Vathi to Kioni – Long Haul

This morning we walked into Vathi to find an internet signal and were successful. Decided to stay and have a crepe and a cappuccino while we were there. As we were walking around the harbour at about 8 am, a marching band struck up. We had a good laugh since they marched and played right along the seawall behind all the charter boats. There’s a wakeup call for you! When we were at the restaurant we asked what the band was all about. He told us that the day held two significances. It was name day for Helen and I can’t remember the male name, and it was also a celebration because it was this day in history that Britain gave the Ionian Islands to Greece.

We set off this morning for Kioni or Frikes (or Phrikes). Both sounded nice, a British couple next to us said they preferred Frikes, but Peggy had emphasized Kioni. The guided say that Phrikes gets a lot of ferry wash and that boats often get damaged here when their masts crash together or they smash into the quay with the water thrown around by the ferries. And so we decided that Frikes sounded a little too freaky and opted for Kioni. We plotted both courses and then started to think maybe we should head for Fiskardo after all…since Kioni was a whopping 5.25 nm away. Oh well, we’d go have a look….and it is simply lovely! So we docked and decided to stay. And it got very busy. It’s a tiny little village tucked into a tiny little bay. And other than swimming to the other side of the bay to a small beach, we didn’t make it 20 feet from the boat on land.

When we docked we had more conversations about Canada from people walking by. There are a couple of Americans here. That makes the third American flag we have seen. Still no Canadian ones other than us though.

The boat was filthy and we were hot so we decided to give Nikolas a wash. We scrubbed her down and initiated a cleaning bee on another boat several down. After that we both really needed a swim…the water in this bay is 25 degrees and it’s actually clean. It doesn’t appear to be the toxic soup so many of them are and a number of people are swimming. It’s heavenly and we stay in for a long time…get out…too hot…back in. We swim across to the other side of the bay and meet up with the two British couples on the boat I helped in who had their own cleaning bee. One woman laughs and says she saw people swimming across and figured it must be the Canadians who would do that. We’re not sure why…forgot to ask. We hitch a ride back with them and chat along the way. When we are back at our boat, lounging in the water off the bow, we see a familiar Grand Banks come in and there is that woman in white again…with those elegant yellow rubber gloves on again. A fellow in the water with us has quite the chuckle.

We have a pasta dinner aboard using up the last two sausages in the fridge, feed a local cat, and end up joining a boat two doors down in the later evening…with a bottle of black sambuca……..