Hello everyone!
Well our adventure continues, although we are starting to count the days before we fly home to Australia. We have had another crew change and our lovely friend Maggie (from the Gold Coast) is with us now and we are all flying back to Oz together on the 29th of October. Maggie came to us partly to help her to address her fear of being on the water and I must say that she has definately earned her 'crew' stripes! She has had to deal with some pretty rough weather on the boat and has done so without any complaining and has taken everything we have thrown at her in her stride! She has to qualify for 'crew member of the year' without a doubt!
We continue to learn life changing lessons during our journey. Amongst the useless stuff we have learned, like how to sail our boat, dealing with 75 knot winds, storms off the Albananian coast for 12 hours, etc etc, we have leaned a lot of really useful stuff that I now wonder how I ever lived without. Stuff like.... how to catch an octopus!
It goes something like this:
1. Acquire a big plastic crab
2. Attatch this to a wooden board along with 2 enormous fishing hooks (Note: these can be bought premade from any fishing supply shop worth it's salt!)
3. Attatch a length of strong fishing twine
4. Pick a nice quiet town quay where you can stare into the cockpit of some unsuspecting yachties who you can instruct on how to catch an octopus (preferably with fairly clear water so that you can see the unsuspecting octopus jump on the plastic crab)
5. Throw the plastic crab contraption alongside the yacht, just missing their mooring ropes and worrying the **** out of them every time you do this
6. When the unsuspecting octopus sniffs around your plastic crab snatch quickly thereby stabbing the octopus with the enormous fishing hooks
7. Pull quickly onto the quay and quickly stab the octopus between the eyes in such a way as to convince the yachties that you are certifiably mad
8. Continue by slamming the octopus 15 or 20 times against the concrete / rock pier VERY, VERY hard (this stage can also be carried out by beating the octopus VERY, VERY hard with a large stick
9. After you have completed stage 8, continue by rolling the limbs of the octopus on the concrete / rock pier for a long time
10. Take the octopus home and get your Greek mama to cook it for you, leaving the yachties shocked and distressed on their boat, with nightmare material imprinted on their minds for the next few weeks!
11. Come back and repeat next time a new boat comes to that spot on the town quay!
See I told you. A life changing skill if ever I saw one!
We are currently at Katacolon in the Pelopenese, the furthest south that we have been this year. We came down here as there is a train very close to the quay which takes you directly to Olympia. We were promised a 'marina' but after a 74 nautical miles trip to get here we had to anchor out when we arrived at 2am as we couldn't quite work out what the deal was when we did a 'reccy' round the 'marina' which looked nothing like the picture in the pilot guide. In the morning we came in and did a stern to moorning with our anchor on the town quay and were helped to moor by a lovely man named Stan who is American and was on his yacht. The weather that day was wet and windy and just as we arrived back on board from dinner there was a rather spectacular storm. One of the locals advised us to move around to where the ferries dock as there was more bad weather forecast. We did this the next morning with the assistance of Stan and some other friends, Tim and Katie (who are Australian) and soon we had all the boats side to in a more sheltered position. This proved to be fruitful as the following night and day brought some really nasty storms and rain (also hail!). We had a quiet day aboard and did a bit of hibernating which bored Craig to tears. Just a note for anyone planning to visit: the 'marina' berths were removed for repairs a few years ago and have not been replaced due to (surprise, surprise!) some Greek government red tape. The locals are not sure when it will be up and running again.
This morning Maggie and I boarded the train and went up to Olympia which was amazing. Craig stayed to baby sit Shirley Valentine and did some blue jobs like trying to fix our VHF radio (again!). Bloody thing never seems to work. After a day pottering around looking at the ancient ruins and standing in the spot where they light the olympic flame for every olympic games we did some souvenir shopping and returned on the train to Katacolon (3 euro return trip!) to find that the weather is not looking good for the next few days. We are now contemplating going back to Messolonghi a bit earlier and doing some road trips as we are getting a bit fed up with bad weather. Even the locals are complaining. We are getting the boat pulled out on the 27th of October so we have to be in Messolonghi around the 25th anyway.
Anyway, I have a new favourite place! If I ever do a real 'Shirley Valentine' I will be going to live on the island of Meganisi in the Ionion. It is just one of these places that get under your skin and I could quiet easily run away to there. We visited Port Atheni on Meganisi with Kathleen and Helen on board and this was where Craig and Keith scrubbed Shirley's bottom before the Ionian rally. We had vowed to return as we hadn't really had a look around and were not disappointed. We anchored first of all at Port Atheni and walked over to Katameri which is an extremely traditional Greek town with all the resident ladies in traditional clothing etc. It is such a peaceful place! We also walked round to Vathi via Ampelaki Bay.
