Lefkas on the Island of Lefkada – 11th to 15th September 2017
The insurance company (Navigators & General) was very efficient, a surveyor was organised who arrived promptly the next day and gave us our first really good bit of news … that amazingly, Hapatoni was fixable. Engineers arrived in droves to scratch their heads, sucking on their teeth and shaking their heads in that way that they do to signify, “this is going to cost loads of money”. The net result was that the boat had to be cleared, the interior woodwork would all have to come out in order to assess the extent of the damage and get a quote for the final repair. So over the next few days 45 cardboard boxes arrived and were filled with “stuff” from the main cabin – we soon realised we definitely have too much STUFF!!
We stayed at the hotel Ianos in Lefkas marina while we packed up the boat, the weather is still in the 30’s during the day, so the swimming pool is a welcome break to the somewhat soul-destroying hours spent on our damaged Hapatoni. It’s hard to describe the feelings you have when your boat sustains such damage, it is such a part of our lives for five months every year, and we spend many hours in maintenance and a lot of cash keeping her in tip top condition.
Tina and Tim on Shiraz and Alice on Spirit III have been brilliant, offering loads of support, making lunches and cooking evening meals. We have also met up with Keith and Tracy whose Beneteau 50 unfortunately also sustained damage in a 60-knot blow which arrived unexpectedly at their marina in Preveza, accompanied by a big surge which ripped out their stern cleats and pushed Amonite sideways onto the bows of the facing boats. The damage to their port side was extensive, anchors punctured large holes, the guard rails and toe rails were ripped off. Not a great week for boats.
Our last night in Lefkas was a boisterous meal on the front with the 8 of us as well as a couple of Americans that Keith had met during his travels. Unfortunately, Mark had chipped his tooth, so half way through the meal had to disappear to the local dentist to try to get it fixed. He arrived back after an hour and a half, apparently the dentist had been unable to find the right nerves so it took four sets of injections and an hour waiting for numbness to arrive before Mark finally managed to get his filling – I don’t think he will be going back there in a hurry.
We have completed packing and now it’s time to decide … do we go home to the glorious English (drizzly) autumn or do we stay for a little while and enjoy the 30 degree sunshine of Greece … difficult decision!!!
We decided to take a week or so to explore some of those places that we had been cheated out of by the accident. We booked to stay a few days in Sivota, then up to Gaios on the Island of Paxos and finally back to our lovely Sivota to finish off, before we headed for home on the 27th September.… Read more
A few minutes into the journey, with me below preparing lunch, Hudson at my feet hoping for a few stray scraps, and Hapatoni making 6 knots, we came to an abrupt halt as we hit a submerged rock. The keel took the full force, lifted and flexed the hull which moved a few centimetres upwards, this was enough to cause incredible damage in the main salon. The dining table broke away from the floor and lay in a twisted heap. The fitted kitchen cupboards and chart desk had come lose from there secure mountings, cracking panels and snapping the worktop. The worst damage was revealed when we lifted the floorboards, there were many large cracks in the inner floor laminate, stretching from side to side. We were also taking on water, fortunately not a large amount and the bilge pump was able to cope. We both stared in disbelief at the unbelievable carnage caused and both voiced similar thoughts, that this looked like the end for Hapatoni.
None the less, we decided to try to get Hapatoni to Lefkas which was the nearest marina where we could get her lifted out of the water, but was still an hour and a half away. We both went into auto pilot, deciding to minimise any trips down below, not knowing how attached the keel was, the loss of which would have proved catastrophic. With the passports, money, phones, home keys, etc, secured in our water proof bag and life jackets on, we launched the dinghy and tied it to the transom … just in case. We phoned Lefkas Marina and requested an immediate lift-out also informing the Port Police, who asked us to activate the DSC alarm so they could locate us – not sure that was necessary, as at that point we were not in any life-threatening danger, but we did as we were told. The port police eventually arrived in a rib and escorted up the canal to Lefkas where we were immediately lifted onto the hard.
We did not hurry to leave Galaxidi even though the passage was 48 miles and about 8 hours, as we had intended to anchor in the basin outside the now closed marina at Messolonghi and there was never an issue with finding a vacant spot there. We left at around 8:30am motoring across the windless, mirror flat calm of the Gulf of Corinth towards the distant Rion-Antirion Bridge, settling into our now familiar shift system, two hours on and two hours off, taking turns to nap or read or just chill during our off-shift periods. The Bridge was 34 miles away, but due to its impressive size, became visible quite quickly into our passage. The bridge is considered to be a creation of extraordinary engineering, built in an area with high seismic activity, it spans a 3 km wide straight, linking the town of Rion with the town of Antirion and is the longest cable-stayed suspension bridge in the world.
