Michele Simpson

We have to get the boat back for 5pm, we’re two hours away and it’s 3.15pm. Also the wind is on the nose so we can’t go straight… We chucked all the sails up and used some engine support to keep 6.5kts of speed all the way to Lefkas! It was amazing “sailing”, tacking up the channel with tonnes of boats all around us. Great practise of COLREGs! The channel was a motorway of boats, all of which went to the fuel pontoon, except us as we had a fuel man waiting at the berth ⛽️ ♥️ Happy to berth smoothly after failing spectacularly last year in front of Becca in Croatia. See, I do know how to handle the boat, it is a good idea to live aboard with me! 😉 Goodbye Greece! 🇬🇷 the trip exceeded my expectations for sailing conditions and as always the bays were beautiful. Highlight was the full moon bay where we commandeered the whole beach with Becca’s giant long lines 😂

Set off from Kalamos after a trip to the bakery for some delicious Feta Pretzel Bread thing 🥨 🧀 😍 Our anchor was caught on another chain, so we executed our new slip line skills from Fiskardo EXPERTLY 💪 Coming round the east of Kalamos was windless and gave us time to chill. Once we got round the corner the wind picked up and the sails came out! The wind is coming from our destination today, so there were quite a few tacks which is pretty simple with the self tacking gib, however we do need to adjust the traveller each time. We anchored and free swung in Abelieke, which was hassle free bliss. Steve and Paul took their Kevin driving test and passed with only a few minors… I dropped the kids off at the beach bar and Becca and I went to chat with our neighbour to ask them about their anchor snubber, as they did it differently to us. Little Wing is a new live aboard crew from the UK, just two weeks into their adventure based out of Preveza. They have two kids (9 and 5) who are about to start boat-home-schooling, very cool! Their anchor technique is to hook on the snubber (not rolling hitch), a shock absorber in the line and then let out LOTS of extra chain to create a big loop in the chain to add more shock absorber. Can’t wait to try it! Just as we left, I saw Lady Katerina entering the bay, the first charter yacht I sailed in the same bay we had our last night. Special reflection moment on how much we’ve achieved in 4 years 😊 💫

We had a lovely spot, but Becca and I fancy a decent, unbroken sleep - so we pulled up the anchor and headed to Kalamos town where George is waiting for us! The reviews aren’t lying - George does amazing wizardry to fit all the boats in! We’re in a raft of 5 boats, where only one has a plank to shore, so a chain of planks have been created between swim platforms. Glad I’m sleeping in the bow tonight 😂

It was an early start. 4.30am: I jumped as a loud bang came from the anchor locker/bow. I woke Chris (again).. it’s a good job first mate can multitask, sleeping and on anchor watch at the same time 🫢 Coincidently, the boat next to us was almost on the rocks, their anchor could have slipped and may have been crossed over ours 😬 Today, we are heading to Kastos! Our final island before we sail back to the mainland. The wind is looking great, so we get out into the bay, quickly put the sails up and get going. I helmed pretty much all the way, we left several boats for dead with perfectly trimmed sails by our skipper CJJ ✌🏼 We sailed all the way into the bay, before tucking ourselves into the corner of the abandoned town. We explored the church, swam and made friends with the local octopus 🐙 We’ve decided we are going to move up to kalamos town to be safely tied on and can have a full nights sleep 😴

