With a forecast for strong north-westerly winds for a couple of days, we headed over to Vathy, Ithaca to nestle into the north-east corner where we knew we would have good protection. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the tavern owner there who had cordoned off the area for a 'flotilla reservation'! We were not sure he had the authority to do that but didn't want a standoff so reverted to Plan B - anchor out. We've sat out many a blow here and knew that we would be ok but not to be able to get off the boat for a couple of days is a bit of a bore, especially in August! Once the wind had passed through, we made the most of our time there with a hot hike over to Sarakiniko Bay for the day to swim in the cool, crystal waters and then sun ourselves on the white pebble beach. It had a definite bohemian feel to the place with groups of friends camping out under the olive trees, a couple of driftwood shelters built on the beach and a few naked bodies around - not our's!

Back in Vathy, we enjoyed a delicious dinner of roast suckling pig before heading around the corner to what we call 'Dolphin Fish Bay', because it was here, 4 years ago that a Dolphin Fish followed us out of the bay. The weather had calmed down and we enjoyed a few days at anchor in one of our most favourite places and had a beach BBQ where we cooked what we thought were pork ribs but which turned out to be pork belly. Not quite the same thing but a nice surprise if you like BBQ pork belly! The next day, a boat came into the bay to see what it was all about and asked Nigel if we'd stayed there the previous night. He told them that we had and that we'd had a BBQ there too. They were surprised to hear that as they had stayed in Vathy, literally the other side of the hill to where we were and where it had been blowing hard again.

Whilst enjoying the scenery and peace and quiet of the bay, a 56 foot catamaran came into the bay, determined to take the spot next to Nigel. On board was a middle-aged London trio of a guy and two women who had bought the boat new over the winter having been on one in the Caribbean the previous year. They had absolutely no clue whatsoever about dropping the anchor, taking stern lines to the shore, or even safe manoeuvring. Our afternoon reverie was interrupted by shouts from the guy, who had swam ashore with lines but who then spent an age trying to put his rubber shoes on so that he wouldn't hurt his feet on the rocks rather than dealing with the more immediate task of securing his boat to the land so that it wouldn't hit Nigel's boat. As their large boat got very close to Maelduin, the whole bay heard, in a loud London accent 'Put it in forward you stupid idiot', to his wife as she then went full blast forward with smoke spurting out of the exhaust! They got there in the end, thanks to some help from Nigel and no sooner were his new neighbours settled when he heard the guy shout, 'I need the toilet'. A few minutes later, the contents of the toilet were then being pumped out into the water! Nigel immediately shouted over for them to stop and learnt that the toilet holding tank was full and they didn't know which knob to turn to use it properly. 'How many toilets have you got on board?' Nigel asked. '5', they replied. 'Then use one that isn't full and then get the manual out and read about how it all works,' was Nigel's suggestion. They then spent some time pouring over boat manuals and nothing else was seen floating in the water! When you consider that it was a big catamaran that must have cost around £1.5m, it does make you wonder. The joys of sailing.