We are mooring at a tavern
38° 39′ 44.1504” N 20° 45′ 33.066” E
28th of June
Three times in just a few weeks we visit Port Spiglia, located in an enchanting bay on the north side of the island of Meganisi. We have got the place recommended by Bob and Ann, an English couple, whom we met in Prevéza on the mainland. They sail every spring and autumn, and when they tell us, they have sailed in the Ionian Sea for 16 years, the first many years in a rented boat, and the latest in their own boat, Coconut, we ask if they have some recommendations for a couple of Danes newly arrived in the Ionian Sea.
If they have!
Skippers wife with the sole ruler of harbour as well as restaurant at Port Spiglio, Babis himself
Ann sets out and writes a nothing less than a short story about all the good places – six handwritten pages with anchorages, ports, beaches, eateries, phone numbers. We are now the happy owners of a personal guide to the Western Greece.
We start with Porto Spiglia on the island of Meganissi. “Call Babis,” says Ann’s list of ionic top experiences. Babis is the owner of a tavern, which is so close to the bay, that the water almost licks our feet when we eat. He owns and manages the excellent tavern, but at the same time he acts as harbor master for 50-60 berths along the quay and floating bridges.
We call Babis and say hello from Bob and Ann – and we get a berth in what is unofficially called “the British sector”. Mooring is free and so is electricity and water. But we are expected to eat in the tavern. Fair deal. Super concept.
Life is simple, when you are in Babis’ universe. You exchange experiences with your neighbors, most of them British but also some Norwegians, Swedes and Dutchmen. You take a walk to the high-lying village of Spartakori overlooking the part of the Ionian Sea, go to the beach at the tavern or you walk to the somewhat larger beach in the bottom of the bay, and in the evening you eat at Babis’ tavern, often with some sailors you have met before.
If the bay becomes too tight, you rent a motorcycle or a car and explore the small island and its many beaches. Rarely on our entire boat trip have we come that far down in gear as in the universe of Babis.
That’s why we come back, when we a little later in June, have got our granddaughter, Nellie, six years old, onboard Ronja.
Beach, swimming, eating, reading in Harry Potter. It will not be much better.
And come back again, when Nellie’s father arrives in July to participate in the sailing.
We also call a few times in Vahti, the main city on the island of Meganisi. Here we call – again according to directions and phone numbers from Ann’s handwritten guide – Karnayio Tavern, and again we experience the special Greek phenomenon, that a tavern operates the quay and let you have a free berth, if eating at the tavern, which is no problem when the food is both good and cheap. That is what we sailors call a wind-wind situation.
Bonus info: There are many grasshoppers at Meganisi, and in Karnayio Tavern at Vahti they like to board your boat. We thought they were innocent, until we asked the tavern owner, whether they had mice, because we could see that someone had been in some of our food and had left excrements in the boat. No, she said. It is grasshoppers. They eat everything, food, clothes, mattresses. Do not ever have sympathy for them. They do a lot of damage. The next time Nellie and Per jump ashore, they scare a grasshopper beyond the railing and discover to their great astonishment that it is actually a good swimmer, but they also observes that after 15 swimming strokes it is – haps – eaten by a fish. Nellie is quite absorbed by the incident, but understands that this is part of the food chain of nature. Maybe we are going to have fish for dinner tonight?
In the deepest calm of the forest
39° 12′ 36.306” N 20° 29′ 31.5024” E
June 8, 2018
Do not tell anyone: Eight nautical miles south of Parga is a bay so beautiful and undisturbed, that we have hardly experienced anything more peaceful and enchantingly beautiful throughout our hole journey with Ronja. Two Rock Bay is the name of the bay.
When we arrive, there is only one boat in the whole bay, an Englishman, who shouts at us that if we want to stay overnight in the bay, we must be prepared for swells, that will make the night uneasy. It is not going to be a problem for us. We drop our anchor furthest into the bay with only 0.9 meters of water below the keel encircled by almost vertical wooded rock walls.