A special day - first time meeting up with another Sailing Pigs boat..! 🐷 Even better - seeing Eli Piglet on his first ever sailing trip 😍😍 Tom (my co-founder of SailTies), Gaia, Liam and Rosita are crewing for Eli this week on another boat, coincidentally in the same area as us! Our paths finally crossed, fittingly, on a beach with pigs swimming on it! It was so nice to raft up and hang out with Eli who is an absolute natural on the boat. To be fair - he has a stellar crew looking after him. 💪 👨‍✈️ The bay was busy, though. Quite a tourist spot with the pigs getting a lot of attention. We left after an hour and had a little photo opportunit before heading our separate ways. Our night spot was on the SE of Kastos, which gave us a beautiful beam reach. Our record speed of 7.6kts was achieved and no damage! It felt great to finally return to “Paper Plates Bay” where I came on my first sailing holiday and our lack of experience led to a lot of broken things 😂 🙈 What a difference 4 years and 4,000 miles makes! I can’t say enough about our magical spot for the night. At first we free swung with 3 other boats and then took the spot of a boat that had lines ashore, stern to the beach. We had two attempts, only to put more chain out to be super secure. The full moon is HUGE rising into the bay in front of us. Some goats came to say hello. I paddleboarded out of the bay to get the last bit of evening sun. Paradise! UPDATE (9pm): Another boat arrives and anchors close to ours. They also long line despite being next to a boat that’s free swinging. Controversial. UPDATE (5am): Another bang noise. Wind coming from port now, so our starboard stern line is a bit slack, perhaps from an anchor slip. But we don’t appear to be further back. Next door boat is on the rocks and have ditched their lines to escape. Perhaps they caught our anchor when they slipped? Stayed up for 20mins and happy with our situation. Slept peacefully until 8.30 😊

Set off early from Fiskardo to head to Kioni, which is known to get busy. Quick trip to a moody bakery in a short rain shower, to get bread and baklava. 😋 We left calmly, although no sea turtles were spotted 🙄. The sail north to the edge of Ithaca was fast and fun, but once we turned the corner we were side on to the swell. 🌊 At first this was fun! We raced and overtook another yacht, spotted some super yachts on marine traffic and enjoyed down wind sailing. Eventually the winds got lighter and the sea didn’t ease, so we used a bit of motor to get round the NE tip of the island. After this it was like a new day - beautiful downwind sailing south to Kioni along Ithaca’s east coast. Becca and I sat on the swim platform with our feet dangling in the water, watching the parade of boats behind us not being able to catch up. Once we got to Kioni we investigated the town quay and opposite long line wall and then decided to moor at the opposite corner of the bay to get away from the crowds. We got a beautiful spot right by the beach which has its own taverna! 😍 🍺 Moored up by 2pm. UPDATE (5-7pm): Marina TV in full swing as a number of boats fail to moor in the increased northerly winds. We’re really pleased we came in earlier when the winds were light. UPDATE (10pm): Very windy now as we come back from Kioni town (after a great meal at Calypso). We opted to walk in to town and just use Kevin to get to our beach. Lovely 20min walk - nice for a change! UPDATE (2am): Becca woke up to a loud banging on our chain! 💥 We heard another couple of loud ones, but our lines didn’t seem any slacker and we weren’t closer to the shore. Wind now picked up to 18kts on the nose. Next door’s anchor has slipped back towards the rocks, no much sleeping for the rest of tonight!

Sigh. Fabulous fabulous champagne sailing upwind back to Fiskardo. Amazing. We arrived and found a perfect spot along the north shore. Our initial anchor and line to shore was great, but as we tried to get the second line secured to a tree ( 🤫 😬 🌳) the anchor slipped. Here began the troubles. We had a few attempts resetting the anchor, leaving becca with the secured lines on the shore. Very patient woman! On our 2nd attempt we crossed anchors with our neighbour’s chain 🤦‍♀️ The plan (hatched collectively by everyone in Fiskardo) was to get a piece of rope under their chain to lift it as we put our anchor back down. Whilst waiting for the rope, a moment of madness led me to trying by hand and I got my finger stuck between anchor and chain. Fortunately I escaped in time with just a bruised bloody mess and stained shorts. Absolute idiot. On our last attempt, our super yacht neighbour instructed us in and everything held perfectly. Here’s how he told us to do it: 1. Drop the anchor 3 boat lengths out 2. Reverse and Keep dropping it 3. Stop just before the desired spot 4. Take the lines to shore then take in the slack 5. Let out a bit more anchor if needed and re-tighten the lines 6. Pull up on the anchor to tighten it 7. Have a beer with a full hand of fingers Having said all this - our spot is incredible. Turquoise water behind us, a view over Fiskardo in front of us. Kevin’s got a big night out tonight! 💃

