Liz and Ju left this morning to catch the ferry across to Patras and then on to Athens by bus so we are back now to two of us. We've decided to stop here in the harbour in Sami for at least a couple of days to get the laundry done and have a rest before we head east to the gulf of Patras.
We arrived here yesterday around 11 ish to try and get a berth inside the harbour rather than be stuck on the outside of the harbour wall and were lucky to get in. There were only a couple of slots available with Arwen (Jacky & Rob) taking the last one. It is really well protected in here but the poor guys on the outside wall get thrown around when the ferries come in and probably when the wind blows (although it was very quiet yesterday). There is free wifi from one of the cafes that we can reach from the boat so I will try and post some pics tomorrow.
One job on arrival was to pull the log out from the bottom of the boat for a clean as we have not had boat speed (hence true wind speed/angle) for a while. It worked for a week after the bottom was cleaned in Corfu and again for a few days when I put the tank and gear on and went under the boat last weekend but it needed pulling and a good clean. Hopefully it will work for a few months now.
We had a final meal with Liz and Ju last night in Faros restaurant (on the front) which was good and not too expensive. Typical tourist type food.
Since the last post when we were in Argostoli, we have again been limited in wifi connections hence the gap in updating the blog. We left Argostoli on Thursday (I think!!) and headed anti clockwise round Kefalonia to Poros. The doom and gloom book makes Poros out to be a poor place to stop but they have now built a new breakwater for the ferry and this gives much more room in the harbour - and good protection - which we needed as we arrived in 25knts of wind with a significant swell. We didn't go ashore as we were eating on board but I would give Poros an 8/10.
We then sailed up to an anchorage just south of Vathi on Ithaca for the night and then to Vathi itself for a couple of nights anchored in the bay. We then continued anticlockwise round Ithaca and anchored for one night in the Ithaca straights - about 5 miles south of Fiscardo. That was a really nice anchorage once the wind had died down. We got there about 3 ish and anchored near the beach but the wind got up to 25knts and changed direction by 180 degrees a couple of times. We were in 12 metres of water but the anchor held - unlike a Greek boat under the command of Mr Universe (an "in" joke from Liz and Ju - he had very brief swimming trunks and obviously worked out a bit).......anyway I digress - Mr Universe's boat started to drag, he came on deck and spent a good 10 minutes adjusting his bimini. When he was around 100 metres further away, he noticed the world had just moved 100 metres to the west yet he had stayed still. This puzzled him for around 10 minutes and then he shrugged his shoulders and went back to adjusting the bimini. The anchor did hold and he spent the night a bit further away form us than he started.
On the bus tour we did last week from Argostoli, we bought a new tuna lure which we were assured would catch some fish. Named big Jimmy, Liz trawled him all around Kefalonia and Ithaca and guess what? Not a smell of a woolly mammoth .....or any fish. Pam had the Cob barbecue poised for action but zip! All our hopes had been placed on Liz's phenomenal skills as a fisherperson. It was a great laugh having Liz and Ju on board and we did spend many a warm evening over a few Mythos with our sides splitting. Quote of the week from the Liz/Ju double act came when Ju was trying to crush a beer can and open a rubbish bin at the same time - and Liz responds "what, you can't multitask? I'll have to send you back to the agency" "Oh Really" Ju replies. I must tell you the "Oh Really" joke one of these days.
More tomorrow.
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