Tue 28 May and Wed 29 May – Arriving on Zakynthos

So here’s some news for you – sailing and boozing don’t actually go well together. Or, at least sailing and being hungover don’t as I had to find out on Tuesday, as we’d had a few too many drinks on our friend’s boat the night before. The morning after wasn’t too bad, as we managed to have showers and get some breakfast before picking up the hook and making our way down south to Zakynthos.

We were met with a nasty swell and some wind right on our nose just as we left the bay, and the boat bouncing up and down over the oncoming waves didn’t help my headache at all. It was so bad that even Camilla considered pulling into an anchorage along the way, and for those of you who know her, you know that that means something! After a quick debate we decided to press on for another hour or so and see how we get on.

Fortune favours the brave as they say, and not too much later the wind turned and we had a nice sail downwind along the east coast of Ithaca and Cephalonia. I was relieved from my watch duties and got sent down below to sleep off some more of last nights booze. A few hours later we crossed the southern tip of Cephalonia and saw the 20 knots of wind right in front of us in the water. It was a bizarre sight: while the water around the boat was flat and we could feel hardly any wind, 50 meters in front of us we saw white horses and the clear indications of a lively westerly. This time we were prepared though! The sails went up and we diligently put in two reefs. This turned out to be a good decision as soon enough we were flying along in 25 knots with boat heeled right over. This is what it’s all about!

We made the 15 miles or so across in no time and were surprised to not see any other sailboats. It always seems that if there’s no wind and you have to motor there are a ton of sailboats everywhere. But with a bit of wind and a nice sail all of the sudden the boats disappear and you keep asking yourself, “Do they know something we don’t know?”. Anyway, turns out sailing fast close hauled is actually a good hang over remedy. We made it to the bay of Alikanas. According to Mr. Heikells bible this is just a beach with a few hotels so nothing too interesting but it would serve as a nice spot for the night.

We woke up on Wednesday morning still full of energy from the sail the day before. The water in this bay was so amazingly clear I could see the anchor sitting nicely tucked in at 8 meters depth. We used the opportunity to comply with the first International Hull Cleaning day and jumped into the freezing water to free Bini from her beard that she’s acquired by sitting in an anchorage for a few days. The water was bitterly cold and we managed to do about half of it before we had to give up. Nothing a cup of tea can’t fix though! 

The reason we came to Zakynthos was to see Shipwreck Beach on the west side of the island, which meant we had to go around the north. As this was quite a trip and there was no wind we decided to stick the engine on and get going. Half way up we came across Agios Nikolaos. It’s a little bay protected by a big rock in front of it and we briefly considered anchoring there for the night. However, as we circled the bay to figure out where to drop the hook we were greeted by a bunch of guys onshore whistling and shouting. Usually this means that they want to direct you onto a quay to be able to charge you. We didn’t really fancy that so we decided to keep going and continue our journey north. How wrong we were!

As we came around the north side of the island the oncoming wind and an active current slowed us down to something around 2 knots meaning it would have taken us hours to get around the island. There was nothing else to do than to admit defeat, turn around and spend the night in Agios Nikolaos.  We were greeted by the same whistling and waving but to my surprise the guy on shore directed us to a mooring buoy that turned out to be free. That guy was Dimitri, owner of a restaurant and said mooring.

We got chatting to him later as we went for dinner, and he was hands down one of the friendliest people we’ve ever met. We told him how we usually get turned off by people trying to “help” us moor up as it usually ends up being a rip-off. This was met with raised eyebrows from Dimitri. He then shared his outlook on the whole situation which was an absolute breath of fresh air. It went something like this:

“I’m under no illusion as to why I’m here, why I exist, and why I’m successful. It’s because of you. If people didn’t come and visit my island I’d be much worse off. I make money from people eating in my restaurant so it’s only fair that I give something in return. That’s a safe place to moor your boat together with free water and electricity. It’s win-win”.

Amazing!

We had a wonderful (and cheap!) meal in his restaurant overlooking the bay and got to sample some special local liquors which were delicious! Not quite ready to go to bed we walked up the hill and had a nightcap in a cocktail bar.