After the bridge, the final 20-mile passage to Messolonghi was entirely uneventful, arriving at about 5:30pm at the 2 km long channel leading up to the Lagoon, our anchorage for the night, just outside the town.
And now the inevitable history lesson. In 1822 the Turks tried to unsuccessfully take Messolonghi from the Greeks who managed to resist for four years before deciding on a mass evacuation of the town. Tragically, as a result of a betrayal, this led to the massacre of most of the inhabitants. The famous British poet and 
We left Messolonghi before daybreak on the following day with high anticipation. This was to be the day we returned to the Ionion.… 
We set off bright and early at 7.15am, keen to be on the move, with the Corinth Canal a good 21 miles away. The sun was shining, although it was still cool at this hour, the sea was flat and there was a very gently breeze, only 7 knots of wind.We motored to the canal arriving at 11am and lined up alongside three other boats waiting to transit, one was registered in Portsmouth – lots of Brits in this part of the world.
There was a group of stray dogs here last time and they seemed to be the same ones here again, but sadly looking a little bit more worse for wear. The paperwork took a record 5 minutes as we had crossed before but the costs had not changed from the eye watering amount of 234 euros. We were lucky as we only had to wait 20 minutes before we had the green light to go, Mark made sure he was the first boat through, keen not to get caught behind any stragglers.
Some facts about the canal – It is 3.2 miles long and 25 metres wide, the maximum permitted draft is 6.5m. The limestone from which it is cut rises to 79m above sea level and as you enter the canal at each end there are two very unusual hydraulic bridges across the canal, the bridges are lowered DOWN into the sea water to allow the boats to pass over the top of them.
In ancient times before the canal, they used to drag ships across the Isthmus on a paved road (the dhiolkos), for the history buffs, Octavian in pursuit of Antony after the battle of Actium had his ships dragged across here. Digging finally started by the Roman ruler Nero, using 6,000 Jews, but he got distracted and the canal was finally built by a French company and finished by the Greeks in 1893.
Our original plan was to stop the night in Kiato about an hour and a half from the canal, (we did not like this place when we stopped here last year, too many dodgy itinerants around), so as the conditions were good and it was only mid-day, we continued on to Galaxidhi on the Greece mainland a further 6 hours along the Gulf. We arrived at 6pm, ready to unwind, Hudson was keen to stretch his legs, so following a walk around the bay, a short beer we retired back to the boat for dinner – more yummy king prawns.
Galaxidhi was a lovely surprise, it is one of the prettiest towns in the Gulf of Corinth, the narrow harbour is from a distance, hidden by the rocky islets and stony hills. The bay is hemmed in by a pine studded peninsula on the east, with the town hunched on a rocky mound to the west. Back in the 18th and early 19th Centuries it was a prosperous, busy port until the Turks captured the area. Now it is a much more quiet and tranquil spot, offering shelter to yachts with very little other tourism, but surprisingly has many more bars and restaurants than would seem to be required for the number of visitors. The village is clean and well maintained and offers a great dog walk or morning run (to be decided) around the bay under the cover of the pine trees. We liked the setting so much we decided to stay an extra day and explore the village.
Friday 8th September, it is so nice to wake up to sunshine, we had a lazy start catching up on our sleep before we took Hudson for a well-earned long walk around the bay. The road ended at a lovely secluded beach which was occupied by masses of tiny jelly fish who were sunbathing on the shore line (or dying, not sure which!) …. Shame, it would have been a beautiful spot for a dip.
Marks next task was to sort out his storage areas, hoping to make more space. From what I could see, it involved emptying out all his stored items onto the main cabin floor (mess mess mess), jiggling them around a little bit and then putting them back in a slightly different order, resulting in a large bag full of rubbish, but oddly, less space than when he started. However, it is tiring work so he finished his jobs off with an afternoon siesta – bless him.
