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
I was up again early this morning, about 6.30. Parga is quite a big tourist resort so everything was coming to life early and fishing boats were going out of the area we were moored in.
We had left our dingy on the beach last night as the taxi dropped us off direct to our boat so Colin managed to drop down off the bow of the boat and rowed it back to the stern. He had originally planned to swim round but that obviously wasn’t so appealing when it came to it.
We had plenty of time before our 9.30am briefing so decided to walk round the bay to get a coffee and to see if we could find some more cold bottled water for today’s journey.
We only walked 5 minutes before we came across a mini market and then stopped on the way back at a beach front hotel for a coffee. Another couple from our flotilla arrived for coffee and they joined us and we sat discussing how great the trip was so far.
We arrived back at our boat just in time for the briefing, today we are off to Mongonisi Bay on Paxos. We were advised to be there around 2pm if we wanted to get a bow or stern too spot on the quay. Late arrivals would likely need to anchor in the bay (free swing).
After the briefing everyone seemed to be hanging around, Colin was keen to get going and was the first to radio the lead crew “Kamara, Kamara, this is Filiata, we are ready to leave”. Yorkie, the lead boat skipper loosened our bow anchor from the sand and Colin reeled it in, its electronic so that ones nice and easy. Colin then had to pull the stern anchor (kedge) in by hand as I slowly reversed out of our mooring. As soon as we started pulling out I heard everyone else start radioing to say they were good to go too.
Once out of the harbour and heading towards Paxos we put our sails up. It wasn’t very windy but we managed to do some tacking but the wind was directly in front of us and we didn’t seem to be making much progress. A passing yacht made a gesture as to blow into our sails as they motored passed us. We left our genoa sail up and put the engine on to help us along. The wind did pick up slightly as we got further out in the channel towards Paxos but not enough to turn the engine off.
On route to Mongonisi
As we approached Mongonisi I said to Colin we hadn’t seen Kamara, our lead boat, who would be directing us how to dock. I looked round to see them motoring towards us, I knew it was them as their mast is covered in loads of colourful flags.
We slow down to let them get ahead and follow 2 more of our flotilla around the headland into a beautiful little bay. Mongonisi has a bar, taverna, shower block and a few villas dotted into the hillside. There’s no supermarket but you could walk into town in about 50 minutes, we didn’t even attempt that, it was far too hot. There’s Greek dancing tonight in the restaurant so that’s going to be interesting.
The first of our flotilla moored up quickly, the second seemed to be having a few problems as the wind was blowing them off course so they had to go back round the bay and try again. Their anchor has got caught on someone else’s so they had to untie it from the boat and let it go.
We spent about 20 minutes sitting in the bay, carefully trying to manoeuvre our boat back and forth whilst trying to dodge other yachts, day boats, paddle boards and swimmers. It starts getting a bit hairy, it’s not like you can just switch your engine off and stop in one place when you are bobbing about in the water with a wind trying to push you towards land, in a bay that is very shallow. I was keeping an eye on the depth gauge as I controlled the boat, the last thing I want to tell them is that I’ve hit a rock or sand bank.
We finally moor up, bow too, and can relax. This mooring business is probably the most stressful part of sailing, well, apart from then you’re listing so far over your think you’re going to capsize.
We tucked into our lunch, the leftovers from dinner last night, chicken, octopus, sword fish, chorizo, salad and pita bread, washed down with a beer.
Colin had a swim in the bay and I took the paddle board out, I still haven’t progressed to standing though !
We walked round to the bar to get a drink and enquire about dinner and en route bumped into Tilly, our hostie. She’d booked a table for 8pm for a group meal and said that Greek dancing would start at 9pm.
We bought a couple of tokens to use the showers, most places have been free, and after enjoying an iced coffee we headed back to our yacht to grab towels and toiletries.
On arrival at the showers, Jan, off of “Tasia” was rinsing her hair in the sink. You only get 3 minutes of running water for your 4 euros and your supposed to be able to stop and start the flow. Jan had stopped hers whilst shampooing and it hadn’t started again. Luckily the same didn’t happen to me but you try and shower with just 3 minutes of water, it’s not easy and I certainly didn’t have time to run a razor over my legs.
We headed back to get changed for dinner and sat on deck talking to the people moored next to us, who were part of a Neilson flotilla. They had spent the week around Corfu and Paxos and said they actually preferred the North Ionian, rather than the South. Remember, we were supposed to be in the South but our route was changed.
We headed to pre-dinner drinks about 7.15. Not impressed that someone had taken our step that was at the bow of our boat so we could disembark easily, not to worry though, we stole it back on our way home later.
Everyone in the bar was exchanging tales of their days sailing and talking about how much they were enjoying the trip.
We all sat at 2 long tables, the waiters obviously geared up for flotilla groups, taking orders for individual boats and swiftly delivering the food as and when it was prepared. They seem to have the process down to a fine art.
