The island of Zakinthos was our next stop after Kefallonia, as we made our way south. We were not going to have the time to do the famous Shipwreck Beach, and the west side in general, though reportedly beautiful, was going to have to wait for another visit as the anchorages are all exposed to the forecasted winds. We dropped anchor in the southeastern town by the same name as the island, and had a fun little visit.

The town is cute, but the Byzantine Museum in the main square is a small masterpiece. Home to all the religious iconography that was salvaged from island churches after the earthquake of 1953, it’s a treasure trove of both NeoHellenic and Post Byzantine artwork.

My favorite piece was a painting of the Mother and Child done directly on a wooden platform, which was later covered with hammered silver. When art historians were restoring the piece and the silver was removed, smaller pieces of silver fell out, which had been offerings made over the centuries.

The ‘weird’ ending to the day, was my first taste of Madagascar grey vanilla ice cream. Seriously grey. Good, but not as good as others. Still worth a try.

Assos had been recommended to us, but only in calm winds, so we gave it a pass by boat and instead did it by bus from Argostoli. What a gem of a village.

The somewhat hair raising drive over gave us views of both Myrtios Beach and a view of Assos descending from the hills.

The village was Venetian, and is overlooked by an imposing Venetian palace atop the high point at the end of the peninsula. Considering the long, uphill walk and the heat of the day, we opted to give the palace a pass. Aside from that, there’s really not much to do besides eat and drink and wander to enjoy the beautiful view, so that’s exactly what we did.

Oh, the turtles! Caretta caretta, the loggerhead sea turtle, lives in the waters of Argostoli. There is a lagoon that boats can’t get into which gives them privacy, but they also swim in the anchorage of the main port. Though they are not aggressive, they can be if startled, so we opted not to swim while in town. It was fun to watch them popping up near the boat, and they would almost swarm the walls of town when the fishermen returned with their catch.

Argostoli is a fun little town, and we stayed longer than expected. Aside from needing to do laundry and provision, there was a procession of visitors. Pookie and Heath popped through again on their way to Sicily. Karin and Holger came in with the family. And George, who we met last year in Albania and later cruised with in Montenegro, finally caught up with us.

I even celebrated my birthday in town. The past two years we spent swimming in or climbing volcanos. Though we weren’t near a volcano this year, we did walk out to the sinkholes of Argostoli. The split in the karst rock created sinkholes which allow sea water to flow in at a rate of up to 3 meters/second. (A water wheel for sea mills is still in place which took advantage of this natural phenomena to power a power plant and ice station before WWII.) The water crosses the entire width of the island, mixing with fresh water that drains from the mountains, to form brackish water that emerges 15 kilometers down stream in the town of Sami. Tests were done and pigment was dropped in the sinkholes, emerging in Sami 15 days later.

Overall, a nice relaxing stay.

We decided to push further along the southern coast of Kefalonia than our original plan from the day before and head to Spartia. Coincidentally friends Karin and Holger of s/v RiverCafe were already at anchor in that exact bay!

The anchorage is huge and we dropped the hook at the base of stunning limestone cliffs with a few other boats. Once again the water was the most amazing shade of blue, and the sand beneath held the anchor well. Holger came over and we made plans to meet ashore for drinks that afternoon.

The Water Way restaurant has some of the slowest service we have ever experienced, but the drinks were certainly tasty and the view over the bay was surreal. It was great to catch up with Holger and Karin, as well as to meet their daughter Jill and grandchildren Henry & Hannah that were visiting. Afterwards, Trip and I headed further up the hill to the restaurant Isalos (meaning a boat’s water line) where we had a great meal. What they lacked in view they made up for in their own ambiance and food quality.

The next morning I got up for an early paddle before the winds kicked in and meandered my way along the beaches and cliffs. I was even able to sit and watch and listen to the alpine swifts which nest in the cliffs (ID thanks to Vandy).

The next day we met up again with Ian and Jackie of s/v Nova Jean, who popped in for a quick visit on their way south to Zakinthos (I don’t know how we forget to take photos every time we’re together….grrrrr). After drinks and catch-up with them, we headed over to the north side of the bay to meet Karin, Holger, and et all, for dinner again. It was quite the long dinghy ride, but the stronger winds held off and we did fine despite our little outboard.

Dinner was great. Eventually, though, the kids were fading, so Holger took them and their mom back to the boat and then returned so that the four of us could keep up with our conversation (and our drinking). By the time we left, it was close to 11pm. It was a long & very dark dinghy ride back, but the stronger winds still held off, and we slept like babies.

Spartia (part II)

You know it’s time to move on when the bartender automatically knows to make your watermelon mojito when you walk up the path…..we had dinner at Isalos one last time and enjoyed the vibe.

