Back up to Levkas

We're picking up Marion and Hugh at Levkas on the 27th of September and have a couple of chores to do while we're there so we've come up in just 3 hops - Nissos Petalas, Spartahori and Levkas. It should have been pretty simple, we had fair winds (Easterlies and Southerlies). Nothing strong amd mostly not too light either.
In the event - our old friend - cooling water failure has surfaced again. Coming through the canals, we had several mysterious episodes where the engine cooling water suddenly stopped - only to clear again if I disturbed the pipes. In Paris, and several times since, I stripped and flushed everything I could find but it still kept happeneing. Then suddenly it stopped and we've had no more trouble for 18 months. Last week, for no apparent reason, it started again.
We ended up doing the last 4 miles to Petalas at 1.5Knots under sail so as not to use the engine and we anchored under sail - just to prove we still could. Actually it was rather nice - but would have been better if we didn't have the stress of not knowing when the engine would fail again.
It went again on the way to Spartahori - but again the winds played nicely and we had a gorgeous sail up around Meganissi.

We had never been to Spartahori before although several people have said it's lovely. So we decided to give it a try. The village on the hill is truly beautiful with tiny winding paved streets running between pastel-painted houses often covered in Vines and creepers with brilliant pink flowers.
The village was rather odd though - there were almost no people and certainly no smiles to be seen. The only people seemed to be black-clad ancient widdows creeping silently about their business. It seemed like a "local village for local people". Most un-Greek.
Mooring was strange and not all that pleasant too. We were met and directed to a place by a chap on the quay who we took to be official. He shouted streams of orders and got us in bows-to with a lot of stress and hurry and definitely not how we would have done it ourselves. It all got a bit fraught in the end and he took umbrage as we didn't quite want all of his help.
It later turned out that he isn't official - just officious - he's the local taverna owner. After going up to the town we came back and had a beer in the taverna but the staff were surly and it wasn't a pleasant experience. We won't go back there again.

The final journey up to Levkas went without a hitch and we moored exactly where we wanted to after waiting 1/2 hour for a boat to leave. Most of it was under Spinaker although, discretion being the best part of valour, we motored up the canal.

We had one incident 1/2 way between Petalas and Meganissi which could have been a disaster but which we got away with by the skin our teeth. There was a chain of small islands in our path which are aurrounded by extensive fish farms. We set course for the largest gap and sailed gently towards it for an hour. As we got to about 1/2 hour away, a substantial vessel with a crane on it and two small speedboats started working on the farm closest to where we would pass. They completely ignored us but as we got level with them, the vessel gave two toots. Several people were working or wacthing us as we gave 150M berth. We thought they were being friendly and gave a cheery wave. Nobody waved back.
Suddenly, I spotted a large submerged rope right across our path and about 20 yards ahead. There was no time to react and we went straight over it. I expected any second to feel it tightening around the keel or the rudders but somehow we carried straight on. I think the keel - which slants backwards at 45 degrees - must have pushed it down far enough that the rudders managed to clear it by inches. You expect to have nets and fishing gear around fishing boats and to give them a wide berth - you don't expect fish-farms to have huge un-marked nets stretching out 300 meters away from them. A very scary experience!

On the way up, I had noticed what I thought was an oil leak - so we reported it to CYS who had done the service two weeks before. They sent an engineer and it turned out to be a fuel leak from a badly fitted filter. Not too impressive - but they did make good and 'Pip' the second engineer was excellent. I'll happily have him on Rosa again if we're near Levkas when the next service is due.

Paxos, Levkas, Kefalonia and Messalonghi

It seems a long time since I wrote and quite a lot of water has gone under the keel.

We had a great couple of days in Paxos with Maria (Michael's daughter) and then Micheal himself. We managed to pack two potential disasters into a single 24 hours although we managed to get away with both - more or less unscathed.
Firstly, in Lakka, we anchored with long lines ashore. Unfortunately, while using the engine to back up towards the shore (taking the pressure off the rope) we managed to let it go slack and round the prop it went. Jammed Solid! And the rope cutter didn't chop through it - in fact it made things worse by jamming the rope in its teeth and making it impossible to unwind without cutting it. I found yet another reason to bless Rosa's designer who put the prop well towards the stern and only a couple of feet down. Relatively easy to dive on. The lesson learned is to take the long line in the dinghy (easily done as the reel fits snugly), attach it to the shore, and then unwind it towards the boat (which can then freely motor astern to help) but without taking a risk with the prop.

Next day we sailed the spectacular Western side of Paxos, enjoying the enormous Northern cave and then anchoring by the middle set for lunch. After some lovely swimming in crystal water and exploring the caves by dinghy, we got back on board and pulled the anchor up - stuck solid under a rock in 10M of water with no diver within 20 miles. We tried pulling backwards, pulling up and pulling forwards. Nothing shifted it. L came up with the idea of using the bow thruster to give it a hard jerk sideways and amazingly it came free in one piece. We were very lucky! Lesson learned: rig a trip line if there are rocks where you're anchoring - particularly if it's too deep to free dive.

After putting Maria and Michael on the ferry in Gaios, we set off for Levkas where we had the engine serviced (serious ouch) and finally figured out what had been wrong with the batteries for 2 weeks (a cell in the new one had gone short-circuit.


We then spent a night in Vlicho (amid loads of jellyfish)then two nights on the Nielson pontoon in Nidhri. The charge an extremely reasonable €10 for a night including water and electricity. Their staff were helpful and friendly and the only slight disadvantage is that you act as a target-to-miss for all the first-time sailors they are teaching. Lindsay managed to get all her washing and shopping done in the two days without having to flog around in the dinghy and without having to do it all by hand.

We met Ian, Sue, John and Carol - friends from Malta - and had a couple of raucous nights of shared dinners and late-night drinking.

After Nidhri, we spent a night in Abeliki on Meganissi then had a great sail over to Fiscardo. It was crowded even this late in the season (mid September) at 1500. Luckily with our shallow draft, we were able to go stern too on the quay to the right of the pontoon. By the way - the pontoon is now fixed and operational again. We thoroughly enjoyed the tiny museum but the rest of Fiscardo is not quite as we remember it from 8 years ago. The tavernas and tat shops have expanded, the Captains table has disappeared and the high-class boutiques are being squeezed out. Nevertheless, it's still a nice place to visit.


With the weather closing in on Monday, we went down to Sami on Saturday and met up with John and Carol again. We made a dogs dinner of stern-to mooring including a rather public dispute between L and myself as to which rings we should tie on to. She was right - dammit!

L then contrived to get on the gang plank just as the end of it was slipping off the quay - and fell backwards into the drink. Luckily she didn't hit anything on the way down and the water was clean!

In the afternoon, we crazily set off on an impromptu hike to the Acropolis - flip-flops, no water, and stuff in a shopping bag. After an hour of hard climbing we had got about half way up the steep, rocky path through the woods - and after a rest, said "sod this for a game of soldiers" and came down again much faster than we went up. I was knackered!

After a late night session with John and Carol (sadly the later parts without L who was sightly the worse for wear) we set off early in the morning for the 8 hour slog to Messolonghi. The wind was light and on the nose so we motored until we entered the Gulf of Patras - where it was heavy and on the nose with two Meter waves very close together. Most uncomfortable! We arrived in late afternoon to find the Marina (still free) much improved from our last visit. There are toilets, showers and water - electricity now on-site and promised in the next few days. We signed our winter contract and are now hunkered down for the promised storms tomorrow.