On Wednesday the 24th, we're flying back to the boat. We'll get there on Thursday and hopefully be on the water on Thursday afternoon.
Eyal
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Back at home
The boat was lifted in Aktio Marine, Preveza and is now "parked" on dry dock, waiting for us to be back towards the end of September.
See some pictures from the boat yard. It's very intersting how she was taken off the water in the old fashioned slipway.
Eyal
See some pictures from the boat yard. It's very intersting how she was taken off the water in the old fashioned slipway.
Eyal
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| Princess Nayeli - Nidri to Preveza |
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Going home
This is it. After countless nights in bays where we could see the thousand stars, clear warm water around us, lots of swims, many fishing ports, and lots of good wind, this trip has come to its end. It's true that we'll be back here shortly, but it still feels like and end of something. We're flying back home after 2.5 months that I've been away from my home town.
And BTW Doron and Roded, the wind blows here every day 10-25kts staring at about 1-2pm, so here, waking up in the morning and running to the next destination is not the best way to sail here...
Tomorrow we're flying back to get ready for the new school year.
We're now in Lefkas marina getting ready to stow the boat for a month. We'll sail through the Lefkas bridge at 8:00am to get to the boat yard on time. From Preveza, we have a long way to Athens.
A few anecdotes from the past few days:
1. We finally caught a nice fish. It was with a hook in a quiet bay in Meganisi:
2. We spent a day in Fiskardho, Kefalonia and had dinner at the famous Tassia restaurant.
3. We windsurfed once more in Vasiliki.
4. Sailing back from Fiscardho we had 22kts in our back.
5. The private island of the Onassis family is strange. Tons of boats go around it, and even use it's wonderful beaches. Not much privacy they have on their private island...
6. Today, we spent the whole day cleaning, packing, folding sails (well just the jib...), etc. It was a nice busy day. Everyone took part, especially Naama.
And the pictures:
And BTW Doron and Roded, the wind blows here every day 10-25kts staring at about 1-2pm, so here, waking up in the morning and running to the next destination is not the best way to sail here...
Tomorrow we're flying back to get ready for the new school year.
We're now in Lefkas marina getting ready to stow the boat for a month. We'll sail through the Lefkas bridge at 8:00am to get to the boat yard on time. From Preveza, we have a long way to Athens.
A few anecdotes from the past few days:
1. We finally caught a nice fish. It was with a hook in a quiet bay in Meganisi:
2. We spent a day in Fiskardho, Kefalonia and had dinner at the famous Tassia restaurant.3. We windsurfed once more in Vasiliki.
4. Sailing back from Fiscardho we had 22kts in our back.
5. The private island of the Onassis family is strange. Tons of boats go around it, and even use it's wonderful beaches. Not much privacy they have on their private island...
6. Today, we spent the whole day cleaning, packing, folding sails (well just the jib...), etc. It was a nice busy day. Everyone took part, especially Naama.
And the pictures:
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| Princess Nayeli from Vasiliki to kefalonya |
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| Princess Nayeli from Meganisi to Nidri |
Saturday, August 23, 2008
From Sami to Vasiliki again
We started the last period of this trip by sailing to One House Bay on the Island of Atokos. The pilot book says that this is a “more popular bay” but we didn’t know how popular. Getting there we were amazed by the number of boats that could be squeezed into one bay. Naama suggested that we move on, but then we saw that boats are starting to leave so we found ourselves a nice spot, next to an Italian boat, with a line ashore.
This time of the summer, the Islands are full of Italian families. There was almost nothing but Italian boats (some private and some chartered), and maybe a few Greek boats.
Anyway, with all the crowd, One House Bay, is a lovely bay, with a beautiful beach made of tiny colored stones, crystal clear water, and a very nice scenery with the steep green land around us.
