Our final Blue Water Rally outing was a trip to the island of Spinalonga, a spectacular island only half a mile from the mainland still containing the ruins of a once massive Venetian fortress. It has had a very mixed - and sad - history. The fortress was built in the 1500s and it withstood the onslaught of the Turks until the late 1700s.

For some reason Crete had a very high incidence of leprosy and in 1903 the local Government declared Spinalonga a leper colony. All lepers from Crete and surrounding areas - and later on also from the Greek mainland - were banished to Spinalonga for life. There's a poignant but very readable novel by Victoria Hislop called 'The Island' which is based around life of the lepers and affected families. The colony was only closed in 1957 after a cure for leprosy had been found.

Our visit to the island was followed by a fantastic meze and fish lunch in a waterfront taverna back on the mainland. We had been promised unlimited wine with our meal and we took up the challenge in typical Rally style and drank the restaurant dry!