Gosh, Where did I leave the last blog? Oh yes, sat on a sand bar watching the sun go down, after a glorious day. What a difference a few days can make - Only 3 days later we would find ourselves poised to face a medi-cane, (a Mediterranean hurricane) hoping that the anchorage we had chosen to sit it out in was a good one. But ... before I go into that, let's carry on from the morning after the evening sat watching the sunset.

Tuesday 15th September
We set off to the marina at Plataria, which sits in a bay next to a lovely stretch of beach, has a couple of supermarkets and a selection of pretty waterfront tavernas. A short walk up the hill there is a garage, with cheap diesel and petrol, where we can also exchange cooking gas bottles - happy Ricky. Just further along the road is an exquisite bakery that sells mouth watering cakes and puddings - happy Donna.

On route we sailed past a large bloom of huge jelly fish that looked like porkpies. Some were as big as small dinner plates. If these were an omen of things to come, we didn't take note. We were on a mission, sailing to the land of milk and honey, ok maybe not milk and honey, but cheap fuel and fabulous puddings.

When we arrived we found a great spot tucked up between a large motor boat and a 50 foot yacht. There was a a slime line to attach to so we didn't even need to faff with an anchor. For you beautiful friends who are not of the sailing persuasion a slime line is ... yes as revolting as it sounds. It is basically a thin slimey piece of rope that sits in the water that you have to grab just before you crunch backwards onto the marina wall. It is attached the other end to a huge thick rope that is in turn attached to a thick chain that is attached to a ruddy great lump of concrete that sits on the seabed. So you see it isn't going anywhere, so consequently neither were we.. This made us feel very safe as we knew some strongish wind with a few gusts was on its way.
'Strongish wind' dear readers, hold that thought.

We had considered staying for a few days, then we started reading reports of a cyclone, a medicane, heading towards the coast of Greece! Checking the weather App we use, aptly named 'Windy.com' we realised it was true. It had even been given a name - 'Ionos.'It was predicted to hit the coast of Greece within the next couple of days with cataclysmic winds and torrential rain! We decided to run for cover. Obviously we didn't run, but you get the jist, last place we wanted to be was tied up to a concrete wall - even the slime line and thoughts of the afore mentioned stupendous shopping could not entice us to hang around. 'strongish winds' - what a joke !

After a quick conflab, we decided to get away from the coast and tuck ourselves behind the land up the creek at Igoumitsa, off Valtou Bay.This would protect us from the wind in all directions and swinging on our anchor, set in thick sludgy mud that sits on the bottom of the creek was a perfect choice. Which ever way the wind decided to blow us, our anchor would turn us to face it head on. Experience taught us that was the safest and most comfortable way to be to ride out a storm.

Sadly a few sailors were not so fortunate and the medicane with it's winds up to 75mph caught them out. A few boats were damaged, smashed against rocks and concrete quays in North Keffalonia. Trees were blown down and cars swept off roads in the rivers of rain. The worst passed below us in Iggy Creek, and apart from the constant rain it was not as frightening as we had expected. We were also sharing the creek with 10 other boats, which was reassuring. They say safety in numbers- never a truer word was spoken, we can't all be wrong.

Saturday 19th September (After 3 days )
Not sure we could have been happier to see the rainbow if we'd been Noah and his wife after the flood. The storm was over - we had stayed safe, safe to sail another day. Thank goodness, as I had to persuade Ricky to sail over to Corfu as I knew that Reanna and her chap had flown into Corfu on a surprise visit - yesterday!