SV ICE BEAR

omg why has no one told me pool noodles are so awesome.
We left the pirates behind and returned to Argostoli to meet up with our third crew member.We arrived fairly early in the day which was good planning because the quay started to fill. By the
next day the wharfenger couldn't stuff more boats on the wall plus he had 14 hanging on anchors in the bay. He said that to his knowledge they had never filled the Quay before and it looked like it was going to be full for at least the next week. He said that he had boats calling ahead for space and he wasn't sure where everyone was going to go. We stayed for 5 days to give our new crew member a day or two to explore and acclimatize to the heat. Our new crew member likes to cook and wont be passing up the opportunity to cook greek food
with local greek ingredients which i think is a win win proposition mmmmm. By the time we left the wharfenger normally a
really chill guy was starting to look a little stressed. The next stop was back to Sami for the night then a day trip to Fisgardo. Fisgardo is the quintessential tourist town. It survived the earthquake of 1953 that leveled most of the towns in the areas so the buildings are old the roads are more like little alleys and they are lined by cute shops with most of the restaurants along the sea wall all very civilized until dododooooo....
The early afternoon when the boats start arriving then its pure chaos anchors dropping over each other, boats leaning into its closest neighbour dislodging already set anchors. Cant you just hear the yelling and in so many languages. Some of the charter companies had guys in dingys working with their boats which really helped. When we were returning from a walk to the ruins of a chapel and a old light house we witnessed our new neighbour using us like a big fender by the time we had returned with the dingy they had sorted their anchoring out but the next 5 boats where already looking for their spot for the night this was our cue to pull up and make our way to Nidri the very first place we stayed after leaving Cleopatra marina over two months ago.
The weather forecast was for big wind, rain and lightning and we had already learned Nidri was the place to be for that. The storm arrived as we sat in a local taverna just finishing dinner.
The dingy ride back to the boat was a little wet and we could hear a horn warning someone their boat wasn't anchored as well as they had hoped. Fingers crossed it didn't hit anything.
the lightning was really kewl and the weird way the clouds circled over the mountains and into the bay was really neat to watch. There was some rain not like the storm in june but still enough
to rejuvenate the greenery on land. The next morning we dingied to Nidri and split up two of us went shopping and one stayed behind at the boat store ( you have no idea how scary leaving someone alone in a boat store is ). We wandered around the town for almost and hour and a half finding the provisions for the next few days we even found a frozen bottle of water to put in the freezer bag of meat. The butcher store was interesting we didn't see any ground beef so we asked if they sold any. We were told of course we sell that how much do you want then the butcher asked if we wanted it mixed with anything. In the end we asked for a beef pork mix. She then went into the freezer and brought out two pieces of meat and proceeded to grind it several times. How kewl is that made to order burger. Upon returning to the dingy we realized the outboard didn't have a prop great... We unloaded our little shopping cart (one of the best purchases ever) and went to the boat store where we left our third. He was almost finished shopping he had a new prop, impellers, filters, led light bulbs and two new sheets 16 meters each. Seems we weren't the only ones stocking up for the trip north. Once the shopping was done and the weather report checked we left Nidri for a quick trip to Maganisi. I love this place stern tie to the beach. Well a tree on the beach. listen to the cicadas chirp, look at the fish in the water and then for some dive in for others slowly lower themselves into the water trying to get past all the spots that don't like temperature changes. I may have mentioned I don't really float well but we remembered there were pool noodles in the forward locker. Omg I love pool noodles. why didn't someone tell me about these things. They float for you all you need to do is hold on you can even ride them like a seahorse. It was pretty much a perfect day swimming, good food, a game of trains. no night clubs or passing cars no disco pirates oohh and to make it better we were staying for two days so sleep in and repeat. Day two in Maganisi started with a swim then we slowly prepared to go to shore to walk to the town of Vathi. we piled into the dingy and motored into the next little bay where there was two docks. We picked one and tied then walked to the corresponding restaurant and had lunch the food was good and there was shade. After lunch we walked up a hill then back down the other side to get to Vathi maybe a 15 min walk. Vathi is a basic small town with a quay side. Then we walked back to the dingy and drove back to the boat for some down time before more swims and a repeat of the night before. For tomorrow we start the run north