Wednesday 31st August
Yesterday, whilst sailing from the beautiful geology of Atokos to Kastos Island, Rhonda tried to catch us a nice fish-dinner (top-right), but unfortunately the fish had other plans for that night.
This morning we left the port of Kastos on Kastos Island and went back to the bay of Pothoni for some more snorkelling and lunch. At last the lovely little bay gave up one of its underwater biological treasures and provided Francis with a fairly good macro photo of the extended polyps of a colony of moss-animals (Bryozoans, species Myriapora truncate, top-left photo) he has been banging on about! Maybe we can put it to rest now (but we doubt it).

We set the sails and headed for Meganisi, an island just South of the (now) island of Levkas. We pulled into Port Atheni and dropped anchor for the night. We sat back and watched a flotilla of 13 yachts come in, full of English families in holiday mode, and tying up to the small rickety catwalk-like pontoon of the modern taverna. While enjoying our sundowners (Chris and Rhonda were floating in the water at that stage) we were well entertained by the English holiday makers. The flotilla leader tied four paddle boards nose to tail (bottom-right photo) and they all lined up and attempted to run across them. The younger ones mastered it immediately, while the mums and dads caused much laughter as they slipped and slided half way across board number one before landing in the water, some more graciously than others.

Thursday 1 September
Rhonda is partaking in 'Steptember', a fundraiser for cerebral palsy where she has to make 10,000 steps per day. This is a good thing for Chris to get moving on a more regular basis. So Chris and Rhonda were up early and rowed Cloe ashore to step it out over the hills. Then back to Clio for a swim and breakfast before raising the anchor and heading off to Vathi where we needed to fill up with water. Our options were to go to the quay in Vathi or to use the pontoon (and water) of the local Karnagio restaurant, we opted for the last. We filled up Clio's water tanks for €3.00 got shore power for €5.00, and use the washing machine for another €5.00. Instead of paying mooring fees we are supposed to eat in the restaurant, so no cooking tonight, what a shame . The three of us had a very nice meal and drinks for the grand total of €45.00, cannot complain about that. And we got to wash all the bed linen and a load of clothes.

More walking for Chris and Rhonda later to get that step tally up, walking over the hill into town to get some supplies. After all that walking it was time for a well-deserved reward of yummy waffle, ice-cream, yoghurt and very fresh fruit with our morning coffee, eat your heart out skipper (left to hold the floating ford).

Friday September 2
Another early morning walk for the girls this morning over the hills with lovely views and lots of olive and gum trees along the way. After breakfast it was time to move on again, this time direction Levkas on the island of Levkada. Skipper needed to pick up some stuff he ordered from the local chandlery there and maybe stay the night. To get to Levkas from the South, you need to motor through a 5km long and often quite narrow channel cutting across the wetlands that separate Levkada from the mainland. Levkada has a history dating back to the Corinthians, seven centuries BC. They started to dig the channel that now separates Levkada from the mainland. It was involved in the Persian wars, the Peloponnesian, was raided by pirates repeatedly. It was conquered by the Romans, crusaders, came under the Franks rule around the end of the 13th century AC. The Sicilians were next, followed by the Ottoman Turks (1684) and the Venetians until the end of the 18th century when Napoleon had a go at Venice and the French state inherited Lefkada. They were booted out by an allied force of Turks, Russians and English when it became part of the Ionian State, which failed in 1807 and Lefkada came under French rule again. The English occupied the island in 1810 until 1864 after which it became part of the newly created Greek State. Freely interpreted from http://www.greeka.com/ionian/lefkada/lefkada-history.htm.
I hope you got this as there will be an exam later on.

On our way there, we motored past the island of Skorpios which once belonged to Aristotle Onassis and into the Lefkas canal through marshy wetlands to reach the town of Lefkas. On arrival at this very busy port there was no room to tie up to the town quay so we motored out and were able to tie up to the roadside. Francis headed into town to collect our delivery of oil and engine filters and other odds and sods from the very well stocked Nautilus chandlery to keep Cleo in good nick. Vassilis from Nautilus was VERY helpful in getting all bits and pieces together and even arranged for Francis to be driven back to Clio. On his return we decided to move on as there was traffic whizzing past and petrol fumes wafting over us.
To leave the canal we have to wait for the floating bridge that connects Lefkada with the mainland to open which according to the pilot happens every hour on the hour. So at 2.50 we motored slowly into the channel towards the bridge. Along with two other yachts we then hovered back and forth across the channel waiting for the siren to indicate that the bridge would swing open. We waited and we waited. After one hour, at last the siren sounded, the traffic stopped and the bridge was moving. So apparently today, at least, the opening was every hour except 3.00. Gotta love the Greek way!
During our wait while cruising very slowly up and down the channel our Volvo Penta engine's MDI (Mechanical Diesel Interface) started to complain that the alternator (generates electricity when the engine is running) was not charging the batteries. This is the second time (first time back in Varthi on Ithaca) this happens, so it needs to be looked into.... later.

