Ithica better explained, Friskardo, and then Levkas.
Ithica is among my favourite islands. It is casual, not INSANELY busy, and just has a vibe that feels right. The people are delightful…very genuine. There are many shops with interesting jewellery, clothes, arts but that said I don’t think we bought much. Often in the villages the places where the boats berth are right in front of tavernas and clubs and it can be quite loud. Ithica you are able to be a bit away from the more active restaurants.
We didn’t explore the island broadly. As always one could easily sail around an island for many days exploring islets, bays, and villages but our trip sometimes feels fast. We stayed in Ithica to give Theo some time to recover. It seems 24 hours was really all that was required. He was pretty fit the next day but we elected not to sail yet.
When we did decide to move on, we went to Fiscardo which is a relatively short sail (3 hours tops) from Ithica. Fiscardo is “on the path” of tourists as a must see village. It was not destroyed by war nor earthquakes and has some very quaint, original architecture. Having visited there 14 months ago, I was truly taken aback by how busy it was. The pilot had suggested getting there by noon, so we did, and found a spot. Many boats came after us and many inexperienced boaters were anchoring or attempting to anchor in what is pretty much a horseshoe bay. Boats are everywhere there is space and were layered 2 deep even with going stern berth. There were other boats rafted on the rocky, non quay side of the harbor. It was pretty festive, insanely busy on the water, and yes it is pretty. We met a great guy in the chandlery (sailing store) who was happy to sell us many odds and sods we required. He met the whole family eventually because we bought no only a few items for sailing but Theo bought a massive blow up shark as well. These little shops often have one or two things you may not have seen and can be very useful. The most useful that we hope to never use is a trip hook designed to help you raise a rode (recall this is the anchor chain) that has been put down over your own. This can be a frustrating drag when it happens. These tools are supposed to make recovery feasible because you can a least lift up the offending chain. I think of it as a 50 euro insurance policy. If you visit, I’ll show you. It is very exciting.
In Fiscardo we met Charlie and his family. They have been in the med for two weeks and we ended up talking for some time and helping each other at the quay. Our boat was too deep to bring all the way close to the quay. Theirs was not as deep but had a similar problem. We used our paraselle (the plank to go from the boat to the shore) on their boat which allowed us to bridge the gap and get to shore dry. We had to coordinate our departure and all was fine.
Some east coasters also came by to introduce themselves when they saw the Canadian Flag. Everyone takes comfort in fellow countrymen when abroad for some reason. Guess we all value our cultural identity.
My reflections on Fiscardo really brought home how much we’ve learned about sailing. We were able to deal with a very crowded harbor, many inexperienced captains nearby (I hopped on the boat 2 or 3 times with a boat hook ready to fend off colliding boats), and generally took it all in stride. As I’ve said before we are still inexperienced and that can be brought home really quickly (as it will in Levkas) but we are feeling much better about taking our boat around the sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment