Archive | Envoy RSS feed for this section

Envoy is now in the marina at Kalamata – famous for olives!

In Gouvia Marina we berth next to a 59ft wooden ketch called Acco built in 1938.
Dave and Gwen Nicholson have owned her since 1968 and spent the past 20 years or so living an alternative lifestyle aboard with their son John, mostly in Corfu. They’d just finished maintenance of the wooden masts and we were able to observe the interesting process of hoisting them up again using blocks and tackles plus plenty of eager volunteers.

Acco is a real traditional vessel. The green cover is to protect the wooden hull from the sun

Of course we made plenty of time to visit Corfu Old Town’s labyrinth of cobbled lanes and quirky shops.

Envoy in Gouvia Marina

Leaving Gouvia Marina on 13 May we cruise to nearby Kalami Bay and have our first swim in coolish 18dC water and since then have swum most days.
Our first night at anchor with Chris aboard results in a rare unplanned 0630 hrs departure the following morning as an onshore windshift places Envoy too close to some mooring buoys which could potentially have fouled our propeller. At this stage we’re mostly re-visiting places we’ve been to before but enjoying them nonetheless.

There’s lots of interesting tavernas here where you can meet other cruisers, soak up some local atmosphere and enjoy an excellent cold draught Mythos (Greek beer) or three. The Greek taverna and restaurant staff make you feel very welcome and nearly always give you something for free, for example bar snacks, a dessert after dinner or a round of drinks.

Laurie and Chris enjoying coffee and cake ashore at Platarius

The weather is still unstable as shown in this image taken from Envoy at anchor in Mourtos

We’ve often been told by other cruisers about a great place to anchor called Two Rock Bay south of Parga on the mainland coast, so decide to check it out. Here we can see the anchor drop on the sandy bottom four metres beneath and Envoy is surrounded by small fish which eagerly eat small pieces of bread we throw into the water. We’re the only boat here and there are no buildings ashore so tranquility is complete – a far cry from the marina we’ve so recently left.

There’s a gentle swell rolling into the bay so we deploy our paravanes and flopper stoppers for the first time this season to reduce Envoy’s roll to barely discernible.

Envoy at anchor in Two Rock Bay with paravanes and flopper-stoppers deployed

Panorama of Two Rock Bay from Envoy

Lots of seaweed has been washed ashore by heavy seas

Di and Laurie at Two Rock Bay

This is a touch of paradise and we spend most of the following morning in our RHIB exploring the rocky shoreline and a sandy beach covered with flotsam – days like this are what it’s all about.

We’re going to spend the next night anchored off Lefkas marina and we time our arrival at the Lefkas Canal swing bridge perfectly for the on-the-hour opening at 1800hrs. Only problem is there’s no one here to operate the bridge. We carefully maneuver in the shallow confined area for another hour and fortunately the operator shows up at 1900hr to let us and other vessels through.

TECHNICAL
Since Sailand fitted our new throttle cable the Lugger engine has not achieved full rpm, so Panos comes aboard to adjust it and solve this issue. It’s not really important as we never cruise above about 1,800 rpm, but now we can achieve 2,150 if we want to.

Meanwhile we’re still monitoring our slight sea water leak to the forward bilge. We’re convinced it has something to do with our aircon unit, as that’s the only equipment in the area of the leak. But with the seacock closed we’re still getting a slight leak and we’re presuming it must be leaking from a hose or hose joint coming from the aircon’s sea water cooling discharge. We’ve eyeballed the aircon but unfortunately the hoses can’t be accessed as they disappear under some decking. This is work in progress and not a concern as we’re talking about less than half a litre a day – no need for life jackets yet!