From there we went to Kalamos (on Kalamos) where Craig and I did a big walk up to a church on the hill with spectacular views and where 'friendly George' comes to take your lines. Then to Port Leoni which is the site of another deserted village. We went ashore and had a walk around the old buildings, including an old oil press. I love these places! Then on to Sivota on Levkas where we were enticed to tie up outside a pontoon owned by Stavros who owns the adjacent taverna. We were a little concerned about the length of the lazy lines and our concern was realised when a storm blew up and we started to slam against the pontoon! Turns out the pontoon is designed for 6 metre boats only! We took off and were soon snuggly moored outside our old favourite, the 'no problem' taverna. We stayed there for a couple of days and then decided to return to Meganisi to try to catch up with some friends of ours (Mac and Barbara) who own a house there.
What transpired from there for us was a lovely, gradual enveloping into the extended family of expats and locals on Meganisi. It goes like this:
We met Mac and Barbara in Sivoto in August when we had Kim on board and had promised to visit at some time in the future. When we had walked to Vathi from Port Atheni we met Irene and Chris who have a share in the same boat as Mac and Barbara. They told us that Mac and Barbara were still on the island. When we returned to Vathi by boat we tied up in the marina and were met by a lovely young lad called Yannis who owns the marina. The same night we were sitting on a British boat (who we were chatting to as we had found a fender of theirs in August and were now returning it to it's rightful owners, as you do!) and we saw Mac and Barbara on the pier. After big hugs and kisses we were invited for drinks the following day.
Are you with me still?
After a lovely afternoon with Mac and Barbara, we were leaving as some other friends of theirs, Filia and John (from Brisbane!!!) arrived. They are building a house in Ampelaki Bay on Meganisi and asked us if we would mind taking some documents home to Brisbane for them to deliver to John's brother in law who is building a catamaran in South Africa which he is going to sail to the Ionian. We were also asked if we could talk to this brother in law about sailing over here. As we have friends, John and Jenny, who also live in Brissie and who are also building a catamaran we agreed to try to get these people together when we get home.
Have a breath! Yannis at the marina was surprised when we turned up back at the boat with Filia and John as he also knows them and we seemed to go up a notch arriving in Filia's company as her family are from the island and everyone thinks very highly of them. OK, sorry not finished yet! Mark Norfolk (who fixed Mac and Barbara's electronic gates for them) was also introduced to us..... and yes, he knows everyone too and ended up coming onto Shirley Valentine to help Craig fix some electrical problems. We had dinner with him one evening and Maggie and I fell in love with his gorgeous dog, Red. What a beautiful island!
Well our adventure continues, although we are starting to count the days before we fly home to Australia. We have had another crew change and our lovely friend Maggie (from the Gold Coast) is with us now and we are all flying back to Oz together on the 29th of October. Maggie came to us partly to help her to address her fear of being on the water and I must say that she has definately earned her 'crew' stripes! She has had to deal with some pretty rough weather on the boat and has done so without any complaining and has taken everything we have thrown at her in her stride! She has to qualify for 'crew member of the year' without a doubt!
We continue to learn life changing lessons during our journey. Amongst the useless stuff we have learned, like how to sail our boat, dealing with 75 knot winds, storms off the Albananian coast for 12 hours, etc etc, we have leaned a lot of really useful stuff that I now wonder how I ever lived without. Stuff like.... how to catch an octopus!
It goes something like this:
1. Acquire a big plastic crab
2. Attatch this to a wooden board along with 2 enormous fishing hooks (Note: these can be bought premade from any fishing supply shop worth it's salt!)
3. Attatch a length of strong fishing twine
4. Pick a nice quiet town quay where you can stare into the cockpit of some unsuspecting yachties who you can instruct on how to catch an octopus (preferably with fairly clear water so that you can see the unsuspecting octopus jump on the plastic crab)
5. Throw the plastic crab contraption alongside the yacht, just missing their mooring ropes and worrying the **** out of them every time you do this
6. When the unsuspecting octopus sniffs around your plastic crab snatch quickly thereby stabbing the octopus with the enormous fishing hooks
7. Pull quickly onto the quay and quickly stab the octopus between the eyes in such a way as to convince the yachties that you are certifiably mad
8. Continue by slamming the octopus 15 or 20 times against the concrete / rock pier VERY, VERY hard (this stage can also be carried out by beating the octopus VERY, VERY hard with a large stick
9. After you have completed stage 8, continue by rolling the limbs of the octopus on the concrete / rock pier for a long time
10. Take the octopus home and get your Greek mama to cook it for you, leaving the yachties shocked and distressed on their boat, with nightmare material imprinted on their minds for the next few weeks!
11. Come back and repeat next time a new boat comes to that spot on the town quay!
See I told you. A life changing skill if ever I saw one!
