A truely great week (weather aside!) with James and Hayley. They arrived slightly late in Preveza (thanks to Ryanair) so we settled on a few starters in the Mermaid taverna, with the owner, Tassos telling us all about his winter escape to Thailand. I guess it’s well deserved considering the long 7 day weeks from April through to the end of October.
James and Hayley had asked if we could take them to Parga, a very popular, very pretty tourist village about 30 miles up the coast from Preveza. As it would have meant a day sailing up, a day back, and the need for a day sight seeing, we took the fast and easy option and hired a car from Preveza for the day. It lived up to expectations although possibly a bit too touristy and expensive food but clothing quite cheap.
So Saturday we headed off in Jacana, with a little bit of sailing, through the Lefkas canal for lunch and a swim in Varko Bay then on for overnight anchoring in Palairos. Saturday evening we all enjoyed a superb meal in the New Mill, with the usual excellent hospitality from Mahi. She remembered that we’d had the Stifado last time we ate (2 weeks ago) and offered us very succulent lamb instead.
Sunday we motored in dead calm water to the top of Kalamos where as usual, the wind picked up and we had our first really good sail with James and Hayley round the top, almost to Kalamos harbour. Here George, with his usual efficiency moored us up stern to, about half way along the inner wall. However, by dusk, the wall was completely full, the short mole opposite, had a yacht stern to on its end, with 6 boats rafted either side of it, and in front of us, George had created another raft of about a dozen yachts with lines to the bows of the boats on the wall. Fortunately no one attached to us, but it was clear that we weren’t leaving in a hurry in the morning. As is customary, we ate at George’s Taverna, although one of our meals was served luke warm and the overall experience lacking, so we’ll probably go up the hill to eat next time. As expected, the morning struggle to leave the harbour was exciting with at one point, a raft of three flotilla boats, drifting across the harbour.
Monday we motored to the neighbouring island of Kastos where with only about 4 boats tied up we had plenty of choice as to where we moored up. Unfortunately we choose a spot where one of the wall rings was missing, however our neighbour soon improvised with a line spanning the missing ring, with a couple of loops that acted as an effective place to tie one of our stern lines. The evening saw an early drink in the windmill cocktail bar, and really delicious tuna in the IL PortoTaverna. We then planned to visit Ela’s bar, but for some unknown reason it was closed, (Monday) so it was drinks on board.
Tuesday morning saw a deterioration in the weather with a drop in temperature, strongish winds and a forecast of rain. The plan had been to go to Kioni on Itheca, but with the forecast, and James and Hayley’s flight back on Thursday, we decided instead go to Spartahori or Nidri. With 12 to 16kn winds we had a cracking sail from the bottom of Kastos to the southern end of the Meganisi channel at which point it was engine on for the final hour. With Spartahori full, we ended up anchoring off Nidri at about 1400. It then started raining, lightly at first, then torrential with near continuous thunder and lightning until about 2 in the morning! There was no way that we were going ashore. So we ate on board with a delicious corned beef based chilli with spaghetti! After dinner the boat was hit with a violent gust lasting 2-3 minutes which knocked the boat over by several degrees. Poking my head into the cockpit, we were OK and hadn’t dragged our anchor, but a cat that was about 50m away earlier, was now about 10m away! Our compressed air foghorn soon got it’s skipper out from it’s sealed awning and comfortable interior into the rain, where he immediately realised he had moved significantly and into action to re-anchor. The rain and thunder finally stopped at about 2am. The continuous rain did however allow us to identify a couple of leaks!
Wednesday morning we motored against the wind up to Lefkas where, typically, as we started manoeuvring the wind picked up to 20knots. However with the wind blowing across the pontoon, it was a straight forward reverse, into the wind, into a space. We ate in Ef Zen and then, because it started to rain (again) we experienced a ‘lock in’ at the Havana bar, with Rene playing until midnight. Usually, with the bar’s doors open, he has to stop playing at 11pm. An excellent night and we even had a bit of a dance.
Thursday, after a hearty breakfast at one of the cafés on the harbour, and with clear skies James and Hayley went off to the beach for a final tan top up, whilst we caught up with the laundry and later joined them on the beach. After Gyros, we said our farewells to them both, agreeing that despite the weather, it had been a really great week.
