We had to clean and vacate our yacht by 8.30am so that meant for another early morning. I woke around 6am and lay in bed with my eyes closed contemplating getting up. I opened my eyes only to realise my left eye didn’t feel right, I could tell that it wasn’t fully open and I could tell it was swollen. On inspection I realised it was very swollen, I looked like I’d been punched but the only real explanation was that I’d been bitten. The last couple of nights we’d noticed a big increase in mosquitos and you can’t keep all the windows closed as it’s way too hot below deck.
Luckily I’d taken anti-histamines with me so I popped one of them, put my sunglasses on and set about packing and tidying up.
Tilly, our hostie, had hinted at dinner last night that the lead crew would be grateful for any donations so I made up a bag of leftovers – lemon, lime, beer, water and suncream and Colin added it to the other donations left on the quay beside their boat.
By 8am we were all packed up, bags on the quay, bedding bagged up, rubbish delivered to the bins and everything washed and put back where we’d found it. We left a note to say we’d broken 2 glasses and a there was a fendor missing from the boat when we had arrived.
All the other crews were busily packing up and by 8.30am everyone was off the boats and sitting in Olga’s ordering breakfast. We opted for Greek yogurt with fruit and a coffee. You could tell everyone was dissappointed to be going home and I missed the buzz from previous mornings when everyone was excited to be setting off on their sailing adventure.
The first coach picked up at 9am, they were the people going to Bristol airport and were spending the day at a hotel as their flight wasn’t until the evening. Everyone else was being picked up at 10am.
I went for a final walk around to pass some time but there wasn’t any shade and it was already getting really hot so I headed back to Olga’s. Right on time our coach arrived, we loaded our bags and off we set for an hour’s journey to the airport.
It was a really pretty drive, the road was lined with pink and white azaleas and we were high up overlooking the coast. We passed the road turnings for the places we had stayed on the mainland as we headed back to Preveza airport, it was hard to believe we had sailed all that way and looking down at the other sail boats on the water made me realise how small we were on the water.
Back at the airport we off loaded and headed to the check in desk, through security and into the departure lounge. Luckily the anti-histamines had worked some magic and my eye was much less swollen so I could take my sunglasses off. We said goodbye to the people heading off on the Birmingham flight and I sat and read my book until we were called to board the plane.
I engrossed myself in my book all the way home along with admiring the views on route and before I knew it we were landing. We managed to say good bye to more of our fellow sailors whilst collecting our luggage and off we went to get the car. We’d booked valet parking so didn’t have far to go thankfully.
The the reality of being back from holiday hit, before we even reached the motorway the traffic was at a crawl through roadworks, welcome home ……….. take me back to my yacht !!!
It was another beautiful evening and after a glass of wine sitting on deck we get ready to go out. Every evening has been really casual on this trip, wearing a t-shirt and shorts actually feels like getting dressed up after spending the day in your swimmers.
We head down to the taverna, part of a villa complex, for dinner and decide to have a cocktail or two before eating. I enjoyed a coupled of martini’s and Colin stuck with the Greek beer, Mythos.
Martini time
The beach front terrace was lovely and looked to be filled with fellow sailors from our flotilla. We ordered a broccoli and cheese pie and baked feta wrapped in filo pastry with honey and sesame seeds, both were delicious and I’m definitely going to try and recreate the baked feta back home. Cheese appears to be predominate ingredient in Greece, although I did speak to a lady who was dairy intolerant and she said she’d managed to avoid it ok during her trip.
I opted for chicken with mushroom sauce and Colin went for fillet steak, medium rare. Unfortunately the steak wasn’t up to much and we ended up sharing my chicken which was really tasty. Both dinners came with chips and both commented we should have asked for salad and actually could have just had the starters with a Greek salad, it would have been more than adequate.
Baked feta with honey and sesameCheese and broccoli pie
They bought us water melon for dessert whilst we enjoyed the sun setting behind the hills. The sky turned a beautiful pink giving an ideal photo opportunity of our yachts looking pretty in the bay. We finished dinner about 10pm, just after the sun had set.
Watermelon for dessert
All this sun and sailing makes you super tired so we headed back to the yacht for coffee on deck before going below to sleep.
Stunning sunsetLooking back at the restaurant from our yacht
Sivota looks like a really pretty place, we are moored a bay round from the main harbour and it’s either a 5 minute dingy ride (with motor) or 10 minute walk. I suggested we walk in to town to get food supplies for the morning.
We set off with just flip flops on our feet and after climbing a very steep road comment that this maybe wasn’t such a good idea, we were walking up and up and up.
I suggested to Colin we might want to turn back, it was scorching hot and both of us were regretting our choice of foot wear.
Nope, Colin said we’ve set off so we’re going. A steep road down followed the walk up and we eventually arrived at the main harbour ready for refreshment.
We bumped into some fellow sailors and they invited us to join them. They were playing bridge in a harbour front bar whilst enjoying a glass of wine.
After an hour or so of chatting we headed to the supermarket to get supplies.
We stocked up on croissants, ham, fruit, beer and wine and got a cab back to the bay with 2 of the people we had met up with. We took all the shopping back in the can whilst the others walked back. The taxi driver got upset with us as we told him the wrong place to take us back to and he had to do a big detour to get us back.
Back at the boat we unloaded the shopping and started getting ready for dinner
We had a 9.30am briefing today so no rushing around today. Lovely chilled morning enjoying a cuppa on the deck and then back across all the boats to the meeting.