I mentioned last posting that our close friend Chris, aka MacGyver, has been a huge help aboard Envoy undertaking both maintenance and improvement projects.
Here are some of the projects Chris has achieved so far on this visit:
-Prior to arriving he built a constant 19 volt DC voltage power supply device for Di’s computer that runs from Envoy’s nominal 12 volt power supply. This enables her computer to charge and run at any time regardless of the normal variations in nominal 12 volt output (depending on state of battery charge) and without needing to use our relatively current-hungry inverter to power the AC-driven charger.
-Installed a remote wireless temperature and humidity monitoring system measuring conditions inside the pilothouse, outside in the cockpit and in the engine room.
-Bought the components for and built a portable miniature bilge pump so we can more easily pump water out of the bilges below the water level that the main bilge pumps can pump from. Although our bilges are mostly dry some sea water and/or fresh water inevitably ends up there from spillages, rain and from the prop shaft gland.
-Bought the components for and built a system to pump fresh water from portable 25L water containers carried in the RHIB into Envoy’s water tanks. Although we have a water maker it’s very convenient to be able to get fresh water ashore in containers and the pump saves lifting the heavy containers aboard for decanting.

-Modified our boarding ladder to make it more rigid and the steps more stable.
-Modified and fixed our washing machine detergent supply drawer which had broken through wear and tear.
-Fine-tuned our stereo/DVD sound system to provide better quality sound.
-Fixed faulty wiring on our Yanmar wing engine’s tachometer.
-Repaired some cosmetic wooden laminate in our galley.
-Improved safety insulation around some heavy-duty engine room DC cable terminals.
-Replaced some failed silicone beading around our anchor pulpit.
-Improved our cockpit fresh water wash down system and forward sea water wash down system by sourcing and replacing old and leaking components.
-Fixed faulty switch on air circulation fan in guest cabin.

And it continues … more on this next posting.

On our way back to Envoy we visit Sardinia for eight days both to share a holiday with our London-based daughter Amy and to check it out as a possible future cruising destination. Sardinia looks great in the cruising guides with many interesting anchorages and close proximity to the French island of Corsica, but an off-putting factor is its over-crowding during the peak summer months of July and August, especially by the self-absorbed rich and famous along the Costa Smeralda in the north-east. Oblong-shaped Sardinia is the second largest Med island measuring roughly 160km north to south by 100km east to west. It’s the most remote Med island, being the furthermost from surrounding mainland, has a population of 1.67m, and like Sicily is a self-governing autonomous region of Italy. Official languages spoken are Sardu and Italian.

Mountainous Sardinia (the Gennargentu Range rises to 1,834m) is not historically regarded as a seafaring nation but one of farmers and shepherds.
Now that term “historic” is interesting as we find one of the great aspects of cruising the Med is immersing ourselves in its history. We come from New Zealand which has the shortest human history of any country, being first settled by Polynesians about 1300AD (the exact date is not known), and where the oldest building was built in 1821. By comparison the earliest signs of human occupation in Sardinia are stone tools dating back 170,000 years while parts of buildings still stand that were built between 1,800 and 1,200 BC. These are cone-shaped stone towers known as Nuraghe, built for an unknown purpose but likely used as dwellings or for religious rituals. More than 7,000 of these unique-to-Sardinia structures still survive from an estimated 10,000 built.

Contributing to Sardinia’s colourful history is the fact that it was invaded consecutively by Phoenecians, Cathaginians, Romans, Vandals and Spanish before it became part of the new Republic of Italy in 1861.

ALGHERO
Eight days is too short a time to explore the whole island so after flying in to the capital – Cagliari we drive about 250km north-west to base ourselves in the historic town of Alghero.
Alghero lies on the Riviera del Corallo – the Coral Riviera, so-named for its rare red coral brought up from depths of over 80 metres by just a handful of licensed divers and fashioned into exquisite jewelry and ornaments.
It started as a fishing village in the 11th century and then had about 350 years of Spanish rule lasting to 1720, which has left an influence to this day. Now a thriving town with a population of 41,000 augmented by thousands of summer tourists drawn to Alghero’s atmosphere, historic Old Town, sandy beaches, marina, local sights, vineyards and great eateries specialising in fresh seafood.

