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.