Mainland Greece & Lefkas
Mainland
Órmos Áyiou Ioánnou 13.6nm, 2hrs 35min
Friday August 10 - Sunday 12
Friday August 10 - Sunday 12
After dropping off our guests Colin and I picked up a few things in town including olive oil (which Paxos is famous for) and wine (which Antipaxos is famous for). These were both available at the bakery but we also got olive oil from a shop where the man who sells it makes it himself.
After a swim we headed to the mainland, with a gentle wind filling our sails and lulling us back into relaxation after the busyness of Gaios.
The shoreline of Párga was a long stretch of beach umbrellas and the bay was buzzing with speed boats and jet skis so we continued down the coast until we came to Áy Ioánnou, a large bay with only a tiny sliver of beach, a few umbrellas, a handful of boats, and no water toys. Bliss! To add to the serenity and peace we had no internet connection, so we spent our days paddling, swimming, reading, and cleaning the boat.
Sunday I went for a long paddle while Colin made lee sheets. I got photos of the rocky shore line with its small caves and layers of colourful rock, and even found a fresh water spring. We'd been looking in the middle of the bay for it, though apparently there's one there too.
Click images to enlarge
After a swim we headed to the mainland, with a gentle wind filling our sails and lulling us back into relaxation after the busyness of Gaios.
The shoreline of Párga was a long stretch of beach umbrellas and the bay was buzzing with speed boats and jet skis so we continued down the coast until we came to Áy Ioánnou, a large bay with only a tiny sliver of beach, a few umbrellas, a handful of boats, and no water toys. Bliss! To add to the serenity and peace we had no internet connection, so we spent our days paddling, swimming, reading, and cleaning the boat.
Sunday I went for a long paddle while Colin made lee sheets. I got photos of the rocky shore line with its small caves and layers of colourful rock, and even found a fresh water spring. We'd been looking in the middle of the bay for it, though apparently there's one there too.
Click images to enlarge
Two Rocks Bay 4.5nm, 1hr 15min
Sunday August 12 - Monday 13
Sunday August 12 - Monday 13
Leaving Órmos Áy Ioánnou around 1400hrs we motored the few miles south to another peaceful bay, still with only a small stretch of umbrellas though with more boats. We paddled the turquoise waters and explored the caves before cooking up the last of our provisions - jacket potatoes with tuna and cheese. The night was quite rolly, which comes with being exposed to the open ocean.
Click images to enlarge
Click images to enlarge
Preveza 22.5nm, 4hrs
Monday August 13 - Wednesday 15
Monday August 13 - Wednesday 15
Prevaza, from what we'd heard, is a popular place for pulling your boat out of the water for the winter, and as you enter the bay there are three huge marinas in a row on the south side and hundreds of masts, plus more marinas on the north side. They don't seem to have many berths for short stay boats though, and we preferred to anchor off the main town on the north side anyway. We settled near another Australian boat, a catamaran named AraKai, and stopped for a chat as we headed into town in the dinghy. We met Louise and Lachin and their two kids Ciara (Ara) and Kai (hence the boat name). They were meeting a couple of other Aussies in town and invited us to join them. We checked out the waterfront where there were lots of boats backed up to the pier, as is the common thing to do. Personally we prefer the quiet and privacy of anchoring rather than being wall to wall with boats and right in the middle of the town action, but some obviously love that.
We met the others (Peter from 'Ninsar' and Ron from 'Sequoia') at a waterfront bar with cheap beer, but the cooling system was on the blink so they served tepid beer to the impatient Aussies. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and we had to abandon the joint and seek cold beer elsewhere. It was WAY too hot to be drinking lukewarm anything! Myself, I was on a mission to have an Aperol Spritz and Rabbit Stifado (seen on a menu in Corfu) but settled for local white wine, souvlaki and Greek salad.
Louise retold a terrifying story about being chased by pirates in the Red Sea. You can read about it here. I'd just recently seen the movie 'Captain Philips' and could visualise the scene and the horror.
