Our Final Departure from Levkas, heading southeast to the Gulf of Patras
One thing we have learned about Greece and probably why so many sailors say it is so cheap to sail here, is that you really must be a self-sufficient boat. Over the past few weeks, whilst we have managed to get on a quay when we needed water, we have rarely found places with electricity that we can connect to, to give our now somewhat worn batteries a charge. As a result of this and our ever increasing occasions when our batteries have not lasted the night, waking us up rather crudely with the alarm around 5 in the morning, we have finally bitten the bullet and decided to have a stainless steel frame added to our stern and 2 x 100 watt solar panels fitted thereto, but that has delayed our departure to the Gulf of Corinth by another 5 days.
So we decided to head down to Vasiliki, the southern most tip of Levkas, where we had only previously been by car, to join Nick, Don and Dee for a couple of days. We stopped on route in a nice bay for the night…
and then had a lovely sail down and around the tip, trying to eek out a few knots out of even less wind, until we rounded the corner and the katabatic winds enabled us to fly toward Vasiliki at 7 knots. Great until we had to do an anchor stern too mooring in the tiny harbour with less than 50 cms under our keel, thankfully Nick and Don were there to take our lines and help us in.
We spent 2 days there, watching Hamilton win the British Grand Prix, Murray win Wimbledon and Don gave me (Chantal) a lesson on paddle boarding. we finally left them on the 11th and headed back to Levkas one final time, sailing around the island of Skorpios, the former private island owned by the Onassis family…
We arrived then at Levkas, to have the solar panels fitted and wow what a difference! With this finally installed, we made ready for our final departure from Levkada and the island of Lefkas, after another more relaxed and vibrant walk around the town.
So on the 14th July we headed for the last 2 inhabited islands of the Ionian that we have yet to Visit, Kalamos and Kastos. It was a very varied sail, started with F2, where we managed to sail faster than the wind speed which is fabulous, until it grew to a steady Force 5, in a beam to broad reach, pushing us along at a rate of 8 knots, even more fantastic, that was until we turned the northern corner of Kalamos and the wind died completely, that was until 10 minutes before we reached our intended stopping place, Kalomos Town when it rapidly picked up to a Force 5 again, this time on our nose and blowing a hooley into the harbour. Not fancying a difficult and tight anchor, stern too mooring in the harbour we had never been too, we settled for taking pictures as we sailed past…
And found shelter in a quirky place called Port Leone, still on Kalamos, not that it was a Port in any manner of words. Deserted since the 1953 earthquake, it had destroyed its water supply, but there were for numerous yachts with the same plan as us, it was a beautiful anchorage with crystal clear waters, and once the winds had died down we had a lovely evening on board. The only issue we then had was that a number of wasps had a fascination to our yacht, so we were at first, ignoring them and then later trying to swat them, they didn’t get the message until the sun had gone down and we assumed it was time for their bed !
The following morning it was dead calm so I, (Chantal) ventured out on our new paddle board to investigate further. Not stable enough on it yet to dare taking my camera, even in a waterproof bag, you will have to suffice with the pictures taken from the yacht as we left the bay. That however was not before I gave David a lesson on the board and it was with some disappointment, camera in hand, that David managed to stay afloat, and in fact was rather good at it!.
However by 11am we seemed to attract the whole islands worth of wasps, again, (us and the other boats), so we bid our farewells to Port Leone and headed over to Kastos, passing some wonderful bays with turquoise waters, sadly not really having enough time to spend the night in each as we aimed for the town of Kastos on the South east coast, and having tried to drop our pick 3 times and it not grabbing at all, we headed onto the town quay for the afternoon and night.
Kastos is a very cute but tiny place, made up of a couple of bars and restaurants, one mini market and one souvenir shop! Not that that stopped a number of yachts, unable to get onto the quay (we had nicked the last space), dropping anchor off the beach with a long line ashore. By this time a South westerly gusting Force 5 was back so we sat on our bow in the sunset, and watched a number of yachts do it perfectly and some make a huge hash of it, as we tried to learn from the mistakes made!
We ventured out to dinner that night at the local taverna and we both had their specialty of the night, Lamb in the oven cooked with oregano, garlic and olive oil, scrumptious, washed down with a litre of their house red at a tremendous cost of €6! I also made friends with a tiny but poorly kitten, which spent most of the evening asleep on my lap, wanting to take her with me, but appreciating the stupidity of such an idea, cats on boats, what was I thinking, anyone’s guess after ½ a litre of red wine!
Sadly the night wasn’t that peaceful as some rain meant a midnight dash out of our bunks to shut our hatches, followed by, 2 hours later, a severe gust which pushed our back against the quay, and whilst the big ball fender we have did its job, the grinding of our rudder on the rocks beneath us was enough to see us loosen our lines and pull us forward a little on the anchor, whilst trying not to wake our neighbours up! The rest of the night was, thankfully, uneventful!
16th July saw us leave lovely Kastos and head to Astakos on the mainland. We had a beautiful sail in a Force 4 on our stern, pushing us along at between 7 and 8 knots, passing to the North of Dhragonera Island, and gybbing to take us into the elongated bay of Astokos. As we approached the head of the bay and having read that that area was prone to Katabatic winds, so strong they could leave your sails in tatters, we decided to pull in the sails and motor towards the little harbour, oh and how pleased were we…. Having just got the Genoa away and getting ready to pull in the main sail, we got hit with 30 knot winds that spun us around 180 degrees, a little faster than we would have liked! 3 minutes later, the main sail safely tucked away we went into the little fishing harbour to have a nose around. We saw a spot that was perfect for us, as we really didn’t want to spend the night on anchor with a 20 knot onshore wind blowing. We ventured back out, dropped the pick to allow us to get the dinghy in the water, lines on and fenders out without the need to scream about the wind and then headed back in, to do one of the trickiest anchor and stern too moorings of the holiday so far. Yes, it went without a hitch, although my knees were knocking together at the end. When are they going to stop doing that!
Astakos is a typical Greek seaside village, with little by way of tourism, with some ramshackle old buildings, and a nice frontage around the harbour, and also a nice butchers which we were grateful for late on a Saturday afternoon!.
Tomorrow we intend to head through the Nisis Echinades Islands (no safe places to stop) and cover 30 odd miles to take us to Messolonghi, just inside the Gulf of Patras, where we plan to meet up with Don and Dee and do a mini flotilla out to the Gulf of Corinth!
