Summer at home in Nova Scotia flew by. We are back on-board Dolce Farr Niente in the Ionian Islands of Greece and making our plans for the Fall cruising season. We have a few weeks before friends arrive. We plan to toodle around this area again and enjoy the sweetness of doing nothing in the meantime.
We spent most of our first week on the island of Lefkada, a few days in Lefkada Town and one night at anchor in Nidri.
As you can see from the smile on the captain’s face, he is happy when he is on the move. We left Nidri with our compass set for the island of Kefalonia. The Ithica Channel runs between Kefalonia on the west and Ithica on the east. We had quite a time finding a suitable anchorage, we finally settled on a little bay called Evreti on the Kefalonia side. From there we could look back (north) and see Lefkada in the distance.
Our next stop was the sweet little village of Agia Efimia. Efimia is about mid-way down Kefalonia and almost at the southern end of the Ithica Channel. It is built around a natural cove. When we anchored late morning, there were just a few of us. By late afternoon, every spot around the cove and all the anchor room was filled with boats. It was quite a transformation and very entertaining watching the “anchor ballet” in the morning when everyone started leaving.
Effimia is a good departure point for visiting the underground Lake Melissani. We usually shun standing in line for tourist attractions; but, everyone must make exceptions from time-to-time. Lake Melissani (aka The Cave of the Nymphs) is a cave and an underground lake which is fed from the sea on the west coast of Kefalonia. The seawater travels underground some 200 kilometers. It mixes with fresh groundwater on route. Part of the roof caved in the create a natural entrance on one side of the cave. The other side is dark and covered in stalagmites. There are boats to take visitors around the lake.
We rounded out the end of our second week back on familiar territory at Vathy, Ithica. Vathy is a well-protected bay in the middle of the island, on the eastern side of Ithica. Vathy is a good-size harbour, ringed with mountains. We anchored in a few different spots to suit our mood and the afternoon winds.
We got some steps in exploring one of the many monasteries. No hill is too big to climb when there is the prospect of looking back at our girl.
The sunset is always a beautiful show. In addition, this week we were treated to nighttime lightshows of lightening around the mountains. Thankfully, it wasn’t too close.
Not sure where we will find ourselves in the coming week. You can rest assured, it will include more of the sweetness of doing nothing.