Tuesday we took the dinghy to the eastern end of the bay to do provisioning in the nearby supermarket. Whilst shopping we heard a delightful rendition of Mike Oldfield's 'Moonlight Shadow' in Greek. It still rocked. Later we anchored nearer to Cleopatra Marina to check dry docking prices. Another yachtie told us they'd done their washing here in the industrial sized machines for just €5, and had a shower to boot! However, when I asked about washing I was told "This is not allowed". Me and my big mouth. As my mother laments "My poor daughter, she can't lie!".
We returned to our previous anchorage and went into town to find a laundry. We walked a long way in hot hot heat to 'Mr Cleaners', waited 45min 'til they opened (i.e. 45 minutes past the time stated on the website), only to find out they charged €25 and were not open tomorrow for us to collect our washing (the town shuts down for the Feast of the Madonna). Traipsing back to town with our heavy washing bag we stopped at the Marine store and not only found out about refilling gas bottles and bought another petrol tank for the dinghy, but also got directions to a boat laundry service where we were able to get our laundry washed and dried tonight for only €8! Tonight turned out to be tomorrow morning but that was fine by us, and €8 turned into €16 as she separated the colours and did two loads, but we were still grateful to get it done.
We met Peter for dinner and he showed us a few local services like other laundries, where to get cheap diesel, and the best bakery in town. He's been travelling these parts for seven years and house (and horse) sitting for friends, so he knows a bit about the place. We'll be staying in touch regarding potential travels in Turkey next year.
I wanted to wander the town streets again as they have such a great feel, but the throngs outside the churches made things slow going. Religious celebrations happen the night before the Feast of the Madonna, and the day of is for relaxing.
Click images to enlarge
We met the others (Peter from 'Ninsar' and Ron from 'Sequoia') at a waterfront bar with cheap beer, but the cooling system was on the blink so they served tepid beer to the impatient Aussies. Wrong, wrong, wrong, and we had to abandon the joint and seek cold beer elsewhere. It was WAY too hot to be drinking lukewarm anything! Myself, I was on a mission to have an Aperol Spritz and Rabbit Stifado (seen on a menu in Corfu) but settled for local white wine, souvlaki and Greek salad.
Louise retold a terrifying story about being chased by pirates in the Red Sea. You can read about it here. I'd just recently seen the movie 'Captain Philips' and could visualise the scene and the horror.
Tuesday we took the dinghy to the eastern end of the bay to do provisioning in the nearby supermarket. Whilst shopping we heard a delightful rendition of Mike Oldfield's 'Moonlight Shadow' in Greek. It still rocked. Later we anchored nearer to Cleopatra Marina to check dry docking prices. Another yachtie told us they'd done their washing here in the industrial sized machines for just €5, and had a shower to boot! However, when I asked about washing I was told "This is not allowed". Me and my big mouth. As my mother laments "My poor daughter, she can't lie!".
We returned to our previous anchorage and went into town to find a laundry. We walked a long way in hot hot heat to 'Mr Cleaners', waited 45min 'til they opened (i.e. 45 minutes past the time stated on the website), only to find out they charged €25 and were not open tomorrow for us to collect our washing (the town shuts down for the Feast of the Madonna). Traipsing back to town with our heavy washing bag we stopped at the Marine store and not only found out about refilling gas bottles and bought another petrol tank for the dinghy, but also got directions to a boat laundry service where we were able to get our laundry washed and dried tonight for only €8! Tonight turned out to be tomorrow morning but that was fine by us, and €8 turned into €16 as she separated the colours and did two loads, but we were still grateful to get it done.
We met Peter for dinner and he showed us a few local services like other laundries, where to get cheap diesel, and the best bakery in town. He's been travelling these parts for seven years and house (and horse) sitting for friends, so he knows a bit about the place. We'll be staying in touch regarding potential travels in Turkey next year.