From One House Bay, we sailed to Kastos. We sailed in almost no wind to start with, so at some point while we were doing about 0 knots, two boats tied long side one to the other were coming at us. It looked as if one was towing the other and they paid no attention to anything around them. They were going straight at us! As they kept going, I decided to try and use the horn for the first time in my life – but it didn’t draw their attention. They were so busy playing their game... We had to start the engine and get out of their way. So we did, and tried turning left and then turning right… Whatever we did – they followed us. So I just sped up running away from them. I was thinking, maybe one of them had lost her steering or her engine. Surprisingly enough, once the wind started, with some ripples, and it became uncomfortable for them, they separated, and each boat went on her way. All looked well…
We arrived to Kastos. A deserted town, where only the old people remained and a couple from New Zealand who run the local mini market. No Ferries arrive here, only yachts, and a group of French youth who were rowing Kayaks around the Islands, with just a small dinghy accompanying them and carrying their bags.
The quay at Kastos was occupied by a small Greek yacht, and a lot of charter boats from a British flotilla. We were lucky (as already happened to us several times), to take the last berth next to the Greek boat. The flotilla guide was trying to squeeze another boat in, but the Greek guy, who was a real scamp, did not let them get any more boats in. He even tried to steal one of their fenders that Yasmin found in the water. He was really nasty, and we felt uncomfortable mooring next to him.
We then sailed to Port Leone, in Kalamos, where we met a very nice British family, with 4 daughters, a little older than ours. We had a nice afternoon with them. Noga and Yasmin were excited playing with the younger two.
From Port Leone we sailed back to Vasiliki. The perfect windsurfing site so I could rent a board again. This is just like the sea of Galilee, but a lot better. They have wind every afternoon from May to September (but mainly in June to August), flat water, 25-40 knots of wind, shallow sandy beach (well, the sand is just in the water), nice hotels and windsurfing clubs, and a very nice port just next to it. Just perfect!
This time of the summer, the Islands are full of Italian families. There was almost nothing but Italian boats (some private and some chartered), and maybe a few Greek boats.
Anyway, with all the crowd, One House Bay, is a lovely bay, with a beautiful beach made of tiny colored stones, crystal clear water, and a very nice scenery with the steep green land around us.
From One House Bay, we sailed to Kastos. We sailed in almost no wind to start with, so at some point while we were doing about 0 knots, two boats tied long side one to the other were coming at us. It looked as if one was towing the other and they paid no attention to anything around them. They were going straight at us! As they kept going, I decided to try and use the horn for the first time in my life – but it didn’t draw their attention. They were so busy playing their game... We had to start the engine and get out of their way. So we did, and tried turning left and then turning right… Whatever we did – they followed us. So I just sped up running away from them. I was thinking, maybe one of them had lost her steering or her engine. Surprisingly enough, once the wind started, with some ripples, and it became uncomfortable for them, they separated, and each boat went on her way. All looked well…
We arrived to Kastos. A deserted town, where only the old people remained and a couple from New Zealand who run the local mini market. No Ferries arrive here, only yachts, and a group of French youth who were rowing Kayaks around the Islands, with just a small dinghy accompanying them and carrying their bags.
The quay at Kastos was occupied by a small Greek yacht, and a lot of charter boats from a British flotilla. We were lucky (as already happened to us several times), to take the last berth next to the Greek boat. The flotilla guide was trying to squeeze another boat in, but the Greek guy, who was a real scamp, did not let them get any more boats in. He even tried to steal one of their fenders that Yasmin found in the water. He was really nasty, and we felt uncomfortable mooring next to him.
We then sailed to Port Leone, in Kalamos, where we met a very nice British family, with 4 daughters, a little older than ours. We had a nice afternoon with them. Noga and Yasmin were excited playing with the younger two.
From Port Leone we sailed back to Vasiliki. The perfect windsurfing site so I could rent a board again. This is just like the sea of Galilee, but a lot better. They have wind every afternoon from May to September (but mainly in June to August), flat water, 25-40 knots of wind, shallow sandy beach (well, the sand is just in the water), nice hotels and windsurfing clubs, and a very nice port just next to it. Just perfect!
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| Princess Nayeli in One House Bay to Kalamos |
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| Princess Nayeli - Vasiliki, Lefkada. The windsurfin |
From Sivota to Sami
Today, Tuesday, August 19, 2008 is the first day we’re on our own on the boat. Just my family. Noam and Tami left last night to Tel Aviv, and we have about a week’s worth of sailing left before our summer trip comes to an end.
