Captain Corelli’s Mandolin Tour

Firstly we must apologise for the delay in sending out this post. We had some technical difficulties, although I must stress, they were technology related and not to do with the yacht.

So back to the 31st May, after a lovely sail to Cephalonia, we found that there was no room at the inn for us in Fiskardo so dropped our pick in a small Bay (Foto) just to the south of it for a calm night. The only entertainment, aside from ourselves and a bottle of wine, was the jangling bells of lots of goats, somewhat reminiscent of Cabrera, as they walked from one side of the bay to the other.

The next morning we picked up the anchor and motored the mile round to Fiskardo in the hope that we could get in. As luck would have it, we found the perfect spot for us, dropped the pick and reversed onto the quay. I say perfect as when we had a walk around the town and looked at the other spots the boats were taking, we noticed some pretty big boulders by the quay, big enough to stop us reversing all the way in and ultimately getting off the boat!! The only downside was there was no power or water, still it was absolutely charming.

Fiskardo, a picturesque fishing village that survived the terrible earthquate of 1953, is the seaport of Northern Cephalonia, and also the only village on the island that maintains its traditional architecture. It has been declared as a protected village. According to history it took its name from a Norman Conquerer, Robert Guiscard, born of Kalavryta and Pulia in Southern Italy who, although defeated the united fleets of Venetian & Byzantine, failed to occupy the island. He died suddenly in 1805 on the ship, which was open to the bay of the village (Old Fiskardo called Panormos) and left as a remembrance to the village his name (of course with a little alteration – Guiscard to Piskardo to Fiskardo). This is almost as complicated, for those of you that remember, as one of Ted Ray’s clues on 3-2-1.

Fiskardo, Cephalonia

That evening we did manage to catch up with Emma and Laurence who I haven’t seen for 12 years, although David has, and their lovely kids, Archie, now 12 and Daisy who is 10 and a budding chef in the making, she could have stayed on board the whole summer, although her forte is cakes and sweet things so it wouldn’t have done my waistline any good. With lots to catch up on, far too much over a couple of hours, we invited them to come sailing with us the next day, which went down a storm, although fortunately we didn’t have one. They then disappeared back to the hotel and David and I ventured out for a bite to eat which was when I discovered that the Cephalonians add pototoes to their Moussaka, yuck, still David had a lovely Chicken Tikka Masala curry,  which reminds me of a joke, but more of that later !

So the following morning, once a space had freed up near the water point and we had filled up, we left, with the McDonalds aboard for our first visit to Ithaca, said to be the island home of the God Odysseus,  and had a fabulous sail there, dropped our pick in crystal clear waters for lunch and then had  another fabulous sail back! Great fun was had by all.

Once again there was no room in the inn so we dropped our anchor near the harbour entrance, launched the dinghy and as I bid goodbye, hopefully not for another 12 years, David steered the guys to shore.

In the meantime, another boat arrived in our little spot, dropped their pick and then proceeded to rig a stern anchor, sadly making our position untenable should the wind direction change. So we lifted the anchor, motored over to the other side of that bay and tried to drop it again with a long line ashore. Having only done this a couple of times with no other boats around us, this was not the time to practice with a beam on wind and lots of boats doing the same thing. Rather than embarrassing ourselves any further we bugged out and went to find our little Bay of Foko and the goats, again, for another peaceful night on board.

The following day we started southwards again, to our rendezvous with Tina and Martyn in Zakynthos, stopping off in a weird little place called Poros on the South East coast of Cephalonia.

Poros, Cephalonia

With still no power and water and our poor batteries starting to flag a bit, we only stayed the one night and made our way to the Port of Zakynthos, sailing all the way with the wind behind us and managed to grab the last remaining spot on the harbour wall that did have power and water. The mooring, again dropping our pick and reversing in, this time in between 2 large power boats and 18 knots of wind on our beam was more than a little scarey, and having said the days of trembling knees when mooring were gone, I was very much mistaken, but working as a team we had no issues and got tucked up all safe and sound.

Zakyhthos is a very interesting town. Like so many in this region it had to be rebuilt after the 1953 earthquake, it has been tastefully done with a large square where all the locals and tourists mix together, pedestrianised streets with some posh shops, all centralised around the port jammed with yachts, ferries and fishing boats.

Zakynthos Town

The following day, and finally with water and power, we gave the boat a badly needed clean and charge, just in time for the arrival of Tina and Martyn later that day, with their little travel companion Vinnie, adorned with 3 bottles of champagne, bars of CDM ( Cadburys Dairy Milk ), and David’s all time favourite, now in bags, Munchies. Thank you very much!  Fortunately we had  a cold bottle of champagne in the fridge, courtesy of the McDonalds, so of course that had to be popped (we had no intention of leaving port that day).