I wanted to wander the town streets again as they have such a great feel, but the throngs outside the churches made things slow going. Religious celebrations happen the night before the Feast of the Madonna, and the day of is for relaxing.
Click images to enlarge
Lefkas
Southern End of Lefkas Canal, near Ligia 12.7nm, 2hrs 15min
Wednesday August 15 - Friday 17
Wednesday August 15 - Friday 17
Wednesday morning we picked up our washing, walked through the quiet town, got fresh fish (not everyone takes the day off), and took off for Lefkas. Colin piped us out of the bay having reneged the previous two nights on his promise to play. Pete took a photo and shouted something, we think it was "Look out for the shallow water", but I had my eye on the depth gauge. Colin wasn't assured of this though and hit a bum note in anticipation of us running aground.
Lefkas is an island only because of the canal that separates it from the mainland. The present canal was built in the early 20th century by the Greek government, though earlier canals were dug by the Corinthians in 7th century BC and and by Augustus during the Roman occupation. Traversing the Lefkas canal was most interesting. We passed a floating bridge that has a section that is raised on the hour (between 0600 - 2100hrs) to let boat traffic through, or in summer swivels to lie parallel to the east bank, as was the case as we went through. We were lucky to jag it in our favour and were amongst many boats coming and going, while long lines of car traffic gathered waiting for the bridge to reconnect the island to the mainland.
As we passed through the town of Lefkas we saw AraKai moored against the town pier. We continued on through the canal to the southern end where we anchored near the small fishing village of Ligia. The bioluminescence that night was spectacular, the best I've seen this year! It looked like my feet were on fire and I swished them in the water creating thousands of tiny lights. I wish I could have captured it on film. I tried.
Thursday disaster struck, not in the form of a fabulous storm with thunder, lightening, torrential rain and wind gusts of 30kns, but because we ran out of internet data! 😱 This required emergency measures - a trip back up the canal to Lefkas to buy more, otherwise we might have had to talk to each other! How we could have chewed through 14GB of data in as many days was a mystery, until we looked up how much data "games" use. Oops. I'd been having a lovely time playing "Words with Friends" with my sister. So much for thinking I couldn't possibly be the culprit of sucking down all our data! Anyway, Lefkas was a delightful town, so I did us a favour really, and because we again foolishly believed an opening time on the Cosmote website of 1700hrs meant 1700hrs (whereas it really means 1800hrs) I had time for a Margherita before the internet shop opened. We bumped into Lachin and Ciara from AraKai and Lachin told us they had actually dragged on anchor against the pier during the morning storm and had to let go the stern ropes and motor out until the worst was over then reset the anchor. The system for mooring against piers is different here. You drop anchor whilst backing up to the pier then attach stern lines to the shore, so you don't have the security of being attached to a mooring block at the bow. You can still pull back on the anchor to make sure you're holding though, so he was surprised they dragged.
The town of Levkas lies on an earthquake belt and after the earthquake of 1953 was not rebuilt to any particular style, hence the chaotic but charming mishmash of brick and brightly painted quake-proof corrugated tin houses leaning over narrow streets.
We returned to our anchorage near Ligia and spent a peaceful night and the next morning took in the gorgeous town by paddle board. Whilst weighing anchor I heard a megaphone voice from a van driving the coast road advertising all the fruits he was selling. If only he'd come out in a dinghy!
Click images to enlarge
Lefkas is an island only because of the canal that separates it from the mainland. The present canal was built in the early 20th century by the Greek government, though earlier canals were dug by the Corinthians in 7th century BC and and by Augustus during the Roman occupation. Traversing the Lefkas canal was most interesting. We passed a floating bridge that has a section that is raised on the hour (between 0600 - 2100hrs) to let boat traffic through, or in summer swivels to lie parallel to the east bank, as was the case as we went through. We were lucky to jag it in our favour and were amongst many boats coming and going, while long lines of car traffic gathered waiting for the bridge to reconnect the island to the mainland.