The weather looked good, it was time to say goodbye to Ithaca and move on to Kefalonia. I picked the anchorage that Vandy had recommended and we were ready to go. Poseidon had other plans for us however. It started out with the usual morning winds coming from the exact opposite direction from every forecast. We were used to this by now, even expected it, and motored out. The NW wind finally settled in when we were in the strait in between Ithaca and Kefalonia and we were suddenly doing 6.5 knots under half a jib alone – woohee! However, as we rounded the southeastern point of Kefalonia, the wind was on our nose (20 knots) and the waves were stacked against us. After slogging along at speeds as low as 1.3 knots, we realized there was no need to punish ourselves, and we turned around.

We rounded the point again and threaded our way in closer to shore where there was already a catamaran at anchor off Skala beach. We dropped the hook and rested for the evening. Whew.

Earlier this season, Trip had read about a book about the myths of Greece written by a fellow sailor. We’ve had a great time using the book for the island of Ithaca, as the author is a wonderful writer and includes anchorages in the book to make exploration fun as well as practical. Leaving Vathy we decided to try one more spot, Pera Pigadhi, the site of the spring of Arethusa.

The anchorage was exquisite. Room for boats to both take lines ashore and free-anchor, no one had to crowd in. The water was the most beautiful shade of blue and there were fish absolutely everywhere. We attempted a stern anchor to keep us in the same direction as everyone else, but gave up when some big wind gusts dragged it and it threatened the anchors of neighboring boats. (Trip used his new free-diving breathing skills to actually move our stern anchor on the bottom!)

After a bit more research we decided not to go looking for the spring (it wasn’t much more than a hole in some rocks with the water not very accessible), but simply lounged in the beautiful water and enjoyed ourselves for the day.

Our next stop was the legendary home of Odysseus in Vathy, Ithaca. The sail over was rather strange; a close reach with good winds for a start, and then no wind where we should have had a beam reach (I’m convinced the island sucks the wind around and creates the strangest micro-climate – no wonder that Odysseus had troubles), followed by lots of wind (and a great sail) as we headed down the channel to Vathy.

The village is nearly completely surrounded by mountains, and other than the summer wind that kicks in at 20 knots every afternoon, it is a fabulous place to stop. Luckily the bay is large, the holding is mud, and boats spread out, so after the first hour we weren’t too concerned about our anchor. Friends Phil and Fiona were just around the corner, so we met up in town for cold beer, dinner, and a little bit of ice cream while we wandered around enjoying the evening scene with the locals. Phil even got in on the football action with some kids, which totally impressed them all when he played barefoot (soccer in flip flops just doesn’t work).

Vathy isn’t big, but it’s incredibly practical for provisioning (the supermarket was right on the waterfront) and laundry (there was a great cafe where we could sample smoothies while I flipped laundry). It also has an amazing little archeological museum. It’s nothing more than a single room, and photos aren’t permitted, but the artifacts packed into that room were substantial. Most pieces had been shattered, and we marveled over the time and patience it must have taken to puzzle together and re-build the pottery on display.

Given the mellow vibe of Vathy, I didn’t expect bigger yachts, but there were plenty. Of course they came in during he windiest part of the day, and we watched several fail to anchor in an epic way, which always makes me giggle.

Our final night we treated ourselves to dinner at Poseidon, where the entire family ran the restaurant, including Grandma, who was sitting at a nearby table. We sampled the moussaka and the pastitsio, and I couldn’t help but think of my own grandmother, who would drive out to my uncle’s restaurant to cook – this was exactly the same thing worlds away.

After escaping Fiskardo, we had a nice downwind sail of only three miles to Polis Bay, home of Odysseus’ palace once he returned to Ithaca after his journey. We found a nice spot in front of the swimming area, dropped our anchor, and relaxed. Lots of boats came in throughout the afternoon, including friends Mark and Susanna from s/v Lady Lea, but everyone spaced out nicely. The mega yacht Zeus who took up a good chunk of the bay moved on, leaving us smaller cruising boats to ourselves (if you look as you cruise, you will often see one mega yacht in each bay).

We swam and lounged the afternoon away, not going ashore till after 7 when the heat dropped. Mark had the name of a local taxi, which was good because it’s a long uphill walk to the town of Stavros. It’s a small place in the hills, but utterly charming and we had drinks at the cafe, followed by dinner at the Delicous Taverna (it truly was), followed by ice cream back at the original cafe.

We opted to stay the next day as I had a meeting by zoom later in the afternoon. I took the paddle board out to go explore the shoreline and use as a snorkeling base, where Mark showed me the ruins of ancient pottery shards twenty feet down on the rocky bottom. Meanwhile, Trip rigged up the dinghy and went for a sail.

