Guilty pleasure and a little history

Maybe it was prudent to have more lines on deck when we were to moor. Where was it?  Starboard coffin bench? I opened the hatch. Just managed to spot the lines before I slammed it down.

The room was full of goats.

Hornets are predators. They do not bother people. But if the colony is threatened, they will attack. Attacks are coordinated and effective. A hornet can sting several times and has much more venom than a common wasp. 

The hornets obviously did not feel we were threatening them.  

Yet. 

We could easily moor with the lines we already had and proceeded to Cleopatra Marina. 

We called the port office on the VHF and were told that a marinero would assign a vacant berth. 

We sailed to the entrance and scouted into the marina. Then we spotted the marinero. He waved to us. We put the engine in gear and slid in. 

A boat was moored longship close to the entrance. In the stern was a large Danish flag. 

«Hello to you» it sounded from a man on the boat.

We looked at him confused. What a nice welcome. 

For a moment we looked away from the marinero and replied  «Have you been here long?» »

«Yes. I have been on  the hospital. We have to stay here for a couple of days»

«Aww too bad» we managed to reply before we again gave the marinero our full attention. 

When we had moored, we told the marinero about the hornets in the locker. 

«Uhhh. The wasps will not wait. I'd better get our guy remove it as fast as possible»,he replied and left us to find 'our guy» 

While we waited, a pair of hornets crawled out of the small drain in the locker. When they had come out, they flew away. Carefully we opened the hatch. Just as much that we could get it all the way up with a boat hook. A dozen of hornets flew out. Two came back. But then they flew again. Then more appeared. One by one they left the locker. A few meters up in the air they flew away. All in the same direction. Was the colony moving? 

A little later came 'our guy'. He examined the locker. 

«There is no one left. Luckily they did not manage to make a nest»

«Do you think they will come back?»

«No» he replied convincingly . 

While Heron had been ashore, we had spotted animal excrement on the front deck. 

We had consulted Google. The resemblance to excrement from rats was striking. We had meticulously looked for traces elsewhere. But no. There were only traces on the front deck. 

«If they are in just one place, it's birds» the lady at the boatyard had explained to us.

The same was said by 'our guy'.

When he looked into the boom where there was a lot of straw, he smiled and said 

«There have been birds in the spring. They have built nests inside the boom and have laid eggs that have been hatched. Now they have all left your boat» 

No doubt. 

We were finally alone.  

Worst came to worst

In the evening we went into the tavern at the marina. 

The friendly Dane sat with his wife at one of the tables. 

Now we recognized him. It was the couple we had met last year at Meganisi.  

The man looked up.

«Oh is it you. We could not recognize you at all when we came»

«Well. That explains why you looked so confused» he replied, inviting us to sit at their table

While we had dinner, they told us about the visit to the hospital.  

During the preparation for this year's voyage, the man had started to antifoul the bottom.

It was in the middle of the heat wave. The sun burned from a cloudless sky. In the shade it was over 40 degrees hot. It was hard to work in the unfamiliar and strong heath. But the work progressed. He had drunk 8 liters of water before one side had been antfouled with the red paint they had brought from Denmark. 

He considered to stop. But no. It went so well. So why not just go ahead and get the job done?  

A few hours later, the other side was also finished. 

Dazed by the heat, he had forgotten that he was under the stern. 

As he rose from his uncomfortable position, he was stopped by a crunching sound. 

Only when the blood began to flow down his face did he realize what had happened. 

He had banged his head up in the sharp propeller. 

Smeared into a mixture of red paint and blood, he found his way into the yard. Shocked, an employee called for an ambulance that drove him to the emergency room of the hospital in Preveza. 

The young doctors closed the wound, prescribed rest for the next two weeks and asked him to come for regular visits so they could check that the wound healed properly.  

«And it seems to » he explained, bowing his head so we could see for ourselves how well it was going. 

We agreed to stay connected and exchanged phone numbers. The next day, the doctors declared that the wound was healed. Early the next morning, the couple left the marina. A few hours later, they reached the anchorage of Ambelakia on Meganisi. 

A little about Preveza

We left the marina and sailed the short way over to Preveza, located on the north side of the strait to the great gulf. 

Seven kilometers north of Preveza, Emperor Augustus founded the town Nicopolis in 29 BC. 

Two years earlier he had defeated Antonius and Cleopatra in a great naval battle off Preveza. Thus ended the struggle for power over the Roman Empire and Augustus was able to proclaim himself the first emperor of the Roman Empire. 

Now the challenge was to unite the empire. 

Roads were constructed, a postal and courier service established, and Nicopolis founded to unite the eastern and western parts of the empire. 

The city was granted economic and political privileges and people were relocated by force to the future metropolis. 

