Sailing in the  Ionian

One of the best things about our gypsy life is that we no longer live by the clock.  We do not have to get up at a certain time each day, we eat our meals when we are hungry and we set sail for a new destination when we feel like finding a new taverna or want a change of scenery.

So far, in all our travels, we have found the Ionian Sea to be the best place to sail. Each morning we wake to water as flat as glass, gradually the wind builds up through the day until, by mid afternoon, we have a 15-20kn. sea breeze, ideal for sailing from one island to the next.  By 9 p.m. the wind and sea swell have totally died, the water becomes like glass once again, and it is so still  that one could  play billiards in the boat throughout the night!  That suits me just fine as, with no movement, the boat is QUIET, with no squeaks and creaks and no water slapping at the stern. It means that I can sleep undisturbed.

Morning mist in Amvrakikos Gulf

The Ionian islands are very beautiful.  They seem to have a higher rainfall than the rest of Greece, as they are very green.  Many have fairly high, cloud-capped mountains and the lower slopes are treed with Pine and Cypress. 

Kefallonia Island-cave with emerald water

Bronze age village from the time of Homer's Illiad - these people may have fought in Troy!

 The towns and villages are small and, although not white as in the Dodecanese, are very quaint. The people are very friendly and all have the “Filoxenos” ethos – translated as “Friend of strangers”. They will think nothing of inviting a stranger to join a family celebration, giving you a lift to the next village or helping you out in any way needed.  Tying up your boat alongside the quay is free and most tavernas offer free shower facilities to yachtsmen if you have a meal with them.

There is a lot of history here, these islands having been taken at some stage or another by the Minoans, Romans, Venetians, Turks, French and English. We are now on Kefallonia, the little island of “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” fame.

Since we left Corfu, we have met few land-based tourists.  People who are sailing their own yachts here are mostly British. Many have had their boats here for 8 – 10 years and they spend one or two holidays a year in this area.  Some people live aboard permanently and we saw four French boats in a little bay, tied securely to trees ashore, where they live permanently (free of charge), home schooling their children and going into the nearby village for supplies. Charter boats are also prominent, but the further south we move from Corfu, the fewer we see.   

We are not yet in full summer season so there is always plenty of space on the quay to tie up.  Having said that, we have not tied up once this summer, except while we were in Albania, preferring to anchor.  It is better for the boat, quieter away from other boats, roads and restaurants and we are away from mosquitoes, and most importantly – rats!  Rats are a very big problem for boats.  They are prevalent in all waterside situations and in ports and they find no problem running along  mooring lines to get onto a boat.  Once onboard, it is the devil’s job to catch them, and meanwhile, they merrily chew the boat’s electrical wires etc.

The water is crystal clear and one can watch the  anchor drop and see exactly where it lands. The weather is now warmer and we are beginning to swim.  We see little fish which school around the hull.  In the large Amvrakikos Gulf we saw many dolphins.  There are large fish farms there and the dolphins are always feeding nearby.  Perhaps some of  the fish from the farms escape, or else the food they are given attracts other fish to the area.     

Dolphin escorting us into the Amvrakikos Gulf

The Amvrakikos Gulf is a beautiful, unspoilt wetland.  It consists of an  area of 400km.sq., there are two river deltas in it and it attracts the largest concentration of waterbirds in Greece.  It is connected to the Ionian Sea by a very narrow entrance, so sailing within it is more like sailing on a lake than on the sea.  It is a very quiet place, with several small, quaint  villages and many quiet, deserted bays to anchor in.  Few yachts go into the gulf, preferring to stay on the nearby islands so mostly, one has the place to oneself.

On our own, outside the little village of Vonitsa

After leaving the  Amvrakikos Gulf, went through the Levkada Canal. This is a narrow waterway through shallow water between Levkada island and the mainland. At its entrance, cars go over a barge with a two-lane motor way on it.  This barge is turned sideways every hour for boats to pass through.

Opening bridge in the Levkada Canal

The Ionian islands have many little bays so it is easy to find an anchorage.  Usually one finds a waterside taverna there as well, even though it may be quite some distance from the nearest village. 