Alghero Old Town’s impressive fortifications look like they can still withstand a siege

Beautifully ornate church steeple

This sweet shop with life-size pirate figures wasn’t at all tacky

GROTTO DI NETTUNO
An especially exciting day is the boat trip to the Grotto di Nettuno (Neptune’s Grotto), an extensive sea cave system named after the Roman god of the sea.
After arriving at the grotto’s mouth the expertly-handled tourist boat, about 70 feet long, first picks up a stout stern line attached to a mooring buoy, then heads bow first through the approximately one metre high swells into the cave’s narrow entrance. The crew then throw two heavy bow lines to shoremen who attach them to bollards and take up the slack while the boat still powers ahead taking up the strain of the stern line. With the boat temporarily secured the crew place a boarding platform over the bow to shore and assist the passengers, including some rather reluctant ones to take the seemingly perilous walk across the heaving platform to shore.
Two young Chinese ladies wearing ridiculously high heels for a boat trip struggle to get ashore and are then told their footwear is unsuitable for entering the grotto.
The grotto itself is extraordinarily spectacular with a pathway between stalagmites about 500 metres open to the public and a further 2,500 metres reserved for expert cavers. Inside the grotto is a mass of stalactites (descending from the cavernous roof) and stalagmites (ascending from the floor), built up over millions of years by calcium deposits from fresh water seepage. As it takes approximately 100-200 years for 1cm of calcium deposit to build, our minds are in awe of the process.

Ferry approaches cave

Watch out for the rocks! Ferry enters mouth of cave

Ferry’s bow held firm in the swell with stout lines

A small part of the impressive interior of the Grotto

MARINAS
During our car exploration we find good marinas located at Bosa, Alghero and Castelsardo. Several anchorages also appears to be sheltered in most conditions. Driving conditions are good with mostly well-maintained and signposted roads, plenty of places to stop for refreshments and loads of interesting sights. We’d definitely recommend Sardinia for a relaxing holiday with lots of variety.

A bleak day for our visit to Castelsardo

Amy and Laurie in Castelsardo main square below the fortress townwrapped up warm against the chill

Castelsardo

Stintino marina

FOR FOODIES
We’re surprised to find roast donkey and roast horse on many menus but can’t pluck up the courage to taste these local delicacies settling for culinary delights like grilled swordfish, octopus, squid, spaghetti with clams and roast pork (which they call “crispy roast piggy”).

At a great waterside taverna in Stintino we had Spaghetti Vongole – that is with clams and spaghetti with prawns – both delicious!

Envoy is now anchored at Argostoli, Cephalonia Island.

Sorry it’s been nearly three weeks since the last post – I’ll make it about weekly from now on.

We finally leave Lefkas Marina on Saturday 30 April with no particular technical issues except that our Robertson autopilot and rudder position indicator is intermittently not working. This is strange as it worked fine when we launched Envoy and later when we did our sea trial with Sailand engineers aboard, but it seems to have settled down since and is working fine now.
It’s early in the cruising season with hardly any cruisers around and a lot of tavernas and shops not open yet – but all that will change in the next couple of weeks.

Here is a great poem about going back to sea – a bit of poetic license on our part as Envoy isn’t exactly a “bark” but the feeling is the same.

