GREECE, WONDERFUL NISOS OTHONI, 30 June to 1 July, Days 67 -
68
We slept well after our long slow 36 hour passage, and awoke
to see a beautiful bay. Not the Santorini images of white and blue houses but a
few red roofed buildings behind which are green tree covered hills. Being in
this bay we can see why people arrive in a beautiful place and never leave.
Cicadas sing all morning.
The large Greek Orthodox priest walked along the quiet road
by the beach, with his long beard, long black robes and long wooden stick.
Two of the boats we had seen in darkness were anchored close
to us at Le Castilla. As we follow loosely the track of Ulysees (Odysseus) from
the Island of Calypso (Gozo – Malta) to his home and waiting Penelope in Ithaca,
we cross paths again and again with other travellers on a similar quest of
enjoying the many islands and beautiful bays of Greece without hurry.
For me this journey started in July 2001 when I took Apataki
from Swansea Marina to Padstow, then Bryher (Isles of Scilly) before sailing
for five and a half days across the infamous Bay of Biscay, past Portugal and
into the Mediterranean. The journey continued in 2004 exploring beautiful Sardinia
and sailing on to Malta with the ultimate aim of reaching the Adriatic Sea.
There was a long pause in the journey until now and really for the first time
in my 50 years of sailing we are cruising and not just taking a few weeks of summer
holiday afloat.
Olivier from the Nauticat 40 catamaran came close on his
paddle board in the calm morning and we chatted before they left on the next
leg of their cruise.
I took a swim and was surprised how cold the water felt. Then
I continued the bottom cleaning since Apataki has been in the water for over a
year and needs new anti-fouling paint sometime.
We tried to connect to the outside world by internet but that
is hard. The TIM modem allowed access with password to one device but the other
two showed the same password was wrong. It was connected but nothing flowed.
The WIND one responded to password but nothing happened. We were warned that we
may need to change some settings in Greece but how? The Maltese Vodafone
connected by no traffic passed. We seem to be at a remote island at the edge of
the world. Finally during the day were moments of connection and messages came
in and out but we could not even open Google mail so are without weather
forecasting and navigational and cruising information.
On Saturday we did not go ashore, but on Sunday took the
dinghy and walked to the small fishing harbour which has been improved to allow
a few yachts to tie up, then up to a viewpoint on the hill overlooking the bay.
Paradise indeed. In the evening we shared a moussaka and wine ashore to use the
good internet connection in the café.
The larger ferry came in and it’s access was impeded by a
yacht but he manoeuvred carefully to bring the vessel stern to the quay for
unloading, The yacht later moved and I did not see the ferry leave as we were
sleeping our siesta. More about this later. The next ferry episode is scary and
bizarre.
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