Gaia

Early start this morning, had to be back at 8:30 and off the boat by 9. It was a bumpy evening as the wind was coming into the bay and while we were worried about a repeat of Türkiye, we had learned from our past mistakes and made sure that we had plenty of anchor out. We dropped 75m in ~15m of depth and it held us in place just great. It was a little slack, but we didn’t want to attempt to tighten it up at the risk of disturbing it. The evening consisted of a tour of the bay in Kevin, some swimming, a nice onboard meal, pre-packing and some stargazing. Up at 6:45, prepped for departure. I hopped in the dinghy and pulled myself to shore to release the long lines. We slipped off and came out the bay just in time to see the sun rise from behind the mountains. There was some light wind so we got the sails out for one last time and had a nice moment of tranquility with the engine off. Once the wind changed direction we motored our way in. Arrived at 8:16, got the boat back into base nice and quickly and were off by 8:36. And that’s the end of a great trip. I can’t wait for the next one! See the whole trip here: https://sailties.net/trip/eli-greece-2023

No Wind so we traced the bottom of Meganissi taking in all the colours of the sea and the rock formations. We kept on going until we found a beautiful bay we could take up all to ourselves to relax for The day. Looks like we drew an with our track🍆😉. For the last night it HAS to be a bay to get as much of that away from real life feel as possible so we picked a bay we normally stop in on Meganissi. Sad that this wonderful trip is almost over, but we will be back 😊

We left early as we like to do and motored from Fiskado to Polis bay. Some great memories of late nights in Polis bay and the town on the hill Stavros from past trips 💃🎸🍻🐖. After a very quick and successful long line was in place Eli was getting a little fractiscious so I decided to show him the town on the hill. Into his life jacket we rowed him ashore I strapped him in to his sling and walked him up the steep windy road to the top. Hope he does not mind sleeping on a sweaty chest 🥵💦🙈. Grabbed a coffee, looked at the church, took in the view then headed back. We lazed around for the afternoon before setting off to Sivota. Sails straight up we sailed out from the channel between Kefalonia and Ithica dodging the ferries. A beautiful Sail across the bay to Sivota, we have been getting some really nice sails in this week! We wedged ourselves onto the end of a pontoon using our anchor and two lazy lines because of a strong cross wind!

Early morning departure from Fiskardo. Tom was at the helm, I hopped into the dinghy and removed the long lines and Rosita woke Eli up (she was on the anchor). We slipped off without and issue and used the motor to hop across from Kefalonia to Ithaki in order to spend the day in the bay by polls beach. Here I did the long lines while Gaia dropped the anchor. There was almost no wind so this was overall a pretty easy getting set.

A great bit of sailing today. We had a lay in this morning and I managed a beautiful 10 hours of sleep last night. After a lovely breakfast, we set off and after and began motoring our way towards Fiskardo since there wasn’t much wind. As we got around and down past Meganisi the wind had picked up and by this point it was steady at around 15 knots giving us a beautiful sail across to Kefalonia. We got in early and long-lined with the assistance from Rick and Amy and then we had the whole afternoon to chill. The town was lovely. A very relaxed day

Just after sunrise we slipped from Kastos town quay. Rosita on anchor and Liam slipping our stern lines we had to pause for a mo as the stern like helpfully tied its self in a knot leaving us attached to the harbour wall. Anchor chain back out to its limit, a nice big jump from Liam to the harbour to untie us and we were off. Breakfast was MUCH calmer than the day before and the plates were happy to stay on the table this time as we motored across the bay. We headed to one horse bay famous for the wild boar that roam the beach. It gets busy here so arriving early we set up a very casual and successful long line to enjoy the bay in all of its turquoise tranquility before the masses turned up. After some splashing about Maestro popped on the radio announcing their arrival. Randomly co-founder of SailTies Chris is also sailing the area this week! So we tried our first long-line raft, and tied ourselves together. Lovelllly to see Chris, Becca and Beccas family 🥰, they got hugs with Eli, we had a chat and a swim then looked up to see the bay full of boats :-/. Packed out Chris and co decided to lunch somewhere less busy and set about heading off. With their anchor under another boats there was some manoeuvring to be done and then they were off, we quickly followed and had a lovely boat 2 boat selfie 📸. Both our sails set we headed off in opposite directions enjoying 15-19 knots beam reach to a beautiful bay on the north of Meganissi ⛵️

We started nice and early this morning. Alarm went off at 7am as we wanted to leave early to get ahead of some bad weather that was passing. It was just me and Tom slipping off so I got to get a lot more involved. After a bit of prep, it was a quick dip to release the long lines from the shore, then over to the anchor cupboard to pull it up and once we were away, we got the fenders tidied up and moved then dinghy to the mid cleat. It was fun doing it all 🙂 Once we were away, it was a bit of a bumpy morning as the weather wasn’t great. After a bit of breakfast on the go though, we got the sails out and had some great sailing. The wind was on our side so we just rode it all the way up to a beautiful bay on the south of Kastos where we stayed for the day. After a tasty scrambled omelette, some dingy practice and a bit of swilling, we then headed on up to the town where we’re staying for the night. While we were away enjoying the view from the Windmill, it turned out that our anchor had slipped 😱 thankfully we’re doing ABC though and when we returned we found the engine running and Rick and Amy onboard just finishing up after resetting the anchor 🙌🏼 quite mad that things went wrong but the assistance takes all the stress out of things compared to recent experiences in Türkiye 😆 Anyway. Hopefully we’re off early again tomorrow so it’s time for some rest now 👋🏼

Easy morning, casual breakfast at the restaurant whose pontoon we were using. We motored out into the beautiful Ionion and after not too long had our sails up. A shortish Sail as not much wind then on to Ithaca. Wind picked back up so sails back out for a beam reach. Very very happy with the chair we rigged up for Eli, the straps wrap around the port locker and he was a happy chappy, his first time sailing with the sails up! Beautiful little bay for the evening. Easy long line, no stress and Eli had his baby life jacket on for the Dinghy rode ashore. He hates that thing 😬. Now the peaceful bay had been ruined by a kat next door with their engine on 😅🙈🙄. It’s still paradise! Easily stay tomorrow for Kastos 😊

First night always made very very easy by Nisos. Smoothest check in, all very relaxed and no need for extra cash at base. New little sailor this trip! Eli is joining at 6 months old and has almost mastered his bow-line. Fenders knot is a bit sloppy but I will let him off 😉. Causal stern to with lazy lines and a nice swordfish dinner to start the week 🐟. We brought so MUCH stuff for Eli including a travel cot but gaia ended up co-sleeping in the Bow cabin. All good! 😍

Friends visiting from Italy 🇮🇹. Took them out on a beautiful winter sail from Dartmouth on Escape with Andy. She sails so well! With 17knots and a flat sea a stunning morning 🥰.