Hi everyone, We have sailed (averaged about 5knots, wind started at 5/6knots and then went up to about 11/12knots, on the bow at about 45degs. so very nice) to Killini today, on the Greek mainland just across from Zakinthos, and anchored in the bay (its to hot to go into the marina) so plan a - cup of tea first then a swim then dinner and a dinghy trip into town, A turtle came and swam right beside us, but I was too slow with the camera.
Hi John and Margaret! Thanks for the great updates!
To add photos to a forum post, press the little blue "picture" icon just to the left of the "B" for "Bold text" icon in the bar at the top of the "leave a comment" It may be a bit fiddly on a tablet, I will see what we can do about that. if you have a PC and mouse, hovering over the icon should bring up a tooltip that says "Upload Image". Click and it will bring up a file selector so you can choose what to add. It will add the image at the bottom of your comments.
Its best if you have photos reduced to 640*480 or so before you try to upload them, so that it reduces the data you send.
The site will actually happily accept bigger pictures and reduce them for viewing, but it will be slower to send (and see) bigger pictures over slow internet connections.
Hi everyone, We are now in the marina of Katakolo, arrived yesterday and spent today at Olympia, very interesting pile of bricks, lots of work going on to restore the site and the musium was very good. A great day of culture.
The local school did a play in the park, yesterday evening, which was good, even if we couldn't understand a word, and for the next three evenings a rock festival will be taking place, already it sounds like its going to be noisy.
Hope to be moving on tomorrow to Kiparissia.
Thanks Dagnal and Aleck for your advice regarding downloading of pictures, I already found the upload image icon, but the picture files that this brings up are of the pictures uneditted, whereas the pics I want to send, I have added discriptions of where and when they were taken. Sorry I just dont know what I am doing wrong, I have been able to send the right pics by emails, so I dont understand.
Hi everyone, Well we have made it to Koroni, this is where our friends live. So this years acheivement is now completed, Its still lovely and hot and sunny, but different down here, we had to move from the harbour yesterday afternoon as the wind really built up, so we moved round into the bay on the other side for the night, this is quite normal apperently.
I have been trying to post some pictures, but still not having any luck. I may have to send the pictures to dagnall, as last year and get him to load them onto the site.
Hope you all well. Best wishes from Margaret and John
Hi everyone this is a picture of some of the cats that turned up for the BBQ early July, at Port Atheni on the Meganisi Island.
We are now back at Koroni, at the bottom of the first finger of the Peloponnese, trying to find a place to sit out the expected storms coming on the weekend.
We first arrived here on the 7th Aug and meet up with our friends for a few days, and we went by car to the marina of Kalamata to have a look at the possiblity of overwintering there.
We left Koroni on the 10th Aug for Limeni, took us about 5 hours, with light winds. and as we were approaching the harbour a small pod of dolphins came and played in the bow wave for about 10mins which was great. Limeni is a large bay and it has a neo-Maniote village (as per Rod Heikell) very strange houses,( pictures to follow)
Next stop - visit to Diros another bay about 3 miles south of Limeni to see the caves. Well worth a visit, the caves go on for miles and your travel through them in a small flat bottomed boat through the interconnecting passages, unfortuntly the recorded guide wasn.t working and the boatman only spoke Greek, but it was still good and worth another visit sometime.
Left Diros to find somewhere for the evening, but all the little coves where just not suitable for us, so we ended up going to Kalamata for the night.
Left Kalamata and headed back to Koroin, as we had intended to start making our way back into the Ionion and on to Zakinthos and Cephalonia. But as a storm is now expected, we will head back to Kalamata until it blows over.
Hi, As normal, with the weather, a change of plan, Koroni and made our way back into the Ionion and stayed at Pilos, slow start until we rounded the point then the wind picked up and we were doing nearly 7knots, wind speed about 16knots, so that was good, then the wind just stopped and we had to motor again, so it took us about 5hours to do about 24miles. and just as we arrived the heavens opened and we had an almighty downpour for about 10mins then the sun came out again.
Today we headed for Kiparissia, what wind there was was in the wrong direction so it took us 6hours to do about 27miles. Tied up on the harbour wall and went for a swim, its so hot, clouds keep coming over us and then go somewhere else, which is very nice of them.
Sorry, I seemed to have got lost again doing the pics. will have to keep on trying.