The whole compass around we see no buildings, no sunbeds, no noisy speedboats. Only rock walls, dense forests and small pieces of beach. As the day turns into evening, more and more yachts pop up to sleep in the bay and a young couple raises a small dome tent on the beach and turns a fire on. But even with this increased population, the bay maintains its majestic silence.
Greek salad for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Skipper realises, that he has left Italy and arrived in Greece
One day in a water park
39° 16′ 59.6532” N 20° 23′ 24.7812” E
5th of June
After an enchanting day with the sails up we anchor in the bay of Valtou near Parga town in mainland Greece, 15 miles west of Paxos. The wind decided, that it would become Parga.
Parga/Valtou is a 110 percent holiday destination. If you want to sunbathe on a sun lounger, swim in the azure green sea, practice water skiing, paragliding, surfing, paddling on a board or being speedboat-pulled in a plastic ring with staggering speed, Valtou is just the right place for you.
Holiday mood is great. We enjoy the stay in the bay. But after a walk to Parga city, we think that this is too much. What a difference there is between islands without an airport, and the mainland where travel agencies create an industrial air bridge of tourism because the distance to an airport is short. It gives a massive tivoli atmosphere, and you are constantly called upon by dozens of offensive tavern owners, who all want you into his or her tavern. Too much.
if we are ever again in this part of Greece with our grandchildren, we will remember Parga as an eldorado of play possibilities at beach level.
But we ourselves decide to leave Parga and seek new adventures.
Ronja’s crew surrender – and go backwards into the berth
39° 12′ 6.9444” N 20° 11′ 11.0868” E
June 3rd, 2018
Paxos is a fantastic island. It’s small, it’s kind, it’s lush, and it has only one and a half harbour, so it provokes us to anchor a lot in the most beautiful bays. Here we do not count Longos as a real harbour, because it is said to be reserved for tripper-boats, Lákka count as the half port, and the whole port is Gaios. The port of the island’s capital village, Gaios, has the shape of a river that winds within an island, where you can choose whether you want to lie among fishing boats in the outskirts of the village or you want to go into the village center and mingle with the big yachts.
While everything is still calm. Minutes later the wind goes up, the kedge anchor drags … and we are hurrying out of the harbor
We start mingling with the big yachts, and we use our kedge anchor from the stern, as we have done several times in the Swedish archipelago. Out with the anchor behind the boat, then slowly forwards towards the quay with the frontend first, and then a pair of lines to the quay. That’s the way to do it! “Ho, ho,” we giggle. One more time we have shown the South Europeans, that they are wrong in their unbelievable love for always backing their boats into the berth with an anchor from the forehead and then a couple of lines from the boat’s back end to land.
One more time we have shown, that we put our hat and boat as we please. “The Scandinavian model”.
But Paxos shall be the place, where we lose our faith in the superiority of “the Scandinavian model”. In the afternoon the wind is raising, the shape of the harbor as a river with land on both sides creates a wind tunnel that pushes us from the side, we can see that the kedge anchor is losing its grip to the bottom, and suddenly we are heading towards a neighboring boat. We start the engine, pull up the anchor, accurately avoid the neighbor’s anchor chain and moves Ronja outside the harbor, where we throw the bower anchor (front) in a quiet and beautiful anchor bay.
The next morning we try again. We sail into the port of Gaios, find us a new berth, this time throws the bow anchor instead of the stern anchor and goes BACKWARDS into the berth. Like the Greeks. The southern European model.
We have learned the lesson: When in Greece do as the Greeks, and sail backwards into your berth
Now we have been sailing for two years in southern France and throughout Italy, and apart from twice, we have succeeded in insisting, that we belong to those who go to a berth with the front end first. Now, however, we have come to a country that does not use fixed mooring lines attached to the port bottom, and where you therefore have to use your own anchor, and here we must acknowledge that our stern anchor is smaller, have a shorter chain and therefore is not as strong as our bow anchor.
We have learned the lesson. When in Greece, do like Greeks: Sail backwards!!
