Picking Up Jessie and Hugh on Zakynthos via Vathi (Ithaka)

Again, up early and into town for a little marketing before lifting anchor and heading to Vathi on Ithaka – a good harbor and our hop off anchorage before our long run to Zakynthos (about 60 miles) where we’ll pick up Jessie and her friend Hugh. 

On our way to Vathi 

Vathi at night

The trip to Zakynthos had a bit of everything, some sailing, some motoring and some motorsailing. It took about 8 hours to get there but half the fun is just being on the boat moving so we enjoyed the ride. Matt had a work conference call to get to at 6 pm our time and we anchored just in time off the town of Laganas. He had another one at 9 pm so Marina whipped up a nice dinner in between and it was a peaceful night on board. Laganas is the town where sadly, the young American tourist was beaten to death a couple of weeks ago so we felt quite happy to avoid it at night.

Next morning however, we took the dinghy in and got our 15,000 steps walking to the airport. We first walked through Laganas and can understand how thing could get out of shape in a bar fight. It felt like a mini Vegas but where alcohol instead of gambling is the focus. There were nightclubs, bars and liquor stores everywhere. 

The look was way too gaudy for our liking, nothing like the family run bars and dancing places I went to 30 years ago in the Aegean Islands…maybe it’s still the same there, where there was always a 2 Brothers, 3 Brothers, 4 Brothers or 5 Brothers Taverna to go to. We found a nice place to have breakfast. It was close to 11:30 am and Matt asked if they were still serving breakfast, the guy laughed and said they were just starting! Everyone sleeps off the night before. The food was excellent and off we went on our hot 7.2 km walk.

On the way we stopped in to “Gregory’s Mini Market”  for Matt to get a Coke, and met Gregory (we assume) and his dad. “Gregory” was having his dad try on his Nike runners because his dad got sore feet from his own shoes. We had a lovely chat about sons and dads and encouraged his dad to go for a little run to test them out with the smiles and laughter that comes from trying to communicate in two different languages. It was one of those little nuggets you get along life’s path worth remembering.

We arrived at the airport about a half hour before their plane was to arrive so Marina went in and enjoyed the air conditioned airport while Matt stayed out to watch the aircraft come and go until their plane landed. After about 15 minutes of waiting, voila! There they were, happy and tired and ready to roll. We grabbed a cab, had him briefly stop so we could get some groceries and then to Bonnie (dinghy) and on to Tara. 

Jesse port side, Hugh starboard side

They quickly got settled and we then motored off for a swim and snorkel at the nearby island with a small beach and caves to explore.

After that we motored slowly to anchor off the small town of Keri (much more to our liking than Laganos), we showered off the transom, relaxed for a bit and went into town for a very nice Greek dinner. 

Then Jessie and Hugh crashed…they did very well holding off sleep until around 11 pm.