Zakinthos Turtle Bay

We entered Zakinthos Lolpos Lagana and saw "Luna" – the 110 meter yacht that looks like it is two yachts glued together. Built in 2008 for more than $500M it’s a pretty impressive sight. While this was cool, the best part of coming into the bay was the water temperature – 26.85 degrees that’s 80.33 degrees F. What could be better than super clear water that’s 80 degrees? Coupled with a 0 degree C Heineken … that’s what’s best.

That's one boat not two,  110 Meters long, $550M, 2 helicopters, a
submarine and 50 crew

The undersea area around the island in Kolpos Lagana has massive boulders and is a refuge area for turtles so you are not supposed to anchor nor are you to go more than 6 knots of speed – I would guess that’s the rule unless you own either a tripper boat or rent a boat from the town of Keri – which has about 100 boats for hire. The island is really cool but a bit of a gong-show. There are a couple of caves big enough for 50 foot boats to enter – which they do at speed regardless of who is swimming in their path. And then there are the inexperienced boat renters that aim at the swimmers and go way too fast for the conditions … but its Greece and rules are for those who choose to follow them.

Panorama of the island

While the crew swims around the island, someone must be on board Tara to keep her off the rocks while doing lazy circles. I took the first shift and Marina took the second.  The highlight for me was swimming into a cave and then through an underwater arch that took you to a nice stretch of beach. Take a deep breath, hug the bottom, and don’t panic. We went back through with Chloe doing a ‘barrel roll’ as she floated up and had to push herself off the ceiling to get through … smart move not to scrape her back.

Off like a herd of turtles

Back to the boat, over to town to anchor, a little more swimming and then in for dinner. As we were tying up the dinghy a tender from Luna arrived to pick up a delivery of about a dozen big bouquets – you know the kind you’d get from West Van Florists for about $250 each. I guess there was a need for fresh flowers on board the big yacht that night.

The girls on the Balcony at Mythos

Chloe treated us to a lovely dinner at Mythos – a nice restaurant a few hundred meters up the hill that provided a great view of the harbour and Tara at anchor. We had excellent food but at dusk the mosquito bite was on big-time. It must be a fairly common occurrence as they had bug spray for our arms and legs. About 15 minutes after the food arrived the girls vamoosed while Ross and I cleaned up our plates and drank the rest of our beers. Maybe our natural ‘bug repellent’ is more of an advantage than we had thought.

Being our second to last night with Chloe the girls wanted a couple of cocktails at a bar. They ordered ‘Sex on the Beach’ and a ‘Blue Lagoon’ both of which could have put someone into a diabetic coma. At 6 Euros each it’s not a good investment if you don’t choke it back … live and learn I always say.

We piled back into the dinghy and made it back to Tara unscathed, though the girls were all a bit itchy from feeding the mossies earlier in the evening.