We got to Sami by sailing from Sivota to Vasaliko, the windsurfing spot, and then to the magical bay near Fiskeradho, next to Eufimia to meet Tami, Noam’s mom, then to the picturesque Kioni and finally to Sami.
In Sivota we met an interesting Jewish Australian family with two children and a nanny who bought a new Beneteau 57 to be able to sail the Mediterranean for a few months. They intend to leave the boat in Turkey for the winter.
As I already mentioned, Vasiliko is the perfect windsurfing site. We’ll probably go there next summer again.
We then sailed down from Vasiliko to Kefalonia, planning to find a nice bay for the night. We sailed down in a strong side wind that died on us only when we got close Fiskeradho at the sunset. We found a bay with only one yacht anchored in, a nice little cave, and a lot of small dinghies wondering around the cave.
Naama and Noam took our Dinghy to the cave, and returned a little later asking for a flash light and shoes. They said that you can land in the cave and then it gets dark. Yael wouldn’t let them go on their own so I joined them to this mysterious trip.
From within the cave starts a network of tunnels (see the pictures), that goes deep into the Island. We walked one after the other, holding hands. Only the first could see his way with the flashlight. The two others were walking in complete darkness. We took one of the tunnels and kept walking in. The tunnel never ended and at some point we decided to back off, not to get lost deep under the ground. We couldn’t find anything in any of the tour books about those tunnels. The only thing is a small sign painted on the wall that says “Danger”.
Except for the cave, this bay has beautiful scenery, with crystal clear water.
Next stop was Eufimia, to pick up Tami. It’s the first time we had electricity since we left Gouvia marina in Corfu and maybe the 2nd time we had water (after Sivota). It’s also the first port that has free wireless Internet.
Tami had a terrible time getting from Tel Aviv to Kefalonia and we finally met her at 12:30am on Friday night. After waking up at 4am, spending the day in Athens, waiting for hours at the airport for a delayed Olympic flight, she was Exhausted.
We only had a couple of days sailing with Tami. On the first, we sailed to Kioni on the island of Ithaca which is believed to be the homeland of Odysseus. In Greek mythology, arriving to Ithaca is symbol for ending of a very long journey.
On the way we sailed along two 50+ feet boats and they beat us as we were going only 8.5 knots. I guess this is because we were dragging a dinghy and a fishing line…
Kinoi. It’s a tiny village, set around a lovely bay with some restaurants and a café. We were able to find a berth and anchor. While moored there, a couple of tripper boats, spilled out hundreds or maybe thousands of tourists that were squeezed like sardines on the boats. By the time they all disembarked, they already had to board again. It was hilarious.
That night, I could watch the lunar eclipse through the binoculars (see some pictures).
The next morning, after checking the forecast, we realized we need to find a good shelter for the night, because a 7bft wind was expected. We decided to sail to Sami.
Crossing the Itaka channel, we experienced a unique phenomena: We were sailing west in a south wind, so we had the wind on our left but a little ahead we could see the white caps going from north to south and boats heeling on the opposite direction. We prepared for a drastic wind shift. A few minutes later it happened: It started with no wind, and then quickly climbed up to 25 knots. This made the entrance to Sami interesting…
The plan now is to start sailing up to Lefkas marina through Atokos, Kastos and Kalamos.
And pictures:
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| Princess Nayeli - Sivota to Itaka |
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| Princess Nayeli - Itaka to Sami |
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