9am and the Greek dancing commences, then all of a sudden they stop and all the lights start going off. We comment that it ended a bit abruptly and then all of a sudden the dance area lights up as a Sambucca is spread over the floor and set light to. The male dancer moving across the dance floor in the flames. The evening continued with more Greek dancing with everyone up, arms around each other in one long snake of people dancing around. Followed by an array of different music where people were dancing until midnight.
Dance floor lighted ready for some Greek dancingGreek Dancing
Heading back to the boat we picked up the steps someone had taken from our mooring and headed off to bed. But not before sitting on deck with our balloon for lights, a cup of coffee and the apple pie.
Our balloon from Parga to light up the deck at night
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.
Yep, we are now sailors! Well, we’ve done one day sailing, and I think we did pretty good for newbies.
Today started early. Colin’s alarm went of at 3am, not impressed ! Forgot to cancel it after our early morning for the airport run the day before.
I needed up sitting out on deck at 5.30am as I couldn’t sleep waiting for the harbour to spring into life. First briefing wasn’t due till 9.30 so I was a tad impatient.
Once Colin was finally up we did a food shop and stopped off for an amazing breakfast in a water side cafe. Mine was chia seed, spinach and feta omelette and Colin’s was Greek yogurt and fruit, both were amazing.
Next stop was the morning briefing where Tilly, Benjo and Yorkie, our lead boat crew, explained to us what’s going to happen this week and where we’re heading.
Next was 2 more briefings including lots of important stuff, how to lower the anchor (crucial for stopping in the beautiful bays), how to start the engine (even more crucial for getting out to sea), what all those ropes are for (still can’t get a grip with which is for what) and how to empty the toilet out at sea (not sure what I thought happened to all that but wasn’t expecting to empty it out in the ocean).
We are having a skipper on board for 2 days to get us up and running, his name is Henry. Looks really young, as do all the staff, but then must admit what a great life for youngsters to be sailing round the Ionian Sea all summer. Wish I’d known about jobs like that when I was younger.
Straight after our briefings we got underway, we were first off the dock, raring to go. We headed straight out of the bay and eagerly put the sails up, turned the engine off and ………. stopped ! Moved the sails around to try and catch the wind and …….. waited. Yep, you got it, no WIND ! We kind of moved along slowly with anticipation that this big gust of wind was going to catch our sail and move us swiftly along but after watching the other flotilla boats motor on by we decided to switch to motor for a while. We sailed up the side of Lefkas and passed Meganisi out into open water where we did finally get the sails up and catch some wind.
We spent the next couple of hours heading North, did a bit of tacking (zig zagging to you and me) and arrived at a really beautiful spot called Goat Bay. This was the perfect stop to teach us how to drop anchor. We spent the next hour or so swimming and lunching. Baguettes for the boys and a Greek salad for me that one of the restaurants kindly made me for a takeaway.
We headed back to Meganisi where we were meeting up with the rest of our flotilla in Little Port Vathi.
We are all packed and ready to go and I’m pleased to report that the weather is looking perfect for our trip.
Due to lack of storage on the boat we were told to take holdalls rather than suitcases. We are travelling light with just swimmers, shorts and t shirts so thankfully everything fits in our bags.
We’re going back to basics with no hair dryer or straighteners, no dresses or evening wear ! I must say it actually feels good not having to think about all that stuff.
I’m feeling excited but also slightly nervous now. I’ve been so excited about doing this that now I’m starting to wonder just how difficult sailing might be. Oh, and will I get sea sick? That would be the worst thing to happen !
I’m off to bed now as we have an early start, 3.30am to be precise. Night night xx
I’m super excited that we are setting off on our sailing adventure this weekend.
We booked our holiday some 9 months ago and I haven’t stopped going on about it since. Colin, my hubby has had a sailing trip on his bucket list for years, I was never over keen but once I got immersed in looking at brochures I got really excited.
We were due to go to the South Ionian Sea and travel to Ithaca, Kastos, Kalamos and Meganisi but due to some law change, something to do with novice sailors not being able to sail into the harbours, our route has had to change.
After researching the islands we were going to visit and admiring the stunning scenery from pictures I am somewhat disappointed about the change. Oh well, Colin says we will still have an amazing time and we can’t change it so just have to get on with it.
So, on Sunday morning we fly out to Prevenza on mainland Greece and drive to Sivota, on the south coast of Lefkas (via a bridge) where we meet our boat and fellow flotilla sailors for the week.
Our new route will now head up passed Meganisi, through the Lefkas canal and on to Prevenza and Paxos, although we won’t know the final route till we get there. This is such a short notice change I’m not sure the sailing company even know the exact route yet.
We had already booked an extra pair of hands for our first day but as we now have to navigate the canal they will need to stay with us for 2 days. Makes me kind of nervous that the sailing isn’t going to be quite as easy as I thought.
I look forward to sharing more of our journey but in the mean time your’ll find me practicing my knots in between packing my suitcase.
Ionian Sea Sailing Trip 