We left early to avoid a waspy breakfast. There was a light breeze out in the bay, so the headsail calmly took us in the direction of Fiskardo. After finishing eating we raised the mainsail and sailed/motor sailed/sailed to the Chelsea of Greece. This was a pretty long sail, we took advantage of not being in a rush and sailed almost the entire trip - what a luxury! As we entered Fiskardo a HUGE turtle came up to say hello! 🐢 Our scouting mission and a VHF to shore made it clear tonight was an anchoring session. We then sailed down to Evereti and got a lovely turquoise bay to ourselves 👌

I’m lying in the hammock writing my daily log, with a rum and coke, looking at a sky full of stars. What a difference a day makes in the world of sailing! We set off quite late, with a slow start and breakfast on the pontoon. Eventually set off around 10, after saying our farewells to Barry who was off in Corfu direction (still amazed by this encounter!) A few things were missing from our provisions, so we dropped Becca off in Vathy with a Beruit-Berthing to go to the shops (this is term coined from us picking up @cesar from Cala Figuera by reversing to the pontoon to drop off / pick up a crew member without ever stopping / using lines). We then headed for Poros, which involved some slow-medium-slow-medium-slow down wind sailing and a tiny bit of medium-very slow upwind sailing. Lots of fun taking the sails up and down! Anchoring in Poros wasn’t ideal. We tried along the northern edge, but couldn’t get a good holding 🍀 ☘️ 😬. Conscious that nobody had been in the sea yet, despite arriving 24hrs ago, we anchored off the beach - which was actually quite nice. It wasn’t the long line remote bay experience though, so we moved to the south west corner to Scorpion Bay and anchored in 15m water drifting back right across the bay and putting lines ashore, courtesy of Becca on the paddleboard and Paul on the anchor 💪. A number of boats came and went trying to anchor near us, eventually two smaller French boats settled for the night. Once all the day trippers left, it was just 3 yachts in quite a large bay. Amazing luck at this time of year! Then we started the BBQ… 😬 A great BBQ spread, but this opinion was also shared by Greece’s wasp population 🐝 I’ve experienced bad wasps onboard before, but this was a new extreme. It got to the point where you don’t even care anymore, I was cooking with wasps on me. We ate in separate corners of the boat, pretending to enjoy our luxury holiday, before spraying the boat down and escaping on Kevin to the beach. By the time we came back, the boat had been deserted. Perfect time for moon and star gazing. Now time for a rum and to write my log 🖊️

Baptism of fire 🔥 Four new sailors on the boat for Becca and I to look after / impart of wisdom to over the next 7 days..! We set off from Lefkas, with Becca helming down the channel as Paul and I tried and failed to get Kevin down from the spinnaker halyard. In the end we had to cut the line as it appeared to be jammed in the mast. It was a few seconds after this that I realised not all blue and white lines are equal and we had opened the clutch on Reef 3 instead. 😬 💇‍♀️ Once we left the channel the thunder and lightening started over the mountains, initially just to the East but eventually on the Lefkada mountains too! 🌩️ Our time in the thunder-hole was exciting but didn’t last very long as we got engulfed in heavy rain and 28kts wind. Once I was happy all hatches were battened down and the paddleboard was secured, we unfurled the headsail to take advantage of the F6 on our stern! WOOSH. 7.5kts the rest of the way to Meganissi. No main sail, but got to give the crew something to look forward to for tomorrow! As we curled the gib and becca did a handbrake turn in front of Vathy, I took the helm and the fun abruptly ended. It dawned on me that we now had to moor in the storm. We had learned our lesson from previous trips and had the first night booked - at Karnagio just outside Vathy - but it’s quite a small entrance and there were a couple of boats anchored in the middle of the bay to make our investigation-approach a bit more challenging. The crew were amazing and got lines, fenders and anchor prepped in no time. Then I saw the most beautiful sight, the restaurant owner holding up a lazy line 🥰😍😍. No anchor required! We reversed into the pontoon and we’re tied up with engine off a few minutes later. Giant beans, swordfish and lamb souvlaki to round off the night! 🐑 🫘 🐟 P.s. as we were mooring, Barry Corlett, a SailTies investor (and user!) walked past and spotted me! 🤯🤩 What a small and crazy world! It was lovely to have a drink with Barry and Peggy - who Tom and I originally met on the beach in dittisham a year ago in not too dissimilar circumstances! ❤️⛵️