Meganisi to Kioni and Atokos

After waiting out a thunderstorm (my personal favourite) we left the next day and started sailing around Meganisi and to a port on the Island of Ithaka called Kioni. We pulled in stern-to and tied up beside a 60 foot sailboat with the nicest teak deck I have ever seen. Bringing the boat in was a bit of a gong-show as we set the anchor to the left and the wind was blowing from the right – so cinching up the lines was a bit of a grunt. Not our best effort but we didn’t hit anybody and we didn’t damage our boat. About 5 minutes later a group of Germans on a Bavaria 49 came in and spent about 30 minutes getting stern-to (maybe we aren’t wankers after all).One cool aspect of Med Mooring is that if there isn’t enough space, just squeeze your boat in there anyway, push your neighbours apart until you have space. The German chap brought a 5 meter wide boat into a 3 meter wide slip – then a couple of lines are loosened off and room is made. It seems kind of rude but so does not making space when there is some to be had.

Wandering back from the market we saw a power boat come in and it had a Canadian Flag on it. We went and introduced ourselves and were promptly invited over for a cocktail. Three couples were on the boat, (one from Mississauga, one from Kitchener, and one from   Romania, and their friend Kostas -- a Greek they met at school in Romania who happens to own the boat – a really nice Feretti 52 powerboat. Cosmin and Claudia, Alex and Cora, and Adrian and Darina were all really nice and engaging people. They were going out to dinner so we tagged along, and they treated us to lots of Greek Cuisine and great conversation. Adrian works for Bell in Mississauga and does something in their Mobile business. He had an iPad he gave Jessie to play with and promptly became her new best-friend. Cosmin’s cousin Alex and his wife Cora are newlyweds. Cosmin, Kostas and Adrian went to university together in Romania and have been getting together on Kostas’ boat every year for the past eight years. What a great group of people.

 One of the dishes they introduced us to was sardine fries. Basically you take sardines with their heads off, batter and deep fry them – then you eat them like french fries. While it may sound a little disgusting to some, they were actually quite good. I saw something similar in a restaurant in Preveza, but the fish were the size of a large carrot – and their heads were on. I was saying to the guys that I am interested in trying them but an entire plate of them is a  level of commitment yet I am not ready for yet.

At dinner we decided we would get together the next day and have dinner and hang out at a beach on the island of Atakos. There is beautiful beach in “One House Bay” that we anchored in, aptly named for its one house in the bay. If the weather is settled you can overnight there. So we played and swam and goofed around all day and then at night rowed ashore for a BBQ dinner and bonfire. Cosmin made some Cevapcici (pronounced Se-vap-chee-chee) that he grilled on the BBQ. The ladies made these garlic potatos – slices of potato with garlic slices inside the sliced part, Olive oil, spices, wrapped in foil and laid at the bottom of the fire to cook – they were go-oo-ood. Lots of wine, some home-made Grappa and Marina made the marichino/rum/grapefoot/lime drink that Dario taught her to great effect. My guitar was a big hit – I played some sing-along pop songs and Claudia was a Romanian Folk Singer before moving to Canada and she played quite a few Romanian folk songs (that of course we didn’t know but enjoyed immensely).


Everyone made it back to the boats safely – it was raining in the morning and we saw Kostas retrieving the table and chairs from the beach .. sometimes it is lonely being the skipper. By 10 am the weather cleared and it was time to bug-out. We pulled in the 50 meter line to shore, yanked up the anchor and headed out of the Ionian sea and into the Gulf of Patras – next stop is Messalongion then to Galaxia, and into Athens.