The plan for this year's trip was to sail around the Peloponnese. Quietly. Stay in places we liked and spend the winter in one of them.
But Covid-19 and not least the break-in at Heron put an end to that plan.
But fortunately, plans can be changed.
Our revised plan was to take it easy and perhaps sail down to the southern part of the Ionian Islands. We had heard others speak so enthusiastically about them.
A little about the Ionian Islands
The Ionian Islands are located in western Greece and are one of Greece's 13 administrative regions – (OK. So 14 if you include the peculiar monastic republic of Athos).
The region, one of the smallest in Greece, is divided into five smaller regional units – Corfu, Lefkada, Ithaca, Kefalonia and Zakynthos – and 11 municipalities. The administrative headquarters is in Corfu, where half of the region's 200.000 inhabitants live.
The archipelago, mountainous with mountains of up to 1.200 meters, stretches over 150 nautical miles from Corfu in the north to Zakynthos in the south. The climate is typically Mediterranean with hot summers and cool winters. The relatively high amount of rain provides a rich fauna and green vegetation.
Tourism started in the mid-1960s. Today, half of the region's income comes from here. The rest from fishing, cultivation of citrus fruits, melons and vegetables and production of cheeses, honey, wine and olive oil.
A bit of Greek mythology
The name is said to derive from the Greek mythology tale of the beautiful maiden Io. She was one of Zeus' many mistresses and also the first human woman he fell in love with. To hide her from his jealous wife Hera, he turned Io into a heifer. But Hera, clueless and cunning as she was, cunningly drove the heifer Io to leave. During her escape, Io swam over a sea which was named the Ionian Sea and the islands the Ionian Islands.
The archipelago is also associated with Homer's tale of Odysseus. Archaeologists today argue whether it was really Ithaca he came from. Some suggest to have found proof that Lefkas was his home island. Others that it was Kefalonia.
A little history
The location of the islands on the major trade routes has at times given them great commercial and military importance. Thus, they have been influenced by several different cultures.
When the English defeated Napoleon in 1812, the islands became a British protectorate under the name The United States of Ionian Islands. Only when the Greeks elected the Danish Prince Georg as king in 1864 did they become part of Greece, which had been formed just 43 years earlier.
In 1941 the islands were occupied by Italy and in 1943 by Nazi Germany when Mussolini's Italy collapsed. As early as 1944, the islands were liberated by the communist faction of the Greek resistance movement. However, peace only came when the Greek civil war ended in 1949. Four years later, the archipelago was hit by a powerful earthquake, which particularly hit Kefalonia, Ithaca and Lefkas.
Off again
A few days after Lars disembarked, we left Corfu again and headed down towards Lefkas. The trip can be sailed in 10-12 hours. But since the plan was to take it easy, we once again called Gaios on the small island of Paxos, which is halfway.
Prejudices
Even now there were space at the town quay.
Shortly after we moored, 6 young men on a charter boat scouted for the vacant space next to us. The skipper gave short commands in a friendly and subdued tone. The anchor was laid well out in the basin. A few meters from the quay it was set, after which the large catamaran well secured was maneuvered safely onto our starboard side.
"OK, skipper knows what he's doing, but that just ruined the night."
But the young men defied our prejudices. After the perfect manoeuvre, they talked quietly to each other, fished from the bow, went to rest early and helped us fill up the water the next morning.
Another guest boat – a large privately owned English motor yacht – some places further away challenged the same prejudices. When bars and restaurants closed at 24, started a party on the huge boat.
"I wanna party" screamed a shrill female voice endlessly, while a raucous music blared out of super-powerful speakers well into the night.
When we left Gaios in the morning, it was quiet on the big motor yacht. A jumble of bottles, glasses and filled ashtrays on the large aft deck testified that the woman had had her wish fulfilled.
We resisted the temptation to send the revelry English a farewell salute with our powerful fog horns and quietly left the now quiet and idyllic town quay.
Lefkas
Lefkas, Lefkada, Leukas or Santa Maura. The island has had many names after the Corinthians colonized it in 700 BC. Fifty years later, Lefkas became an island when the Corinthians dug a canal connecting the two areas of the Ionian Sea. The old channel can still be seen when sailing on today's channel, which is 4 nautical miles long, 5-6 m deep and finely marked with green and red sea marks.
At the northern end is a swing bridge. It is opened for sailors every full hour. We were motoring and had adjusted the speed according to the time of arrival. That was why it did not take long before a loud siren warned motorists that the bridge would be opened. A line of cars built up on both sides of the bridge, which pivoted, opening to the canal.