My bounding bark, I fly to thee, I’m wearied of the shore;
I long to hail the swelling sea, And wander free once more:
A sailor’s life of reckless glee, That only is the life for me!
I was not born for fashion’s slave, Or the dull city’s strife;
Be mine the spirit-stirring wave, The roving sailor’s life:
A life of freedom on the sea, That is the only life for me!
I was not born for lighted halls, Or the gay revel’s round;
My music is where Ocean calls, And echoing rocks resound:
The wandering sailor’s life of glee, That is the only life for me!
Anon

After a shake-down cruise around some favorite destinations close to Lefkas we set off for Corfu about 65 miles north.
I wasn’t keen to test the water maker in the slightly contaminated waters of Lefkas Marina so test it in the crystal clear waters of Lakka Bay at Paxxos island. The procedure is to run the system with no pressure for 10 minutes to clear out the pickling chemicals used at the end of last season to protect the high pressure membrane, and then to run it normally. However the pump supplying sea water to the system wasn’t working so we put this on the short list of items to resolve at Gouvia Marina.
We also find a very small sea water leak to the forward bilge, which I think is coming from the aircon’s cooling water supply, so we’ve closed the seacock to see if this stops it.

Easter is celebrated later in Greece than other countries and in the small village of Lakka we’re able to see the local people marching to the stirring music of their band parading religious relics through the streets. Greece is still a country with strong traditional family and religious values and this is very apparent to us as we observe this long-practised ritual.

Easter parade at Paxxos Island

View of Envoy in the tranquil waters of Lakka, Paxxos Island

So far we’ve been towing our larger Nautica RHIB with the 25hp Yamaha and now want to lift it aboard. We recently replaced our stainless steel 3-wire lifting strop with one made using three high tensile polymer lines, and as the RHIB weighs about 250kg we want to test the whole system before lifting it too high out of the water – if one of the two boom winch cables or the lifting strop were to break it could be extremely dangerous. So the test is to lift the RHIB clear of the water and then for Diane and I to stand in it together with about 50 litres of water in two jerrycans providing in total about an additional 190kg. The system successfully handles this additional weight so we proceed to lift the RHIB with confidence and without problems.

In early May we enter Corfu’s Gouvia Marina – one of our favorites.
Here we’re meeting our friend Chris – our first visitor of the season. Chris is also known as “MacGyver” due to his special technical skills, and he quickly gets stuck into a multitude of jobs which I’ll detail in the next posting.

The local people are rather upset that the seamen who man the inter-island ferries are on a three-day strike for higher wages. Not only do the residents of Greece’s many islands rely on the ferries for transportation but there is a calamitous effect on the tourist trade which provides a large slice of Greece’s income. Even the supermarkets started to run out of some food items.

Engineer Angelos checks the water maker and confirms what we knew – the sea water pump dating from 2002 isn’t working. He removes it to his workshop and later reports the pump is too far gone to repair, especially for such an old unit and we opt for a new one at eye-watering expense to be sent down from Athens. After that’s installed the water maker works fine.

Angelos with new sea water pump for water maker (no wonder he’s smiling)

We also get contractors to clean the guest toilet holding tank’s level indicator, which has stopped working. The job entails removing the head as the holding tank is located underneath it. The level indicator has not been checked for at least 10 years and its float switch is found to be still in working order but needing a good clean.
While aboard they also dismantle, service and reassemble the master head, but it still doesn’t work correctly when discharging directly overboard. There appears to be a blockage in the discharge hose close to the seacock so we will use it only discharging to its holding tank, which is then emptied using a different through-hull fitting.

Contractors working on our main head

This is work-in-progress and the next step is to insert our portable LED-lit waterproof inspection camera (a gift from our great friend Frank) into the seacock from the outside.

Envoy has now moved to Gouvia Marina, Corfu.
We enjoyed the process of getting Envoy prepared for cruising having decided not to worry about meeting any time schedule and take each day as it comes – not becoming frustrated when as often happens contractors don’t turn up on time or at all. In 2014 preparation took us four weeks and this year just a day over three so we thought we’d done pretty well.
Envoy went into the water nearly two weeks ago on a beautiful sunny day with great excitement on our part. The travel lift operators always give you plenty of time to check for sea water leaks and after half an hour we had none. But when we checked again after docking into our marina berth we had a couple of minor leaks, both of which have been resolved.

