On to Fiskardho

So…we finally made it out of Kioni this morning. Since the kid who swam the anchor lines said we were clear, we decided to believe him and pulled out at 7:30 am before pretty much anyone else was awake. When I brought in the anchor, I could see that we were just 5 feet shy of being crossed. If we’d been out another 15-20 feet, we would have had three lines across us and brought up four anchors altogether. Luckily we just brought one aboard.

We knew it was too early to head straight into Fiskardo because we’d be there before anyone left. So we decided to noodle. We wandered into Frikes….and were very glad we had chosen to not spend a night there….Frikes…was freaky and Kioni was MUCH prettier.

We rounded the North end of Ithaka and looked up a hill that looked out onto three bays from its peak. This is where Homer placed Odysseus’s palace. Kinda cool to be sailing in the lee of such a historical island.

We slipped into Fiskardo at around 9 am …..full house….Sailing Holidays all around. And, to the starboard, a sailboat with a bright yellow bimini and jib…..we know who that is, it’s Dave and Sandra and we wonder if we should elsewhere in shame….. actually we have choice but to go elsewhere temporarily since there is nowhere to dock….later they ask if we came in early since Sandra said she thought she saw us heading out….kinda hard to be inconspicuous with those two massive flags…

So we decide to go for a little sail… and a little sail it was. We did get the sails out, and had our usual issue with the furling main but did sail for a bit…until, what a surprise..the wind died. So we pulled the rags in and motored down the channel towards Captain Corelli’s Bay. We circumnavigated an island the size of our boat (well, maybe a bit bigger since it did have chapel on it) and turned North again to see sticks popping out of Fiskardo bay. Up come the spy goggles an the number rise…one, two, five, ten…..MUST be Sailing Holidays heading on for the day…and yes, as the first boat passes we know there is now room at the dock.

We come back into Fiskardo and eye up an open space. The anchor goes down, we back up…all is perfect….except that the anchor does not grab and after all nicely tied….I can pretty much drag it back to the boat. Nope…won’t do….untie, out we go again. (It’s a Do-again!) And of course, we are quite literally in the centre of “The Town To Be Seen In In The Ionian” Nothing like doing things three times where everyone can see. Se, we take a second stab at the same spot and a fellow on an American boat stands at the bow and begins to chirp about his 50 metres of rode that we are going to cross. ABORT! He points down several spots at a location where the quay curves outwards and says there is more depth there. Sounds fine. We head back out, choose a line, and away we go again. As we are backing up, I hear someone yell “PAIGE” from shore, and see a man waving and jogging along the town quay (Kirk says it’s my secret admirer stalking me). Seriously though, it’s a bit disconcerting when one is halfway round the world, and apparently one is recognized from a distance. Oh wait…it’s those “Big assed Canadian bedsheets…isnt’ it?” Yes, it’s Dave, our friend from Kioni who dragged Kirk up from the drink, the saltwater one that is, we’d had enough of the other type at that point. Oh the shame of it all….nah, we’re Canadian, it’s to be expected.

This time I stop dropping twice to ensure we are well dug in and all seems good. The chirpy American and Dave grab our lines and help tie us off. We drop our gangplank pretty much on a table. The waiter happily shuffles the table over so we have room. This is so weird. All the boats have their gangplanks lying pretty much between tables and chairs. We joke that we can get off the boat and sniff peoples dinners as we go by “Oooh, that looks good, mind if I have a taste?”

Guess what….it’s HOT! Between 34-36C Ouch! We feel somewhat guilty that we have landed in the middle of a cafe, so we order a couple of iced coffees…at a cost of 8 Euros! Double OUCH!

I check for internet….I immediately have a signal, full bars, and look, it’s the cocktail music bar, twenty feet from our gangplank! And then it drops to one bar. I can’t figure this place out where internet is concerned.

As an aside, when we were scooting on Kefalonia the other day we saw roadsigns warning of cows and deer. There are no deer on Kefalonia, and we haven’t seen a cow since Corfu….but there are lots of goats and there are also wild horses on Kefalonia. Maybe they just didn’t have those particular road signs available and substituted just to keep drivers aware? Who knows.

Anyway, back to Fiskardo. We wandered a bit and then walked to the other side of the Bay to say hello to Dave and Sandra and say we will be back later to have a swim on their somewhat private “not really a beach”

Over the course of the afternoon we see probably ten boats moor stern to on the pontoon that we were told a couple of weeks ago had been damaged and was not for use. Can’t figure out why the Port Police have not kicked them off…and can’t really figure out how people think that it’s OK to moor when they have to crawl over red and white caution tape. Apparently they are all geniuses. My theory is that the Port Police don’t want to keep coming down so they will wait until the pontoon is full, everyone is settled, and it is late enough that it is unlikely any more boats will come. My theory proves correct. And now about ten boats, plus several more arriving are circling like sharks looking for a spot on the quay. We were just about to take our dinghy and cross over to visit Dave and Sandra and go for a swim (the water is 27 degrees here) but we decide to hang back and see what happens.

Our motto….”Don’t make eye contact!”

Chirpy fellow defends his anchor vehemently, going so far as to chirp at a boat that docks three boats away that he is on his line. Let’s be serious, if a guy three boats down is across your anchor, where do you think the other two are?

Eventually we are relatively sure no one is going to attempt to come between us and the permanently moored boats on either side. We venture across and go for our swim and hang with Dave and Sandra for a couple of hours. Of course when we get there, Dave comes rowing back. He has run out of fuel while trying to assist other boats with anchoring and stern tying to shore. So, armed with a new dinghy, a full tank of fuel, and a willing accomplice, Dave commandeers Kirk and off they go to be neighbourly and assist another couple with getting settled.

We return to the boat, cook a stir fry dinner (please oh please let us be healthy tomorrow!) and settle in to watch and be watched. This really is the most “In Town” we have been. We don’t music, because we are twenty feet from a cocktail music bar…and the menu outside offers mojitos and caipirinhas. Am I in Greece? Am I in Cuba? Am I in Brazil?

Haven’t downloaded from the camera in a couple of days…must get to that soon. Maybe in the morning.

Dave and Sandra will probably drop by later for cocktails…no midnight swims tonight. Kirk says he is not leaving the boat…it’s our boat this time….

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