We left Hamble by taxi on a damp drizzly Monday morning, our travel to the boat was split over two days, with the expectation that we would arrive at 10am on the 5th September, which we did. However, the journey to get there was far from straight forward. As you all know Hudson is not a keen flyer, so Heathrow to Athens works well, it is only a three-hour flight and we are able to drop Hudson off 2 hours before the flight in the same terminal that we fly from, at the “oversized luggage” – fear not, he does not go down the luggage belt, but is noisily wheeled off into the terminal on the back of a trolley. To try to aid this process and minimise Hudson’s trauma, I had some new “stress relief” pills from the vet for Hudson to try this time.
The flight was an hour late in taking off and after a further hour into the flight, (you will be shocked to hear, no drinks, alcoholic or otherwise, had even been served at this time) the captain announced we are having to divert to Dusseldorf as we are leaking water through the plane. Mark and I naively think ok, not the end of the world, we can land, stick the plug back in the hole, fill up with water and leave, but no that would be far too simple. After sitting in the plane on the runway at Dusseldorf for an hour, we are told that this plane was going no further and to get off. There followed major confusion as the Captain, flight crew and airport staff were uncommunicative as to what to do next. Finally, we were informed that a new plane was to be sent from Athens, arriving at 8pm and that our luggage will transfer automatically. So, I hear you ask, what about Hudson? It took two traumatic hours to get him off the plane and with us, I have to admit I finally lost the plot and a few expletives were heard by the ground staff, but finally he announced his arrival with his non-stop, machine gun barking, at the customs gate. Following this noisy re-union, a pee and poo (outside of course), we all went for some dinner, we found an excellent Thai/Chinese takeaway in the airport which is the only good thing I have to say about Dusseldorf airport. Unfortunately, to Hudson’s horror, shortly after we had to hand him back to the ground staff ready for flight number two, again lots more barking and a very unhappy dog. We finally took off at 10:30pm and reached our hotel for the night at the port of Piraeus around 3am, three very exhausted bodies collapsed into bed.
Tuesday started early after a disturbed 4 hours sleep, with a passage on the 8:50am Flying Dolphin ferry to Aegina. Other than the tiredness, plans went to schedule on Tuesday and three happy faces arrived at Hapatoni in the boatyard at 10am, ready to unpack and start work preparing the boat. We worked non-stop until 3pm and then headed for our charming boutique hotel Rastoni, which we had stayed in back in July just before we left to go home.
As we have said before the hotel is in a great location, hidden behind a high mature hedge concealing a row of tall shady pistachio nut trees around the front of the building and the garden to the rear is amazing, full of scented fragrant herbs, fruit growing on the trees, pomegranates, lemons and figs with rows of colourful flowering shrubs and hidden seating areas carefully installed to take full advantage of the shade. Following a desperately needed nap and shower we headed into town, enjoying a stroll around the narrow streets as the shops started to open after the afternoon siesta and restaurants prepared their tables for the evening rush. Legs stretched we headed to a bar on the quay front overlooking the parked yachts for a quick glass before dinner. Later, we enjoyed a very pleasant meal at the local fish restaurant adjacent to the fish market, feasting on Calamari, Stuffed peppers, Mackerel and of course a delicious Greek salad.
It is great to be back in Greece in late summer, enjoying the enduring charm and friendliness of the Greek people and the wall to wall sunshine, with a cooler day time temperate currently around 30 degrees. The evenings are also pleasantly cooler now, so you don’t need six fans on to get enough air movement through the boat to allow you to sleep.
We now have two-months remaining this season to enjoy the Ionian, discovering a few new places and re-visiting a lot of our old favourite haunts with their familiar restaurants serving our favourite dishes of red snapper and spit roast. Since we began our travels in 2014, the Ionian is the region we love the most.
Aegina is only two hours away and our final Island for this half of the summer, so we enjoyed the cool early morning on Vathi, starting with a run along the beach road followed by a compulsory cooling off swim. We sailed at 10am and with the weather looking settled for Sunday, the plan was to anchor outside Aegina town for the night, then head round to the boatyard to be lifted out on Monday morning.
