A Short Hop

The wet and miserable weather that is our lot this week, causes us to dream of our sunny holiday in Greece, so let's go right back there, and pick up our tale.

If you recall, we'd just been exploring the wreck of the Panagiotis. On the journey back to harbour and our boats, we'd stopped off to swim in one of the caves. Dimitri picked one that went a long way into the cliff, so we seemed to swimming into the cave for ever. At one point it got quite narrow and rather dark, and as there were quite a lot of us swimming, we kept bumping into each other.

The high speed boat whizzed us back to harbour, and to our lunch, in no time at all as, with it's huge engine, it simply ate up the miles. There was no free afternoon for us though, as we were due in the main harbour of Zakynthos town that night. Hardly had we returned from our morning's adventure before there were only 4 boats left in Aghios Nikolaos ...

Ours is the second boat from the left - you can tell by the hint of green from the bear flag!

You can't hurry a good lunch though, so we were in no particular hurry to leave. We strolled down to Dimitri's taverna to say goodbye. It was definitely sailor friendly as you can see from the ingenious taverna signing at the entrance.

You'll appreciate how big this sail is when you look at me (Eddie) sitting on the wall under it, to provide a sense of scale.

Our introduction to Zakynthos had been great, but we were also looking forward to seeing the bright lights of Zakynthos town that evening.

Lots of love Eddie & B.U. crew xxx

The Wreck of the Panagiotis

Hi, George here to pick up the story, as when Eddie saw what was on the beach, he didn't want to go ashore exploring, and chose to stay on the boat talking to Dimitri.

This is why ...

... it was because there was a wrecked ship on the beach and, being a boat lover, Eddie finds wrecks very distressing.

Yorkie and I, however, were very excited at the thought of exploring, and the great thing about this wreck, was that there were no health and safety restrictions; you could go on it, in it and through it. There was no part out of bounds. We went everywhere seeing what was left of the original boat, which wasn't always a lot.

The ship we were exploring is the Panagiotis and she has been lying in Shipwreck bay since 1980, which explains her rather rusty appearance. The story of how she came to be wrecked is rather exciting. It's believed that she was smuggling cigarettes (some say for the Italian Mafia) and the Greek authorities had got wind of this and sent the Greek Navy out in pursuit. While under pursuit, she encountered stormy weather and ran aground, only to be abandoned by her crew. Over the years she was pushed up the beach by the elements to her present, well and truly beached, location.

It's a sad story for the ship but exploring her gave us a lot of pleasure. Have you spotted us taking in the view from the hawsepipe (technical term learnt from Eddie!).

Eddie will be back at the blog helm next time.

Lots of love George, Yorkie & Eddie xxx

Seal and Elephant Watching

As we sped along the coast, there were all sorts of interesting sights. When we were going really fast, some were a bit of  a blur, but we slowed down for the interesting ones. The best sight for me, Eddie, was a rare sighting of a monk seal that is occasionally spotted in the area. I think he must have made an appearance as he'd heard about my seal trips in Norfolk, and learned that I was particularly seal friendly.

George & Yorkie were fascinated by some of the unusual rock formations. In our next picture you'll see a sculpture of an elephant submerging his trunk in the water to get a long refreshing drink.

We also passed the ruins of a monastery and still more caves. Then the cliffs started to get really high. They were so tall that even avid climbers George & Yorkie felt they might be a challenge too far, although George did spend a lot of time thinking about it.

Our boat started to turn towards the bay George is looking at, and Dimitiri told us we would be stopping there to explore something, for which Zakynthos is famous, on the beach.

Find out what it was next time.

Love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

Chauffeured!

The morning after arriving in Zakynthos, we had a morning off. This was only time off from sailing, though, not from boating, so it was fine by me.

We all went off in a big speedboat with one of the local entrepreneurs - a very colourful character called Dimitri (front right) and he drove very fast! (He also owned the restaurant we'd eaten in the night before).

We went up the coast, staying quite close to the shore. This enabled us to take a good look at all the caves in the cliffs.

There were lots and lots of caves and some of them were big enough for us to drive into. Mind you, some of them didn't look big enough to take our boat, and it was a good job Dimitri knew both his boat and the local coast intimately, as we frequently had less than an inch of clearance between the boat and huge slabs of rock.

The water was so clear and still that it was able to reflect the light creating some lovely effects. Dimitri also pointed out the beautiful colours obtained from light reflecting off sponges on the sea bed ... as our next picture shows:

We marvelled at the wonderful sights and  - I never thought I'd say this - I appreciated not being at the helm and having to concentrate on the boat, as it gave me to freedom to look around and, along with George & Yorkie, drink in all the wonderful sights. 

More next time.

Lots of love, Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx

Double Punch

By the time our sail was changed, all the other boats in our flotilla - lead boat excepted - had departed for Zakynthos. It was going to be quite a long sail, so I was eager to set off as soon as we could. Secretly I was quite confident about catching up, even overtaking, some of the other boats, especially with my new sail. 

As we left the shelter of Cephalonia we waited for the extra knot of wind to arrive. Nothing happened, in fact the wind died completely. It was very strange: we were almost becalmed and having to switch on our engine, while over to our right we could see a boat heeling over in strong wind.  And then ... the wind arrived ... and it quickly became a very strong wind ... and help! ... we had rather more sail up than I would have liked.

The wind was gusting up to 20 knots and packing quite a punch, but I was pleased to see George & Yorkie were taking it all in their stride and relishing the speed through the water. I was pleased to have the wheel to hang on to, and my safety line. 

Not surprisingly we made good time and as we got closer to Zakynthos we came within the shelter of land and could all relax a bit. Once again we had a pleasant mooring and this time it wasn't us who was moored up alongside the ferry.

That night we had a flotilla punch party with lots of delicious nibbles, all beautifully prepared by our lead crew. I took the opportunity to get acquainted with our charming Kiwi hostie, Katie. As readers, who were with us at the time of the posts of our previous flotilla, should know, I do have a soft spot for hosties and like to have my photo taken with the them ...   

It was a lovely punch party and everyone was chatting and getting to know each other, as welll as enjoying the punch and nibbles. At the end we were still hungry enough to head for the local taverna.

Have you worked out the double punch?

Lots of love Eddie, George & Yorkie xxx