After our dash across Europe to get to Greece, and our dash down into the islands yesterday we deserve a slow day. We fix the echosounder that was playing up yesterday, and have a walk around the coast to Mina’s taverna at Port Athine. It’s just like Paradise.
After a nice walk back to Vathi we have a few beers in the last of the evening sunlight. Views:
Stavros has fresh octopus tonight, so guess where we’re heading for dinner.
Lovely meal last night in a taverna called the ‘Crazy Prawn’. Prawns are pretty simple as a rule – just peel one and pop it in your mouth. Not these. They’re so big you have to decide which end to start. ..
This morning we did a bit of shopping and sailed south. It took about four and a half hours to get to Little Vathi, and here we are.
Greek humour.
Oh yeah – the big news. There’s a cash machine here for the very first time! Progress in the islands.
After a good evening at the airport watching Wales defeat England in the rugby world cup, we got up early this morning for our flight to Preveza.
Everything went fine, and by 1.30 we were aboard Konstantinos in the marina.
Preveza isn’t the most attractive port in the world, but Konstantinos looked a treat having been given a good clean before we arrived. We’ve stowed our luggage on board and we’ll have a night in a nearby hotel so that we can get off south into the islands tomorrow.
We’re off home tomorrow, so we travel north to Preveza where we’ll be just a few minutes from the airport when we wake up in the morning.
Preveza is a big working port. This bulk carrier is unloading grain.
Val checks out the mooring arrangements for yachts while we enjoy a beer this afternoon.
And I’ll save my last thoughts for the Greeks. They’re having a tough time at the moment, and whilst you might read that they are a lazy, feckless nation, I can assure you that they are not. They are hospitable, generous, and most of all they never give in. During our stay the bins have been emptied, streets cleaned and as far as possible in a cash economy things have been business as usual. Here they are enjoying their Saturday night out in Preveza. Yammas!
Followers of these ramblings will have gathered by now that life afloat is far from predictable. So much so in fact, that should you ever hear the words ‘boat’ and ‘plan’ in the same sentence, I would recommend that you treat the whole conversation with extreme suspicion.
One of the big trip boats has moored in a bit of a hurry this afternoon, and it’s all gone wrong, with the boat ending up at 45 degrees to the quay and the crew pushing and shoving trying to straighten 500 tons of floating steel by hand.
Onassis looks on, amused.
The skipper jumps off. The buck stops here and he’s a lonely man. On Konstantinos we take collective responsibility for our (ok my) foul-ups, but I know exactly how he’s feeling.
And this morning we spotted our friends Paul and Tom from IBA (the breakdown company) helping a stricken yacht out in the bay. Once again we have complete empathy with the crew.
Of course we watch all this stuff – it’s impossible not to. But we never gloat. Karma is a powerful force when you’re a yottie.
Amazing keepy-uppie guy in the main street. The road is pedestrianised after 7pm so there’s lots of stuff like this.
Still waiting for 1 part for our engine, nothing we can do but relax!
Off southwards this morning as we need to drop Jennifer & Fox off at Vassiliki so they can get the ferry to Kefalonia. The boat is huge!
The ferry leaves right on time. Learned via Facebook that they arrived safe and sound, and they’ll fly home tomorrow evening.
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