The weather had really deteriorated now, so the prospect of anchoring was not exciting us at all, it was time to think like an Italian. We spotted a small gap which would mean anchoring at a 45 deg angle and overlapping the ferry boat spot, so we went for it, dropped the anchor, secured ourselves to the town quay and gave a heavy sigh. However, just as we had lulled ourselves into a false sense of security, the harbour police decided to interrupt our new state of calm and told us we had to get clear of the ferry boat spot or move completely … it was complicated. Our neighbour was a little Polish 28 foot yacht (with one man on board who spoke very little English) who was badly parked and also told to reorganise. With some joint jiggling and manoeuvring, it looked like we could both manage to keep the police happy. Things got interesting when our Polish neighbour had his four largish passengers together with their suitcases roll up … it didn’t look like their boat had enough room for the suitcases let alone the people, but it all eventually disappeared below. The comedy of errors now really gathered momentum, the Polish boat re-anchored, dropping their hook 10 metres out (no where near far enough) and right over ours, we then moved ourselves across enough to keep the police happy but still not enough to clear the ferry mooring completely. So we would have to be up early and gone by 8am before the ferry arrived … we told our Polish neighbour that he would also have to be up as we couldn’t move until he uncrossed our anchor. Settled for the night, or so we thought, off we went for a well deserved beer.
The wind started to gather pace from the forecasted 20 knots to a 34 knot howling gale hitting us hard on the beam at 2am. We were awoken by our Polish neighbour and his passengers, desperately trying to keep his boat from smashing into the quay and also into Hapatoni, as his badly planted anchor did nothing to keep him from jigging backwards and forwards and side to side. He was in for a very busy, sleepless night … and unfortunately all his activity meant we had very little sleep either, even though we were very securely parked. At 6:00 am things resolved themselves as our Polish friend motored off but not without a series of calamities, bumping into our boat, getting his rudder stuck on our anchor chain and struggling to release their anchor which was firmly hooked over ours. Finally they disappeared of into the harbour allowing us to move further sideways, clearing the ferry berth … hooraaaah, we could now stay as long as we liked.
Our plan was to get lifted on Monday and then stay in a hotel in Aegina town for our last three days, relaxing and enjoying the air-conditioning, but with the current 30 knot winds creating a large swell, the boatyard was not willing to lift any boats. Monday dragged and I was worrying about our options as it looked like Hudson and I could be flying home alone on Thursday and Mark would have to follow with the luggage, when the winds calmed down next week. But by mid-afternoon the sea had been merciful and following a visit to the boatyard, Mark persuaded them to lift us out. We hurriedly returned to the boat not wishing to miss the window of opportunity and motored the short distance around the coast. As Hapatoni was lifted, I let out a deep sigh of relief, we were back on track. With Hapatoni securely braced and put to bed for 2 months, we headed over to our hotel.
Hotel Rastoni is a small boutique hotel with 14 rooms, just a short walk from the centre of the town. The grounds lie hidden behind a high mature hedge concealing a row of tall shady pistachio nut trees around the front of the building. The garden to the rear is amazing, full of scented fragrant herbs, rows of colourful flowering shrubs and hidden seating areas carefully installed to take full advantage of the shade. The rooms are simple with an Indian’ish theme, tasteful done and complete with a lovely cooling breeze blowing through the room from the balcony. There is of course the mandatory air-conditioning to ensure a sweat free slumber for Hudson and Mark. This place is a real gem.
As the temperature cooled in the evening we headed into town, the southern quay is lined with busy bars and restaurants – Aegina is very popular with the Athenians who can quickly get here on the many ferries that stop daily. At the far end of the quay are “fruit boats”, ancient wooden fishing boats that are past their sell by date, permanently moored up and now adapted for use as fruit and veg stalls – very ingenious.
Further back from the quay are narrow pebble streets lined with shops selling everything …. it feels like an authentic Greek town, which would continue to stay alive even when the invasion of tourists leave at the end of summer. As we stroll about looking for a place for dinner we came upon the fish market with a restaurant outside specialising in “fresh fish”, surprise surprise. An English couple seated in the restaurant (who are now permanent residents of Aegina), highly recommend the food, so sold on the setting we find a table and order stuffed Calamari, fresh tuna with the compulsory Greek salad and the local pine wine.
The couple attempted to explain the curious 20 year old (the son of one of the local fishermen) who rides up and down the quay ALL night on his bicycle, with flashing multi-coloured lights on the front and a speaker strapped to the back, softly piping out traditional Greek music – I’ll let you make your own conclusions. The setting and company were charming, but surprisingly we were a little disappointed by the food, none the less, still a very pleasant evening.
