in the night being
tossed around all over the place. This kept up till the last 1/2 hour when
we got into the shelter of the island and it is much calmer. The weather
god is not with us on this trip! All agree it seems to have been a very long 28
hours but nearly there now and all looking forward to a good shower and trip
ashore. E says it is definately our last overnighter but "heard that
before"!!!
Till the next time
To all you landlubbers
Luv from
Cpt'n & crew
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