Limbo

It feels like we are limbo. We need to be here to get some projects done but are also itching to leave and make miles. And this marina isn’t the most exciting place to be. Too bad we couldn’t have Levkas town right behind us. Instead Corfu Town is about a 20 minute bus ride away but we haven’t seemed to be able to make it back there. Mike is filling his days by crossing projects off the list such as wiring our second VHF radio in the cockpit and mounting clip-in hooks for our harnesses in the cockpit. And it felt like another day of being held captive on the boat waiting for the sail rigger to come. But of course he doesn’t come until we give up and start walking into town where we run into him. But the good news is that he came to the boat and put a screw in the track gate which will keep it closed so the track slides don’t get stuck in it. Mike isn’t convinced this will be a sure fix and is asking the rigger to look into the possibility and cost of having a different track mounted to the mast. I spent the day on the boat doing a whole lot of nothing. I did start to research Italy and Morocco which was good and gives me a better idea of where we can and cannot go. In the afternoon we both needed to get off the boat so we walked out of the marina to a different chandlery and to the grocery store. Exciting, I know. But it was fun to be in a real and stocked grocery store again. There was also a good breeze blowing today which made the temperatures a lot cooler, and that combined with the smell of wood smoke gave me a feeling that fall is in the air. I just hope that I am not setting myself up too much for disappoint! But as the evening came the temperatures just got cooler and cooler and we found ourselves digging out our layers from the hanging locker. It felt so good to put on a jacket! And the skies have been amazing here today. The craziest cloud formations I have ever seen. And the sunset only made them even more spectacular.

Trying to document myself wearing a jacket!

And to continue the honesty, Mike and I came to a small blow tonight. For me it started with being frustrated over the continued stress that Mike seems to carry. And along with that, the preoccupation with the boat and really, just missing my husband. During our walk today, ‘Mikey’ was with me but as soon as we returned to the boat it felt like ‘Michael’ was back. Mike’s view is that he is trying to work on this boat which is incredibly frustrating at times. And it’s not going to get done unless he does it, because he feels that sometimes I have taken a back seat to helping with those projects. A few more frustrations got aired and after a walk to take a breather, we made peace for the night. And slept in the aft cabin (with a blanket!) which is whole lot nicer than the v-berth where only our toes touch.

Another gyro...

This morning we left the walls of the fortress to motor a few miles up the coat to Gouvia Marina. We can’t say that a marina is where we want to spend our time but we’ll have the best chance of getting work done, hopefully quickly. And it wasn’t long before the sail rigger came by and had an idea for a simple fix that he will get to tomorrow. But not so much luck with the steel worker. We were hoping to get a new bow roller installed so it would be easier for me to get the anchor up. It sounds like the job is involved and he is booked with work this week. And again, we don’t have time to wait. Meanwhile, I had an epic day posting blogs and it felt good to get caught up while we finally have a decent internet connection. It wasn’t until late in the day when we both ventured off the boat together to go check out the sleepy town. And wouldn’t you know it, they have an Indian restaurant! Even with Thai curries on the menu! It’s funny because I was just talking about how I am getting a little tired of always having the same menu everywhere we go…tszatziki, moussaka, eggplant, calamari... (I know, it is all very delicious but if that is your only option after several months then it gets a bit boring). And wouldn’t Indian or Thai food be delicious! But also with that conversation came our decision to restrict our meals out and try to eat cheaply. So we bypassed the Indian and Thai food and opted for ANOTHER gyro which we enjoyed on the church steps across the street. And I have a feeling that very soon pizza will be the new gyro which sounds pretty good to me!

A Fortress as Our Backyard

So happy this place is quiet and we are protected from the bars and cafes in town by a fortress! While I was feeling under the weather and writing the blog, Mike worked on odds and ends from our project list. In the afternoon, we escaped the heat on the boat and sat in the shaded courtyard just across from us. It’s amazing to think about the history of this place and the events that have occurred in the exact spot where we are relaxing and sipping on more retsina. After a very late afternoon nap (doing our best to get on local time) we discovered an outdoor movie theatre. When we were in Greece a few years ago this was one of my favorite things to do, sit under the starry sky in the cooler night air and watch a movie. And guess what they were showing? Inception. We got our wish of seeing it again, just sooner than we imagined. We then got to take another incredible walk through the old fort at night so we could make our way back down into the harbor. Unforgettable.

Corfu!