We woke on Tuesday morning chilly as Mark had set the air-conditioning a bit too low, but what a novelty that was. The last few days slipped lazily by, walking Hudson around the town and enjoying the cooler temperatures, it is now low to mid 30’s. On our last day, Roger and Sisca from Waterval, who are also heading home for a couple of months, came to stay in our hotel, so we met up for drinks and dinner. Following a very chatty and pleasant evening we say our good bye’s, ready for the early start on Thursday morning, to catch the Flying Dolphin ferry to Athens at 8am and our 1.30pm flight home to sunny Hamble. We are both looking forward to going home and catching up with family and friends and enjoying a summer in Hamble.
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Vathi is a small fishing harbour on the northwest side of the Methana Peninula. The peninsula is 25 miles SW of Athens, jutting out from the coast of the Peloponnese and connected by only a very small isthmus at Taktikoupolis (try saying that with a mouthful of olives). It was originally volcanic, as many places in the Aegean were, with the volcano crater in the northwest of the island near Kaimeni (which translates into the “burnt village” … I wonder why).
You enter the small harbour between submerged rocks extending towards you, on either side of a very narrow channel – you would definitely think twice about entering if the Meltemi was blowing. None the less Vathi was an instant success. You are welcomed into the cutest of harbours, with its fleet of small fishing boats lining the north side ready to provide their fresh catch direct to the tavernas. There is room for about 15 yachts on the southern quay, electricity and water is available, there are three delightful quayside tavernas, all of this is surrounded by steep protective pine covered hills with only a few red tiled houses for the resident families AND A PLACE TO SWIM a few metres from the boat, we were in heaven. It reminded us so much of a Sivota in the Ionian, which is one of our favourite places in the Med, just a much smaller version.
This is getting a little bit like a stuck record … but the temperature is now a cloudless, windless, very hot 38 deg C. Everything is done extremely slowly, any quick movement requires a change of clothes as the perspiration pours off – bit like being in a 24 hour sauna, fortunately the swimming opportunity is only 20 metres away and we do take frequent advantage of that. Even Hudson gets a daily dip and not surprisingly there are no complaints, he appreciated the opportunity to cooool down.
The next day (Wednesday 29th) started with a walk for Hudson to the next bay which is home to several guest houses and apartments next to the “beach” and is what would be describe as a “budget” holiday destination. As you can see from the photos, it is has a highly questionable “beach”, but a stunning view over the Peloponnese mountain range.
The afternoon alternated between chilling out and swimming and Hudson takes his second uncomplaining dip, he is a bit reluctant at first, but as soon as he is clamped securely in Mark’s arms, he relaxes and checks out his surroundings … for food no doubt – what else would go through Hudson’s brain??
You know how we said we wouldn’t eat in the Taverna to Vathi again, well on Saturday we were there having a beer and playing cards when our neighbours ordered some calamari which looked good, so Mark, without thinking ordered some as well. That was probably the tastiest calamari we have ever had, so we ordered a second plate together with a Greek salad … I know they have other uninvited house guests and there was another one scurrying around the floor, trying to climb as high as it could up one of the pillars, but this is Greece, and its just not the same as in the UK, so you just have to accept it !!!!!
The Taverna to Vathi is a typical family run restaurant, with brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts all doing there bit. One of the key tasks of all the family is to assist any visiting boats to moor and encourage them into their restaurant to dine, they are also very active in providing fresh seafood for the diners. As well as owning a fishing boat, one of the sons went out in their dinghy to collect sea urchins to be served up 100% fresh to one of the flotilla captains. Another in his wetsuit and clutching a harpoon gun, waited for an hour at the harbour entrance for an unsuspecting octopus to come into his crosshairs. Very enterprising.
Following an early morning swim we all departed Neorion bay, Spirit 3 and Shiraz heading north to Aegina and Roger and Sisca on Waterval joining us on the town quay in Póros for a couple of days. Roger and Sisca are from the Netherlands and Roger is a retired eye surgeon who can’t quite manage to put his scalpel down, so occasionally helps out in his old surgery when they return home at the end of the summer.
We joined Sisca and Roger for dinner on Monday night at the Poseidon restaurant, they have eaten here many times and the wife of the owner is Dutch, so the rest of the family who are Greek, can also converse fluently in Dutch with Roger and Sisca. Fish is particularly recommended (well it is called Poseidon), Mark and I eyed up a massive red snapper which was aching to end up, simply grilled on our plate …. but as it would have fed four (maybe more) and cost 130 euros we decided to be sensible and opted for a couple of delicious sea bass fillets and a starter of Calamari.