"Northbound gives way to southbound" was written in Rod and Lucinda Heikell's pilot book. That was undoubtedly true, but it didn't matter much now. The opening was wide enough for the two long rows of yachts on opposite courses to pass simultaneously.
“We are in Lefkas now. Shall we meet somewhere?” we wrote on Messenger to the three boats that had spent the winter in the same place as Heron.
“Let's meet in Abelake Bay on Meganisi” replied one.
A little later we left Lefkas.
Scorpio cross
When we had sailed through the flat marshland and entered the narrow waters, the water took on the dark blue color that is so special to the Mediterranean. On both sides were high mountains and straight ahead was the small island of Meganisi.
Ahead across on our starboard side lay an even smaller island – Skorpios.
This is where the wedding of Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy had been held.
The unexpected marriage of the troubled couple was far from harmonious. During one of its dramatic peaks, Skorpios once again became world famous. With the help of Onassis, 10 paparazzis managed to get close enough to the island to photograph the former First Lady of the United States as she was swimming naked from her refuge on the island's south side.
The pictures went around the world and once again marked the small island on the world map for the astonished public.
There have been rumors that other billionaires - specifically Giorgio Armani, Bill Gates and Madonna - are interested in buying Skorpios, which is today owned by Onassis' only grandson.
But a few years ago, Skorpios was leased to the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev. He, or rather his 24-year-old daughter, has plans to turn the small island into a luxury resort. However, the plan has not yet been implemented because the Greek state believes that the letting is illegal. According to Onassis' will, the island must be handed over to Olympic Airways or the Greek State if the Onassis family does not have the means to maintain the operation.
The Russian oligarch is also believed to have paid 150 million dollars to lease Skorpios ii for 99 years. Onassis bought it for a paltry eleven thousand dollars.
But that was in 1963 and a few years before the tourism industry developed in Greece.
Skorpios is today guarded 24/7 by specially trained French and American security guards.
However, we did not get to know them. Contrary to the 10 paparazzi, we kept a proper distance from Skorpios when we got across it on our course towards Abelake Bay on Meganisi.
To lay an anchor
There are 17 anchor bays on Meganisi's 25 nautical mile long coastline. Abelake Bay, which we called at just after noon, is one of them.
We sailed all the way to the bottom and found a good anchorage a few hundred meters from the bay's two taverns.
We anchored close behind a Danish boat. When it had reached the bottom of the 4 meter deep water, we put the engine in reverse and loosened the windlass so the anchor chain slipped out as we reversed. When 25 meters of anchor chain had been laid out, we locked the windlass. The anchor was now dragged across the bottom and plowed into the heavy sand. The anchor chain tightened. Heron stopped abruptly and stayed in the same position even when we gave the engine almost full throttle. Then we unlocked the windlass again and laid out another 5 meters of chain.
"Such. Now we can sway without bumping into each other" explained the skipper of the Danish boat, who had advised us to drop anchor behind their boat and use the same length of anchor chain as them.
We put on snorkel masks, jumped into the crystal clear cooling water, swam along the anchor chain out to anchor and could see for ourselves that it had settled firmly into the light bottom.
... The night's sleep was assured
How good people are
On the trip from Denmark to Greece, we had met quite a few Swedish and Norwegian boats, but only a few Danish ones.
In Greece it was just the other way around.
There were 5 other Danish boats in Abelake Bay alone.
In the evening we rowed the few hundred meters to shore, moored the dinghy and went up to Minas – one of the two taverns at the bottom of the bay.
Here, the skipper of one of the Danish boats had reserved a table for a 'Danish evening', in which all 6 Danish boats participated.
It felt good to be in a community we could relate to and somewhere reassuring to hear about other people's challenges on their long journey from Denmark to Greece.
Some had reached the Mediterranean by sailing 'around'. This means that the route had gone through the English Channel, over Biscay and southwards along Spain and Portugal to Gibraltar. Others had – like us – sailed on the rivers and canals of Europe and had reached the Mediterranean a little west of Marseilles.
Some had made the trip in a short time. Others had – like us – taken their time.
Some liked – like us – marinas. Others loathed it and had not spent as much as a bent dime on marina fees.
Some had already planned the trip home when they had sailed from Denmark. Others - like us - wanted to stay in Greece, at least for the next year, when we hoped that the Cornavirus would be under control.
After a few hours, the company broke up - almost as quickly as it was assembled. We found the dinghy in the dark and rowed in pitch black to Heron, whose strong flashing light we could easily find among the many white fixed anchor lights.
The next day, most Danish boats left the bay. We took another day at anchor, swam in the crystal clear water, rowed ashore in the dinghy and tried to get used to life as anchors.
