Archive for May, 2009

The plane finally landed, an hour late…and when we made Athens things were frantic. We had to shuffle a bit of packing on the airport floor so we wouldn’t be overweight and took a bit out of both bags and into carry on packs. British Airways charges more for weight than Olympic.

Security took a round out of Kirk, but we made it through in time to grab a last Greek “twinkie” (the chocolate croissants we love) and the plane was boarding.

The flight was uneventful although we did not get to sit together since I couldn’t do a web check in as there was no internet within any reasonable distance from the marina.

On arrival we found out luggage (although it was the last to show…we thought we had lost it) and then found our way to the car rental. That took some time, as did waiting to get the car. Once underway we both tried to adjust to being on the wrong side of the road and that was somewhat harrowing.

We did find the Inn eventually, although and hour later than we thought we’d be there. We drove down to Marlborough for dinner at a curry house and then when we came out….Kirk immediately attempted to drive on the right (wrong) side of the road into oncoming traffic! Scream!!!

OK, let’s not do that again!

Until we make a right hand turn and he does it again a bit later! Other side! OTHER SIDE!!!

This morning we got up at about 5 am and drove to Avebury and walked in among the stones in the fields with the sheep as the sun came up. It was lovely and the cool air felt good! We then realized that we were not too far from Stonehenge, and although it doesn’t open until 9:30 am, we walked around the fence and took a few photos before driving back up to the Inn for a shower and breakfast.

After breakfast we will hit the road again!

1430…still no plane….

1445…still no plane….

Lots of agitated looking passengers and…still no plane….

It flashed and boomed all night long and the rain came down heavily. When we crawled out of bed this morning the clouds were still thick and the sky was still grumbling. It rained hard on and off but the air was peaceful because of the coolness the rain brought. It was nice to not be sweating by 8 am for a change.

It seems quite ironic that four years ago on our last night in Athens, the sky darkened and we awoke to a downpour. So strange to experience the same farewell to the Mediterranean. It does make it easier to leave….somewhat.

We packed last night but checked and rechecked every nook and cranny of the boat for anything we might have missed. We drank the last of our juice, had cereal and downed the last of the milk. But we didn’t quite use everything up. A few eggs, some flour, some coffee, tea, tomato sauce and a bit of pasta…and six darned potatoes and a can of corn that we bought on day one and never ended up eating because who really wants to eat heavy starchy carbs when it’s 35 degrees at dinner time? Note to self…next time, don’t buy potatoes!

We stripped the bed, and put all the dirty towels and laundry in a large bag to try and tidy the boat up. I’m sure some people charter and leave a mess behind, but as a matter of personal pride we wanted to leave it as clean as we could.

Stavros arrived shortly after 9 am and we talked about the trip and the boat and what a good time we had. He went through the boat and checked it out but surprisingly he did not bring a diver to check the bottom. When we chartered from Pireaus they dove each boat that returned to check for damage. Stavros said that boats suffer more damage in the Cyclades than here in the Ionian. We called the agent for Sailing in Blue who came down to meet us and have us fill out a questionnaire. He called Vangelis who was not able to be here to meet us, he is in Athens. They say they will destroy our deposit slip and apologize that it is in Athens and not here.

Stavros asks when we are leaving, we say today at 2:30. He won’t hear of us taking a taxi and says he will drive us. The luggage is put into the car and we stop at the Port Authorities to sign us off the boat and have the final papers stamped. He then stops at a pastry shop and buys us each a freshly baked tyropita (cheese pie) ….really yummy! We then stop at a cafe and he buys us each a cappuccino and we sit and discuss Greece history, politics, economics…. He asked if we drive and we said yes….he then wanted to give us his car to drive around but we declined, we felt that we were taking too much of his time and we were now imposing so we convinced him to take us to the airport early. On the way we got a great tour of the area. He pointed out the ancient Roman road between Lefkas and Aktion that is now mostly submerged. He showed us the canal that Cleopatra used to move her ships into Voulkaria Lake to hide them.

He asks us how long we are in Athens and suggests that we just jump on another plane and head for Mykonos or some other island for another month. We say we’d love to…but there would be no job for Kirk to come back to if we did. When he drops us off at the airport we thank him profusely, that was a long drive and would have been a fairly expensive taxi ride. We are very appreciative. He gave us his email address and asked us to send him photos of us and of the boat.