Envoy going back into the water

We’ve not had good results with various propeller antifouls over the years so took them back to gleaming bare metal and coated them with lanolin to see how that goes.

Envoy’s propellers

The weather here has been great with light winds and temps in the low-mid 20s.
During the first days here we visited Vodafone to sort out both phone and internet connections and always find them incredibly helpful. Using our Mobile Broadband Device we can connect using our iPad and laptops simultaneously. Di’s laptop wouldn’t start up so she took it to a local repair shop who not only fixed it but upgraded it to Windows 7 – all for 30 Euros (about NZ$50). Now it’s working great and much faster.
Although there are no obvious signs of economic issues here, locals tell us that unemployment is a real issue particularly in the big cities, and that many young people are leaving to get jobs overseas. While people are stoic about the situation they don’t see it getting better any time soon.

Di’s on-board herb garden

We had to spend about three hours with our agent – A1 Yachting visiting the Port Police, Customs and regular Police to get our documentation sorted out for cruising here. Although in Greece it’s possible to do this without using an agent, we’ve found A1’s assistance over the years to be invaluable, saving a lot of time, hassle, heartache and cost – especially this year as some new laws come into effect on 1 May and nobody is totally clear on how they will work.

The day of our sea trial in the Lefkas canal was stunning and not much of a test for our stabilisers

There’s been some progress on items mentioned in our last Envoy blog:
1.The domestic fresh water heater’s water leak is fixed and it’s feeding hot water to all the right places. The mechanic who removed and reconditioned the unit hadn’t connected it back correctly, but now all good.
2.Our large RHIB and Yamaha 25hp outboard has been finished and sea-trialed. The sounder is working well and a wiring fault which caused the auxiliary power supply (to sounder and vhf) to shut down has been fixed. Here in the EU there is a requirement that fuels must have 10% ethanol content for so-called environmental reasons. While the environmental grounds for doing this are very dubious the practical result is very negative for the boating community because ethanol is hygroscopic and the Yamaha mechanic told us many of the problems he resolves are directly related to this – particularly moisture and “sugar-like” deposits in fuel systems. It’s not so bad in cars because the fuel is used more quickly and doesn’t have time to attract moisture, but outboard motor fuel for example is often kept for many months or even carried from one season to the next. The advice now is not to keep petrol more than a few months, never from one season to the next and to add fuel conditioner – we are now using a “Wurth” product. It’s also an issue in diesel and we are now using Stanadyne as recommended by Lugger and several industry gurus.
3.The boom winch which I reported as not operating is actually fine – I’d just forgotten how to operate it correctly.
4.Two new Deka bow thruster batteries have been installed along with a new circuit breaker as the previous one failed (after doing its job) when the short circuit occurred that caused the battery problem.
5.The Naiad stabiliser’s hydraulic rams have had new seal kits installed and are working well. The 12 volt pump providing sea water for cooling the hydraulic oil didn’t work so we’ve replaced that with our onboard spare. We also changed the hydraulic fluid filter and I had wanted to change the fluid as recommended by Naiad to do every two years, but the mechanics talked me out of this as the current fluid, has only been used for a few hundred hours, is filtered, looks perfect and – as they said “heavy hydraulic equipment is frequently operated nearly every day for many years without the need for fluid changes”.

Most equipment has now been tested and working OK but I still have to test the watermaker – I didn’t want to do that while in the marina with dubious water quality.
Other issues which have arisen are:
The Yanmar wing engine wouldn’t start and following analysis by Sailand’s mechanic a new fuel lift pump was installed and all now OK. The Genset wasn’t starting easily so the electrician tested the glow plug and found there was no current reaching it. A new relay fixed that.
The Lugger engine wasn’t starting easily so Sailand’s electrician measured the voltage at the starter finding it to be very low. He suggested making and installing a heavy duty earth cable between the engine and the battery bank’s negative earth busbar. This has been done and starting is now excellent. At the same time he checked the battery bank’s parallel switch for emergency starting and considered it to be too light for the amps involved, so sourced and fitted a new one for us.
The Lugger’s throttle cable jammed just as we were manoeuvring out of the marina for a sea trial – which was disconcerting to say the least, so Sailand recommended fitting a new control unit and throttle and gear cables (none of which had been replaced in at least 10 years). This installation took most of a day as the lengthy cables travel between decks and it’s very hard to access some of these spaces and then feed the cables through.

