After a little bit of a bumpy but not unpleasant journey, we arrived in Nafpaktos. The town looks amazing, a big castle up on a hill and a really great small walled harbour. We tried to go into the harbour but it was very small and was having work done, it was really only big enough for small boats and dinghy’s. We decided to anchor just outside the harbour walls. The wind had dropped considerably and we decided to go into town by dinghy to do some shopping and have a look around.
Once again I mastered the dinghy! 🥰 To be fair it was really calm and not very far!
We did the shopping and had a mooch about, it’s a very pretty place. Tracey & Jacques opted to take the shopping back to the boat while I waited in a little bar! Handy. This plan seemed great until the wind picked up a lot just as they set off and meant they couldn’t come back for 2 hours! 😂 I managed to pass the time sipping my Mastika and Wine and eating the nibbles, it was hard but I survived! 😂
It was getting on for 8.30pm by the time they got back and we were all hungry and made the great decision to visit the best local Gyros shop, I even tried a pork Gyros, very tasty.
Unfortunately the money we saved on a cheap supper was soon spent in a very nice wine shop we passed on the way back to the boat!
We set off on a bright sunny morning to make our way to Missolonghi. Lord Byron died and is buried on Missolonghi.
In order to get there we had to pass under a huge suspension bridge, The Rio-Antirrio Bridge. This required us to radio the bridge with our mast height then wait to be told which section to pass under, initially he misheard the height, luckily Tracey double checked and we went under the tallest section. Even then it’s a little nerve wracking!
The way into the quay at Missolonghi was strange, we followed a dredged channel past some flat marshlands which didn’t look very Greek, apparently there are a lot of salt flats here.
We went alongside the quay which with no wind was relatively stress free!
Tracey and I then went for an epic walk through the town, at the hottest part of the day, in search of Lidl! Honestly, we’ll do anything for a decent supermarket! 😂
It was actually a rather pleasant walk through the town despite pulling an old lady shopping trolley with us!
Lidl was fun, although we opted for a taxi back with our hoard.
We were moored opposite a busy, buzzing restaurant where we had a very nice dinner and watched the sunset.
Our next stop is the lovely island of Ithaka, which is just off the coast of Kefalonia. The architecture is lovely and relatively modern, after most properties were damaged during an earthquake in 1953. We moored along the town quay, which was great, I love a Town Quay!
The little town looks so pretty and also looks a little bit Italian.
We had a wander around the town and then had food onboard. Another epic Greek Salad 🥗😍
There is a beautiful poem called ‘Ithaka’ by the Greek poet P Cavafy. It is based on Odysseus journey home in Homer’s Odyssey. The poem conveys the meaning of life and to always remember that when attempting to achieve our goals we must never lose sight of the journey as it’s is this journey that provides us with wisdom, knowledge and experience. Thank you Grantley for telling me about the poem.
We were hoping to make a stop on Kefalonia at a place called Fiskardo.
Unfortunately the small quay was completely full, so instead we popped across to a place called Syvota on the island of Lefkas.
There are lots of pontoons in Syvota each one owned by a restaurant. The idea is that you moor on their pontoon for free but then eat at their restaurant.
We had been given a recommendation of a place called ‘Stavros’ Tracey called them as we arrived in the bay and they said they had a spot for us, he said he would come out and wave to us.
We saw a guy waving, so duly moored alongside, chatted a bit he told us there was water and electricity. It was only after about 10 minutes we realised the place was not ‘Stavros’ at all but a completely different restaurant called ‘Vibes’ 😂 we had been poached!
Our first job on arrival was to give the boat a really good clean. I bloody loved this! Mops, improvised brushes, hoses and lots of fun! We actually ended up doing some of the cleaning in the rain! 😂😂 It was such a hugely satisfying task, seeing the boat all shiny and clean. Bliss.
Once we finished we had a celebratory shower and a drink and watched the beautiful huge dog, Gustav, on the boat next door trying to get to the cats on the quay!
As expected we went to the restaurant for dinner. The food at the restaurant was delicious, a little bit more upscale than the usual Taverna but with Greek flavours. We also decided to get a little bit dressed up!
We had a really fabulous meal with lovely staff. Altogether a great day. 👌😍
I was woken in the morning to the sound of Jacques hoovering, which was odd as I’d hoovered the day before. It seems that some very cheeky cats had got on board during the night, jumped up on the side, dragged the remaining banana loaf down and had a good old munch! 😂😂
We stayed another night in Syvota, doing jobs, shopping and having a lovely lazy lunch.
It really is a great little spot, very popular with charter boats.
We left on Sunday morning to make our way to Lefkas town marina where we are picking up some new people!
More on this next time.
Have a great week lovely people.
🧡❤️💙🧡💜💚
Books read.
Private Monaco. James Patterson & Adam Hamdy. One in the series of Private books, very formulaic, predictable, easy reading and not very good!
Hereandthereclaire.com 