Grand Slam

Tuesday 6th October – Messolonghi

After six nights of eating spit roasted suckling pig and other Greek delights (including the now almost obligatory pork chop topped with two fried eggs) it was time to leave Kioni and head back to our winter berth in Messolonghi. The forecast for Tuesday (29^th Sept) looked fine – apart from a severe lack of wind – although the upside was that it was not blowing against us! We got up at the ungodly hour of 8am and upped anchor at 9am after lots of hugs and kisses with Tony and Margaret. ...that is with Margaret ...not Tony ....except Pam gave Tony hugs and kisses ...oh I give up.

Yes, we left around 9ish with the anchor coming up no problem. It had been playing up a bit over the past six weeks – the dog clutch not engaging properly I think – me being an expert on windlasses you see! It will have to be stripped down this winter – then I will be an expert.

The sail motor over to Messolonghi was uneventful with the wind virtually non-existent until we got within a few miles of our destination and then it picked up to 15 knots in time to park the boat as usual. We managed to squeeze into a small spot on the pontoon that we had asked for a berth on (just by the office building).

So that was our sailing over for this year. We are now safely tucked up in Messolonghi marina to enjoy another winter on the boat.  Now those of you who have been following the plot for the last few months will know that Messolonghi is not a real marina .....yet! It is in the process of evolving and it is great to be here at the start. It looks like there will be between 10-20 liveaboard boats here and the parties have started already.

Last Sunday was our first ad hoc BBQ orgainised by Jean and Bill on Soleil sans fin. Almost 50 people turned up for a great afternoon. We are getting to know the new neighbours – that’s Bryn on the bike intent on knocking everyone down on his new bike. Shore power has not yet quite reached our pontoon but at least the power company have all the bits installed. Dave on Cape (Bryn’s father who we bumped into in Villasimius on Sardinia earlier in the year and hails from Wales) has kindly let us hook into his generator to keep us topped up.  There is water on each pontoon now and the toilets and showers are functioning well. Once the power is up and running the plan is to take over the office block as our clubhouse. Poor Yannis and Jo (the owners) won’t know what has hit them. We've started a vhf net 3 times a week on channel 09.

We had one deep depression pass through last weekend which brought wind and rain. It was blowing a good F7 overnight Friday from the south east yet the boat hardly moved at all with excellent protection this end of the marina. Other than that the weather has been great with daytime temps in the high 20’s and dropping to around 20 C overnight. It is still T shirt and shorts most of the time.

Steve and June on Piper are due back on Thursday so it will be good to see them again.

Although we are here now for the winter, I will try and summarise our trip this year in the next few days and announce the winners of the various competitions I havent told you about but have secretly been working on. Who will win the "oh really marina of the year award"? You will have to wait until next time.

Monday 28th September - Kioni ....still!!

Now if you have been keeping up with the plot, you will have realised that these posts are a good week behind where we actually are - and I'm not going to tell you where that is as it would give the game away. Nothing like a bit of suspense then!

Well last Monday we were still stuck in Kioni. We arrived about 5 days before with the wind picking up from the east and driving some swell into the harbour. It felt fine when we arrived but by Thursday  night the wind cranked itself up to a good F7 making Kioni a rather bumpy place to be.

The picture above is Kioni on a calm day! This is a bit of a cheat as it was taken first time we were in in August when Liz and Ju were on board. Note the large saltire - that's us!! This trip however went from bad to worse. By Friday not only did the wind keep up it's easterly blow, it clouded over and the heavens opened. It rained hard for 36 hours - time to dig out the long sleved shirts and long trousers for the first time in 3 months!! We were parked on the main key - pretty much where we were in the picture so out of the really choppy stuff. The boats on this side did not do so well. By Saturday, the place was rather empty. All in all it was weather equivalent to a good summer in Scotland.

