May 28 – Sailing and Saying Goodbye

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Slow start to the day, seems that we are getting slower and slower now. When I finally emerged into the cockpit to enjoy my morning tea a few boats had life on them already. Kanula was awake, and when I looked to my left, the woman on the German boat was stretching, in the nude, and hanging her towel. Deb, we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s us, not you….

A red dinghy rows ashore from a nearby boat and Sandra calls out to me “A cat! There’s a cat on that dinghy!” Sure enough, a large white cat with a bright red collar is perched on the side of the dinghy and hops ashore when close enough. The man rows back to his boat and the cat explores the beach. An hour or so later we see the cat at the beach near his boat, front paws in the water, it looks like he is meowing to come home. The man rows ashore and the cat jumps back on the dinghy, but he slips and his back end goes in. He is hauled in, a towel appears and he is thoroughly dried off before being rowed home again.

We lazed about, reading, swimming, eating, chatting, until almost noon before we finally decided to get underway. Kirk took the dinghy to untie Kanula’s stern lines and get them underway, then our own. We followed them out of Abelike and pulled sails. We had a good wind and the sails came out like silk. They filled beautifully and the main was fully out and stayed properly connected. Thanks so much for your help Dave!!

We had a lovely sail and Kanula stayed close for a while taking photos. We are really looking forward to seeing the photos, but are so sad that this sail will be our goodbye too. Kanula finally fully pulls their sails and comes quickly up behind us, The British are Coming, the British are Coming we call out. However, we are not going far today, and they are heading down the channel towards Vasiliki so eventually we must tack and change direction and we wave goodbye to them. It has been a very fun few days and I feel a strong pang of sadness that we have parted company and that the trip is coming to a close very soon. They are a lovely couple and it was an absolute pleasure to have shared their company for the past few days. We truly hope we will cross paths again someday.

But the wind is good and we continue to sail for a couple of hours….although we aren’t really going anywhere except back and forth…but that works out OK since our ultimate destination is Spartokori/Spilia Bay. Even if we can’t get in, we know Vlihko is just a few miles away and we will be able to find a spot to anchor in there without problems.

So we finally pull in the sails and head for the harbour and are pleased to find that it is not packed. This is one of the few places where the village is actually up on the hill and the waterfront is not built up excessively. The bay is deep and not a good anchorage, but several enterprising people have built pontoons and small quays off their tavernas. There are three tavernas (two really since two are owned by the same brothers), and all of their moorings have lazylines attached. We will not need our anchor. We think that this will be nice to not have to coordinate the anchor and the lines…but at the same time I’m a bit anxious about it since we have become quite proficient at the process. We head for a concrete quay where a catamaran is in the process of docking and a man on the quay in a Mind the Gap t-shirt (I love that saying!) waves us towards the floating pontoon to the South and we can hear him bellow to someone on shore and point to us. Another fellow comes bounding down from the taverna and onto the pontoon and points to a spot between two other boats. We line up and back in and he has pulled up the lazyline to pass to me. This is where I get anxious….now I have to grab hold of the lazyline, get it around all the rigging at the back of the boat, run forward with it hand over hand and pull it up to the front cleat, then pull it in tight to hold the boat off the dock. It never goes well since there are only two of us and we are also trying to get the stern lines handed off and brought back to tie off, and there are boats to either side that we need to get the fenders all at the right height as the strong wind grabs the bow and starts to twist the boat. I of course smash my knee into the winch as I grab the line. The scab just came off yesterday and it was finally healed, I’m bleeding again and that knee is going to turn quite a nice shade of purple I think. It wasn’t our prettiest touchdown, but we managed and the next two boats that came in did much worse….which on some petty level made us feel better. One of the boats held the people we met in Fiskardo who had thought they crossed our lines. Hello again!!

We suddenly realize that yesterday at Abelike was the last time we will have put the anchor down. Lefkada will have not-so-lazylines as well.

After the customary refreshment on touchdown, we go ashore for a drink at the taverna. While they do not charge you for moorage, it is expected that is you do use their docks you will at least come to the taverna for a drink. The waters are cobalt blue, because there is no community right at the edge of the water, the waters are clear and clean and good for swimming.