We couldn’t resist it, Polis Bay was so nice we decided to stay yet another day. This time we committed to taking the taxi up to Odysseus’ palace ruins and then dinner at Myrtia. We started at the top in the village of Exogi, where we left Mark and Susanna for dinner. We headed down to the palace ruins. Despite having been warned that one needs to use their imagination, we could easily see what was once there as a castle or fortification. The amazing thing is that ruins are everywhere in Greece, and so are artifact remnants. Shards of pottery were laying everywhere and no one walked off with a ‘souvenir’, amazing. (I had seen the same snorkeling that morning – remnants of Roman (?) pottery 7 meters down while I was snorkeling – no one has ever taken any of these pieces.).

After exploring the ruins, we walked down to one of the loveliest meals we’ve had all season. The restaurant Myrtia (Myrtle) features locally sourced ingredients with an upscale preparation. The views alone were breathtaking.

After a delightful meal including Myrtle-berry lemonade, onion pie with zucchini salad, beef stifado (stew), and local wines, we gratefully met Dimitra the taxi driver to head back up the hill to Exogi. There the village was celebrating the festival of Aga Marina. Celebrations in Greece involve local music, local wine (or ouzo), and a lot of dancing. Well into the wee hours. After a lot of ouzo and a lot of dancing, we headed back to the sleepy anchorage party carried on.

Oh Fiskardo. Everyone raves about this tiny former fishing village. It’s certainly where you go to see and be seen. But this town is one and done for us, we’ve seen it and can tick it off our list, no need to come back.

The harbor is tiny, and deep, which means most boats anchor with lines ashore. We have not done this yet and I don’t look forward to it as we are hard to back into a space (heavy boat, small engine, long keel, no thrusters, back up like a drunk elephant). We had read that there were a few areas where you could free anchor (not tie to shore), but found those areas were restricted by boats already tied with lines ashore. Luckily, the one boat free anchored left, and we snagged their spot. Deeper than I would have liked at 50 feet but we could manage. The only problem was that we were facing a restaurant that offered docking with lines ashore, and one of the last spots was taken after we had anchored (I just prayed that they anchored parallel to our anchor and chain, not over it).

Fiskardo is a cute town and we dinghied in and walked around. The one thing I found very unappealing were all the public quay spots covered with restaurant tables the moment you stepped off the boat. If you’re having dinner at one of these tables, you’re looking into the cockpit of a charter boat, with sunscreen-covered, sunburned, often-drunk, messy holiday goers. Yuck.

We came back to the boat to find that even mega yachts were in the line-ashore business, and we were completely surrounded by an obscene amount of floating wealth…..one yacht cost $900,000 a week to charter! The worst was when one big motor boat backed up to shore past two small sailboats at anchor, completely fouling the anchor of one. The crew of the mega was completely stone-faced and unresponsive to the sailor’s shouts and pleas. (The sailboat had to wait hours the next morning till that crew of the big boat felt like it was time to leave and free up the anchor chain).

The next morning it was time for us to move on and the dreaded happened. I noticed alot of resistance on the windlass as we were upping anchor…..yup, our anchor had hooked the other boats chain. Trip put on his snorkeling gear, the owner of the other boat came over, and with several lines and a lot of sweating, we managed to free his chain and make our escape. So long, Fiskardo!

Some days don’t go as planned, but if you take a deep breath, everything will be alright. We upped anchor from Nydri with three optional destinations in mind. We had to skip Skorpio, the island that Aristotle Onassis gifted Jackie as a wedding present, as it’s currently owned by a Russian that has prohibited all anchoring. So the first option was an islet off Meganisi island, which unfortunately was much too busy by the time we arrived. We decided to head south around the corner to Sivota, but as we got around the base of Lefkas, the wind and the seas picked up, so we decided to try for option #3. We had a brief sail under jib, but couldn’t point high enough, and it wasn’t worth hoisting the mainsail for three miles, so we motored the last bit to Arkoudhi Island. It was now blowing 20 knots and we started poking the boat into optional coves. Unfortunately, Navionics (our charting software) was completely off on the depths so we got out the lead line. After a few disappointing inspections (one cove too shallow, another spot already taken by a boat), we noticed a boat on the southern side of the spit upping anchor. We hustled around and took their spot. Ironically we anchored in 30 feet of water and Navionics told us we were in 3 feet. I think this island is so rarely visited that the charts aren’t updated.

The wind died down, the other few boats around left, and soon it was just us and a few goats ashore. And the wasps. Greece is known for their wasp problem in the summer, and fellow cruiser Immie had told me that tavernas often burn coffee to rid them of the pests. It worked!

After dinner and drinks, we remarked that the day might not have gone as planned, but we still had a lovely ending to it.