We are obviously on a completely different time frame than the locals. At 1:30am the thumping house music at the bar across the street begins. Only to peak at about 3:30 or 4am. On first awakening at 1:30 or so due to the assault of bad music and a sore throat, I went in search of the ear plugs that Heather and Shan had left for us. Luckily, I found them and they worked amazingly well. But I did awake again and noticed Mike stirring around 4am when he was putting toilet paper in his ears. I was able to go back to sleep and then awoken with a cup of tea at 6am from Mike who never really managed to sleep again. We were both so tired that we had the thought of staying another day and work on little projects, but neither of us wanted to spend another night (especially Saturday night) here again! Especially with the possibility of not having fans to help drown out the noise. After Mike discovered that the Italian had unplugged us last night and our splitter having disappeared(!), we sucked our anchor out of the sticky and messy mud (so much for clean clothes) and went to wait for the floating bridge to open at 7am. After that it was smooth sailing to Corfu. The 7 ½ hour day went by really fast with us taking our turns with watches and napping. We were both really happy to find room (and electricity and water!although it's 44 euro/night) at Mandraki Harbour, which is located just below the old fortress on the head of the peninsula. It is a spectacular setting! So after a cold shower we took the really hot walk up to the top of the fort. Even at 6:30pm the sun was feeling a bit unbearable, so we headed towards the old town in hopes of some shade. This place is incredible! Without having looked at map or even read about the town, we found ourselves stumbling out of the fortress and upon museums housed in Venetian mansions, botanical gardens, 16th century churches, and then the maze of alleys and narrow streets which make up the old town. We avoided the ones full of trinket shops and chose the empty, quiet ones winding our way around on smooth-as-glass cobbled stone, not knowing where we were going. The multi-story, Venetian styled old buildings, painted in creamy pastel colors with brightly colored shutters, some with crumbling walls, others recently renovated. Most with laundry strung out to dry from balcony to balcony. We can tell that we are getting closer and closer to Italy! After a cold coffee, we started our walk again and once we got our bearings on how to get back to the boat, we started to look for the perfect place for dinner. Which was a bit dangerous since we were both finding ourselves a bit tired and with low blood sugar. We had to make sure that we didn’t downward spiral into a state of where neither person knows where to go, what to eat or what to do! But we made it just in time back to a café that had caught our eye earlier in the evening and had a really nice meal while perched on a set of stairs watching the night unwind. Despite not feeling very well, I was tempted to stay out longer just to enjoy the cooler night air and soak up more of this amazing town. But after a short stop on a park bench, and a walk back through the old fort, I gave up the fight to sleep and returned to the boat only to fall asleep hard.

Where's Indy?

Strike Out

Thank goodness for the fan and its help with drowning out the disco music last night! Now, if only I had some Nyquil to help me sleep with this cold. One of the little pieces of comfort back home that’s hard to come by when traveling. But the electrician was here bright and early and put in a new windlass switch! And the sail rigger came by but we didn’t have as much luck with him. He took a look at the main sail and recommended a new gate on the mast and new tracks. But those parts have to be ordered from Athens, or even Sweden, which means they wouldn’t be here until next week at the earliest. And we just don’t have that time to wait. So after taking a look at the weather and seeing that the winds are calm and even favorable tomorrow, we made the decision to push on to Corfu (skipping a planned layover on one of the islands in between) in hopes that it is a bigger town and will have more resources for us. After some grocery shopping, a quick lunch on the waterfront where there was a breeze, albeit a very sticky breeze, we headed back to our swimming pool to escape the heat on the boat. We seemed to have a respite with cooler temperatures for a few days but they only seemed to have crept back up, although nothing close to when the Pereras were here! In the evening, we headed back to Mike’s favorite chandlery shop and then found a really sweet, quiet restaurant in one of the back alleys. We had a nice dinner and then decided to follow the sound of music we had been hearing. The music was echoing off all of the stone walls but we finally found the source after winding our way through the streets, but only to find it coming from a big tourist venue with RVs parked outside. We then enjoyed a more leisurely walk back through the narrow side streets, coming across old women gossiping in the cool, night air while watching their grandchildren play. And the town square was crazy this Friday night! It was packed with locals and tourists, street performers, people selling every kind of flashing toy you could imagine, people selling enormous balloons from bouquets which could possibly lift them off the ground. It actually felt weird to go back to the boat and think we were headed to sleep while everyone else just appeared to be waking up and starting their day. But upon returning back to the boat we discovered that we didn’t have any power. Mike investigated and it looks like everyone plugged in is out of luck. After a quick return it was only off again. So hoping for the best we headed to bed.