Hi, Dont ask me how I attached the pic. I just dont know,
This is on the top of Johns christmas list (will need a bigger boat)
Left Kiparissia for Katakolon (had to motor sail in 7knots of NW) Anchored in the bay and went swimming (its so hot) lovely clear water) saw a couple of pretty blue jelly fish (dont look like they were nasty ones). Went into Katakolon town for drinks later in the evening, very good smoothies, yum yum
Decided to leave Katakolon for Zakinthos as the winds were forcasted to be favourable, but no they got it wrong again, and we had it on the nose all the way, horrid, anyway
Arrived Zante harbour and tied up against the wall, and had a rest
Holiday town, lots of people, we went for a horse and carriage ride around the town and then found a lovely restaurant and had a lovely fish dinner.
We needed to get somewhere sheltered for a few days as the wind is picking up, so we headed for
Av Nikolaos (a place lots of people had recommended) and althoueeegh today the wind was supposed to be in the wrong direction we had a very pleasant sail. and found a nice place on the wall. First stop the bar, in need of a cold drink (as our fridge isn't working properly) and then a swim.
A little glass bottom boat will take you to the blue caves and shipwreck bay for a few euros, so we may do that tomorrow, weather permitting.
Best wishes to you all John Margaret and Rumpelteazer
Pictures from the Caves of Diros. The caves are spectacular - one of those sights that stays with you a long time and which few adequately describe. A guide punts and pushes a flat-bottomed boat around the subterranean passages which literally drip with stalactites.
Hi, and now to continue: We only had one night at Av. Nikolaos, the little tripper boats and the swell made it uncomfortable so we moved on to Poros, where we met up with some friends and had a lovely meal in a restaurant called "Sunset" and had a lovely view of the sun-setting. also we saw the space station go across the sky and with the help of an app. on our friends phone we were able to watch its progress across Ireland, France and onto Greece, very interesting.
Its no good watching the weather forcast, the winds never seem to come from where they are supposed to, sometimes we have a really good sail until the wind turns, but thats Greece.
Next we headed to a lovely bay called Änti Sami" but it was already full of other boats and the only spaces left were too deep for us to anchor, so we carried on to a marina called ""Sami on Cephalonia. Here we met up with a couple(Duncan and Julia on Rampage) that we knew from the Ionion boatyard. which was an unexpected treat. We hired a car between us and did some exploring.
Left Sami and headed for Kioni, but the little harbour was full so carried on to Friskes, where we tied up alongside the wall, as we had done a number of weeks before, very windy. gusts of 28knots.
Some other friends were having their last few days in a bay at Abiliki, on Meganisi Island.o we came to join them it was lovely to have a swim again and for the water to be calm and no howling wind. I expect we will sail together towards Nidri (thats for us to see the fridge man) and Ginni and Ted on Summ Cequi , are going to Lefkas,
We are now at Lefkas, tied up bows too the quay wall, right in the middle of the town.
John has back trouble again (3rd time this year) so we are having to stay put for a few days.
The fridge still isnt working properly, but the service team at Penguin have been so helpful.
the engineers here just cant find the problem. Hope to get it all sorted out soon. We still have nice cold beers ect, but the fridge is using so much power. something is amiss.
We have booked ourselves a place here in Lefkas marina for the winter, and are due to fly back to the UK early dec for a couple of months, so hope to see some of you during that time.
We intend to go back south to Zatkinthos and Cephalonia for the last few weeks before November
Its still lovely and warm and sunny although at night it is getting a little cooler,
We have had a couple of nights of really heavy rain (washed the boat a treat) with thunder and lightening and a strong wind, lots of people were up during the night checking their anchors, we could have had a party. But in the morning the sun comes out and all is well (normally).
Every one from the catamaran bbq in July, showed interest in joining, but I dont know how many have actually joined, as it was such a hassle trying to fill in the form that I think some where put off.
David from Kyra (the first catamaran that we sailed with) wants to join, so we are going to sit down together and go through the joining form.
I will try and contact the others and see if they have managed to join
Hi, we are in a lovely little harbour,called Eposkopi on the lsland of Kalamos. just enought room for a couple of boats and no facilities, just nice shelter, had a real storm last night, thunder lightning and heavy rain with strong wind, then this morning it is wet and cold, first time for ages had to put on a fleecy. weather a bit unsettled but should be getting better soon.
