We got up, counted our collective bruises, and there are many (Kirk says my arms look like I’ve been beaten…my knees are worse), and headed back over to Apokreiosi to hopefully retrieve the anchor. We got out of the car and started to head up to the taverna to find our fisherman when the two older fishermen on the beach began calling to us and gesturing. Neither spoke a stitch of English but they were sure trying to talk to us. Then we noticed our anchor and the line we tied it off with leaning up against the side of an overturned boat. They had gone out and pulled it out before we arrived. We were so grateful and thanked them so profusely. We offered to pay them for their time and effort but they wouldn’t hear of it. Through quasi-sign language and a whole lot of Greek that we didn’t understand they told us that they understood we must have had quite a ride. We went and found the younger fisherman and thanked him profusely, he was so unbelievably gracious and wished us good luck in the rest of our trip.
We came back to Merikhas in time to see all the sail boats that had been at the quay pull out and begin their race and we were now the only boat at the quay. Peace.
We did some provisioning, and walked out to the point. The quay was a zoo of activity when we returned, the ferry must be coming. It’s just like home when on Sunday everyone is trying to leave the Island and get back to the mainland. We didn’t think there could be that many cars on this island! There are two taxis on the entire Island and they announce their presence with a distinctive horn. Back at the boat we realized how filthy everything was and cleaned the boat stem to stern, and hand washed some clothes.
We stopped into one of the dockside markets and bought a bottle of Bacardi rum….now you’d think that we could figure out how to open it wouldn’t you? I’ve never been buffaloed by a bottle of alcohol before! Kirk thought he could get into it…and ended up taking it over to some fishermen on the dock…they even had trouble. They do things differently here. We also found wine in plastic water bottles…you just know we had to try it…we’ve dubbed it Two-Twenty because that’s what it cost. Nothing but the best for us! Actually, it was surprisingly drinkable so we went back and stocked up.
Another sailboat docked in the early evening, two couples from Holland at the end of their trip and heading back to Athens. They have been up in the Saronic and said it was calm compared to here…..come on, where wouldn’t be in comparison to the past two days!
Had a few drinks, read a bit, made dinner, and went to the restaurant for a piece of cake and some wine which they wouldn’t let us pay for because it was my birthday. If you ever come here, visit the Ostria restaurant.
To bed.
End of day 5 on the boat.
