Alexanders in the Mediterranean: Back to Gouvia to Pick Up Old Friends

Last summer 2 sets of friends came and stayed on the boat … this time the Fedaks – or at least most of them are joining us for a week in the Ionian. We spent a week in the BVI on a Bavaria 50 in 2003 and we have some fond memories of that trip. Their oldest Sam decided that staying in West Vancouver was better than coming to Greece.

So we made it the 100 or so miles back to Gouvia and told them to grab a cab from the airport to the Marina (10 km away) and relax around the pool and we’d see them when we got in. Their flight was around 10:30 am, we got up and left from Ormiskos Valtou around 8:30 am, driving past three boats with completely naked old men on them … had I doffed my kit and hidden the rest of the Tara crew below I would have fit right in. It is not necessarily a pretty sight to see a naked man standing and waving at you … both hand and ... I think you get the visual. (sorry, no pictures of this one).

Gouvia at the poolide bar and restauran -
Sarah, Mike and Matt (Marina is taking
the picture and the kids are in the pool).

We pulled into Gouvia at around 11:00 am and were assigned the exact spot we had a week before. We pulled in, tied off and the kids set off down the dock to the pool while Marina continued to clean the boat and I joined in with the vacuum. I was scrubbing Jessie’s bathroom floor when we heard Sarah’s voice “Hello ….”

Megan, Jessie, Ross and "Little" Matt

She got us to stop cleaning, head up to the pool where Mike had ordered me a rum drink and Marina a cider. Three or four later we went back to the boat and decided we needed food. We made a run to the Grocery store and carried back hundreds of pounds of wine, beer, rum, water … and I think there was some food in there too.

Provisioning! (Mike with his basket shown)

You gotta love Europe – we ordered a Kilo of cheese … 5.70 Euro … that block would have been $30 at home thanks to the 300% duty imposed on cheeses in our country.

It turned out the 04:00 start for the Fedaks, the beers in the afternoon, the 38 degree temperatures and hot sun caught up with Mike and he got a splitting headache – so we changed our plans of going out for dinner to staying in. Marina made up some pasta, Sarah and I made a Greek Salad and we had our first meal on the boat.

"Little" Matt decided on a hair cut (Marina's salon!)

We were up fairly early having to fill our water tanks, then we did a little bit of last-minute provisioning, welcomed in Marcel and Yelena on TK who arrived without kids (sad looks on their faces) and around 11:30 am, then we untied from the dock and headed out. There was marginal – if any – wind and we powered south. Our two destination options were the Isla Muertos group – a small group of islands just off the mainland of Greece, or to Lakka on Paxos. We reckoned the wind was a bit kinder to go to Isla Muertos so that’s where we headed.

In the cockpit, stern to the shore, in Mourtos.

After looking at a couple of different bays, we decided to anchor in one. We crossed our anchor with an Italian boat but he was very nice about it and asked us when we were leaving. As long as you leave before he wants to it’s really no problem. Another Italian boat came in and tried to anchor over top of our anchor and Marina chased them away … we hassled her about the apparent contradiction (OK for us to do, not OK if it happens to us) and she was somewhat mortified … but watching them for the next hour or so try to anchor … maybe it was the best idea in the end.

Ross opening the wine...is this a good idea?

We decided to have a BBQ instead of walking the half hour to town so out came the chicken, sausages and salad, and vino. It turned out that Ross and (young) Matt have acquired a taste for the vino … however, I don’t really recall them being quite so thirsty before. Fairly quiet Ross became the ‘life of the party’ but we’re not sure how he will feel in the morning. Hopefully he will suffer some ill effect and experiences some natural consequences of his actions. (Which...sadly, he didn't).

We kept on rocking until about 23:30 which is pretty late on our boat, listening to music and having fun. I jumped in the water to cool off and that started a trend where a number of us took a late-night swim. Jessie got over her fear of swimming in the dark so it was a major step forward for her.