Most of the tavernas were still open so we spent each evening trying out different ones although I think we managed to eat in the one that does the spit roasted sucking pig 3 times. Once again if you don't know the place this will be meaningless - you will just have to try and get over here. The downsides of Kioni are that it is a bit isolated between big hills so no signal on my Greek vodaphone PAYG phone and only a very slow internet connection in one of the bars. There was also no hole in the wall to extract money from so we almost ran out of cash.

Given the wind direction, we gave up on our plans to head the 6 mile south to Vathi which although better protected than Kioni meant us going out into the waves. We have given up doing that so we just had to sample more of the spit roasted sucking pig.

By Sunday the rain stopped and by Monday the wind had both dropped and turned northerly so again the place returned to it's normall busy self with the hoards of charter boats returning. Once again the temperatures were back up to 25 deg C + and the sun shinning. It had been a pretty awful week weather wise and there must have been some pretty depressed holiday makers out for just a weeks sailing.

Our plan was to head back to Messolonghi on Tuesday as there was some northerly wind forecast and tie up for the winter and say goodbye to Tony and Margaret on China Blue who were heading back up to Preveza to have the boat lifted. More in a day or so.

Wednesday 23rd September - Kioni

....now where were we? Oh yes, Sivota. Moored up stern too outside Yannis' taverna. Remember it was the one we hadn't eaten in 'cause he didn't take our ropes, his supermarket was expensive and he kept having flottilas in filling his taverna in the evenings.

Anyway we had a lazy day on Monday and another nice meal in the taverna that boasts it is the only one without a roof terrace. This was probably the best of the tavernas in Sivota. On Tuesday we decided to go out for a day sail - ie get the sails up! In the end, only Tony came out with Pam and I with Margaret stopping on China Blue. We had a great sail for a couple of hours with 15knts of wind before it died and we motored back in.

....and then all hell broke loose! While we were out, Yannis who runs the taverna that we were parked outside had taken the opportunity with Tony not on his boat, of parking another charter boat across the front of China Blue and blocking him in with a lazy line(?). Margaret had asked him to move it but he ignored her. Obviously he was very upset with all these boats parking in front of his taverna without using the facilities - well bad luck Yannis - that's what you get when you dont welcome boats in and take their lines and then offer a piss-poor service.

When we got back in Tony asked him politely to move the boat and then got a real tirade of abuse from Yannis - who ended up screaming at the top of his voice up and down the keyside and threatening Tony. Would you go to a Taverna run by a guy like that? We heard later that he had had a go at someone on another boat earlier that day. Rather than move, we decided to stay for another day to annoy Yannis even more. Tony later told us that Yannis taverna is one of the oldest in Sivota and for many years was the one to go to. He is now not best positioned with all the other Tavernas situated in the best bit and his business is suffering. Rather than find out why, he resorts to shouting. Great way to get punters back! Way to go Yannis! We won't eat in your place when we go back next year. At least half a dozen boats said "well done" to Tony after the event - and even a couple of days later when we got to Kioni (there - I've given away were we went to next!!!!!)  so we are not the only ones with a poor view of the man prat.

With all the excitment over, we ate in yet another different Taverna and had yet another good meal. 5 days was enough though and the wind was due to go easterly so we headed off on Wednesday morning to head for Kioni. Plan was to stay there for a couple of days and then head to Vathi before making our way back to Messolonghi.

We tried to sail the 15 miles to Ithaca but the wind did not oblige so on with the engine - yet again. The wind got up just as we arrived outside Vathi and we saw Mike and Sue on Kingfisher leaving the harbour just as we arrived. They were bouncing up and down as they got out of the bay - maybe we should have paid attention as the waves only got worse over the next week!!

We moored up ok in Kioni ("stern to" as the quay was low down - and it would have been a struggle getting over the bow). China Blue arrived an hour later and moored up next to us. By 5pm the place was full and we settled down to another lazy afternoon and evening in glorious sunshine with yet another cold beer in hand. It wasn't going to last ..... but you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out why.......