A Quart in a Pint Pot

As we firmly believe in the principle that small is beautiful, we were surprised to find big brother island Kalamos, so busy after the tranquillity of Kastos.

The harbour at Kalamos was heaving when we arrived, and we were later to discover, after many more arrivals, that this was only about half full. Local restauranteur George, doubles as the harbour master and is clearly a dab hand at squeezing boats in.

Our Sailing Holidays lead crew did their bit as well. They wanted us all at the end of the harbour wall, as this was a good location for the punch party we were having that evening.

I sat on my boat roof and supervised the mooring process. Eight boats can take up surprisingly little space especially when moored up 4 abreast. We all managed to maintain our privacy though, as we tied up head to tail and everyone observed the golden rule of crossing at the front of the boat. We actually had 2 lead boats with us, as a spare crew had come over with parts to assist with a couple of repairs that were needed (but not to our boat).

This was the view of the Sailing Holidays contingent from the far side of the harbour. George (harbourmaster, not bear) is in the launch, supervising operations.

George was an experienced pro so we left him in charge and went off to explore. After a steep climb up to the town we found this abandoned vehicle who had clearly found the ascent just too much.

Louis is playing 'Where's Bear?' in this photo, but if you look hard you should find him.

Following time honoured tradition, that evening's punch party on the harbour wall was a great success. The punch was wonderful, the nibbles and special Sailing Holidays recipe dips were scrumptious, and the company was very good. I took the opportunity to get to know hostie Pip a bit better and helped her ensure that everyones' glass stayed charged.

When we'd all had as much punch as we thought advisable to consume, we all went to George's taverna for a meal. There were tables everywhere, and he and his team were serving huge numbers of people. George certainly doesn't adhere to the Greek 'manana' philosophy and runs an efficient operation. As a result we didn't have to wait too long and the food had not suffered from being served in such vast quantities.

It was a good evening, but we still prefer Kastos.

Lots of love Eddie and crew xxx

Paradise Invaded

We said goodbye to Nidri and headed for a wonderful pair of lesser known islands, Kastos and Kalamos. Kastos is the smaller island and we went there first, for another first, our first visit. This made it especially exciting. What a choice it was. There was plenty of space in the harbour and just 100 yards away, in a spectacular headland location, was the excellent Windmill taverna.

Our evening in Kastos had given us a really good feel for this island, so we were all up early the next morning to have a good look round before it was time to weigh anchor and leave. We decided we'd get to see more if we went running, and we'd get some good exercise at the same time, so running shoes on, we headed out.

We followed a dirt road along the coast. It was very peaceful and the views were superb. The only drawback was that it was so little used, that spiders had built built webs between the trees on each side of the road and then taken up residence in the middle of the webs. At running speed, we were moving too fast to see them with enough time to take evasive action. Spiders in the face is not our favourite thing, so we did an efficient emergency stop.

We turned round and found a spider free track with the sea on our right and goats grazing amongst the olive trees on our left. We also shared the path with a harmless looking brown snake.

We discovered a beautiful, and very secluded, bay on our travels ...

... just 5 minutes walk from the harbour. We decided to take our minders there after breakfast. We got there first and again, it was completed deserted and just perfect for a morning swim. We splashed about happily, until we heard the throb of big engines. We looked over our shoulders and were surprised to see a huge landing craft heading straight for us. We had to swim out the way quickly when it became clear the craft wasn't going to moor offshore, but was going to drive right up the beach.

The ramp was lowered and a huge lorry drove off and across the beach. At this point a minder turned up and couldn't see why we'd described the beach as idyllic - it's all in the timing though! 

It was time to leave anyway and set sail for the big brother island of Kalamos. 

Lots of Love Eddie and the crew of Analipsi

A Special Menu at 'No Menu'

After a beautiful evening on Meganisi, some strong winds up to force 6, were forecast to blow up the next day.

Sensibly, our lead crew opted for the safe option and a short hop to a sheltered mooring at Nidri on Lefkas Island. That way, no-one would be forced to be out battling the elements if they didn't want to.

We were happy with this decision, as we fancied a visit to Nidri which we had not visited with a flotilla before.  As it happened, we had strong winds for a a brief 15 minutes, then it went very calm and hot.

Our mooring that night was on the Sailing Holidays pontoon. It exists because Nidri is an additional base to Sivota, used by a small number of flotillas. It was a fine mooring and it was a luxury to have a water point right at our bows.

At the shore end of the pontoon was a hotel with a lovely pool which we could use if we bought a drink. However, we opted for a walk into town and a swim from the town beach.

In the evening we went, with the lead crew, to a restaurant with a difference, which the lead crew had heard about and wanted to try. It was the 'No Menu' restaurant, which really did have no menu.

As the Chef is not constrained by a menu he is free to concoct the most amazing dishes from seasonal and fresh produce. You get to say whether you want meat, fish or veggie dishes or a mixture, and if you don't like a dish that comes to your table, you can send it back. 

It didn't sound as if we could go wrong and as it happened we didn't. We dined exceptionally well on some truly delicious dishes and it was great that every dish that arrived was a complete surprise. Some of the highlights were the bean salad, fresh tuna steaks, mussels and veggie lasagne. The sheeps' milk ice cream was also very good. 

We walked home via the waterfront. We always enjoy walking alongside waterfronts at night, as it can be very atmospheric. We thought this boat looked especially charming lit up like this.

Nidri definitely got the paw of approval.

Lots of love Eddie and crew xxx