Day 5 - Sail to Fiskardo on Ketalonia A morning stroll through town before we set out.
Today's destination is the village of Fiskardo on Ketalonia. We will stop at a cool cave along the way, and maybe another spot. In the morning the wind is calm and we are mostly motoring.
The cave is cool. It is too deep to anchor at the entrance (over 30 meters) so we drop anchor off to the side and swim in. It is scenic inside, I shold have taken the phone with me for pix since I do have a waterproof case with lanyard. It is what it is, I enoyed the experience and you'll just have to take my word for it. Or visit it yourself.
Soon the wind picks up, we raise the sails and are sailing! We are learning to work together as a crew. I need some refreshers, as does Randy, but we manage. Occasionally getting over 8kts of speed. Hull speed on this boat is about 9.5kts so we're not too far off. This is fun!
Next stop is at a beach that was recommended as a good swimming spot. There are a couple tourist ships but they leaving. However the winds are strong, the anchoring situation is uncertain, and we've already gone swimming an hour ago. So we choose discretion over valor and move on.
The beaches in Greece may look sandy from afar, and are often described as 'sand', but in fact just like Croatia they consist of pebbles that are roughly egg sized. Quite painful on bare feet and the one time I ventured ashore on a beach later I was very glad to have brought the water shoes I bougth on the Croatia trip. So if you're on a boat, just swim from the boat. Beach is more to look at than walk or lay on.
On our arrival the marina is full, but our local guide Spiros knows everyone on the islands (this proves to be the case over and over) and arranges for our flotilla to be rafted together. First boat is anchored and tied to the dock, the rest are tied to the first and each other (some also dropping anchor before backing in to stabilize the whole thing). Good practice doing that.
All that taken care of, it's wine time.
A big yacht pulls in and anchors in the harbor. I used to be impressed by these but these days I just see them as hugely wasteful and not the kind of experience I would want. I can honestly say that I wouldn't own one even if someone gifted one to me for free, maintenance and fuel included. But some of the engineering is cool.
Fiskardo is another quaint village/town. With its own unique feel and charm, but also similar to the others. Which is to be expected.
In the evening we hang out on the lead catamaran, drink a bunch (I'm offered some cheap EU2/bottle vodka and accept), then there was wine of various kinds too. I don't remember getting back to Bellatrix but woke up at 5AM with all limbs still attahed and no new bruises. A good day.
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