Waterside taverna, Vathy, on Meganisi island

We have found that there are no strong winds, like the Boras of Croatia, it’s much cheaper and the beaurocracy is much more obliging, too.

On our way to the island of Meganisi, we passed the island of Skorpios.  This is the island that Aristotle Onassis owned.  It has no natural water of its own and Onassis bought a mountain on a nearby island so that he could get the water from there and have it shipped in to Skorpios.  We saw his home and the beach house he built for Jackie.  It has a beautiful beach which Onassis also had shipped in for her!  It is in a very sheltered spot, hidden behind a headland.  Aristotle, his son Alexander who was killed by sabotage at the age of 24 and his daughter Christina, who died of a drug overdose at age 37 are all buried there. Sadly his granddaughter Athena, now his only descendant, living in Sao Paolo, showed no interest in the island and it has now been sold to the 24 year old daughter of a Russian billionaire.  Onassis bought the island in the 1960s for £10,000 and it has now sold for £100M!  Not a bad investment!

That’s all for now folks.

Fair winds

Artemis and Dimitri.

Travels in Albania

Travels in Albania

Well, Albania turned out to be quite an experience.  Durres turned out to be quite a surprise, having several high-rise buildings, a pleasant waterfront with many restaurants and the people were all very friendly.  The cost of food is incredibly low, an excellent meal for the two of us costing around $10.00 (including wine). We  wandered around the town and took a stroll around the ancient amphitheatre.  Unfortunately the locals have taken advantage of the empty ground and there are several houses built right inside the amphitheatre.

On our second morning in Durres, our agent (we needed a ‘ship’s agent’ like big ships, to clear customs), Ilir Gjergji arrived to check that all was OK with us.We invited him for lunch and he arrived with his wife, Antigone. She turned out to work for the Department of Cultural affairs and after lunch she took us for a personal tour of both the amphitheatre and also their delightful little museum.  This consists of three floors – the first has ancient Illyrian, Greek and Roman artifacts.  The second and third floor exhibits are not yet in place but they will cover the Byzantine, Venetian and Ottoman periods. The little museum turned out to be the highlight of our trip.

The next day we sailed to the one and only marina in Albania, Marina Orikum, near the town of Vlorres, further down the coast.  This marina turned out to be rather sad.  It only has around 30 boats in it, we and a Dutch gentleman were the only people onboard and the place was pretty run down.  We rented a car as we wanted to go to the town of Sarante, near to which are the ancient ruins of Butrint. This area was occupied from Illyrian times, through to Greek and Roman, Venetian and was finally abandoned when Napoleon took it.

We battled along the Albanian roads in our little car which seemed to be about to die. The clutch plate was very suspect and there was no suspension left to speak of.  The roads in Albania are an interesting mix.  Down the centre of the country is a dual carriageway freeway, with a shoulder and good macadam.  However, there are no overpasses and each time a road crosses it, one has to slow down to 20km.  The rest of the roads in the country are simply amazing.  They are full of potholes, one lane each way which often comes down to one lane only in the towns and no verge. People swerve around the potholes onto the wrong side of the road, there are bikes and donkey carts on the road and I have photographs of numerous animals on the road – dogs, cats, donkeys, cows, sheep, goats, geese, ducks, pigs and even a tortoise! The locals double park on narrow roads, cross to your side to pick someone up, swerve unexpectantly, and once all the people involved in a minor accident got out and started fighting! Our car came with a seatbelt buckle unattached, which we realized was to stop the car seatbelt warning going off if you choose to drive without a belt. Clearly Albanians have a well-developed death wish!

The hairpin bends through the mountains gave us spectacular views of the coastline and the high peaks. 

  We came across a restaurant which is built right in the middle of a waterfall!

We visited a old Medieval castle, with a small town in it’s wall and the most beatifull Byzantine church (10^th century) with icons by a local famous iconographer. There are many Orthodox Christian villages, as many Greeks where forcibly resettled here by the communists during the Greek civil war (1944) Their Greek is poor, but they stick to the Greek diet and have remained Christians in a Muslim country. They have made their villages prosperous, and they are much neater and prettier than their neighbours.