The evening concluded with a performance of some energetic and authentic Greek dancing (remember it is still 30 deg), you would have had to pay us a lot of money to perform in that heat, high kicks and back flips plus the traditional Zorba the Greek dance. None the less, Sisca and I were encouraged (dragged) onto the dance floor (the men hid) and Mark said we both did a passable attempt at following the lead dancer, kicking out our legs and bending at the knees at roughly the right times.
The next day was so hot we basically did nothing until late in the afternoon when we did manage to “drip” our way round the corner of the quay in search of a breeze, but there was none, so had to settle for an ice cold beer and a game of cards instead. We arrived back at Hapatoni in the early evening to be greeted by a hot and stuffy boat, all our covers (Sprayhood and bimini) are dark blue so the heat is absorbed and radiated down into the boat and with no air movement, the inside was too hot to sleep comfortably (NOTE: Next time we have covers made, make them beige). Mark slept outside to try to capture a bit of the evening coolness and he wasn’t on his own, as a lot of the neighbouring boats had bodies littered around their decks all trying to get a bit of shuteye in this heat.
The forecast for the three hour passage from Wreck Cove to Poros was less than 2 knots of wind, so for the first time this season, Mark didn’t bother to unpack and ready the mainsail … I think he’s depressed. Since we had the thunderstorms a few weeks ago, the temperature has steadily risen, but unfortunately the wind has disappeared…. so no white flappy thing, just lots of chug chug. The only breeze on our passage, was created by our forward momentum, however that little breeze was so inviting that Hudson and I took advantage and went forward to sunbathe leaving Mark at the helm.
Neorion bay is a large bay a mile or so north-west of Póros, close to Russian Bay which got its name after the war of independence (1821 and 1832) against the Ottoman Empire, when the Russian fleet was based there. Neorion bay, on the other hand is overlooked by the magnificent Villa Galini where Henry Miller wrote “The Colossus of Maroussi” and Seferis composed his poetry – I am sure you are familiar with their works. Both of these bays are very popular with day trippers from Póros as they are the closest sandy beaches, lined with tall shady pine trees, there are a couple of tavernas, a petite shop and a few small hotels. It is a very pleasant setting and because of that, it attracts a little bit too much activity, water skiers try to see if they can jump into the back of your boat and the occasional ferry wash sends your mast into swash buckling mode, none the less, being able to cool off each time you feel like you are being baked from the inside is worth its weight in gold.
At 18:30 our convoy of dinghy’s head for an empty spot on the beach, making for the welcoming shade under the pine trees. Hudson likes to perch at the front of the dinghy, paws resting over the forward tube like a figurehead on the prow of a ship staring fixedly to shore and amusing the other yachts as we pass them by. We arrive at the perfect spot, there are benches to sit on and a wall forms the table for the BBQ’s.
Sunday was full of activity, starting with a swim, then a walk around the bay for Hudson, followed by wind surfing lessons for Mark. Alice has been wind surfing since she was 14 and has a couple of boards on her boat, so Mark decided to give it a go, having never done it before. Hudson and I joined Christine on Spirit III to watch, whilst Alice patiently instructed Mark, unfortunately he had managed to clog up his ears with seawater and so partially deaf, the instructions went mostly unheeded. It looked hard work as Mark got up, repeatedly fell off and got back up again, however with perseverance he finally managed to stay upright and surfed off across the bay… well half the bay. Returning to the boat exhausted Mark went for a well deserved afternoon nap … surprise, surprise.
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We set off early for Wreck Cove on a windless day with temperatures heading rapidly towards the top end of the 30’s … phew!! We arrived at mid-day hoping that the prime spot at the head of the bay would be free and were initially a little disappointed to find a German registered boat in our cove, but as we came further in, it was apparent that they had anchored a fair way off the prime position. On the first attempt to anchor, Mark tried to drop the hook in Turkey, letting out 100 metres of chain and quite a bit of rope attached to it … probably a little too much with winds not set to go over 10 knots, don’t you think? On the second attempt, with a careful eye on the just submerged rocks on our port side (maybe that’s why its called wreck cove), we dropped anchor and long-lined ashore right at the top of the bay , once more back in those pristine, aquamarine, translucent waters – I cant think off any more superlatives or I would have added them.
Two seconds later, Mark was off the back, all boat prep forgotten as he took a much needed coooooling swim. Being the practical (not sure that’s the right word) one I was left to open up the windows and collect the beach towels before I could get in and join him. The Germans obviously did not appreciate us invading their cove so promptly up anchored and left.