Theresa took some lovely morning photos and then she and I popped to the Supermarket for a mini shop and to drop off the recycling.
Shortly after we left, Marco had to beep the horn for the first time this trip as a yacht was approaching us on the wrong side. They soon corrected their course and we then headed out past the smelly marshland!
There were several gorgeous houses along that coastline followed by a couple of beautiful-looking resorts. Eventually we passed the famous Onassis island, including Jackie Onassis’ beach changing hut. The island is now under Russian ownership.
We hooked up to a mooring buoy at Spartahori for what would be Theresa and Marco’s third visit to a lovely fish restaurant, the arrangement being that you can stay in the bay overnight provided you eat in the restaurant.
The proprietor whizzed past in his dinghy and congratulated Marco, Theresa and Dave on the ease with which they’d attached the boat to the mooring buoy! This involved hooking out a rope attached to the buoy, tying on and then walking the rope to the bow of the yacht to secure it at the other end. Theresa said that she loves a mooring buoy because you don’t have to worry about whether your anchor has taken or not, you don’t have to worry about the swing space on your anchor chain, you don’t have to pick up a lazy line and you don’t have to throw the back ropes onto shore and you can swim off the boat.
We had a decent swim and then Theresa made us some yummy toasties for lunch along with a bit of her baked aubergine that she had taken away from the Lefkada restaurant in a doggy bag.
After lunch Marco and Dave attached the engine to the dinghy and we went on an adventure to Vathy, which was around the next headland. It was a gorgeous trip, made more dramatic on our arrival by the slight calamity of Dave falling in as he was trying to be manly on his way out of the dinghy, so did not take Theresa’s hand for balance! Luckily he was fine (apart from a cut leg) but he was then sporting the ‘wet T-shirt look’, which was quite uncomfortable as well as being humiliating in front of the amused locals, so we went in search of a T shirt shop! This was shopping with a difference as I took photos of the T shirts so he wouldn’t drip all over the shop. The aptly named ‘King of the sea’ T shirt was out of stock in his size, so he opted for a nice blue one with fish on it. 😃
We stopped at a café there for beers and ice cream before travelling back to Awaydays.
Then we spent a lazy afternoon having another nice swim, followed by chilling and reading our novels. We planned to take the dinghy over to the restaurant at about seven, so we would be able to have a good choice of fish. The sea suddenly started to get really choppy. It remained like that until we were due to go to the restaurant, so we had an exciting, albeit short trip across to the bar. There was a nice pole to hang on to when we got there, so no problems getting out of the dinghy!! Marco bought us a round of mojito’s to kickstart the evening in style.
When we got there, the place was buzzing. There was a huge table laid out on the beach to accommodate one of the Flotilla parties in the bay. I had a chat with one family on the trip, who told me they were with Sunsail and had only just met their group that day. They had been twice before with Sunsail and really enjoyed sailing their own boat whilst having the backup of the Sunsail itinerary and qualified crew if they had any difficulties.
We chose a whole Sea bass and a few meze to share, namely marinated anchovies, butter beans in tomato and dolmades (stuffed vine leaves). After that we had the fish and chips. The location was fantastic and the whole atmosphere was very friendly and atmospheric. We had a much gentler ride back to the boat and rounded off the night with a raki on board.
Goodness me, SO much information, so much food.
I am now having shredded wheat and banana as I read your blog.
I was allowed to stay up for the Saturday night play on the radio when I became a teenager, this gave me the gift of imagination.
When you describe all you see before you I am ‘there’.!
You know what they say ‘Pride comes before a fall’. Jx