Wednesday 5 July 2017 – Ormos Balos, Meganisi

I woke up early even though we were not planning on an early start.  The boat next to us who said they were over our anchor left closer to 8am than 7, but seemed to have no problem leaving and did not affect our anchor.

I went ashore early and bought some breakfast from the bakery and then went in to the supermarket to see if I could find more chicken to go with what I had left over from the other night’s curry.  I had success and got back to the boat to find the Finnish couple wanting to leave and worrying that we might be over their anchor.  I did tell them that we had definitely gone over something, but I didn’t know if it was theirs.  So they decided to delay their start until we left.  That made us hurry up with breakfast and a quick refill of the water tank.  While we were doing this two very large beamy boats started to try to come in where the German boat that just left was.  We all shouted at them that there was insufficient room for their sized boat.  The British Beneteau the other side was particularly adamant as the German boat scratched his hull getting in and out.

As we prepared to go the other boats were still motoring round and round waiting for our space.  So at about 9:30 we slipped the mooring and started to take up the anchor.  All went well until the very last minute when I could see the anchor snagged on two lines of rope.  When I took the anchor up further for Keith to get the hook around the rope we found a rusty old plough anchor at the end of it.  It clearly did not belong to any of the moored boats.  So that must have been what I saw when I put the anchor down.  Anyway, Keith did a great job with the hook getting the rope and anchor off and it took only minutes for us to get free and leave the harbour.

Richard was of the opinion that the weather forecast showed that we could sail, so we immediately put up the main.  We had a force 4 on the beam most of the first hour and a half and did manage to sail.  We were planning on going to Vathy on Meganisi, which is another main town with a town pier, taverna pier and a marina.  However at the last minute Keith said he would prefer to go somewhere more wild.  So Richard found us an anchorage.  It is very pretty in a cove with tree covered hills and a number of very sophisticated and posh looking villas, many with mooring platforms.  At first we were the only boat here, but that didn’t last for long.  First another yacht came in and anchored.  Then a number of hired day boats came and stayed for an hour or two.  One had 8 people on it!

As evening came we settled to having four boats anchored in the bay.  The only problem is that after an afternoon of no wind at all, at about 5pm the wind got up to a force 4, which wouldn’t be bad except the direction is directly into the bay.  However, it is not uncomfortable and we managed to have a BBQ and eat in the cockpit.  We are now all very tired after a day of sitting in the sun and swimming. 

We will have to go to a marina tomorrow.  I had a glance at the fuel gauge and found that we have less than a quarter of a tank.   Also while cooking some rice to go with our chicken kebabs, I found that the gas is about to run out.  We have a spare but we need to replace it.  So it will probably be Lefkas marina tomorrow.