After a lovely afternoon with the guys settling in, we ventured into town and found a local taverna for a bite to eat, recommended by the skipper of our neighbouring motor boat, followed by more drinks and a sensible early night, as our guests had been up at some unearthly hour to travel to us, although not before, and as I said earlier we would come back to it, Martyn telling us a story about the Indian Curry he had the other night saying it was terrible, asking why, he replied because his “Nan (Naan) fell into a Coma (Korma)… well that little joke reered its head up almost on a daily basis through our trip, even catching David off guard!

On the morning of the 7th June, we set off north aiming to get to a hopefully secluded bay on the south east coast of Ithaca.  The winds were perfect, at least to start with, and we had a fab sail for the best part of 2 hours, then for a short hour they dropped completely and the engine had to be turned on. That however didnt last long as the winds changed direction and rose to a Force 5 on our nose. Clearly Ithaca was going to have to wait  for another day and we found safety once again back in Poros on Cephalonia.

The following day, after a good fry-up, we ventured out again to Ithaca and this time made it to the most wonderful tiny bay behind a tiny island, early enough to nab the best spot. This time, with 4 of us on board, we attempted to tie off to the rocks again and after a very close call when we nearly got the rope wrapped around our prop, we managed it. I guess we still need a lesson or 2 on this!. It was a perfect afternoon, no wind, beautiful sunshine and despite the sea temperature only being 23 degrees we all took the plunge!

Sunset on Ithaca

Thereafter the wine flowed with some dinner to help it along the way and before we knew it, it was 2am and definitely time for bed!

Having lost a night in Poros, we decided to continue up the east coast of Ithaka, popping into Frikes which was said to be a picture postcard place, not so sure on that one, for an hour and then head over the top of Ithaca and into Fiskardo once again so the guys could see it!

Frikes, on Ithaca

Arriving in Fiskardo, this time we managed to anchor just outside the harbour so we could dinghy in for a bite to eat and the girls did some shopping, during evening drinks, shopping, before dinner and more shopping after dinner, while Martyn and I had coffees, liquor’s and a Banoffi pie, well I did anyway. Martyn was convinced that one of the stars of ‘This is Chelsea’ arrived at our restaurant, having never watched it I couldn’t confirm one way or the other, however, the girls were taken with her shoes, and an hour or so later they both returned with said black sandals complete with diamantes.

10th June we headed south for the town of Sami, the second largest on Cephalonia, also rebuilt and after a rather traumatic anchor and stern too mooring, dodging a diver and buoys just under the water’s surface, we settled in for the afternoon and night. We even gave the decks a bit of a clean having been able to get water from a nearby restaurant, not that we needed to as the heavens opened shortly after and we all huddled under the bimini as a squall hit our peaceful little harbour.

Sami, Cephalonia

Finally the rain stopped and we could see the town in the sunshine!

We popped out for dinner at yet another Greek Taverna, food was not great but there was clearly something in the wine we were drinking as we all started seeing some wonderful shapes in the clouds as they whizzed past in the sunset. Or maybe it was the spliffs we were passing round, only kidding !

The following day we departed Cephalonia partly under sail and partly under engine whilst the winds made up their mind as to whether they wanted to blow, and headed for Ayios Nikolaus aka Ay Nik, on the North east corner of Zakynthos, where we were helped onto a mooring buoy by Kostas, the son of one enterprising family with a restaurant, minimarket and petrol station. As always we dropped the dinghy to venture ashore and do some investigating and the inevitable G&T at a bar where we asked for a table to be placed on the beach in the sun. Despite being rather short changed on the measure, we all fell about in fits of giggles as Martyn’s chair proceeded to dig itself into the sand until he, in total slow motion found himself toppling over backwards and onto the sand, G&T still in tact I might add. No mean feat. It was most definitely the comedy moment of the trip so far and will probably take some beating.

Ayios Nikolaus, North Zakynthos

We decided that we should do a small boat trip to the blue caves and the infamous Shipwreck Bay on the west coast and contacted our one enterprising family member to see if he could arrange it for us the following morning, which he dutifully did, and wow, it was well worth it. The scenery was stunning, and as we left early we beat the hordes as well.

We also topped it off by swimming off the boat and into a cave where the light still reached to turn the waters such a vivid turquoise it took our breath away. Which was all fine until the swell from other boats came rushing in and given there wasn’t too much clearance, made it a little bit worrying.

We then returned to the yacht, had some lunch and just had to send Vinnie up the mast with his national flag of Guernsey, before setting sail for Port Zakynthos, it being Martyn, Tina and Vinnie’s last night! The last night entailed a few drinks in a Bar in Zakynthos Town, peering at the Ipad, streaming the Canadian Grand Prix and a waiter who kept popping over to check on progress… oh and ‘Get in there Lewis’    Finally I must own up to the fact that during the week, the girls did beat the boys at Euchre, 2-1, this now going 2-1 up in the series, Martyn we must do better !!

Finally, on the 13th we bid our goodbyes, with a tear in our eye, it was sad to see the end of a fabulous week with Tina, Martyn and of course Vinnie!