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SPRING CRUISE 2022

LEROS TO CEPHALONIA

11 March to 25 April 2022

We are now in Cephalonia, the largest island in the Ionian Sea off the west coast of the Greek mainland. We sailed here, some 443 miles non-stop, in 76 hours from Leros, our Greek Aegean base for the last five years.

Route taken: Leros to Cephalonia         

Originally, we had planned to go through the Corinth Canal to get to the Ionian. It would have been a significantly shorter and quicker route. Unfortunately, the Canal has been closed for the last three years due to landslides! Rumour has it that it will open again in July for a limited period, but most cruisers assume that is GMT (Greek Maybe Time).

Corinth Canal landslide           

This year we arrived in Leros via Athens from Heathrow on 11 March. Our connecting flight from Athens to Leros was delayed 24 hours because of Storm Philippos and snow! Olympic Air put us up in the Holiday Inn near the airport. Full board (excluding alcohol)! Even so, our subsequent delayed landing from the south end of Leros on the island’s short landing strip, was hairy – to put it mildly.

Holiday Inn in Athens. Note dusting of snow!

During the rest of March, we concentrated not only on servicing, repairing, and preparing the boat for sea, but also dramatically reduced the amount of gear on board to make room for our son Will and his family, who were due to join us for a two-week ‘holiday cruise’. Fortunately, the boatyard provides (relatively) secure storage facilities.

Mike taking a break from antifouling – himself

FAMILY CRUISE

This was the first time that we’ve been joined on Island Drifter [ID] by our 7-year-old granddaughter Emmy. We had delayed inviting the family to join us until she could swim confidently. However, there had always been indications that she might be interested in ‘sailing’.

Emmy on a dry run!     

Will and Lesley had sailed with us in Portugal in 2010 and Will had previously cruised with us on two other occasions – in the Canaries and also the Caribbean. While Will dinghy sails, neither of them has had the time to take up yachting. Hence, we were all a bit cautious on this, our first, family cruise and made a point of not being too ambitious.

Will, Lesley & Emmy [WLE] arriving in Leros at 0730 hours

Mike collected them from Leros airstrip in a hire car and brought them to Lakki, where we were Med-moored on M&D’s marina quay. Having travelled overnight they were somewhat weary so, after a cup of tea and an exchange of pleasantries, they all retired for a ‘short nap’. Meanwhile we used the car to provision for our forthcoming cruise.

ID on the quay at Lakki        

After their 5-hour ‘nap’ and a late light lunch, Will helped Mike set up and test the dinghy and outboard, while Helen introduced Lesley and Emmy to the town and some of Greek residents with whom we are now well acquainted, including Popi at Café Morano which overlooks the harbour and produces excellent freshly squeezed orange juice which Emmy adored – and soon learnt the Greek phrase for!

Emmy enjoying her first spin around the bay in the dinghy with Will

Next day we used the car to tour the north of Leros where we visited the Chapel of San Isidoros, had our first swim at Blefouti Bay and enjoyed a late lunch on Ag Marina quay.  That evening, we were joined for sundowners on board by our friends and neighbours, John and Maggie Fowler off Lazy Pelican.   

      The causeway over which we walked to Chapel Isidoros

Lunch at Ag Marina quay

The following day, while Will dealt by phone and online with some work-related issues, Helen took Lesley and Emmy to view the beaches at Merikia on the north shore of Lakki bay and introduced Emmy to one of the many large herds of goats that frequent the island.

Young Leros goats          

After lunch at Takis & Marietta’s deli (in its great new location overlooking the harbour), we went for a swim at Xerokambos at the south of the island. The bay is well protected from the prevailing northerly wind.

Swimming at Xerokambos beach

Next morning, since we had arranged with M&D to measure and quote for replacement standing rigging, we sailed back north along the west coast of Leros to the boatyard at Partheni, where we stayed overnight in the launching dock, from where we had easy access to the boatyard’s facilities.

Leros chart

While we were in the dock, our friend Margaret Reeves Rendle, the author of Demis the Dash – a delightful children’s book about the exploits of the little turboprop plane that flies to Leros – called by to sign Emmy’s copy of the book.

Demis the Dash

The rigging was inspected and measured next morning. We then moved out of the dock and anchored in the nearby hurricane hole of Matronas Bay. 

Island Drifter at anchor in Matronas Bay

After launching the dinghy, WLE went ashore and took a taxi to Panteli, where they enjoyed lunch and the afternoon on the beach.

Will and Emmy chatting over lunch on Panteli beach 

That evening, we chilled out, although Emmy was keen to demonstrate how much her chess skills have improved since last year.

Mike being tested by Emmy at chess

Before weighing anchor and leaving next day, Will and Lesley went ashore for a 10-km run over the hill to Blefouti Bay, before returning after a cold shower in the boatyard.

During their run, Will and Lesley sent a selfie from the hill above our anchorage

We then sailed north to the island of Lipsi, where we berthed alongside the inner breakwater.

Lipsi chart

ID berthed on the inner side of the breakwater at Lipsi

On passage, Emmy had enjoyed her first attempt at helming and gained confidence moving around the deck.

Emmy helming

 Emmy helping Mike put out fenders

That evening we had supper at Manolis’s restaurant on the hill overlooking the harbour. The highlight of the evening was the almost-instant friendship struck up between Emmy [Emelia] and Manolis’s daughter Emmelia. Both happily chatted away to each other in their own language.

Emelia meets Emmelia!