As we passed through the town of Lefkas we saw AraKai moored against the town pier. We continued on through the canal to the southern end where we anchored near the small fishing village of Ligia. The bioluminescence that night was spectacular, the best I've seen this year! It looked like my feet were on fire and I swished them in the water creating thousands of tiny lights. I wish I could have captured it on film. I tried.
Thursday disaster struck, not in the form of a fabulous storm with thunder, lightening, torrential rain and wind gusts of 30kns, but because we ran out of internet data! 😱 This required emergency measures - a trip back up the canal to Lefkas to buy more, otherwise we might have had to talk to each other! How we could have chewed through 14GB of data in as many days was a mystery, until we looked up how much data "games" use. Oops. I'd been having a lovely time playing "Words with Friends" with my sister. So much for thinking I couldn't possibly be the culprit of sucking down all our data! Anyway, Lefkas was a delightful town, so I did us a favour really, and because we again foolishly believed an opening time on the Cosmote website of 1700hrs meant 1700hrs (whereas it really means 1800hrs) I had time for a Margherita before the internet shop opened. We bumped into Lachin and Ciara from AraKai and Lachin told us they had actually dragged on anchor against the pier during the morning storm and had to let go the stern ropes and motor out until the worst was over then reset the anchor. The system for mooring against piers is different here. You drop anchor whilst backing up to the pier then attach stern lines to the shore, so you don't have the security of being attached to a mooring block at the bow. You can still pull back on the anchor to make sure you're holding though, so he was surprised they dragged.
The town of Levkas lies on an earthquake belt and after the earthquake of 1953 was not rebuilt to any particular style, hence the chaotic but charming mishmash of brick and brightly painted quake-proof corrugated tin houses leaning over narrow streets.
We returned to our anchorage near Ligia and spent a peaceful night and the next morning took in the gorgeous town by paddle board. Whilst weighing anchor I heard a megaphone voice from a van driving the coast road advertising all the fruits he was selling. If only he'd come out in a dinghy!
Click images to enlarge
Mainland
Órmos Vahlo via Vathi-Vali 3nm, 2hrs
Friday August 17 - Saturday 18
Friday August 17 - Saturday 18
We cruised back to mainland Greece and found a lovely quiet spot called Vathi-Vali. Colin found no end of entertainment in a fleet of charter boats doing the dodgiest anchoring under the instruction of a dodgy group leader. He shook his head at them trying to back up to the rocks on a lee shore and marvelled at the huge clumps of seaweed they dragged on their anchors from one spot to the next, trying to find safe anchorage. I, on the other hand, am in no position to laugh since I nearly ran us aground in Preveza, AND did a donut in Lefkas in forward instead of reverse. Luckily no-one's relying on me to get them anywhere safely.
Órmos Vahlo via Órmos Palairos 37.6nm, 1hr 45min
Saturday August 18 - Sunday 19
Saturday August 18 - Sunday 19
Saturday we continued our explorations of the mainland, looking for nice anchorages for our return trip. Deciding to get a bit more practise in my navigation and boat handling skills I undertook the passage planning to the next bay, a whole 3nm away. Colin winched up the anchor and I set way points on the chart plotter and kept us afloat to Órmos Palairos. I asked Colin to go downstairs and make me a cup of tea since I was now the captain and that's a captain's privilege, and he told me to remember I was first mate and would forever be first mate and not to forget it! Hmph.
Órmos Palairos, whilst pretty, had a constant transmission of doof doof music from the distant shore. This we could have put up with were it not for a slick of diesel or petrol or some other unsavoury substance that started floating from upstream around 1700hrs. We quickly decided to up stumps and go back to Órmos Vahlo where we encountered more entertainment with yachties anchoring on top of us and the Hellenic Coast Guard coming in after a couple of guys on a jet ski. I had just gone in for a nude swim and Colin said they might arrest me if I came out naked. Doubtful, but I stayed in the water none the less, and as they were so close and taking so long I finally asked Colin to pass my bathers so I could come out!
