Lots of photos in this post and a poem!
On our final day on Lefkas with Julie and Matthew we set off to find the beach, and very lovely it was. A pleasant walk before the airport run.
As one set of visitors departed, Tom arrived from Manchester straight from his sick bed, having had a dose of flu earlier in the week. We scooped him up from the airport and by Monday morning 21st May, he was rallying and in great spirit looking forward to some warm fresh air sailing.
Re-provisioned and refuelled we left Lefkas marina in brilliant hot sunshine and sailed down the inland sea to the south of Lefkas where a berth on Stavros’ pontoon in Sivota Bay awaited. Stavros has extended his pontoon and is now able to accommodate quite a few more boats. Always a warm welcome there and an enjoyable overnight stay.
Ithaca had evaded us last year but the time had arrived to bust the myth surrounding the towering black and foreboding island! Matthew had left us with this wonderful poem by C Cavafy, so our trepidation seemed to have some foundation!
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas means.
Not everyone agrees but Homer claimed that Ithaca was the home of Odysseus and the locals make quite a play on this. Acutally when we got closer the black mountains showed their green faces and it all seemed much more friendly. The peaks here, and on Kefalonia rise to well over 1500m.
We stayed overnight on the sheltered north quay in Vathi Bay, visiting Dimitris Taverna for the occasional and supper. Mo entertained herself with the camera taking lots of great colourful fishing boats,
We ventured out the next day into the adjacent Bay where we anchored to swim and read, a real lazy relaxing day. It was very hot and frequent swims were essential.
However on our return to the anchorage in Vathi Bay we encountered the full blast of the afternoon breeze which blew with some force until well after midnight preventing us going ashore as we did not fancy getting soaked in the dinghy! Before we left Vathi the next morning was calm and we did go ashore for bread to discover a very pretty and well stocked town with plenty of restaurants and boards to amuse us.
In light winds we sailed south to round the bottom of Ithaca, heading west to Efimia on Kefalonia. As we crossed the narrow channel between these two islands we met a Force 7 bursting down from the north which went cyclonic as we approached the coast of Kefalonia. A fast burst of sailing peaking at 8.5knots with a beam wind to start with but as it got cyclonic, it was sails away and a motor into the harbour. We moored up in the teeth of the strong afternoon wind with the very able help of the obliging harbour master. We had 60m of chain to hold us off the quay and were quite glad of it as all afternoon as we rode out the relentless gusty wind screaming over the hills. This area is famous for these wind effects.
Sadly it was time for Tom to head back to the classroom with half term coming to a close. He took a taxi to the airport and we have just heard a report from him that the other side of the island is flat and very uninteresting compared to the mountainous side we are on. We set off tomorrow for the mainland coast and into the Gulf of Corinth for the next phase of our adventure.
Deja Vu 
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