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:
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 |
Saturday, August 16, 2008
In Eufimia Kefalonia
We found an amazing windsurfing site in Lefkada. It's called Vasiliko and it is rated in the top 10 winsurfing sites in the world!!!
I was able to rent a board with 4.5m sail and had a great time.
Naama and Noam took windsurfing lessons the following day.
It's very much like the sea of Galile except that all is much better: Access is great, you have sand under your feet and not rocks with broken glass, wind is more stable and steady day after day. It's calm in the morning so the can do the lessons in perfect conditions and then in the afternoon a strong wind starts with no waves at all (it's a protected bay). Scenery is beautiful.
Tami, Noam's mother joined us today for the weekend and we'll be sailing together around Itaka.
Pictures to follow.
Eyal
I was able to rent a board with 4.5m sail and had a great time.
Naama and Noam took windsurfing lessons the following day.
It's very much like the sea of Galile except that all is much better: Access is great, you have sand under your feet and not rocks with broken glass, wind is more stable and steady day after day. It's calm in the morning so the can do the lessons in perfect conditions and then in the afternoon a strong wind starts with no waves at all (it's a protected bay). Scenery is beautiful.
Tami, Noam's mother joined us today for the weekend and we'll be sailing together around Itaka.
Pictures to follow.
Eyal
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
With the family again (Ioannina to Lefkada)
The morning started early. I got ready to take the ferry to Igoumenitsa where a minivan was waiting for me. I had the whole morning to drive to Ioannina to pick up the family. I took the 7:30 ferry and had a pleasant 1 ½ hour ride to Igoumenitsa.
The road to Igoumenitsa is beautiful. You climb the high mountains of the mainland with a road that’s still half motorway and half just an old tortuous road.
I was lucky to get early to Ioannina because later in the day it became unbearably hot. I did some sight seeing in the old town that was once divided to three: Turks, Jews and Greeks.
You can see some pictures of Ioannina at:
I haven’t met the family for about 10 days but it looked more like a month that we haven’t met. The airport in Ioannina is so tiny that I could wait at the luggage belts with some journalists who were waiting for some soccer player that came on the same flight.
I could see them going down the airplane’s stairs and walking into the terminal. It was a very exciting moment for me.
We tried to see the synagogue in the old town but Mr. Samuel Cohen, a very old man who maintains the synagogue, said it’s too hot and that he can only get out of the house at 8pm. We decided to turn around and go quickly to the port and catch the 6:30 ferry to Corfu. We got there at 6:23. Those ferries leave on time!!! We waived to the guy at Europecar that we leave him the car with the keys in the port, dropped all the girls with the luggage so they can load it all to the ferry, I drove quickly to buy tickets about 500m from the ferry and got back just on time before they closed the door.
The following day, after a relaxed morning at the pool in Gouvia, we met the Segal family on the boat. Segal couldn’t go on the boat for more than a minute, so he left us there to sail up to Kassiopi where he would meet us. His wife and kids joined us for the sail.
Kassipoi is less than 10 miles North of Gouvia so we just motored up the Corfu channel (in a 17kts wind) and fortunately the wind doesn’t get into Kassiopi so we could moor safely. Here was the first time we used the stern anchor, because the water at the quay is too shallow. Our fortless anchor with the weighted rope is so light and so easily managed that the whole maneuver took a couple of minutes.
Kassiopi was a pleasant surprise.
We went up to see Segal’s house at the village, 400m above Kassiopi. They have an outstanding view of the Corfu channel, the Albanian mountains, and all the boats crossing between Corfu and Albania. They say that at night they can see the ferries lighting the sea and can hear their engine humming through the silence.
Pictures from the sail to Kassiopi:
The next day we sailed back to good old Moutros. The same bay where we already spent a couple of nights. I would call it “Fish Bay” because we caught a lot of fish here several days earlier). For some reason, you can still find your own bay in this lovely spot (unlike what we had in Lefkas and Meganisi).
The sail down to Moutros was wonderful. We sailed the 30 something miles with the Spinnaker.
After a peaceful night at Moutros, we sailed relatively early to Gaia in Paxoi. It’s a very crowded place so we just motored down with no wind till closer in a good wind started on our nose so we had nice tacking against the wind till Paxoi.