In view of the strong southerly wind, we remained in Lipsi for an extra leisurely day doing our own thing.

Will and Emmy setting off to explore Lipsi town

We went to find the foundations of the house that our friend Fiona Logan is having built overlooking the bay.

Foundations of Fiona’s house

Next morning we were up early, by which time there was a strong wind and 2-metre swell from the north, which enabled us to sail south on a run all the way to Panteli Bay on the east coast of Leros. Will helmed. We shouldn’t have been surprised that he coped well, since dinghy sailors generally make good helms.

Will helming in a Force 7 

We anchored off the beach in calm conditions in the lee of the town and rowed ashore for lunch. That evening, the wind unexpectedly changed direction and rapidly increased to the top end of a Force 8.

 Island Drifter at anchor off Panteli

Fortunately, we were operating an anchor watch. Hence Mike, who was on watch at the time, immediately noticed when the anchor broke out and we started dragging parallel to and ten metres from the outside of the fishing harbour’s breakwater. He promptly reversed out into deeper water, and we sorted ourselves and the boat out before going into the small fishing harbour and rafting on one of the boats, where we remained for two nights.

Island Drifter rafted on local fishing boat

Panteli bay and fishing harbour viewed from above

Next morning we contacted Michalis Chondrogiannos, a diesel and outboard mechanic who has helped us before. He came over immediately to pick up our outboard engine since during the previous night’s ‘recovery’ exercise, the dinghy had overturned with the outboard engine attached. Fortunately, Will had managed to right it relatively quickly. Luckily, it survived its dunking and Michalis later returned it to us in full working order – after we arrived in Lakki.

Our friend Fiona from Lipsi, whose house foundations we’d previously inspected, and who was returning from the UK, dropped in for a quick coffee and to meet the family, before catching the ferry home from Ag Marina.

Fiona Logan chatting with Emmy

As a thank-you to Will in particular for his prompt actions the night before, when he flipped the dinghy over and then leapt down into it to lash it alongside, we took the family out for a lunch at the splendidly situated Taverna Dimitri o Karaflas. The taverna overlooks both Panteli and Vromolithos bays. While the meal was excellent, the views were even better.

View from Dimitri’s restaurant

Next day we headed south and round the bottom of Leros back to Lakki – thereby completing a Circumnavigation of the island!

Video of our last sail together

Since WLE were leaving early next morning, we stayed in Evros Marina for the night. It is of an international standard. Suffice to say that we all enjoyed a couple of long, hot showers from their highly efficient solar heating system. (Not always the case elsewhere.)

 Aerial photo of Evros Marina [courtesy of the Marina management]

Within minutes of us berthing, Lesley set off on another 10-km run, round to Merikia (pausing for caffeine at Popi’s café)!  That evening we used the dinghy as an Uber to get into Lakki, it being otherwise a long walk. There we enjoyed souvlakis for supper.

Our ‘Uber’ taxi

WLE took a taxi next day to the airstrip to catch the 0740 hrs flight to Athens. They were back home in London by 1700 hrs (UK time).

It had been a great family holiday. Emmy took to boat life like the proverbial duck, nobody felt seasick (‘magic’ wristbands helped!), and we all enjoyed a range of memorable experiences.

Emmy relaxing on passage

What we shall probably remember most is Emmy, after meeting ‘Greek Emmy’ in Lipsi, taking, entirely on her own volition, an interest in learning the Greek alphabet, and then busily writing Greek sentences in her notebook (after downloading Google Translate to her iPad) and subsequently her thank-you note in Greek in our Visitors’ Book!

AEGEAN TO IONIAN

We stayed for a second day in Evros Marina, during which time we began to reorganise the boat and took all the bedding and towels for five people, together with our own personal laundry, into Dimitri’s laundry in town, picking everything up dried and folded later in the day. (A great service worth every penny.)

We returned to M&D’s launching dock in Partheni, where we berthed in order to mitigate the effect of a 2-day southerly gale that was forecast. We ended up looking like Gulliver in Lilliput using every available line on the boat.

Island Drifter about to sit out a southerly gale in M&D’s launching dock          

Having lived for several weeks with half the gear we normally have on board, it confirmed our long-held view that we needed to dramatically reduce it. Hence nothing was allowed back on board that we considered unnecessary. The Plimsoll Line undoubtedly rose as a consequence!  The first good sort-out in 22 years! (‘Skip rats’ in the boatyard had a field day! One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure!)

After a couple more days on a boatyard buoy sorting out storage on the boat and preparing for sea, we sailed south to Kos Marina. In Kos Helen collected her biometric residence card, which the Immigration Department had received from Athens only after we left Greece in December 2021.

Kos Police Station and Immigration offices (the fancy white folly) – with the castle of the Knights of St John to its right

Afterwards, we headed west across the Aegean, around the rugged southern capes and then up the western coast of the Peloponnese to the Ionian islands adjacent to the Greek mainland.

Ionian Islands off mainland Greece    

There we made landfall in Sami on Cephalonia – the largest Greek Ionian island (some 30% larger than Corfu). It is conveniently located at the southern end of what is known as the ‘Inland Sea’ or ‘Yotties’ Playground’. Louis de Bernières’ novel, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, is based on events in Cephalonia during WWII and the subsequent film of the book was primarily shot on the island.

Berthed alongside in Sami Harbour

Our plan is to recce the area with a view to determining whether to have a couple of years based here, return to the Aegean or go, possibly, to Turkey.