Alex and Tom

With Alex and Tom, we already spent a week on the SKS practical course a year ago. Now we’re spending another week together, this time without a sailing instructor, but the four of us will manage it somehow.

After we managed to get the boat put right, nothing stands in the way of the adventure anymore. The founder and father of the charter base’s boss says, Why do you need a reef, there’s no wind anyway. He should be right. Even so, you just don’t say that, because on such a big sail on a catamaran a reef is definitely a safety issue. Wind or no wind.

We sail south from Lefkas through the channel and spend the first night in Vathi on the island of Meganisi. In Greece, you usually moor römisch-katholisch, and nobody has been able to explain to us why it is called that. You drop the anchor and then reverse up to the pier, where you tie up with two lines. It’s not that easy, but with four people it’s a lot more relaxed than just two.

For some reason, though, our anchor does not hold properly, and when the wind picks up, as it seems to every evening here, the swell pushes us against the pier. I think pragmatically: Don’t be gentle, it’s a rental, and squeeze in a second fender as well. No desire to do the maneuver again, and if there are scratches: not my problem. It works out pretty well in the end.

The next morning the sea is like glass and there isn’t a breath of wind anywhere. We motor for just under 4 hours to Kioni on Ithaca, the supposed home of Odysseus.

Kioni is one of the highlights, and thanks to Sofia we can reserve a spot, a privilege that apparently here is reserved only for professional skippers. Römisch-katholisch again, Alexandra gets mixed up with the throttle levers, and we have to help a bit so there isn’t a scratch on the neighboring boat. Overall, though, Alex is slowly getting the hang of it and is doing it calmly and carefully. She even says she’s enjoying it, which I really welcome, because maneuvering really is no fun for me: I simply find it stressful.

The fishing village of Kioni is really cute and, thanks to the limited space, not crowded either. In fact, the season now seems to be slowly coming to an end.

The reason why römisch-katholisch is actually a dumb idea and hardly anyone else in the world does it that way is this: if everyone doesn’t drop their anchor exactly in front of themselves, you get anchor spaghetti. The anchor chains then cross on the bottom, and when you want to leave in the morning, you haul up your neighbor’s anchor as well. That’s exactly what happens to us in the morning. Our elderly anchor windlass is not able to haul up both anchors. Luckily, there are three strong men on board, and after a bit of fiddling we can haul up the anchors by hand and free ourselves. Sofia claims something like this might happen once a year, but we’re better than that and managed it on the second try already.

We keep motoring south into Pera Pighadi bay, where we plan to lie overnight with a long line. With a long line, the anchor is dropped and the stern is secured ashore with two long lines, very similar to römisch-katholisch. Since there are often lots of rocks on shore, you have to find two suitable spots and lash the lines around a rock. We are very proud of ourselves and our little contraption. Toward evening, as always, the wind comes up with swell, and all I hear is a loud noise and I see one line floating in the water: it has slipped off the rock at the first puff of wind. So, back into the water and another try at tying off the line.

Not only because of that line, which still shows up in my dreams, do I sleep badly: at nightfall, in the bay we chose because it’s supposed to be so quiet and peaceful, we get neighbors in a big 46-foot catamaran. At least the skipper clearly has a lot of experience and does the anchoring maneuver very calmly even though it’s already dark. His helpers then, with the outboard and due to the lack of daylight, manage to secure only a long line to a rock in the dark, because you can barely see anything anymore. Apparently the clientele is a bunch of young Russians who are already properly drunk. But they hadn’t even really started yet, and now they’re going full tilt, no idea why they have to be 5 meters from us, there was more than enough room. No idea either why anyone comes here to get plastered and shout into the void half the night. That kind of clientele is probably also one reason why many charter companies are at their wits’ end toward the end of the season.

We go back to Vathi again. But this Vathi is on the island of Ithaca and is the main town. Here we can lie at the town pier for free. Alexandra is getting better and better at the maneuvers. The line-handling crew still has room for improvement.

The next day we head across to the fuel dock and top up. Charly gets a treat from the attendant. That was the nicest fuel station we’ve visited so far, and the attendant also claimed it was the only fuel station in Greece that is outside a harbor. You definitely do not want to have to head into a harbor with all the charter crews on Friday evening just to refuel.

Today the time has come: our sailboat sails! For the second time in two weeks, we hoist the sails. The guys are thrilled and grinning from ear to ear. With 10 knots of wind we make a good 6 knots, not bad for a big boat.

Overnight we anchor in Vlico bay, an unreal place. Boats of every age and price range are piled up here. During the night a thunderstorm finally rolls in, and water is getting in just about everywhere. Luckily Alexandra was prepared and had already sealed her hatch with a garbage bag. Poor boat.

In the morning we head back to the charter pier before the forecast rain reaches us. It was a very nice week. For the first time, something like holiday feelings started to show up, and we felt more and more confident. That is certainly also thanks to the active support from Alex and Tom, many thanks, guys. Next year then on our own boat!

In the next blog post I’ll tell you why I got to meet the Greek police.

*This blog post has been automatically translated by a Large Language Model.