It became a thriving city. 

The city minted its own coins. 

Every four years, the Acting Games were held. Almost like a copy of the Greek games at Olympus further south. 

In the year 66, the Apostle Paul spent the winter in the city. It was here that he wrote the letters to Titus and Timothy, which are still part of the New Testament today. 

When Emperor Domitian expelled all philosophers from the Italian peninsula 25 years later, Epictetus moved to the city. Here he (or rather his student) wrote  the work 'Discourses'. Today, it is considered one of the central works on Stoicism on which some of today's rational psychotherapies are based. 

At one time, the population was 100.000, making Nicopolis the largest city in ancient Greece. 

When the Roman Empire was divided, Nicopolis came to lie in the Byzantine Empire. As it went into dissolution, Nicopolis also began to dissolve. 

It was probably at this time Preveza was founded. 

Incidentally, some believe that the city was laid out on the ruins of the ancient city of Verenki, founded by King Pyrrhus of Epirus in the year 290 BC. (And yes. It is the Pyrrhus that has given its name to the concept of Pyrrhus victory and the statement: "one more victory like this and I am lost.")

The city has been controlled by the Ottomans and Venetians. It has also been controlled by the French, who were soon driven out by the Ottomans. It was not until 1913 that Preveza, located in the region of Epirus, became part of present-day Greece. 

Preveza today has almost 20.000 inhabitants and is the capital of one of the region's four municipalities. 

It is a lively city. 

It has a commercial port and a new and modern marina. The city quay is long. In high season it is full of yachts. There are plenty of cafes, bars, taverns and a lively business life. There are two cinemas and a theater. The National Maritime School and the University of the Regional Capital Ioannina, both have departments in the city. 

In 2002, an underwater tunnel opened connecting the two great peninsulas of the Gulf.

This gave Preveza and the whole region better access to the Aktion airport on the southern peninsula.

With only 335.000 inhabitants, Epirus is one of the smallest but also one of the poorest regions in Greece. Well, not just Greece but in the whole EU. 

The main occupation is sheep and goat keeping. In the area around Ioannina, tobacco is grown and the almost 100km long coast from Preveza in the south to Albania in the north allows for some fishing. The terrain is so mountainous and rocky that agriculture can only be practiced to a very limited extent. 

Tourism is evolving. 

The wild and desolate nature is marketed as a destination for eco-tourism. Along the coast, cities such as Sivota and Parga have an increasing popularity as holiday destinations. 

Compared to the major holiday destinations on the Mediterranean, the expansion is sparse. 

…Yet 

Marina 

Preparing for this years journey went well. Everything worked. Even tires on the bikes had full pressure. Perfect. We quickly got ready for departure. But waited to leave. We like marinas. Like for example Preveza Marina. 

There are never waves. It is well protected in all wind directions. Almost all types of repairs can be performed. There is access to electricity and water. Toilet and bathing facilities are super nice. There are washing machines, a grocery store, a marine equipment store and a cafe. Everything within a few hundred meters. 

Less than 10 minutes walk away is city life. But it can hardly be heard in the marina.  

You meet and talk to people in a marina. 

One wonders where our flag comes from. It turns into a talk about how we got to Greece and it develops into a conversation about Covid and Fake News. 

Another greets when we meet at the cafe and asks if we are leaving today. It turns into a talk about weather forecasts, Lord Byron and the city of Messolonghi, half a hundred nautical miles to the south. 

A third greets when we pass by and before we know it, we know they sailed from the Caribbean last year, but prefer to sail here in Greece. 

Then there are the neighbors. 

Like now the Germans who in the spring bought a boat similar to ours from the Australian we met last year. 

We thought he was a skilled craftsman. But it has taken the clever Germans months to correct the work he had made. 

Or the Israeli who is a former elite sailor and says that they have moved the boat to Greece because there is not really anywhere to sail to in Israel. Now they have a permanent place in Preveza and sail out on short trips. Occasionally.

Guilty pleasure 

The Ionian Islands are located west of the Greek mainland and are divided into three smaller groups. 

Corfu and Paxos to the north. Lefkas. Ithaca, Kefalonia and Zakynthos in the middle and Kythera in the far south. 

The islands are mountainous. The prevailing wind is from the northwest. It makes the winter months rainy, giving the vegetation fine conditions. 

To the west, the shores fall abruptly into the Ionian Sea, which with the Calypso depth of 5.267 meters has the largest water depth in the Mediterranean. To the east, the islands shield the waters from the mainland. The wind is usually light. There are lots of fine anchorages, picturesque towns and beautiful beaches that can only be reached by boat.   

To be honest.  

There was a lot of 'guilty pleasure' in staying in a marina in an area like this.