Fiskardo to Preveza, via Meganissi

We entered the quiet and beautiful port of Fiscardo early afternoon to find a sleepy, end of season town. We dropped anchor and settled comfortably near the famous Tassia restaurant, where Clinton and even Shimon Peres had dinner. It was a quit evening and we were happy with our central location. On the first bay (of two) on the entrance to Fiscardo we spotted a cave that needed exploring. We took the kayak and rowed over there. The innocent opening hid a net of tunnels that was interconnected and we dared not walk in more than 150 meters into this grave-darkness with our flashlight. Background information on that cave needs to be retrieved...
We had a great Friday night dinner with kiddush, freshly-Roy-baked Challa and all. We had coffee at the caffee opposite the boat and set to go to sleep when the eastern wind started to rise. we took a hike and by the time we were back, it was a real wind and we took the boat a couple of meters away from the quay.
All the ship owners and crews were now on board looking at the wind and neighboring boats. It was towards midnight that boats started to drift to the quay. Some just putting fenders between stern and quay, others shortening anchor or going out to drop it again. The wind was now 15 knots with gusts of 25 knots. boats were moving around and the slippery bottom of the bay made a few boats go out to reposition. Some were next to us, leaving us awake in the freezing wind till 3 am.... then, when got to bed, another boat came, with a Spanish crew that kept us awake for another half an hour...
On the next morning, still windy, we set sails through the canal between Ithaca and Cephalonia, towards the next island - Meganissi.
Meganissi is an island with lots of small bays. It also has beautiful cliffs spotted with caves. We sent a search team to the caves and meanwhile hoisted full sails for the search team to take photos of... We then went past the marina of Spartachori and then past that of Vathi, into a magical small bay, exactly the size of Princess Nayeli.
We dropped anchor and tied ourselves to the old olive tree on shore. There we spent a few moments relaxing on the chair a fisherman left. After a quiet night we spent the day in that bay, running, fishing, swimming, kayaking and relaxing.
Around noon we had some fresh baked pitta bread for breakfast and headed to our last stop - Preveza. On the way we crossed the canal of Lefkas - crossing the swamp area and eventually the bridge that opens every round hour, turning Levkas from a part of the land into an island.
We sailed through another canal into the sea of amvrakikos. We tied long side to the pier in Preveza, opposite cafe Restia, near the hose and started washing the boat, dinghy, kayak etc.
The next day was rainy and windy - a true winter day to finish the campari (second bottle) and get ready to leave.

Dan Goldstaub


As usual, the photo album of this post can be found at:

princess_nayeli_2010_10_zakinthos_to_preveza