Back to Work

Mike slept like a rock but not me. At first being on a town quay is kind of fun. You are right smack in the middle of town, everyone is walking by talking and laughing, you have all of the sounds from the bars and restaurants. Well, the fun has passed. Last night was hot and loud. Even though we were sleeping in the v-berth, the furthest point possible from the sidewalk, it sounded like everyone was right on top of my head. And the wind scoop seemed like it was just funneling all of the sound down. And then I woke up with the beginning signs of a cold. So today was my day to do nothing except work on writing and posting the blog which was a constant battle. Our computer battery has died so anytime the very temperamental adapter/plug gets jostled, at the slightest, the computer turns off which is especially frustrating if you haven’t saved anything in awhile. And it was also a fight with our internet connection and a couple of phone calls to Vodaphone. Mike’s battle today was the electricity. He ended up buying about 200 more feet of cable, making a splitter and bypassing the Italian’s objections and plugging us both in right at the source. But then funky stuff started happening with our breaker panel. It’s a good think Mike has been able to line up an electrician to come tomorrow. Mike also had luck in finding a sail rigger to come by tomorrow as well. The evening consisted of yet another gyro, a little more walking around the delightful town and then back home to watch a movie and take advantage of our power. While in Galaxidi, we bought ‘Inception’ from a guy selling DVDs on the beach. It’s either hit or miss for the quality. Well, this time was a miss but we couldn’t turn it off because it was so intriguing. So while trying to make out the fuzzy images, looking past the shadows of heads in the audience and the huge Greek subtitles and holding our speaker up to our ears we watched the entire thing. Not sure how much we understood or got but know that it is a movie we will have to see again!

Levkas Town

During the night, Mike made his way on deck to sleep in the cooler air. And thankfully woke up feeling much better than yesterday. We both found ourselves anxious to get to Levkas so pulled anchor at 10am and reached the canal an hour or so later. The canal was dredged in between Levkas Island and the mainland and cuts right through the salt marshes. At times it felt like we could have been in southeast Asia.

We were happy when we were able to turn into the harbour and leave the narrow and shallow canal, especially when we saw electrical/water boxes on the quay and could avoid the 65 euro a night at the marina. After getting tied up we plugged in but nothing was happening. We then discovered that the only working plug ins are at the fuel station (all 3 of them) which is about 300 feet down the quay. Mike attempted to sweet talk an Italian man into letting us share his connection but was denied. A bit of a bummer because we were both really looking forward to electricity - for fans, the computer, to run the shop vac and tools to get some work done. Also for water so we could wash off the once white decks which are now a grayish-brown in color. And water so we can have some decent drinking water in our tanks. The water that we filled our tanks with in Galaxidi is a bit hard to swallow, even for Mike which is saying something. After getting settled, we started to explore town to find the chandleries, a laundry, a good place for a gyro. And I found that we need to break down and buy some water in plastic bottles after realizing that I am not keeping myself hydrated after getting really dizzy on the walk through town. Again, since it was siesta, our only luck was finding an open laundry at the marina. After walking all the way back to the boat, grabbing all of our washables (clothes, sheets, blankets, towels) and lugging them back to the marina we got to pay 15 euro for one load! The most expensive and sweat inducing laundry ever. At least the cute little lady crammed the washers full and we were able to get away with 3 loads! But the result of clean laundry will be so worth it! We then returned to the boat and started to clean the cabin. We shook out all of the cushions, we swept, wiped, mopped! And I will never complain about cleaning the bathroom at home. For some reason, marine bathrooms get funky really fast. And we even found a nice woman to donate Lucca’s dump truck, swim raft and beach toys to. But no taker for the adult diapers…those ended up in the dumpster! After getting work done, again thanks to our neighbors, we found the nearby hotel with a swimming pool…and showers. As long as you order a beverage you are free to swim and shower all you want! The pool was cool and shaded, the drinks were cold and the shower was hot! It was the first real shower (and real shampoo, I am finally rejoicing in my mane of hair simply because I am lucky that I don’t have to wash it that often) I had in about 3 weeks and the first hot shower in longer than that. It’s amazing how different the air feels against your skin when you are clean and not sweat and salt encrusted!

A tourist company I was be hesistant to use.

For the evening we took a walk around town and came upon surprise after surprise. At first glimpse, the town appeared to be a bit industrial and run down but then revealed so much more. Another entire waterfront with more trendy cafes, an abandoned community center which looked like a teenager’s paradise, a walking promenade lined with shops and restaurants and then shooting off were tiny alleys which wound through charming homes (old and new) with beautiful gardens and courtyards. For dinner we tried another gyro shop, then walked some more, were forced to make decisions at an amazing bakery, stopped off to watch part of a soccer game (Suarez again!) and then finally back home. Oh, but now we are lamenting no electricity, this boat is hot.