We watch the boats begin to arrive and fill the available berths. With the strong winds in the bay there are some vessels having difficulty and a fellow from the taverna runs down and jumps into a small zodiac, he races around the bow of a boat having difficulty docking and runs the dinghy straight into the port side to straighten her out. He then flies up onto their bow, grabs the lazyline and ties their boat off for them. He hops off and forcefully guides the next boat in too. They really know how to get their customers here!

One boat comes in under sail fully heeled over, they tack and fill the sails again, charging through the bay before pulling into the wind and pulling up on a dime and furling the sails neatly. Quite the show!

We then decide to wander up the hill to the village. It’s a pleasant walk, with the wind and the mixed clouds today it is cooler, high twenties perhaps, and walking up through the pines is lovely. When we get to the top, the view is simply stunning! We can see the mountains on the mainland, we can see over Skorpios and into Nidri. Just gorgeous! As we stand there we hear The Canadians again! and see our four Dutch acquaintances from Vathi again. We chat for quite some time before finally parting company. The older woman comes back to ask Kirk what the name of the store in Squamish was again….she is tickled that she will be able to tell her son there that she knows someone who used to work there and that she met him here.

We spend an hour or so simply wandering through the maze of narrow streets in Spartakori and strangely, this is the first place we’ve been that contains a hint of the feeling that we remember from the Cyclades. The streets are almost claustrophobic, in some places they are painted with white, and there are a number of white painted buildings with blue doors. We expect to see a donkey around the corner, but all we meet are people and cats. We head down one narrow lane and a widow in black doing her wash in a basin waves at us and speaks rapid Greek…we have no idea what she is trying to tell us and she finally gives up, shrugs and waves us on. Yassas we all say and as we walk downhill we realize what she was telling us…this lane goes nowhere…it is a dead end overlooking the beach. So back up we go laughing and she smiles, waves her hands a bit, tosses some rapid Greek our way and says Yassas to us again. Obviously she was saying something the likes of stupid tourists, I told you there was nothing down there, but no…you have to go anyway…

We are hungry, and looking for a place where we can enjoy the view and eat at the same time. We find a spot overlooking the stunning panoramic scene and order a half litre of wine and ask for a menu. No food, only snacks we are told. OK, tsatziki and bread then. The wine turns out to be retsina…this was not a successful spot. The view was great, but that was all. Pity since he has the best location in town! Oh well, we drink the wine, eat the tsatziki and head back down the hill.

There is another taverna at the head of the bay and we decide to look at their menu. When we ask for a menu we are taken to a cabinet that contains all of the food items they apparently cook. A pork chop lies on a plate, several mackerel on another, and so on. One lone menu sits atop the cabinet and we take a look. I have been dying for a spanokopita since arriving and have yet to find it on any menu. Apparently it’s not an Ionian dish. But they have saganaki, so we will stop for another snack before heading back to the taverna attached to our own mooring.

The sun is falling behind the hills, and the water is flattening out to glass. This place is simply fabulous! What a wonderful final stop before we have to head for Lefkas tomorrow.

The Dutch foursome are at another table, and suddenly we hear a British voice exclaim “It’s the Canadians again! We saw your flag when we come into harbour!” Hard to miss it…. We chat for a bit with the four of them before they finally take a table and Kirk and I look at each other and whisper…Do you know where we met them?” “No, I was hoping you would” Eventually it comes to us. Kioni. I helped them dock and then we swam across the bay and hitched a ride back on their dinghy. When we got up to leave one asked “Going for a swim?” Yes, we identified them correctly.

A pleasant walk around the bay takes us back to Porto Spilia Taverna where we are hoping to finally have a meal. Every darned item comes with chips here! The fellow who helped us dock now arrives to take our order…two man show here…. and I ask if I might have Greek salad with my souvlakia instead of chips, no problem. Excellent. The food was superb and very reasonably priced, the wine was the best of the three places we stopped at. The tables are right on the pebble beach a stones throw from the boats. This is a wonderful spot….simply wonderful.

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