We were told that the Albanians have just passed a law, fining any foreign boat that has been in the country for more than six months.  One German boat was made to pay €40,000 to get his boat out.  As there is only one marina with few boats, a guard day and night and one has to sail past the Port Police in Vlorres, I would imagine it would be very difficult to just leave unnoticed.

It was with some relief that we crossed the Greek border on our way out as our marina had cleared us only to go to Sarante (despite our request to clear for Corfu!) and not to Greece!

Next instalment – Greece.

That’s all for now folks.

Arti and Dimitri

s/v Artemis V

Travels in Croatia 2015

We arrived in Kastala Gomilica, just outside Split to find Artemis V looking none the worse for wear after her seven months out of the water.  We spent a hectic two weeks preparing her for sea. We fitted her with a new anchor (a really big one) and chain, repainted the woodwork and polished her.  All our lines were put back in place and the sails put up.  We completed our jobs just in time to have her launched. It was lovely to be back in the water and so pleasing to find that the new anchor is so quick to set and easy to manage.

We collected a friend from the airport that afternoon and took a short bus trip to Trogir, a delightful World Heritage  Medieval town.  We happened to arrive in the middle of a Medieval festival and what a fantastic setting for it!  We had dinner there amongst the houses and little roads, all built in travertine marble.

Trogir Medieval festival

 The next morning we were back in our little dinghy for a ride to the opposite shore. We strolled into Split for a look at Doclecian’s palace and then found a good spot for coffee in the outdoor market. That afternoon we set sail for the first of our island stops. We planned to stop in the little port of  Hvar but the wind had come up and there was a bad swell running into the harbour.  We opted for a quiet night and anchored on the opposite side of the Pakleni Kanal, between two little uninhabited islands.  The next morning we had an exciting dinghy ride across the channel and had a very close look at the three cruise ships anchored outside Hvar.  Other than the cruise ship tourists, all the islands we visited over the next week have been quiet, with the tourist season only beginning in June.

Hvar town from the castle

We had a stop in the lovely little walled town of Korcula.  We went into the town on a Sunday morning and the church bells were ringing.  We took a look inside the church and decided to stay for the start of the service.  That turned out to be a highlight of the day. Even though Korcula is a tiny town,  as we waited the church gradually filled up so that by the start of the service, there was standing room only. There were many teenagers and children there too.  Unexpectedly, the little choir turned out to be excellent.  As they began to sing, the voice of angels soared through the church.  It was difficult to pull ourselves away from the singing.  

This is the island that Marco Polo is reputed to come from.

 Walls of Korcula town

On we went to the beautiful island of Mljet, a lot of which is National Park.  This is the island that is reputed to be the place where Calypso seduced and waylaid Odysseus for seven years. Seeing the tall, beautiful girls in Croatia, one can understand why!

As we came alongside the quay with our dinghy, a young fellow arrived and offered us bikes for hire.  We decided a ride would be good so off we went to the National Park with  the large lake, V. Jezero. We were too late to take the ferry across to the little island with the monastery so we rode along the shores of the lake.  We came across the little fishing village of Soline where we had  local cheese and beer to give us energy for the ride back to the quiet bay of Polace.

 Village of Soline, Mljet island

 Dinner was at a waterfront restaurant overlooking the bay.

 Our last stop in Croatia was in Dubrovnik. We anchored just outside the marina where we left the boat and took a tour to Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina. We watched one of the young men jump off  the 24m Mostar bridge for €25. Dubrovnik was not yet full of summer tourists and we had a pleasant stroll along the walls before dinner in the old town.

 We are now in Durres, Albania. We are tied up alongside the dock in the main port amongst the ships and container hoists as there is no marina.

 The upside is that we are just across the road from the main part of town and there is good security in the port. To our surprise, although it is poorer, there are seaside cafes and restaurants, internet, ATMs and high-rise buildings

Mostar bridge

 Dimitri clearing customs with Ship’s agent Ilia.

Durres shipping port

The people are most welcoming and one poor gentleman was made to move from his table in a coffee shop to give us the prime table.

Coffee under the vines

That’s all for now folks!  More on Albania in our next blog.

Arti and Dimitri.

s/v Artemis V