Our luggage is overweight for Olympic Airline, but we knew that before we left Canada. Unless one is flying international with them, the luggage allowance is very low. Although, we have somehow increased our weight slightly overall (with respect to luggage) even though we didn’t really buy anything to bring home with us. Apparently we did not do as good a job of allocating the heavy items into our shoulder packs as we did on our way here…the lack of a scale would be our problem. However, their overweight charges are nominal and again, we had already factored it in before we left Canada. We should be fine for our British Airways flights. We pass through security, are looked over from every angle …I have two boarding passes and Kirk has two passports and he forgets to pick his luggage up as we spin in circles…it’s a wonder they let us out. We’ve been on a boat too long! We visit the duty free shop, alcohol, perfume, cigarettes, stuffed animals, and more of the same ticky-tacky-touristy crap we have seen at every shop on every island. Everywhere we went we saw the exact same items with just the name of the island changed. Aprons, towels, plates, doormats….who buys this stuff?

We wait for our flight and they call one, somewhat unintelligibly, but we think they said Austria and Vienna. We look around the waiting room and there are five TV screens which one would think would have the flights listed…but they are all black. So typical of here. There are only ten flights out of this airport today, one to Athens….we hope we manage to figure out when we are called because it is immediate. They call, you look around, suddenly someone shows up at a door, they flash the few people through, shut the door, and it’s all over. Better act quick!

Everything runs on Greek time. The plane is supposed to board at 1415 – it’s 1420 and there is no plane here yet. The plane is supposed to depart at 1435….but there is no plane yet. I asked the security guy what gate we should go to, he looked at me like I was an idiot and said they would call it, but probably Gate 3…when I look around I realize why he looked at me like I was a bit daft…there are three gates…one has a podium in front of it, one has nothing and one has a row of chairs right across it. Ummm…looks like Gate 3 it is. 1425…still no plane….

It has been another wonderful adventure in Greece.

And now we are off to Athens, with a two hour layover, then to London and a few days in England for another, albeit much shorter, adventure.

On to England!

We had another lazy morning and spent most of it wondering how we were going to get off the dock in a relatively heavy head wind. We watched a couple of other boats do it a couple of different ways. One couple did what what we thought we’d end up doing. She yarded on the lazyline and he released the stern lines while she pulled forward, then she dropped the line and he powered out. Bit worrisome because that line needs to get below the prop before the prop reaches that point.

Method two involved releasing the lazyline first while holding powering the boat in forward, but still attached to the dock with the stern lines…when the lazyline was down the stern lines were released and the boat shot out while the stern lines were pulled into the water and then pulled aboard. This method looked better, but required four people working simultaneously…we only have two….not going to work.

Eventually though, we have lots of room and figure we can muddle our way out when Mind-the-gap-guy shows up at the dock and tells us he will help us get off. GREAT!! Kirk puts the boat in gear and I release the lazyline and call back when it is down. Mind-the-gap-guy then pulls the stern lines over the dock cleat and tosses them onto the boat allowing us to leap forward. Worked like a charm! We are off! What an amazing place and what amazing service when all they want from you is to eat and drink at their establishment in return….which was reasonably priced and had excellent food. We would recommend Porto Spilia Taverna to anyone!

Next on our agenda, and really the last thing we want to do other than sail, is to find Jackie O’s beach hut. And since it is us looking for it…an since it is on a very small island…we can be sure to not find it easily! We motor across and head for a white building where another sailboat has anchored off. We tuck in for a look and agree that this is not the same building in the photo, keep hunting. We have two directional options, we, of course, choose the wrong one. And we proceed to circumnavigate the entire island of Skorpios. We do pop into the main harbour for a looky-loo and then continue on….finally we round the last corner, literally metres from where we started, and we find it.

Last thing to do out here…is sail! We have a good wind and we hoist all the canvas…and we have a wonderful sail for several hours. We see Kanula in the distance, see them drop a hook in the bay off Skorpios. When they haul anchor we think they have gone the other way but we think we might cross paths as they are heading for Preveza today. Awhile later we did see them and we tacked and sailed across their bow and waved. The only place we had to go was Lefkas Marina….and that was only a short few miles away.