Laurie with old throttle and gear cables

The only job Sailand ran out of time to do was to machine polish the superstructure gelcoat so this is one that Diane and I will have to roll up our sleeves and do ourselves.

Rust never sleeps! Throughout Envoy are many dozens or possibly a few hundred hose clips. Any rusted ones need to be replaced. They should always be installed with the tightening bolt on the top side of the clamp so that any drips of water don’t contribute to rust. This one was installed bolt down on a bilge pump hose.

Our “To Do List” always looks pretty daunting to begin with and I must say it’s very satisfying to look at our list and see 79 items ticked off with only a few non-urgent ones remaining.

During our break from cruising last year we shared some wonderful times with family and friends, but at times during the last 14 months I sure tired of typing the words for the blog “while Envoy is in Lefkas Marina we are home in Auckland.” So it’s great to be finally able to say here we are back in Lefkas aboard Envoy with six months of cruising ahead of us -whatever your dream is do it now if you can while you can, as you never know what circumstances may lurk around the corner.

We arrived here in brilliant sunny conditions with temps in the low 20s which made for a great nearly six hour bus trip from Athens, mostly on the southern shore of the Gulf of Corinth, and on our arrival it was ideal conditions for getting our gear aboard. Nothing worse than starting off with miserable weather and everything getting wet.
As before there is no refugee issue either in Athens or anywhere on the south and west coast – it’s pretty much confined to the Greek Aegean islands near Turkey and to the northern mainland.
Also as before there is no real sign of any “Greek crisis” – most people are smiling and the cafes are full.

Before we arrived Sailand had already removed our huge storage cover and arranged for it to be pressure washed prior to storage. This cover has been amazing – made of “Stamoid” fabric in late 2007 and used every winter since including continuously for three years, it’s still in reasonable condition and will only need some minor repairs done while we’re cruising so it’s ready for service next winter. Sailand say that although very few boats have storage covers, they are a huge advantage in keeping your gelcoat in good condition providing good protection not only from the weather but also from all the dust from sanding etc around the marina hardstand.

An early priority has been to buy some supplies as we leave very little aboard from the end of one season to the next. A simple matter back home driving the car to the supermarket, but here we have to walk about a kilometer round trip carrying everything and the need to buy bottled water adds considerably to the load.

