38:41.45N 20:42.42E

Friday 19th September

Now that we have been out here for a while and met various old friends and made new friends, an event like the regatta is all the more enjoyable as we now know so many of the folks. We got to hear that one particular old friend Andy Barker and his wife, were at the party and had been in the race and countless people told me that they had seen him looking for me, whilst others were telling him that I was looking for him, but somehow we failed to meet up. We knew the name of his yacht which he had bought a year ago off someone else we knew, so we were confident that we would see him in the morning at some stage!

What we had forgotten was that Barry and Alan had persuaded us to take them to Fiskardo (Cephalonia) to see Tassos, (owner of the Captain's Cabin Bar & restaurant) have lunch and return to Sivota in the afternoon. We picked them both up as well as one of the girls that works in Barry's London office and her sister who were out on a holiday on one of his Sailing Holiday flotillas. Once we had the anchor up we motored across the bay to Andy's yacht (Seven Tenths) but failed to raise him or his wife Jackie, so we set off to Fiskardo in the hope that they would still be in Sivota when we returned.

Very little wind this morning so we motored all the way arriving around 12.30am to find the little harbour pretty much empty and a big space right by Tassos' bar. We reversed in as usual, but because it is very shallow there we had to stand a little way off and use a plank to get ashore! Tassos was delighted to see us all and made a big fuss and treated us to a great lunch and too many beers, whilst various strangers approached, admiring and asking about Serafina. (She looked very grand alone at the quay.)

At 2.40pm we said all our goodbyes and set off back to Sivota. By now the wind had risen again so we quickly raised all the sails and were soon romping back across the Ionian towards Lefkas Island, managing an effortless 8.5 knots.

Around halfway we came across a lone yacht heading the other way and as we drew near the occupants began waving frantically. On closer inspection it turned out to be Andy Barker on 'Seven Tenths' who having eventually woken up, had been told we had gone to Fiskardo, so he and his wife resolved to follow on and see us there!

They made a snap decision and turned to follow us back to Sivota and on arrival tied up next to us on the pontoon.

Andy had been a flotilla skipper in the same firm as us and at the same time, but we had not seen him for at least 24 years. Lots of catching up to do and along with his wife Jackie, turned out to be a mine of information about a whole stack of our friends, not all of whom are still alive sadly. We all ended up going out for dinner and quite a long night ensued, ending for us only when I started to fall asleep which after 4 days of eating, drinking and the regatta etc. was perhaps not altogether surprising.

Saturday 20th September

The big question today was what was the wind going to do? Various forecasts during the week had warned of a major storm sweeping across the islands where we are, but as the weekend approached some of the warnings were scaled down. We had planned to batten ourselves down somewhere safe, but we had also to balance the fact that on Wednesday we have to be in Corfu again to meet a very old friend of Sarah's who is joining us for 5 days. Not a great problem except that they were also promising 50 knot serious storm winds for Tuesday and Wednesday across Corfu! These warnings have also been reduced in the last 24 hours so we have decided to stay tonight in Vlikho Bay and then sail up to Paxos tomorrow if possible and perhaps on up to Gouvia Marina in Corfu on Monday or Tuesday. All depends on what we get thrown at us in terms of bad weather.

Spent part of the morning saying all our goodbyes to various folks and then slipped away for the short trip round to Nidri and Vlikho. The wind was gusting quite a bit but certainly nothing like the forecasts. Dropped the hook in the bay and settled down to spend the afternoon sorting some warmer clothing and packing away some of the light summer stuff as it has now turned decidedly cooler. Hopefully this spell of unsettled weather and the 'Meltemi' winds will eventually pass and we will get some better weather for Sarah's friend Jo.