All the boats were lined up in a raft and we were 2nd from the end so didn’t have to wait too long before we were off. Same routing getting out of the harbour as we had getting in, following Benjo in his dingy, no beer in hand though at 10.30 in the morning.
Today we are going it alone. Just Colin and I. Henry, our skipper for the last 2 days has got a ride on another boat, which he’ll be pleased about as we are going to Parga, one of his favourite beaches.
We head out of the harbour and out to sea and when we are well clear of land we decided to have a go at putting the sales up. It’s such a beautiful day and much calmer than yesterday but that also means not much wind.
First Colin puts out the genoa sail (the front one to you and I) and it flaps around a bit whilst I steer the boat around to try and pick up the wind. Then the main sail goes up and I turn off the engine. Colin pulls on ropes and winds in winches to adjust the sails until he’s happy and off we go. There isn’t much wind and it’s heading straight at us, not the ideal direction so we decide we need to tack, you know, the zig zagging thing I spoke of before.
Lots of our group passed us with their engines on heading for 2 Rock Bay, a bay stop lunch and swim spot en route.
We spend a brilliant morning sailing, the wind was low enough for us to practice but still be able to use the sails. We headed into 2 Rock Bay at around 1.15am and dropped anchor.
We were really proud of ourselves having made it through the morning on our own.
The bay was stunning. A dozen or so boats all anchored off shore in the bay, people swimming off a small beach and a pretty looking bar up on the cliff.
We decided to make lunch and enjoy the stunning views before having a swim. Nothing too great on the menu. A couple of croissants filled with left over cheese and tomato. The croissants we bought were stodgy and I spent lunch telling Colin we need to plan better for tomorrow.
After lunch we had a refreshing swim and got the paddle board out. I managed to progress to kneeling but Colin managed to get up on his feet.
I paddled around the bay, around the other boats, saying hello to the other boats in our flotilla, peering into caves and taking in the views. I think I could get used to this sailing thing.
We headed out of the bay around 3pm, winched in the anchor and headed back out to sea. It was windier than this morning so quickly got the sails up, the wind still towards us, so more tacking. We managed to get the boat going at a consistent 3 knots, I’m not sure it that’s fast or not, doesn’t feel super fast but we’re still moving along and a steady pace. We were only doing 3.5 knots yesterday in much stronger wind. Although there was some discussion between Colin and Henry yesterday as to whether the speedo was correct and we are going faster than it says.
We spent a good hour sailing, taking, Colin checking the GPS to make sure we were heading for the right bay and then the wind really got up. We need to go straight ahead to go into Parga, our overnight stop, but we were losing speed, in fact practically stopped and doing 0.3 knots. We decided to tack, at thing point everything went wrong!
The wind caught the genoa sail as it dropped and it was flapping around everywhere, Colin couldn’t pull it in straight. We were listing over really bad and there was a lot of frantic talking about which way to steer and to put the engine on. I needed to steer left but the wheel was as far as it could go, I honestly thought the boat was going to capsize. Colin managed to pull the sail in and we got control for a few seconds then we were listing against, I couldn’t steer the boat and I started to panic.
Colin was calling to me to put more throttle on the engine and steer, I was but nothing seemed to help me get control.
He then started to drop the main sail, not easy when the boat is listing and he’s trying to tell me what to do. The sail is jammed, yes JAMMED. Red cable to pull sail in (STOP) jammed, green cable to pull out (GO) jammed!!!!
The wind was getting stronger and the sky blacker, I was panicking even more and Colin decides to go out on the front deck to see why it’s jammed. Not a good idea when the boat is listing so much and I haven’t got control, what do I do if he goes over board? S**t ! I really wasn’t liking sailing at this point !!!
Colin can see the problem but can’t clear the cable, it’s proper jammed. He comes back to the cockpit and heads below deck to radio for help.
“Kamara, Kamara, this is Filiata, we have a jammed sail, can you help?” “No problem, where are you”. Colin had a rough idea of where we were and we were told to head towards Parga. I put the throttle up and started to head in, the main sail now flapping around in the wind.
Yorkie came speeding towards us in his dingy, I slowed down as he pulled up at the back of our boat and hopped on board. Colin pointed out the problem and he swiftly jumped on the front deck, gave the cable a good tug and it freed up. Yorkie jumped back in his boat and headed back, obviously all in a days work for him as he said “no problem, that happens sometimes”. All I can say is I hope it doesn’t happen again to us.
Colin winches in the main sail and we head towards the port, and then the heavens open. It reminded me of the the weather in the alps. Beautiful sun followed by high winds, then the black cloud and then the downpour. We should have recognised the pattern being so close to mountains.
There was a queue to get us moored up, 2 boats in front of us so we had to wait a while just out of the harbour. All sorts was going on, the rain was pouring down, someone was swimming, yes, swimming across the harbour mouth and then the boat in front of us needed pushing in as the engine failed. I just wanted to get into the harbour and stop!
Finally it was our turn, I told Colin he’d have to motor in, we were mooring straight onto a beach. Colin took the boat nice and slow and for some reason I decided to get on the deck. As the boat hit the sand I fell over, Hurriedly getting to my feet un hurt.
Finally we were moored up, anchors down and we could relax. We were soaked from the rain and stood on deck exchanging tales with fellow flotillas about our day at sea.
We were all moored bow to the shore so the only way off the boat was by water, dingy, paddle board or swim.
There was no time to go and explore before we all met for punch and nibbles on the beach.
I’ll fill you in on our evening out in Parga a bit later on.
Ionian Sea Sailing Trip 