Pure Relaxation

Mike woke up being congested and coughing. Initially, I think he was hoping to push on to Lefkada so we could start working on the boat. But it didn’t make much for me to convince him to find a quiet anchorage close by and spend the day taking care of himself. After poking our head into the popular bays around the island and seeing how crowded they were (and not wanting to expend the energy taking lines to shore) we decided to take the advice of our neighbors and head to Nidri on Lefkada. And on our path were the islands of Skorpios and Skorpidhi, the private twin islands which are owned by the Onassis family. I found it really exciting and spent the entire time peering through the binoculars trying to make out the grounds and houses which you could catch a glimpse of here and there.

We then entered Nidri and it was a zoo! Boats anchored on both sides of the entrance, endless rows of piers with boats, boats coming and going.



We then ended up in a very sheltered large bay where we found a bit of privacy at the far end. Mike spent the day reading and napping and awoke feeling a bit better. I swam and simply relaxed. In the late afternoon we were really happy that we didn’t chose to anchor closer to the taverna because it quickly filled up with charter boats that did not appear to know how to anchor. But good evening entertainment as we sat on the deck, sipping retsina and enjoying the beautiful sunset. And the day did Mike good, he was happy we didn’t push on to Levkas and we both found ourselves really enjoying this ‘boat life’. After dinner we got in the dinghy and Mike rowed while he serenaded me with the Doobie Brothers and Neil Young. We watched the full moon rise over the hill and then I took a quick swim in the moon light before heading to bed. Now today is what we have dreamed of. If only there could be more of it but we will take what I can get.

Meganisi

That was the best night’s sleep in a long time. Just before dawn, I stuck my head out of the hatch just to take a look around. The lighting was so beautiful and everything was so quiet. But bed called me back and we had a slow morning of waking up. The only distraction was the holding tank. Everything seemed to be working well with our new tank while the Pereras were on board. But for the past several days it has been giving off a pretty rancid smell whenever it is used. Actually an unbearable smell. Mike thought it might be the vent or maybe there was a leak somewhere. We couldn’t find a leak but then Mike investigated the vent on the outside of the hull. And guess what? It was covered with blue painters tape left over from a couple of months ago! But Mike also found the inside of the vent to be clogged with dirt and rust from all of the work that was done in the head. Luckily a very easy fix for a problem you couldn’t ignore. Around 10am we headed for the island of Meganisi. It was a beautiful day and perfect for sailing. And we took advantage of the calm weather and short mileage day to finally play around with the sails and figure out what needs to be done. Mike took off the rest of the reefing lines and the main sail went up fairly smoothly by pulling it up from the mast. The tracks did stick a bit but Mike discovered that it is due to the battens putting pressure on the tracks and causing them to push too far in. The sail also dropped nicely when the halyard was released at the mast. It appears that our new rigging system may be causing a bit of friction and making the raising and lowering a tad more difficult. We just need to get somewhere to have a rigger come take a look at things. We also pulled out the new-ish genoa and our lines are just a bit shy in length but that is an easy fix. As we got closer and closer to Meganisi the water became full of sail boats. We have not seen that many boats since leaving Marmaris Bay. While going up the passage in between Lefkada and Meganisi it looked like Duck Dodge on Lake Union! And from what we have seen, the Ionian is beautiful. The islands are green and ringed by electric blue-turquoise water with the barren mountains on the mainland framing them. We took a bit of a detour and headed closer to the coast to check out a cave that is rumored to have been the hiding place of a Greek submarine during the Second World War.


But since we needed provisions in a bad way, we went into Spartakhori and went bows- to on a quay with mooring lines belonging to a taverna. I appreciated not having to deal with the anchor and mostly appreciated having to eat our obligatory dinner at the taverna! After getting settled, we stopped by the beach for a quick swim before making the walk up the hill into the town. It felt so good to stretch the legs after not doing a lot of walking the past several days. And the walk was so enjoyable with the shade and scent from the pine, cypress and olive trees. Once we made it up the hill, we discovered that the shops were still closed for siesta so pasted the time by peering over the edge and down onto the docks across from ours. We found ourselves being really happy that they had turned us away because boats were getting knocked around on the shaky docks. The wind had picked up and was causing a bit of chaos as a dozen charter boats were making their way back in and trying to get moored. It felt good to look across the small harbour and see Independence tied up securely and barely swaying in the breeze. After a delightful walk through the small streets and picking up some groceries, we found ourselves getting really hungry and stopped at a café where we had the best Retsina and tzatziki ever! Then it was back to the boat and making it to the taverna before the onslaught of charter boats arrived for their dinner reservations. We sat as close to the water as possible and watched the waves hit the restaurant dock/floor and almost wash over our feet. The only bummer is that Mike feels a cold coming on and I can tell he is getting anxious to get somewhere to begin the next (much shorter) work phase.