Paxoi is really crowded. As Yael said: Now I know where all the boats are. Even the sea plane has a station here and he kept coming and going all the time.
We were able to anchor in the busy channel that leads to the city with two anchors and two lines ashore. We were properly secured this way.
Sunset at Moutros “Fish Bay” and pictures from Gaia on Paxoi:
From Paxoi, we sailed down to Preveza and the huge half salt lake behind it. With 15+ knots on our back, we had a great sail down. It was a little too choppy for the girls. Noga and Yasmin were a little sea sick for the first time. It took them a couple of hours of bad feeling till they were able to vomit after which they felt as good as new and started playing again. The entrance through the narrow channel with this wind and waves on your back was a little challenging and mainly scary when you go there for the first time. We furled and stowed both sails fearing from the unknown. Eventually – it was nothing. Once you’ve done it, you know it’s a piece of cake.
We passed Preveza and the three huge boatyards at the entrance (looks like a good place to winter out) and went into the large bay. We headed south to Vonitsa. It is a small sleepy village with a nice harbour and nice people. The boats around us were mostly old private boats that were sailing around for years. On our morning walk we saw a big sea turtle swimming around the harbour. It was a good place to relax before we got into the rushing resort bays of Lefkada.
Pictures from Vonitsa:
We sailed out of Vonitsa and Preveza towards Lefkas Bridge. The bridge opens on the hour for passing boats. We planned to be there at 2pm. Thanks to some good wind, we got there 15 minutes prior, and had all the time we needed to drop the sails and get ready to pass. We were early enough before the afternoon wind started to get to the passage with no worries. It’s an interesting, beautiful passage. It is a floating bridge that opens up horizontally by motoring (with something that looks like a bow thruster) and mooring alongside the east bank of the channel. It’s really amazing. The whole procedure takes 10 minutes so at 2:10 cars were already passing on the bridge.
Motoring down the channel is quiet tiring because you have to keep a close watch on other boats and make sure you don’t land on the shallow water around the channel. We passed it eventually and just motored all the way to one of the bays at Meganisi. We tried one, but it was so crowded with boats, and no beaches, so we decided to go to another one. The other one was more reasonable and had a nice beach at the mouth of the bay. We anchored next to two other boats and had a nice time swimming in the bay and spending time on the beach with the girls.
From Meganisi we continued south to Sivota. We were lucky to get in early. There are now about 100 boats moored and anchored in this small bay. It is a natural bay around which they built some houses, and a lot of restaurants. We have a nice bar (that used to be an oil-press house) just across the street from out stern that will probably keep playing loud music till the morning. I’ll send pictures from Sivota later on.
Some pictures from Lefkas:
Regards from Eyal and everyone on board of Princess Nayeli
The road to Igoumenitsa is beautiful. You climb the high mountains of the mainland with a road that’s still half motorway and half just an old tortuous road.
I was lucky to get early to Ioannina because later in the day it became unbearably hot. I did some sight seeing in the old town that was once divided to three: Turks, Jews and Greeks.
You can see some pictures of Ioannina at:
 |
| Princess Nayeli - Ioannina |
I haven’t met the family for about 10 days but it looked more like a month that we haven’t met. The airport in Ioannina is so tiny that I could wait at the luggage belts with some journalists who were waiting for some soccer player that came on the same flight.
I could see them going down the airplane’s stairs and walking into the terminal. It was a very exciting moment for me.
We tried to see the synagogue in the old town but Mr. Samuel Cohen, a very old man who maintains the synagogue, said it’s too hot and that he can only get out of the house at 8pm. We decided to turn around and go quickly to the port and catch the 6:30 ferry to Corfu. We got there at 6:23. Those ferries leave on time!!! We waived to the guy at Europecar that we leave him the car with the keys in the port, dropped all the girls with the luggage so they can load it all to the ferry, I drove quickly to buy tickets about 500m from the ferry and got back just on time before they closed the door.
The following day, after a relaxed morning at the pool in Gouvia, we met the Segal family on the boat. Segal couldn’t go on the boat for more than a minute, so he left us there to sail up to Kassiopi where he would meet us. His wife and kids joined us for the sail.
