Thursday and Friday 29 and 30 June 2017 – Ayias Andreou (Ithaca) and Zakinthos

We didn’t need to rush in the morning, so we had a swim and a leisurely breakfast before setting out to the island of Ithaca.  As ever there is no wind, so we motor.  I cannot call this a sailing trip, just a boating trip!

The pilot book refers of Ayias Andreou as “an impressive deserted anchorage”, so I expected something like we had last night.  But I was rather surprised when we got there to find at least ten boats including 5 in a Flotilla and one Sunsail boat.  One of the boats was a huge motor yacht with crew.  Not quite a super yacht, but close.  It was taking up a huge part of the shore to which one is supposed to attach a long line.  But bravely we drop the anchor and let out a huge amount of chain to get close enough to the shore to take a line back.  Richard goes out again with the dinghy and finally gets a line attached.  We have 55 metres of chain out, but we seem nicely set.  Richard swims to check on the anchor, which is not dug in, but with that amount of chain is holding well.

As the day goes on boats come and go.  The flotilla leave fairly early but then a rather elegant gentleman’s motor yacht comes in and moors to our starboard.  That seems fine, but things go awry when a 36 ft charter boat with 4 children and 4 adults on board tries to moor up between us and the motor boat.  They come so close to swinging into us that we both have to put out fenders.  He also put out two lines ashore one of which is rubbing against our hull.  It has been difficult for them to moor and we don’t want to make a fuss, but I am not happy.  Luckily, the skipper of the other boat sees we are concerned and says given a short time he will move.  Just then the large motor boat starts to leave and he is able to go over to where that was.  All is much better and the other skipper very kindly comes and gives us a bottle of wine for our patience.

We have also worked something out about this long line ashore business.  Our rope is adequately long to keep us off shore when tightened up, but we need more line to attach to begin with.  So we learn to attach the line and then tighten up the anchor letting the maximum length of the line out to keep us away from the shore, but still hold us tight enough.  We do that when the other boat has moved and we are situated much better.

There is a problem with this anchorage - it is subject to a nasty swell.  That came up after we ate dinner (lesson 4, don’t do a meal that needs cooking in the oven when it is 32C in the galley).  The rocking got so bad that I had to go to bed with a sea sick pill.

Despite the rocking I slept very well and we got up early to get off quickly.  We have 30 miles to do to get to Zakinthos town.  We want to get there as soon as possible to make sure there is space.  The town has limited moorings and it is now getting to high season and we have seen places overfilled.

So we are away by 8:30am and there is still no wind, so it is another long motor trip.  We had one small hiccup.  After being out for maybe 45 minutes we looked back at the dinghy and realized we had forgotten to take in the oars and seat.  The oars are a particular problem as I broke one of the yesterday when I was assembling them.  The peg that holds the bottom part to the oar part pinged out and went into the sea.  So we really don’t want to lose the blade.  We have no spare oars on board.  This meant stopping in the middle of the sea and getting the stuff off.  All a bit scary, but done without mishap.

We arrive at Zakinthos just after 2pm.  We have a slight panic as a large ferry comes in just as we were going to enter the harbour.  So we wait for it to dock and we go in. There are not many spaces left on the near quay.  We are looking for somewhere to go when officials turn up and direct us into a space and take our lines.  So we are now safely tucked up in the harbour and paid up for 2 nights.  This one is fairly expensive at 25 eurose a night including water and electricity.  We are connected to the electricity, but we are not sure that our hose is long enough to get the water and that is the most urgent bit.

It is absolutely boiling hot.  The saloon shows 32C.  We are trying to get in touch with the Weymers to say we have arrived but somehow we cannot get through to their phone.  We find a little place to swim.  Not really a beach, but a rocky bit that goes down into the water.  However, the water is so warm, it is not really refreshing.  Even a cold shower doesn’t help.  We eventually start to walk into town when we finally get the Weymers on the phone and find they are nearly with us. 

So we rush back to the boat just in time.  Have a pleasant evening with Keith and Glenys.  We will meet them tomorrow morning and shop and decide how to organize our trip.  The weather for Sunday looks better but it is now forecast to be very windy on Monday!