We are currently at Katacolon in the Pelopenese, the furthest south that we have been this year. We came down here as there is a train very close to the quay which takes you directly to Olympia. We were promised a 'marina' but after a 74 nautical miles trip to get here we had to anchor out when we arrived at 2am as we couldn't quite work out what the deal was when we did a 'reccy' round the 'marina' which looked nothing like the picture in the pilot guide. In the morning we came in and did a stern to moorning with our anchor on the town quay and were helped to moor by a lovely man named Stan who is American and was on his yacht. The weather that day was wet and windy and just as we arrived back on board from dinner there was a rather spectacular storm. One of the locals advised us to move around to where the ferries dock as there was more bad weather forecast. We did this the next morning with the assistance of Stan and some other friends, Tim and Katie (who are Australian) and soon we had all the boats side to in a more sheltered position. This proved to be fruitful as the following night and day brought some really nasty storms and rain (also hail!). We had a quiet day aboard and did a bit of hibernating which bored Craig to tears. Just a note for anyone planning to visit: the 'marina' berths were removed for repairs a few years ago and have not been replaced due to (surprise, surprise!) some Greek government red tape. The locals are not sure when it will be up and running again.
This morning Maggie and I boarded the train and went up to Olympia which was amazing. Craig stayed to baby sit Shirley Valentine and did some blue jobs like trying to fix our VHF radio (again!). Bloody thing never seems to work. After a day pottering around looking at the ancient ruins and standing in the spot where they light the olympic flame for every olympic games we did some souvenir shopping and returned on the train to Katacolon (3 euro return trip!) to find that the weather is not looking good for the next few days. We are now contemplating going back to Messolonghi a bit earlier and doing some road trips as we are getting a bit fed up with bad weather. Even the locals are complaining. We are getting the boat pulled out on the 27th of October so we have to be in Messolonghi around the 25th anyway.
Anyway, I have a new favourite place! If I ever do a real 'Shirley Valentine' I will be going to live on the island of Meganisi in the Ionion. It is just one of these places that get under your skin and I could quiet easily run away to there. We visited Port Atheni on Meganisi with Kathleen and Helen on board and this was where Craig and Keith scrubbed Shirley's bottom before the Ionian rally. We had vowed to return as we hadn't really had a look around and were not disappointed. We anchored first of all at Port Atheni and walked over to Katameri which is an extremely traditional Greek town with all the resident ladies in traditional clothing etc. It is such a peaceful place! We also walked round to Vathi via Ampelaki Bay.
From there we went to Kalamos (on Kalamos) where Craig and I did a big walk up to a church on the hill with spectacular views and where 'friendly George' comes to take your lines. Then to Port Leoni which is the site of another deserted village. We went ashore and had a walk around the old buildings, including an old oil press. I love these places! Then on to Sivota on Levkas where we were enticed to tie up outside a pontoon owned by Stavros who owns the adjacent taverna. We were a little concerned about the length of the lazy lines and our concern was realised when a storm blew up and we started to slam against the pontoon! Turns out the pontoon is designed for 6 metre boats only! We took off and were soon snuggly moored outside our old favourite, the 'no problem' taverna. We stayed there for a couple of days and then decided to return to Meganisi to try to catch up with some friends of ours (Mac and Barbara) who own a house there.
What transpired from there for us was a lovely, gradual enveloping into the extended family of expats and locals on Meganisi. It goes like this:
We met Mac and Barbara in Sivoto in August when we had Kim on board and had promised to visit at some time in the future. When we had walked to Vathi from Port Atheni we met Irene and Chris who have a share in the same boat as Mac and Barbara. They told us that Mac and Barbara were still on the island. When we returned to Vathi by boat we tied up in the marina and were met by a lovely young lad called Yannis who owns the marina. The same night we were sitting on a British boat (who we were chatting to as we had found a fender of theirs in August and were now returning it to it's rightful owners, as you do!) and we saw Mac and Barbara on the pier. After big hugs and kisses we were invited for drinks the following day.
Are you with me still?
After a lovely afternoon with Mac and Barbara, we were leaving as some other friends of theirs, Filia and John (from Brisbane!!!) arrived. They are building a house in Ampelaki Bay on Meganisi and asked us if we would mind taking some documents home to Brisbane for them to deliver to John's brother in law who is building a catamaran in South Africa which he is going to sail to the Ionian. We were also asked if we could talk to this brother in law about sailing over here. As we have friends, John and Jenny, who also live in Brissie and who are also building a catamaran we agreed to try to get these people together when we get home.
Have a breath! Yannis at the marina was surprised when we turned up back at the boat with Filia and John as he also knows them and we seemed to go up a notch arriving in Filia's company as her family are from the island and everyone thinks very highly of them. OK, sorry not finished yet! Mark Norfolk (who fixed Mac and Barbara's electronic gates for them) was also introduced to us..... and yes, he knows everyone too and ended up coming onto Shirley Valentine to help Craig fix some electrical problems. We had dinner with him one evening and Maggie and I fell in love with his gorgeous dog, Red. What a beautiful island!
Anyway, this is just an example of the ongoing friendship which we continue to find on our travels. The beauty and warmth of the places and the people that we have visited and met will always stay with me. This journey has been amazing!
Well, better go and see what the skipper is up to. He's not very happy about the weather forecast so we may have to have a group discussion this evening about our next move this evening. I am just upset as my suntan is melting fast!!!! Yes, I know I am shallow, but it is called a high call problem!!
Talk to you all soon!!!!
Love from all on Shirley Valentine (especially Maggie, crew member of the year!!!)
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