Water, water everywhere!

We had some terrible stormy days in late June which is unusual for Kefalonia. Just after I posted my last blog post, I ventured into the garden to see how the four baby swallows were doing. It was dark and the rain was lashing down. Even though it was under cover of the canopy, the rain was soaking through the canopy. They all must have been drenched. On any other year the nest under the canopy wouldn't have been a problem as it's usually hot and dry but this year has been an exception with the rain.
I found a baby swallow dangling upside down from the nest. I ran inside to tell Mark and he tried to rescue it but unfortunately another baby swallow fell from the nest. The nest was disintegrating in the rain. Two baby swallows died that night, leaving two remaining. We left the nest that night as there wasn't much we could do.The next morning there were no swallows at all so we are assuming the parents and the remaining two babies flew away. We cleaned out what was left of the nest and hosed down the bracket of the canopy and guess what? Two swallows returned and were perching on the bracket! Not sure if they were the babies or the parents.Think we'll have to buy a gourd for next year - paint it, (with a sunflower like the one below of course), and hang it up in the same area. I'd never heard of gourds before I moved here, and for those who don't know what they are, they are large fruits with hard shells!

Gourd nest  for swallows (Photo from google)

We had a trip to Lidl (in Kefalonia) just recently to buy the offer of the day - deck shoes for 7.99 euros. Bargain. The size 8's (for Mark) were obviously in high demand as there was one blue pair left. Great, bought them. We spotted one white pair but none of the white ones had laces. We mentioned it to the assistant who was lurking around and he just shrugged his shoulders. We asked if we could take the laces off a blue pair and put them on a white pair and he just looked in disgust and shook his head. You weren’t allowed to try them on either. Also the top 2 sets of eyelets on the white deck shoes must have been for show as you couldn't use them, but guess what we bought them too!
So deck shoes bought, and with the good weather back, Mark and I decided to take Athina Vaso out for a spin in Sami Bay as she hadn't been used for a while, but before that we decided a clean was required so I set about cleaning her while Mark discovered, to his annoyance, that the gears weren't working properly. Couldn't get them to work at all so contacted the boat mechanic and he suggested a fix and if that didn't work the boat may have to come out of the water. Not again! The following day we went down to the harbour and sure enough the fix worked! We sat on the boat having a cuppa. We didn't venture out of the harbour, leaving that for an early start another day. The sun was out, the sky was that gorgeous shade of blue..........

Me, chilling in the harbour

......  and we were putting the world to rights. As a couple walked past looking at us sitting in the boat in the harbour, I shouted out 'We just sit in it, not go out in it!' They just laughed and said 'Why not!'
The fix for the boat was only temporary though and it did have to come out of the water and go the boatyard. The gear cables were fixed and the spare engine was contaminated with oil but everything is OK now. (I hope)

Perfect day for sitting in a boat in a harbour! Athina Vaso in the front.

When it comes to going out on the boat it has to be calm, not a ripple on the surface and the boat has to be full of rescue equipment - just in case! We have to carry the following:

• Personal flotation devices (life vests x5 as the boat seats 4)
• Throwable flotation device (ring)
• Fire extinguisher 
• Visual distress signal (flares)
• Sound distress signal (horn)
• First Aid equipment
• Drag device (to stop the the boat drifting)
• Registration document (I know this isn't safety equipment but we need to carry it)

As you can see there's a fair bit to carry and that's before any peeps get onboard.We certainly have all of the above even to the point of a spare life vest just in case one fails or we spot someone in distress in the water. The boat also has a spare engine so we are covered in case the main engine fails BUT I put it to Mark that in the event BOTH engines fail and we are marooned at sea, we should perhaps have a trailing dinghy (with oars) behind Athina Vaso and in case that malfunctions, another smaller dinghy behind that dinghy and so on. Not that I am getting carried away at all here. You have to be safe at sea. I don't think Mark was taking me seriously at this point! If we did need rescuing, I'm sure someone would stop and give us a tow! Even better if it was a superyacht which belonged to someone famous! I must remember to tinker with both our engines when George Clooney is around on his yacht (if he has one). Help me! Help me! 
😂

Sami Bay, which is where the boat is harboured is a fantastic bay with lots of coves to explore, the island of Ithaca lies across the top of the bay so it's an ideal safe place for little boats and yachts. Some of the coves are inaccessible by car or even on foot which is why we need all the rescue equipment possible. I always make sure that my mobile phone is fully charged when we go out on the boat and that we also have an additional power bank for it. Sami Port Police and Sami Police are on speed dial. No exaggeration here. I panic that we'll be stranded in a cove, can't get home; the dogs won't be able to get out of the house and will pee, or even worse, poop in the house; the outdoor pot plants will wither and die; and of course we would be found as skeletons years down the line as we only carry a one litre bottle of drinking water with us. 
If the worst came to the worst though, we could always swim ..........somewhere! At least there are no great white sharks in the Ionian Sea.