Hi Margaret, I'm sorry about the form filling issue, I have emailed David a detailed "how to" , and also added a guide to the application process in the Forum. I'm sure the problem for your friend lies with not completing the "jigsaw", but we need that to make sure the applicant is human and not a spam computer..
All our sailing buddies have left now and returned back to their homes.
It has been lovely sailing with other boats,
Its like sailing with Peter and Sue (Meander) they have been sailing for ages and know so many different lovely places to go. It's the same here in Greece, but even if the whole of the Ionion has been explored, there is always new places to fine, As the fish farms get moved around, new bays open up, and now that the sailing season for flotila's are nearly finished, there is lots more room in some of the smaller harbours. When the fridge is fixed, we will head down south again, while the weather is still good.
Thank you Dagnal, for your advice about joining the club, I do hope some of our friends join the club.
We motored from Lefkas a few miles to a small town on the mainland called Zaverda at the nortern end of Paleros Bay, but it is usually just called Paleros town, a lovely secure harbour, had a lovely swim from the beach and then walked up the hill to a recommended restaurant called the New Mill, the food was great and the mother and daughter team who ran it were very good, it was a set meal with whatever the mom had cooked that day, so we had lots of different plates of food, all very good. well worth the walk.
We are just waiting for some fuel to be delivered and then we are going to Mitika or Astakos, which ever looks the best, these are all little harbours that we haven't been into yet. The sun is still shining so we are trying to make the most of it.
Another boat has given us a new fishing lure to try, so we will see how we go.
another lovely morning, sunny and warm, although a storm is brewing for the weekend.
We motor sailed about 8 miles yesterday from Paleros to Mitika ( I thought we would never leave Paleros we keep meeting up with some of our friends that stayed in the boatyard for the winter) which was very good and we found some lovely restaurants.
Here at Mitika iis a very small Greek town, surrounded by little mountains, which keep changing colour by the hour, very pretty.
Today we are heading for Fiskardo on the Island of Kefalonia (about 20 miles)
Going to try our new fishing lure today - so wish us luck.
Another lovely sunny and warm morning although rain is forcasted for later,
Had a bit of a sail yesterday, but then the wind changed round and then dropped down to zero, so we didn't get to Fiskardo instead stayed at Kastus harbour on the Island of Kastus. There is a windmill that has been converted into a coffee bar with a lovely view over the water,
We had a lovely swim and fed the cats and a group of us went to the bar for a drink in the evening, it's such a hard life.
Think we are heading for Vathi today, so will try the new fishing lure again today, to see if we can catch anything. I will try and send some pics again soon.
Hi everyone, At last we have caught some fish, two lovely Tuna's and they tasted lovely, shared with some friends,
Storm was forcasted for the weekend of the 10th October, so we headed for a harbour on Cephalonia called Sami, we have been before and it was very busy, this tiime it was better, not so many boats, about 12 in total all tied stern too the wall, but during the day they moved and went alongside, we were tied up against a large catamaran, so we weren't going anywhere. The wind during the night was so very strong up to about 50knots, thank goodness every one was ok, apart from one boat having its bimini ripped apart.
So in the evening we al met up andl had a survivial dinner at the local restaurent which was very good, but the Greek shots that come later are lethial, Margaret and two of the other girls were hung over next day.
We left Sami and headed for Fiskardo and managed to catch two lovely tuna fish, at last.
So went we met up with a couple of the other two boats we had a lovely fish dinner altogether.
We are now back at Port Atheni (where the catamaran bbq was held) On Meganisi Island, Its been lovely and sunny again, and we have been swimming and cleaning the bottom of the boat, the water is a little cooler now, but still niice, and the evenings are now getting cold once the sun goes down. Only a couple more weeks and then we are due to go into the marina for the winter, so we are making the most of the weather.
We would like to wish everyone a lovely saling season.
We are at last on the move again
Left Lefkas Marina the beginning of April and made our way back to the boatyard at Prevesa, to have Rumpelteazer lifted out so that we could clean her bottom ect.
Launched the 7th May, so now we are just doing a little bit of sailing around making sure everything is ok before we start our next adventure, into the Ageane
The new electric windlless is great, we should have fitted on ages ago.
At the moment it is warm sunny with a gentle warm breeze, but some strong wind are forcasted soon.
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