Back out of the marshes we were in the open sea and making our way to Preveza, a town on the mainland, hoping for a more pleasant mooring than along the roadside.

One hour later we were making our way through the first set of channel markers we have seen on our travels into the town quay of Preveza. It is very nice here, although the night life is a little noisy. Chris and Rhonda went for a stroll ashore to explore a little. Back on Clio we were visited by a Greek man with his mobile shop on his motor bike, selling eggs, honey and black olives. Unable to resist fresh produce at a bargain price, Chris purchased olives and eggs, and of course, got chatting about his world travels and the Greek crisis. He also told us about farmers markets happening tomorrow morning, which are well worth a visit.
We finished another great day with great home-made Spanokopita. Chris is getting to the Master-Spanakopita-Chef level.

Saturday September 3
Rhonda and Chris set off on their morning trek again making their way along the coastline and finding nice beaches and leafy wooded walkways leading them to a very old fortress which would have been a great tourist attraction at some time in the past. Wandering through the back streets and following older people with their shopping trolleys, they found the farmers markets and stocked up on grapes, apples, nectarines, onions, garlic, zucchinis and beans for the princely sum of €5.00. ($7.50). Skipper is engaged in replacing fuel and oil filters and doing an oil change on Clio's diesel engine. The first tests to find the battery charging problem come up negatively, the alternator does deliver a nice 14.25 Volts and the battery isolator is doing its job delivering this voltage to the starter battery.

Today Francis has to visit the marina on the other side of the bay to collect another parcel we are expecting from our friend Harris from Athens. One of the items he has been able to source is a push button to replace the starter button for the engine which is intermittently playing up. So as he goes across to the marina in the free water taxi, Chris is set the challenge of finding a minimum 5 litre bottle to take the old oil. After not being able to purchase a 5 litre bottle of water, she figured that one of the fast food places must have empty oil bottles or some such thing in their trash. At the first cafe she visited and after some sign language attempting to explain what was required one of the ladies disappeared out the back of the shop and returned with an empty plastic 12 litre bleach container, perfect.

Francis returned minus the parcel which is maybe at the Cleopatra-controlled Marina on this side of the bay, but with 60 metres of the nice yellow floating line that we have been hunting for a while now to replace the very heavy line used as land lines, and an updated version of the Pilot Guide. Next item to find is a new WiFi pocket modem as a spare for our rapidly aging one. The Cosmote shop staff shrug their shoulders, sorry maybe next week. We've been hearing that often and know that it is never 'next week'.

After lunch Chris and Rhonda walked around the point to the beach for a swim and soon struck up a conversation with a couple of older Greek men with limited English. He could see that we were interested in the fishing technique of a few guys fishing from the end of an old boat ramp and he kindly explained to us what was happening. They secure a live female fish to a line attached to a float and swim her out about 100 metres and then two men work a couple of lines while waiting for the male fish to chase the female fish in close to them where they then throw a cast net out and catch him. Well that was the theory but all the time we were, the male fish managed to elude the net. Maybe the female was not quite attractive enough? The men also told us that tonight at 9.00 there will be Latin dancers at the other end of the town quay, so we plan to take a stroll and watch.

We returned to Clio in time to watch the finish of a 10 kilometre run along the quay in front of us. The kids came through first and then a couple of hours later it was the adults turn, we stood and clapped and cheered the 300 + runners on to the finish line.

It was then time to introduce Rhonda to the taste of Greek pita gyros for dinner. Very good filling meal for the grand total of €9.60 ($12.90) for the three of us, including a big bottle of water.

By then it was time to seek out the Latin dancers so after leaving Francis back at Clio we first visited the gelato shop and getting a Ferrerro Rocher for Chris and a bounty ice-creams for Rhonda we joined the Greek promenade along the quay. We reached the end of the quay and no sign of Latin dancers sadly so we turned back. Happily for us on the way back we spotted dancers in Greek traditional dress dancing in a small restaurant so we ducked in to take photos and Rhonda jumped onto the tail of the line and danced for a bit and we got a photo of her with one of the dancers. Another great day.

