Yacht Zubenel

Just to let you all know the photos from the first half of the 2010 Zubenel adventures can be found on FLICKR.com/photos/zubenel.
Good hunting

We left the blog last time with Hippo arriving on Ithaka with Blitzen arriving at Vathi just as Bill Fox & I were arriving & securing the Zubenel to a quay. Unfortunately the quay was for boats 50 foot or over. The deisel man approached me & told me I had to go, "I am 50 foot", I said. "Not in Greece" he replied, sure eneough the authorities turned up & explained I had to Go. The local bar owner said there is a Mafia type of organisation there, he prefers the little boats whose crews drink at his establishment & the deisel man prefers the boats that buy oddles of gas. Of course by this time there were no places left on the quays, so leaving Hippo in his shorts to burn up I went to anchor. The wind had really blown up & I dragged the anchor, reset it & dragged again. I had to move 1 KM away to get sufficient space to get 80 M of anchor chain down, secure the boat before I could retrieve a smoking Hippo.
That was eneough of Vathi & the next day we put Bill in Blitzen with a ticket from Frikes to Vasaliki on Levkas & Hippo & I sailed for Nidri. A great sail, good wind & a fair passage.
Hippo, Bill & I stayed the Saturday night on Alan & Lynn's boat in Levkada. Bill had attempted to switch his bedroom fan off by putting his finger in the Zubenel's fan blades, so Alan helped him drill o hole in his nail to relieve the pressure, photo. Sunday we dropped Alan & Lynn at Preveza airport & Hippo at Igounamitsa ferry port.
Bill & I sailed over to Meganisi several times visiting various bays & Ports, it is a beautiful place here in the Southern Ionian.
So wednesday 7th July, Bill is on his way back to the UK & work whilst I am thinking of a job list.

Ther has been some crew changes aboard the goodship Zubenel. After we left Sami we met alan & Lynn with her daughter Carly at Fiskardo. We tied up to a tree there stern too with 50 M of anchor out, just outside the harbour wall, Alexander did a fine job swimming ashore with the ropes & securing them to trees. Fiskardho which is spelt differently on every map & sign post, (common to all Greek maps & sign posts for all their towns). As I was saying Fiscardo has a beautiful outlook, mountains,coming out of the sea, green all over, a rather ugly town rebuilt after the earthquake of 1953, it has very friendly people & lots of fine restaurants. We enjoyed our stay. We tried to leave from there early in the morning but Alans anchor was hooked onto an Italians anchor across us, the iti being on the other side to me from Alan with my chain between them. The Zubenel could only wait until Alan slipped his lines & sailed around us so we were clear. Then on to Astakos where we stayed for 6 days. Jordan's restaurant provided electricity & food & wine which being at the end of the gangway was very convenient. Blitzen our white mercedes was waiting for us at Astakos, so we took a day out driving past stunning views to Paleiros for lunch. Jane joined us swimming off of the beach in clear warm water. On the Sunday we drove to Athens for Gillian, Jane & Alexander to fly back to London & then on to Bezier. Sad to see them go. Who is going to plait my hair now??
Hippo arrived at Athens half an hour after we did , then the long drive back to Astakos with a mandatory visit to Lydl's on the way. We waited at Astakos for 2 days for Bill Fox to arrive , then on Thursday sailed to Ithaka or should I say Ithaca, don't get me started on Kephalonia. Or should I say Bill & I sailed to Ithakka whilst Hippo took Blitzen on the ferry.

For Karl & Jan to get to Athens there is a bus & ferry running from Sami to Patras, a 3 hour trip & then the bus continues on to Athens.
We left Agostolli on Monday early & enjoyed no winds until we turned north, on the final 10 mile run into Sami, then we had the curse of the Zubenel visited upon us, strong winds on the nose. 1.9 knots is depressing. More revs & closer in to shore got us to 2.5 knots then we drudged into Sami, i was a little concerned that arriving so late there would be no space for us. Luckily there was a great spot which with a bit of reverse & Karl laying plenty of anchor chain, got us safely tied up.
We hired a car & visited the north part of the island on Tuesday, some spectacular views. As there were 6 of us I had to ride a 100 cc scooter which struggled up some of the inclines!
Sadly Jan & Karl had to leave on the bus for the 80 metre ride to the ferry on Wednesday morning. We waved them onto the bus, off the bus, onto the ferry & on the back of the ferry as they sailed away, we had a great time with them. Then the Texas flag & Confederate flag was slowly lowered.
Today the wind has been blowing, gusting a 6. At 6 o/c this morning I had to pull in more anchor chain & run a spring over to another berth. We have not moved since but Gillian has had her #bands# on all day!

After Nidri we sailed to Ithaca arriving at Vathi, Gillian drove the Merc to Astakos & caught the ferry to Ithaca arriving about the same time as us, but at the opposite side of the island. She taxied across & joined us for dinner. Vathi is an interesting port, well sheltered with lots to do. We hired a car the next day for 40 euros & drove around all of the Islands roads. We stopped for lunch in a tiny village & found the most spectacular views on the west side. We also visited a Greek Monastry, it was beautiful with fabulous views in all directions. Sadly Homer's School was rather delapidated although we we did visit. We sailed from there to Astakos, where we saw numerous dophins, which is on the mainland then drove to Athens to collect Jane, Gillians's mother & Alexander. It was a 4 hour drive in & a 3.5 hour drive back on Greek roads, exhausting!
From Astakos we sailed to southern Ithaca to anchor for the night, then we sailed to Keffalonika arriving at Fiscardo on Friday, Ithaca is wonderful.

We left Sivota & sailed back towards Nidri stopping at a bay on Meganissi. There was a pontoon at Sylvo with Lazy Lines available which we took up. Free mooring if you eat at their restaurant. The wind was fair then built up to piping & a swell built up which made the pontoon & the Z plunge a little so I put some extra stern lines out ,as we were off to dinner & to watch England beat Slovenia? Well I saw some ladies waving their arms about over on the pontoon, when I realised that the Z was no longer behind them!!
The stern lines had snapped & the Z was hanging 50 yards away on the strings which fed the lazy lines! That is when you realise the 1/2 litre of red was a good idea! Lots of help, one guy ran me to the Z on a dinghy so I then had an engine running, bow thrust & 2 ribs pushing. I let the Lazy Lines go & reversed 100 yards back past the pontoon to a quay & took up 2 more lazy lines, Karl had come around to the Quay & got some stern lines on the boat. A busy 30 minutes.
Another 1/2 litre was needed!
The storm has now blown through & we are at Nidri. The anchor chain turned up in Preveza yesterday so Gillian & I drove in collected it today & it now rests on the Z waiting to be fitted tomorrow when the anchor comes in.
Our plan for tomorrow is for Gillian to drive around to Astakos in the Blitzen, park up & catch the ferry to Vathi in Ithaca to meet us on the Z, we having sailed to Vathi, about 21 miles. Well that is the plan--------------