Tuesday 4 July 2017 – Fiskardo, Cephalonia

Well, as the song goes, what a difference a day makes.  We wake up fairly early and it is like being in another harbour.  The sea is glassy and there is no wind.  Even looking out to the open sea we can see no white horses.  We get everything ready a little early so we leave at 9:30, not 10 as planned.  The idea is to get to Fiskardo at the time many boats will leave and before new boats arrive. 

Richard is keen to sail and puts up the main just after we get out of the harbour.  But there is virtually no wind.  We then notice that our wind instrument is not reading correctly.  It is saying that the wind is on the beam, when it is on the nose.  Also the log is not reading our speed, so the wind speed is suspect because it does not take into account the boat speed.  At first Richard thinks our course computer has gone wrong.  But that can’t be the case because the Track facility on the plotter is working correctly.  He cleans off the transducer and the boat speed it now reading correctly.  The wind is still 90 degrees out.  Then after about 20 minutes the wind instrument corrects itself.  What is all that about?

The upshot is that there is no wind and we are motoring again.  While I was below everyone else saw a swordfish jump.  Sorry to have missed that.

After about 2 hours we get to Fiskardo.  We are warned by all the books that in the season (which is just starting) it is terribly busy and impossible to get in.  In the circumstances I didn’t believe we could get on the quay, but hoped we could anchor on the north shore where you take a long line ashore.  We did this when we came here with our charter catamaran a few years ago and that was fine.  I was a little concerned that even anchoring is this manner was going to be difficult when as we came in there were dozens of boats, anchored in that spot including a number of flotillas.  So we were happily surprised to see a large catamaran leave the quay just as we were coming in and we were able to moor.  Maybe this is positive payback for the rubbish weather of the last two days!

Of course there are other problems.  As we come in to put down our anchor it is clear that there are anchors and chains all over the place.  We line up really well and the anchor goes down in what looks like a free spot, but I am sure that the chain has gone over some other chains.  Apparently this is not unusual here.  We shall see.

I really wanted to bring the Weymers here because it is such a delightful spot.  It is the only town on Cephalonia which survived the 1953 earthquake, so it is full of pretty Italianate house all painted in different colours.  It is buzzing with people, cafes, restaurants and up market shops.  We have a nice walk around and then have some lunch.  When we get back to the boat it is very hot.  So we decide to go for a swim.  We have seen a café on the edge of the bay which has a bathing station and ladder going into the sea.  So we go there and have a very refreshing swim in cool water (not the “bathwater” we have been in before).  We are also amused watching a six boat flotilla all raft up under anchor with long lines ashore.

When we get back to the boat yet another boat has squeezed into a space beside us.  They apologise and say that they have put their anchor over ours, but will be leaving early in the morning.  Getting away from here is going to be interesting.  As we are getting ready for the evening the port official finally turns up to charge us.  It is only 12 euros for the night including water, which we really needed.  There is no electricity, but that doesn’t really matter as we are quite self sufficient with our solar panels.

In the meantime we just enjoy the lovely town.  We have cocktails at a first floor bar which gives a lovely view of the old houses.  Then we have dinner in the restaurant right next to our boat (we both had Cephalonia Meat Pie).  It is now 11pm and the town is still buzzing.  But we are tired so we expect we will be able to sleep despite the noise.