Sami Bay

Sami Bay at its calmest (It looks bigger from a little boat - honest!) Ithaca top right

Sami Bay leading into the Strait of Ithaca. The white dots are yachts.

Sami Bay as seen from up in the hills at Xaliotata. Ithaca in the distance.

Seriously though - the sea can change quickly particularly in the afternoons even in the summer in a sheltered bay like this. In the mornings it can be very calm and still, but later on the waves will pick up, sometimes with white caps and although not like the North Sea, in a small boat it can be quite frightening. You can sometimes see a dark blue line on the horizon getting closer and closer which is another tell tale sign that rougher water is about to follow.

Moral of the story - get out early, come back early!

Approaching a cove accessible by boat only

Early morning - very calm waters - Agia Efimia in the distance

Getting rough - Two and a half hours later

Obviously we don't go out in this! (January this year)

Only the bigger boats venture out!

In general though, in the mornings in summer, it looks like this......

We visit one particular cove by boat quite a lot as it's quiet. You can't see it from the main road so not too many people know it's there. It doesn't have a name so we've called it Coldwater Cove as there are a few cold water outlets from the sea water that has travelled underground from the other side of the island, being filtered through the rocks as it travels to become brackish water. You can see the areas of cold water as the surface has a glassy look to it. Once you swim further out you get past these and the sea is lovely and warm.

Coldwater Cove

Athina Vaso at Coldwater Cove

We decided it was about time Athina Vaso had a make over so we had a trip to Argostoli to buy some suitable boat material for the seats. There were multiple colours of the vinyl, but for some strange reason the blue was expensive. Apparently it had to come from Antarctica or somewhere just as remote! So we decided to change the colour completely (brown) which meant in addition to the seats we had to change the backrest and anchor housing door too.

Flag etiquette dictates that because the boat is registered in Greece we must fly the Greek 

Ensign:

Greek Ensign

 

If we were to sail into British waters, as a courtesy we would also hoist the Red Ensign but I don't think Athina Vaso would manage to get out of Sami Bay and the Ionian Sea never mind venture into the North Atlantic ocean and the North Sea. However, as we are British, we are entitled to fly the Red Ensign as a courtesy ensign within Greek waters which is great because I love the Union Jack (very colourful), goes great with the Greek Ensign and I'm proud to be British.

Red Ensign

We originally had the Union Jack flying on the boat, but that's the WRONG flag as the Union Jack is a LAND flag and must not be flown at sea. We now have the correct Red Ensign flying and I hope we haven't insulted anyone! The size and condition of flags are important too. They should not be tatty and should not hang in the water, but should still be large enough to be seen. Having an undersized, faded or tatty flag in many places is worse than having no flag at all and is considered disrespectful. The flag should be one inch long for each foot in length of boat. We have measured the boat and I'm pleased to say we have the correct size flags. I didn't know there was so much to it! Phew!
Let's just hope she now sails like a new boat! We need to get to the coves like the ones below which are scattered around Sami Bay.

Getting in and out of the boat appears to be a problem for some of our friends what with their dodgy knees etc. The three of us had a good laugh on this day when our friend Deb tried to get back on board Athina Vaso after a morning at a cove. It all seemed to go so well until we started laughing. Deb couldn't believe I was capturing the moment from the beach with my iPhone. I do have Deb's permission to include these photos in case you're wondering!

Mark helping our friend Deb onto the boat

The water has been just perfect for swimming in July, August and the beginning of September. Lovely and warm. We try to go swimming every day and just recently we've been snorkelling along the coastline in the hope of finding treasure. We've even taken to wearing flippers so we can zip along. The only trouble, is that I find it's very hard to dive down to the bottom of the sea. I end up splashing about for what seems ages to find I've gone down about one foot. I then resurface out of breath. Its all a bit of a frenzy. Just as well there's nobody about as it looks like I'm being attacked by a Portugese man o' war! Mark doesn't seem to have this trouble.I have secretly watched how he does it and he seems to do it effortlessly. Must have something to do with weight. 😉

Seriously though, swimming normally (without flippers) is effortless as long as you don't swim horizontally! Your legs end up higher than your body and your face ends up in the water. You feel as though your spine will curve. Sort of scorpion like. Weird! If you just swim at a slight angle with your legs down it's much easier. The salt content means you're very buoyant and you can swim quite far like this without realising it. Great exercise and good fun. The island of Ithaca is never far from sight and sometimes I wonder if I could manage to swim across to it, although speed boats and yachts come into the bay in summer and I wouldn't want to mess up the ferries timetable! I suppose Mark could always follow me in the boat while doing a bit of fishing and hopefully by the time I reached Ithaca, he would have enough fish to last a lifetime! Of course in reality, the fish in the Bay of Sami are very elusive. We see plenty while snorkelling but they are very crafty when it comes to a rod and bait.

The summer season is drawing to a close. It will be sad to see the tourists go as the hustle and bustle is all part of island life, but on the other hand it will be lovely to have the quiet life back again. Nobody on the beaches......... except us of course.


Autumn is on its way