You are probably wondering why the dates of the title don't match the date posted. But then again maybe your not. I'll tell you anyway. We've been stuck somewhere in the Ionian in a storm with no access to phone or internet so hence no posts. I will not spoil the story with where we actually are now and instead drip feed you with the exploits of the last two weeks eating at least 3 spit roasted pigs, surviving head splitting impacts and consuming the usual small amounts of Mythos and the odd Ouzo.
...so back to the story. Last time I wrote, we were on a small "catwalk" for the Karnayio taverna in Little Vathi. It turned out to be not a bad place. The food was very pleasant, the water good enough to swim in (ie clear enough) and they had lecky for 5 Euro a night. The plus side was there were no rats - as we had been told it was overrun with them. I really doubt this as they had a large number of cats around the taverna so I cant see many rats surviving.
We left Karnayio on Sunday morning to head down to Sivota with about 10-15knts of wind coming from the south. For the first time in god knows how long, we sailed all the way (apart from the getting in an out bit). We actually beat all the way including short tacking down the Meganisi channel. We won all the races we had. The first was against China Blue who managed to hold on (just) until the short tacking started and then they gave up and motored on the pretext that they had to furl the headsail to tack. The second race was a little longer because the two sunsail boats were half a mile ahead. It was no contest really and in half an hour we were well past them. They did have 3 big disadvantages. Firstly they were Bavarias so couldn't point too well. Secondly I was helming (obvious really). Thirdly, they were only 32 foot!
We got into Sivota just before 1pm so it was reasonably empty - apart from the masses of Sailing Holidays boats on their weekend turnaround. We eyed up a slot on the key in front of Yannis taverna (almost the last one on the south west side of the bay. Now usually, someone from the taverna comes out and takes your lines and says "welcome to my taverna, here are the showers, my supermarket etc etc" which is code for you must come and eat here. This time however - zip. No one. No one the slightest bit interested that Grand Slam (two up) needed someone to take our ropes. We went round and round half a dozen times and still no one came - despite Yannis himself sitting at the front of the Taverna. Oh Really I thought.
Spying two passers by, we motored in stern first and threw them the ropes. No problem. Ten minutes later Tony and Margaret came in with China Blue and we tied up for a few nights. Yannis supermarket was expensive and given the lack of help we decided not to eat there. More of this in the next post.
Highlight of the day was Tony who decided to clean out his rear locker as some oil had leaked. Now being a big boat, it has big lockers with big lids and big hinges. Tony managed to clonk himself on one of them and needed a few running repairs.
It is amazing how a small cut on the head could produce so much blood!! Cue
a nice bandage and a lot of sympathy.
That night we ate in the taverna with the funny guy (with a bit of a stoop) with the great patter. It is just past the one that claims to be the only one with no roof terrace. Now I realise this won't mean a lot to most of you back home, but if anyone is actually following in our footsteps, it may mean something. It was a good meal and it was a nice setting overlooking the now very crowded bay. There were at least another 6 or 7 tavernas to try but that will have to be left for another day. Tony's head was feeling a little better so we finished the night off with a couple of Ouzo's - the first of many.
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