Island hopping
The next day we also left the bay and sailed over to Syvota on the southeast side of Lefkas. There is not far between the islands in the southern part of the Ionian Islands. After a few hours we sailed through a narrow passage and out into a bay surrounded by mountains, which - according to one of our pilot books - was the best protected bay on Lefkas. There were cafes, taverns, bars, shops, WiFi and mini markets. Several of the taverns had their own guest pontoon with mooring lines, water, electricity and access to toilet, shower and washing machines. It was free to lie on the pontoon, but "you are expected to eat at the tavern" as was discreetly expressed on a sign.
We liked Syvota.
In the morning we saw the busy charter boats rig up and set off on the next day's leg. During the day we went for a walk, shopped, swam from the beach and drank coffee in one of the cafes. In the afternoon, the first guest boats entered the now half-empty bay. Some anchored purposefully in the middle of the bay. Others looked around curiously and were then beckoned onto one of the pontoons by a waiter eager to get customers into the shop. After dark, we dined at a taverna and watched the quiet hum of life in the small community, obviously kept going by tourists.
After a few days we left Syvota and after a short time reached Dessimini Bay. Here we jumped into the cool water, swam a bit and relaxed on the Heron, looking at the deep caves on one side and the fashionable houses on the olive tree-covered hillsides on the other.
Late in the afternoon we sailed to Nidri, which is on Lefkas a little further north of Syvota.
"North East is rare and no good" explained the harbormaster when we were moored at his pontoon and he added "Tighten up the lazy line and get further out. It may get rough”
And the harbormaster was right. It got rough as the wind picked up from the northeast during the night. But Heron was well moored and the only thing the north-easterly wind ruined was our night's sleep.
The next day we stocked up in Nidri and sailed back to Meganisi. Here we had booked a place in Karnagio, which is located in a bay five minutes' walk from the small town of Vahti.
It was wonderful here. Peaceful and quiet. A small pontoon that was run for ten years by a family that also ran the small bay's only tavern. Three to four meters of crystal clear water, which we swam in from the small beach, which lay in cool shade from the early afternoon.
Nice to get a good night's sleep after the shaking ride in the north-easterly wind on Nidri.
ianosi
The next morning we studied the weather forecast as usual.
For a while a hurricane, or medican as it is called in the Mediterranean, had been building up off Tunis.
Weather models predicted that Ianos, as the hurricane had been named, would move east. But there was disagreement about the route. Most believed that Ianos would go over the southern Peloponnese. It was at a comfortable distance from where we were.
During the night, all the models finally agreed.
Now there was no doubt.
The Medican would cross the southern Ionian Islands.
Holy Moly
Ianos had changed course and would reach us within 36 hours.
Postscript
We have been asked how things went with the insurance.
You can read about that
Thanks for an entertaining read. What happened during the hurricane?
Greetings after a coffee break on the boat in Præstø harbour. Fully clothed.
As usual a pleasure to read, especially on a cold dark November day in southern Sweden.
Thanks for the report. Looking forward to the next one. Good wind in the future Conny and Ole
Hi, glad you were able to go again. Otherwise, it's sad now with the new Corona wake, or Covid19 wake. We have sold our boat and it feels quite nice. Now Mats is working on a large skärgårdställe, which we share with our son. The grandchild is the absolute best thing in our lives, we have chosen to dare to meet him, despite restrictions. We also got a small dog, Minor Thinks often about our journey, alla fina platser man fick se, alla människor we mötte. It was a fantastic trip. Good luck with your continued journey. It's so peaceful... Read more »
Pleasant reading. Unfortunately, we haven't met you, but think that some of our new friends in Greek might have been with you at Danskeraft at Meganisi. We have been sailing around the Ionian Sea since mid-July, and since the beginning of October we have been in autumn hibernation in Lefkas Marina. We are strongly betting on coming home to Denmark at the beginning of December.
Good to hear you are healthy and on the move. Things are going well here. Looking forward to hearing more about the trip
greetings per
Dear Carl and Pia, Thank you for a lovely report. We have visited the same places/anchor bays, eaten at the same tavern, so the memories come flooding back with the longing for sailing in Greece. Look forward to the trip around the Peloponnese and the islands of the Cyclades. Kh. Kim and Lene S/Y Swan
Thanks for another nice report. Hope to see you soon.
Always welcome for a Danish coffee chat here on Lefkas. So how did you weather the storm?
Yes, you miss those latitudes when you read your report. See ya.
You should write travel books Carl. Good reading greet the lady.
Good report and enjoyable reading, especially when you have been to some of the bays yourself!
We sailed around the Peloponnese in June 2016. There were many fine places there. We started with Olympia and after the Corinth Canal we visited Delphi. Also very interesting!