Aboard Envoy everything is pretty much how we left it and we’ve started on a list of about 70 jobs to be done before we start cruising. Having arrived here on Wednesday last week we hope to be in the water the coming Friday.
Apart from routine things like filter changing, anode replacement and anti-fouling a few issues have emerged.
1. In our absence Sailand removed and successfully reconditioned the domestic fresh water heater, but weren’t able to test it until we returned. It’s working but has a slight water leak and is not feeding hot water to all outlets so more work to be done.
2. The pump which drains our bathroom sink and shower has a sheared-off plastic fitting at the outlet where the hose clamps on so we’re organising a new one. Coming from the plastics industry this annoys me as I know very well that fittings like this can be made using materials like glass-fibre  reinforced polyamide that would make them virtually unbreakable, but some manufacturers cut costs and use inferior polymers that cause annoying failures down the track.
3. One of our two interchangeable domestic fresh water pumps has failed and is being removed for overhaul.
4. Our large RHIB and Yamaha 25hp outboard is being serviced (even though we gave it to them in late 2014 it’s only being done now). One issue is the depth sounder giving faulty readings due to a suspected faulty transducer. The mechanic, Spiros, informed me it’s definitely faulty now as his dog has chewed it to pieces! Fortunately he still has the spare one we gave him when he took on the job. 5. The boom winch is not operating and I suspect an electrical wiring problem.
6. New Deka bow thruster batteries have arrived from Italy and will be installed next week – a major job as they’re incredibly heavy.
7. Our Naiad stabiliser hydraulic rams have been removed for fitting new seals ex USA to hopefully eliminate some slight hydraulic fluid leaks. These are due to go be put back next week.
8. We have four diesel tanks totaling about 3,800 litres storage capacity and with about 2,400 litres aboard left over from late 2014. By the way 2,400 litres would carry us well over 2,000 miles. To reduce the chance of any “diesel bug” issues we’re using our fuel polishing system to filter all of this fuel through a 2 micron Racor running in combination with a “DeBug” brand magnetic device that kills the fungal spores which comprise “diesel bug” correctly known as Hormoconis resinae (H.res). All seems to be good as we’re not seeing any water in the Racor filter bowls or any evidence of H.res – which thrive more readily with water present. The polishing system runs at about 500 litres/hr so the process requires close supervision to avoid over-filling a tank.

This just gives a flavour of what we’re working through currently – more to follow soon including a review of our 8 day visit to Sardinia on the way here.

While Envoy is in Lefkas Marina, Greece, we are home in Auckland, New Zealand – but not for long as returning to Greece early next month to commence cruising a few weeks later.

Destination 6: Cephalonia Island
Where is it?: Largest of the Ionian Islands off Greece’s west coast
How long is required to enjoy here?: at least a week
Brief outline: A spectacular island about 30 miles long with a mountain chain rising to 1,600 metres and lush forested valleys descending to the sea. Just a couple of miles to the east, Ithica Island also has several spectacular anchorages and villages.
Must do: Moor stern-to in the delightful sheltered Fiskhardo harbour with its wall-to-wall tavernas and Venetian lighthouse ruins.

Cephalonia, the largest of the Ionian islands, is where the events took place on which the great movie Captain Corelli’s Mandolin is based.

Map of Cephalonia

Restaurant cashing in on Captain Corelli

Fiskhardo is a fantastic harbour where we moored stern-to the quayside lined with tavernas and cafes. Yes this can be busy but it’s one of those special atmospheric harbours that’s worth the effort.

Ruins of Venetian lighthouse at entrance to Fiskhardo

Just an easy walk away is an idyllic anchorage called Foki Bay, where the forest comes right down to the water’s edge and the crystal clear water is ideal for snorkelling.

Envoy anchored in idyllic Foki Bay

At a lone taverna here we enjoyed an evening drink and heard the faint ring of a goat bell that shortly turned into a cacophony as a huge herd of goats passed close-by.

Wandering goats outside Foki Bay’s taverna

Nearly half way down the east coast is the village of Ay Eufimia where you can anchor in the harbour, but with a forecast of Force 7-8 winds, thunderstorms and very rough seas we elected to moor quayside and enjoyed perfect safety.

Envoy alongside Ay Eufimia’s wharf with stormy skies overhead

Ay Eufimia on a better day – note traditionally garbed priest

At the island’s main town, Argostoli, on the south-west coast, again you can anchor out or go alongside the quay and this is a delightful quiet town with interesting architecture and good shopping.
On Cephalonia’s wild west coast is the tiny but stunning village of Assos with its barely 200 metres by 100 metres harbour overlooked by the ruins of a huge Venetian Fortress dating from 1593, with impregnable walls totaling 2km long making it one of Greece’s largest. Originally built for protection against Turks and pirates the fortress eventually became a prison and was used as such by the Germans during WW2. It eventually closed in 1953 after a devastating earthquake, although people continued to live there until the late 1960s.

The enchanting small harbour of Assos

Envoy in the very un-crowded anchorage of Assos – what better could you get?