Click images to enlarge
Órmos Palairos, whilst pretty, had a constant transmission of doof doof music from the distant shore. This we could have put up with were it not for a slick of diesel or petrol or some other unsavoury substance that started floating from upstream around 1700hrs. We quickly decided to up stumps and go back to Órmos Vahlo where we encountered more entertainment with yachties anchoring on top of us and the Hellenic Coast Guard coming in after a couple of guys on a jet ski. I had just gone in for a nude swim and Colin said they might arrest me if I came out naked. Doubtful, but I stayed in the water none the less, and as they were so close and taking so long I finally asked Colin to pass my bathers so I could come out!
Click images to enlarge
Lefkas
Órmos Vlikho 5.4nm, 1hr 30min
Sunday August 19 - Monday 20
Sunday August 19 - Monday 20
Back to Lefkas where we checked out Tranquil Bay (I'm sure it was once) then headed further south into the bay of Vlikho, home of the extreme weather event of September 2011 when a hurricane force squall hit parts of the bay wreaking havoc on land and water. Vlikho is, after all, known as a hurricane hole in the area. The bay was highly picturesque, nestled in amongst wooded slopes and with plenty of space to anchor away from other yachts.
There was a strip of tavernas quite close to us and we chose the nearest and busiest, Taverna Elena, for dinner, during which we had many visitors. Firstly some fish that come to the surface at a certain time, the waiter said to breathe but it suspect it's more about feeding. Quite strange. Then wasps by the dozen, the same 'common wasps' we encountered in Croatia that don't sting and rarely land, but I was sure I was going to accidentally swallow one as they buzzed around our heads and meals. The waiter brought an ashtray of burning coffee grounds as a deterrent, for us or them I'm not sure. They we had a young lad start fishing next to us. He was pulling out fish as soon as he dropped his line in, and didn't the cats know it! They sidled up and rubbed themselves against him, no doubt trying to curry favour, but he stamped his foot at them as soon as he caught anything. The fish were tiddlers, barely big enough to feed a cat anyway. I was hoping they were being used as bait by his brother Spiro who was further up fishing with a rod. And lastly there were of course the obligatory cats around our ankles, including a tiny kitten. Very cute but I wasn't allowed to bring it back with us, though we saw the dinghy next to ours had a stow away as we left the dock.
Taverna Elena, we noticed, had showers and laundry facilities. Laundry was €4 a load, done by staff, and the shower was €2 euros coin op, but as I just had a shower and washed my hair two weeks ago this didn't seem necessary.
Click images to enlarge
There was a strip of tavernas quite close to us and we chose the nearest and busiest, Taverna Elena, for dinner, during which we had many visitors. Firstly some fish that come to the surface at a certain time, the waiter said to breathe but it suspect it's more about feeding. Quite strange. Then wasps by the dozen, the same 'common wasps' we encountered in Croatia that don't sting and rarely land, but I was sure I was going to accidentally swallow one as they buzzed around our heads and meals. The waiter brought an ashtray of burning coffee grounds as a deterrent, for us or them I'm not sure. They we had a young lad start fishing next to us. He was pulling out fish as soon as he dropped his line in, and didn't the cats know it! They sidled up and rubbed themselves against him, no doubt trying to curry favour, but he stamped his foot at them as soon as he caught anything. The fish were tiddlers, barely big enough to feed a cat anyway. I was hoping they were being used as bait by his brother Spiro who was further up fishing with a rod. And lastly there were of course the obligatory cats around our ankles, including a tiny kitten. Very cute but I wasn't allowed to bring it back with us, though we saw the dinghy next to ours had a stow away as we left the dock.
Taverna Elena, we noticed, had showers and laundry facilities. Laundry was €4 a load, done by staff, and the shower was €2 euros coin op, but as I just had a shower and washed my hair two weeks ago this didn't seem necessary.
Click images to enlarge