Goodbye Mother Hen

We'd enjoyed our overnight stay in Fiskardo very much, so it was tempting to stay a bit longer. The lead crew were having a rest day there and we had the option of staying there as well, or having a day's free sailing.

Nearly all the other boats were going off free sailing and we decided this would be a good experience for us. It wasn't long before the busy harbour started to empty and Milia had large gaps to either side of her.

After consulting charts and making plans we were ready to leave too. It was quite exciting going on our first solo adventure.

We joined the queue of boats leaving the harbour; it's amazing how a busy harbour can suddenly become so quiet when everyone leaves after breakfast.

Our choice of harbour for that night was determined by two things: a) there wasn't a huge amount of wind that day and anyway we didn't want to venture too far from mother hen, our lead boat Loutraki, and b) in common with the other boats in our flotilla we were nervous about mooring up in harbour without assistance.

The latter fact meant that nearly all of the boats in our flotilla headed for one of two destinations. The harbour of Spartahori on Meganisi, where there are lazy lines so you don't have to drop anchor, and the taverna owner is there to help, was a popular choice. We, however, but we opted for the alternative, of the harbour of Vliho, on the island of Lefkas. This is a very sheltered natural harbour surrounded by land on 3 sides and with just one small entrance. It is quite shallow and provides a very safe mooring. You don't have to tie up alongside a quayside, you just drop your anchor, and, if by any chance you came adrift in the night, you wouldn't go very far.

This was definitely the safe choice, and, as it was our first night on our own, it seemed the sensible one to make. Also it was somewhere new to us, whereas we'd been to Spartahori before.  

Milia, is the boat on the right. We took this picture from our inflatable dinghy as we rowed ashore to a taverna to have a beer and a plate of calamari.

Two other boats from our flotilla made the same choice as us, one being the boat on the left. We could wave across to them from our mooring, and it felt good to have company, even if it was distant.

We had a fine night and were very securely anchored in quite a bit of mud! The only drawback was that the water was murky and there were lots of big jellyfish, so it wasn't the best spot for swimming. We did have the best plate of calamari of the holiday though.

We did remember to text Loutraki to let them know we were safe.

Lots of love Eddie, George and Yorkie xxx