Ionian Islands (continued) - Lefkas, Meganisi and the mainland

26th May to 25th June -  Tranquil Bay and Vliho Bay, Nidri, Lefkas
After retrieving our anchor from underneath that of our neighbours flotilla boat, we headed south and west to the entrance to the Lefkas canal. Luckily we had calm weather, even so it is disconcerting to be heading towards a lee shore, where the canal entrance is impossible to make out from the sandbars and beach- thank goodness for GPS.
We motored past Lefkas town and on through the canal to Nidri and anchored in 'not so' Tranquil Bay.  For several weeks this was to be our temporary base to meet up with friends and make short visits to surrounding islands and bays.
It didn't take long to discover that many of our sailing acquaintances had similar ideas, and we crossed paths with Roamer, Will You, Dawn Chaser, Marlin, Birvidik. Also we met Rob and Juliet Kemp, and Clive and Teresa Lawrence, on their respective holidays. Sue and Martin from Bournemouth grabbed last minute holiday and stayed in an apartment in Nidri, on the waters edge.

Davy entertains us in the cockpit, with me, Kate, Martin, Linda, Jill, Norman

Early on in our stay we discovered the 'Ionian' restaurant, among the many on offer in Nidri. It has top quality food at rock bottom prices. The staff were constantly amazed because we always turned up with different people, such was the social activity for the month.

Tranquil Bay (round about when the disco started at 5.30am)

Nidri is a great place to get things done. Whilst getting our genoa (front sail) UV strip replaced by Sioux Sails to avoid another sticky problem with the furler, we carried on sailing with our smaller blade jib. A bit of overzealous cranking up of our inner forestay highfield lever (that helps hold the mast up!) had resulted in the detachment of the deck from the bulkhead underneath. This bonding of the bulkhead and deck gives the strength to keep the rigging tight. After three days with fibreglass and an angle grinder and some locally made stainless engineering, the bond is now better than the day the boat was built. I, on the other hand, am definitely several pounds lighter due to the 35 degrees still air temperature in the front cabin,  which I had to seal to stop the fibreglass dust permeating the rest of our living space. It's not all sunbathing and swimming you know.

A highlight of our stay in Nidri was hiring a quad bike for €20 per day. We went in company of Sue and Martin and toured the interior of the island. It is really unspoiled, and the quaint villages are untouched by tourism. The island has stunning beaches on the west coast, high mountainous interior and challenging roads over the passes. At one point Martin's bike showed the low petrol light, and we found ourselves on the wrong side of the pass, 26km from the nearest petrol station. So we nervously ascended to the ridge and then free-wheeled with the engine off non-stop downhill for 12km, reaching a peak speed of 67km/h ! We trundled into the petrol station with only vapour to spare.

We had been tempted into a walk to the waterfalls signposted 3km away. We're glad we didn't attempt it as they are much further, as we discovered by bike, and only a small piddle in summer!

We also should have known better than to try to catch a bus to the monastery on a holiday. We'd been told that buses went every 30 minutes to the hilltop monastery as it was a 'special day', the town's saint day. After walking all over to find the bus, we gave up and decided to walk. We asked a local 'how far?' He said 'about 3km'. It was a lot, lot, lot further and we didn't see a bus all day. These experiences lead us to suspect that Greeks can't comprehend numbers greater than three, so a long way = 3km !!

Farenomeni monastery -  incense, candle wax and cinnamon cake.....

The great thing about the Ionian is that island hopping is so easy. The distances are small and so even though the wind is often fickle you can usually sail from bay to bay, mostly in the afternoon, although we found  that the engine hours do mount up.

Here is a brief overview of the places around Nidri that we visited.

28th May - Mitika, mainland Greece
A lovely little Greek town, where we struggled to find anyone who spoke English, or any taverna open for business. Eventually through sign language we managed to get a meal on the waterfront, as dolphins fed in the bay in front of us.

A simple meal with dolphins, with Rob, Angus, Juliet and Imogen

30th May – Spiglia and Spartakhori, Meganisi
Lovely bays on this island, but an unfortunate problem with persistent wasps, which land on any bit of you and then sting if you move. It is apparently because the island is arid, and they are looking for water, which accounts for their interest in anything blue. Its good sport to kill as many as you can, but the game wears thin after a while and the wasps win out in the end. Stuart was sympathetic to them until he got stung in the goolies while showering, now he's on a trail of retribution!

The view to Scorpios from Spartakhori

3rd June – Nisos Thilia, Meganisi and Nisos Scopios 
Beautiful anchorages, perfect for scrubbing the bottom to avoid having the boat hauled out. Scorpios is the Onassis island, now a private parkland, as the two children died tragically and there seems to be no-one to inherit it now. Wardens patrol the island and prevent anyone from landing, but you can anchor in any of the bays.

14th June -  Lefkas town, Lefkas
A fun town, we managed to stock up on Thai supplies in a strange little minimarket shop, run by Australian Greeks – now that's a strange accent.

Sivota, Lefkas
Nice stop, if a bit twee. Lovely supper with Clive and Teresa on the waterfront. Theres a nice photo of us all, except me, so it doesn't get on the website.......

View of Sivota from the road above

26th June – Porto Leone, Kalimnos
A village abandoned after the earthquake redirected the spring supplying the village water. Fascinating to wander around, but so many wasps. We must have killed about 300, mostly in our homemade wasptrap  !

27th June Vasiliki, Lefkas
We enjoyed a couple of visits to Vasiliki. One of the top windsurfing venues in the world due to it's regular high winds. The town is friendly and has not sold its soul to tourism, rich kids or flashy fashions. The wind with amazing regularity starts in the morning at about force 2 until about 2-3pm when it picks up the pace for the afternoon of F 5 to 7. As the sun goes down over the hill to the west the wind dies instantly- make sure you're back to the beach or you'll be swimming home.

The evenings were spent quietly on anchor just off the town quay. Good holding on sand with crystal clear water. No need for the jostle and fretting of crossed anchors on the small quay side. We bought a second hand windsurfer with a sail and rig for just under 200E. It made me weep when I thought how little I sold all my old gear back in the UK before we left. The board we bought was an old Mistral Tarifa which needed a little work with the epoxy filler but it goes OK now and we both are enjoying the exercise. Cycling is simply too hot to be enjoyable now, exercise has to be on or in the water!