Kassipoi is less than 10 miles North of Gouvia so we just motored up the Corfu channel (in a 17kts wind) and fortunately the wind doesn’t get into Kassiopi so we could moor safely. Here was the first time we used the stern anchor, because the water at the quay is too shallow. Our fortless anchor with the weighted rope is so light and so easily managed that the whole maneuver took a couple of minutes.
Kassiopi was a pleasant surprise.
We went up to see Segal’s house at the village, 400m above Kassiopi. They have an outstanding view of the Corfu channel, the Albanian mountains, and all the boats crossing between Corfu and Albania. They say that at night they can see the ferries lighting the sea and can hear their engine humming through the silence.
Pictures from the sail to Kassiopi:
 |
| Princess Nayeli - sailing to Kassiopi |
The next day we sailed back to good old Moutros. The same bay where we already spent a couple of nights. I would call it “Fish Bay” because we caught a lot of fish here several days earlier). For some reason, you can still find your own bay in this lovely spot (unlike what we had in Lefkas and Meganisi).
The sail down to Moutros was wonderful. We sailed the 30 something miles with the Spinnaker.
After a peaceful night at Moutros, we sailed relatively early to Gaia in Paxoi. It’s a very crowded place so we just motored down with no wind till closer in a good wind started on our nose so we had nice tacking against the wind till Paxoi.
Paxoi is really crowded. As Yael said: Now I know where all the boats are. Even the sea plane has a station here and he kept coming and going all the time.
We were able to anchor in the busy channel that leads to the city with two anchors and two lines ashore. We were properly secured this way.
Sunset at Moutros “Fish Bay” and pictures from Gaia on Paxoi:
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| Princess Nayeli - Moutros to Paxoi |
From Paxoi, we sailed down to Preveza and the huge half salt lake behind it. With 15+ knots on our back, we had a great sail down. It was a little too choppy for the girls. Noga and Yasmin were a little sea sick for the first time. It took them a couple of hours of bad feeling till they were able to vomit after which they felt as good as new and started playing again. The entrance through the narrow channel with this wind and waves on your back was a little challenging and mainly scary when you go there for the first time. We furled and stowed both sails fearing from the unknown. Eventually – it was nothing. Once you’ve done it, you know it’s a piece of cake.
We passed Preveza and the three huge boatyards at the entrance (looks like a good place to winter out) and went into the large bay. We headed south to Vonitsa. It is a small sleepy village with a nice harbour and nice people. The boats around us were mostly old private boats that were sailing around for years. On our morning walk we saw a big sea turtle swimming around the harbour. It was a good place to relax before we got into the rushing resort bays of Lefkada.
Pictures from Vonitsa:
 |
| Princess Nayeli - Vonitsa |
We sailed out of Vonitsa and Preveza towards Lefkas Bridge. The bridge opens on the hour for passing boats. We planned to be there at 2pm. Thanks to some good wind, we got there 15 minutes prior, and had all the time we needed to drop the sails and get ready to pass. We were early enough before the afternoon wind started to get to the passage with no worries. It’s an interesting, beautiful passage. It is a floating bridge that opens up horizontally by motoring (with something that looks like a bow thruster) and mooring alongside the east bank of the channel. It’s really amazing. The whole procedure takes 10 minutes so at 2:10 cars were already passing on the bridge.
Motoring down the channel is quiet tiring because you have to keep a close watch on other boats and make sure you don’t land on the shallow water around the channel. We passed it eventually and just motored all the way to one of the bays at Meganisi. We tried one, but it was so crowded with boats, and no beaches, so we decided to go to another one. The other one was more reasonable and had a nice beach at the mouth of the bay. We anchored next to two other boats and had a nice time swimming in the bay and spending time on the beach with the girls.
From Meganisi we continued south to Sivota. We were lucky to get in early. There are now about 100 boats moored and anchored in this small bay. It is a natural bay around which they built some houses, and a lot of restaurants. We have a nice bar (that used to be an oil-press house) just across the street from out stern that will probably keep playing loud music till the morning. I’ll send pictures from Sivota later on.
Some pictures from Lefkas:
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| Princess Nayeli - Lefkada |
Regards from Eyal and everyone on board of Princess Nayeli
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