Sunday 4th September
Early start this morning as we head back out through the channel to make our way to Andipaxos. With a little wind we managed to motor sail to a bay on the north east side of the island that was full of boats of all shapes and sizes. We managed to squeeze into a spot in Voutoumi Beach which was littered with other boats (how dare they ) and drop anchor long enough for a swim and some lunch. Voutoumi Beach apparently has the bluest water in Greece, so we all enjoyed a great swim (bottom-left photo). Rhonda and Chris enjoyed barbecued corn on the cob that Rhonda bought from one of the many corn vendors on the quay last night.

After lunch we continued our way further north to Lakka on the island of Paxos with Rhonda taking the helm (mid-bottom), under the guidance of skipper, for the last half hour and successfully steering us into the bay while under sail. We anchored at the bay's entrance at just the right time, as the bay soon filled with yachts.

Monday 5th September
We're still anchored in Lakka on Paxos and Francis took Chris and Rhonda ashore this morning so they could do their morning walk and explore this very pretty harbour. They walked up the hill to get a very nice view of the bay and then back into the village to do some souvenir shopping. On their return, the wind was picking up, so skipper wanted to get out of here before the predicted strong southerly winds tonight. So we headed to a sheltered anchorage (called Blue Lagoon or Paradise Beach in the tourist brochures) over on the mainland, behind the island of Sivota. This is a very pretty spot with a small beach which is crowded with day trippers and has a swimming area marked off with a string of plastic buoys, to keep boats out of the area. After we had dropped anchor, Chris and Francis went for a snorkel through the small caves in the rock wall.

As we were settling for the night the wind had started to pick up so skipper spent the night in the centre cabin in case he needed to get out in a hurry, especially as the wind was coming from the North and not from the predicted South, blowing us straight onto the beach if the anchor would fail. At around 2.00 a.m the storm hit so there was no sleep happening while the lightening flashed and the thunder crashed around us. By 5.00 a.m. Francis realised we had a problem as we were dragging towards the beach. Chris pointed out that we were tangled in the plastic buoys that had wrapped around our anchor chain and around Clio. So with Chris holding the torch Francis managed to cut most of the tangled ropes and free us. Chris was then bringing up the anchor only to see that more buoys and rope were twisted around the chain, as she was telling Francis the chain jumped off the toothed anchor roller setting it free to potentially run out all 80m of chain. Luckily Chris was able to hold it with the tangled rope long enough for Francis to come forward and put it back on the roller and cut more of the rope. As the anchor came up we then discovered that it was bringing up with it the concrete slab the size of an umbrella stand (which it actually was) that had been the anchor for the buoys. So Francis was again back out front to cut that free, but we had drifted very close to another yacht and another alarmed skipper was rudely awakened by our yelling over the storm noise and came out just in time to hold us off while Francis quickly reversed us out of there before any damage was done.

At last we were free of the tangled mess and the water was littered with little yellow buoys. Skipper then decided it best to wait another 30 minutes for daybreak so we could re-anchor when we could see where we were going. So we just coasted a safe distance away from any land and shallows and Chris went below for a nice hot cup of tea. Meanwhile Rhonda had opted to stay in her cabin hiding under the covers waiting for it all to blow over. Smart move!

Tuesday 6th September
At sunrise we moved further in past the island into the bay of Mourtos/Sivota to spend the rest of the day sleeping, reading and playing cards inside while the rain poured outside.

Wednesday 7th September
Finally the sky is clearing and we can see the sun again. Francis took Chris and Rhonda ashore in Cloe to stretch the legs. Once we got into the town quay and saw that there were many vacant spots we decided that we should bring Clio in and tie up so that skipper could have a good night's sleep after two sleepless nights. Leaving Rhonda ashore to explore a bit Chris and Francis went back out and brought Clio in.

Rhonda and Chris then walked out to the ferry harbour where a big group of motor bike cruisers had come in on their very large elaborate Honda bikes to get some photos of the impressive machines. It was then time to enjoy a coffee and we treated ourselves to a very delicious lunch in the nearby Italian restaurant. Chris and Rhonda then wandered around the village checking out the shops and doing some more souvenir shopping. We also managed to have a swim at the beach around the corner before the weather got bad again, while Francis had some well-earned sleep.

Back on Clio Rhonda prepared chick pea soup for our dinner and we were entertained by the waiter named Andreas in the bamboo cafe in front of Clio. He almost runs back and forth with his tray offering all the customers free shots and announcing to all and sundry what type of drink he is serving while encouraging passers-by to come in and have a drink. Fun to watch.

Thursday 8th September
More wet and windy weather today so we have opted to stay put and hope to be able to go to Korfu tomorrow. Another lovely walk exploring the other side of the bay for Chris and Rhonda this morning and a little more shopping, before spending the rest of the day doing odd jobs and falling asleep at inappropriate times. Lovely!