The sky was threatening all day, and the mountains were shrouded in grumpy looking clouds. The weather report for today did include thunderstorms and it does look as if they might arrive.

Eventually we pulled the sails in and headed for the Lefkas channel. We pulled up on Kanula and chatted a bit while underway before pulling ahead. They are running for the 3pm bridge opening. A boat flying a German flag was ahead of us and entering the channel (which is extremely narrow, perhaps only three to four boat widths wide in some places) wing-on-wing. So because they are under sail, they are a bit of a danger to maneuver around. They look back at us crankily that we are so close, but we have Kanula coming up our stern too. It’s extremely obnoxious to be in here under sail and they are not only hogging the channel, but they are holding boats up. Eventully they pull the jib, but they are having difficulty with the main because there is nowhere they can turn to get the wind out off the canvas. We get another dirty look and we glower back and shrug at them…they stupidly put themselves in the situation they are in. Eventually the three not steering manage to manhandle it in. During the transit they also can’t decide on a speed and keep altering their velocity which also makes things difficult. Twits!

As we continue on the channel we see large powerboat a few feet outside of the channel markers….firmly aground in the sand and silt. Twit! The markers are there for a reason. But it really makes you worry about getting close to the markers on the inside of them!

We wonder if Kanula will make the bridge, it only opens once per hour for a few moments depending on boat traffic. Apparently they are thinking the same as they pick up speed and pass both us and the obnoxious twits in front. We wave and call a final farewell and Sandra calls out that if they are ever in Canada they will call. We really hope they do, they are a fantastic couple and we thoroughly enjoyed their company.

We also pass the twits in the wing-on-wng boat as they can’t seem to manage to be consistent with their speed under power. We pull past them and turn into Lefkas Marina and stop at the fuel dock to top up the tank. 48 Euros does the trick. Our grand total for four weeks of boating is 147 Euros. Pretty good!

We pull off the fuel dock and head for the marina, the rain starts. How ironic that our last night in the Cyclades four years ago also ended with rain. We think perhaps it’s natures way of making leaving that little bit easier at the end of a wonderful trip. A fellow comes whizzing up in a small boat and gives us directions on where to dock. When we head down someone waves us into a spot and hands off the not-so-lazyline to me. This one goes a bot better except I have some water on my feet and as I step on the glossy varnished wood my foot shoots out and I smack my shin. Oh good, another bruise! The lazyline is slimy and disgusting and leaves much all over the boat as I walk it forward. So, a quick cleaning to get the gunge off Nikolas. We would be embarrassed to give the boat back in such condition.

Once safely docked, we watch the twits come down the same lane and the dockmaster tells them they are too long and they must go to another float on the other side. They proceed to argue with the dockmaster until they finally concede. As they are backing out they are not watching the lazylines of the docked boats and they cut one and set the bow loose on one. They look at it, and just keep going without saying anything. I see the dockmaster in his boat and wave him over and tell him what happened. He calls on his radio and a few minutes later there are three of them there sliding the boat over to another berth. They thank us several times and go chew out the twits.

We went for for a walk around Lefkas town, bought a bit of milk for the morning, had a drink and one last saganaki at a local cafe in the marina and observed the various injuries. He has a limp, she has a banaged foot, he has a bandaged finger…. we merely have a multitude of minor scrapes and bruises…and of course Kirk has his plethora of mosquito bites. We pack our things and listened to the rain, watched the flashes of lightning and listened to the booming thunder directly overhead and are glad we are tucked in snugly at the marina.

Well, that’s pretty much it. The Ionian was good to us, and we hope we have left a good Canadian impression behind. We met many wonderful people, saw some wonderful sights, and visited some spectacular areas. It’s hard to leave. On one hand, after a month home looks pretty good and we are ready. On the other hand, leaving is so difficult and we could spend another month easily. The month disappeared far too quickly for our taste.

Tomorrow Stavros arrives at 9 am and we will finalize things. We fly out of Preveza at 2:30-ish and into Athens, then out of Athens and on to England for a few short days.