Work stops when Tara lifts her anchor

Jess sporting her new "Italian" Bikini bottoms. (Yes...
she is wearing a top!)

Tara has always had a pretty crew. Marina is no slouch in a bikini, nor have been some of our guests like our niece Chelsea and our friends Sol and Kym. But this year there appears to be a new phenomenon on Tara. Whenever we lift anchor, all work in the harbour stops and all the guys watch us lift anchor. This was apparent in Zakinthos town today when four Spanish guys polishing the chrome on an American superyacht stopped work when we pulled up our anchor.  Hard to understand why this is happening.

To heck with Brexit, Jess is all-in being European

Farewell to Chloe in Zakinthos town

Jessie and Ross’ cousin Chloe graduated from Highschool this year and is going to UVIC next year. As a graduation gift we bought her a ticket to come and hang out with us for a couple of weeks – shortened because of her participation in a Provincial Fastpitch Tournament in a week or so.

Chloe doing a family selfie

We were trying to figure out how to best send her home. As we have mentioned many times we can often tell you where we’ll meet you or when, but not both because sailing is weather dependent. Our original plan was to rent a car and drive from the Peloponnese but the water temp was pretty low on the Peloponnese and we kicked our engine into high gear and did a couple of 60 mile days to make it to Zakinthos. Our last night with Chloe was in Zakinthos town. We pulled into the quay, going stern to, and then the girls went shopping. Chloe wanted to take some gifts home for friends and family and did most of her shopping in one go – good for her. They then came back to the boat and decided the restaurant they liked best was the one 50 feet down the quay … so that’s where we went.

Not the actual restaurant but a reasonable facsimile

After a whirlwind of appetizers including mussels, calamari, saganaki, Greek salad, zucchini fritters, and cheese croquettes washed down with a ½ kilo of Rose wine, a couple of 500ml Mythos and a couple of Baccardi and Cokes. We had a lively conversation and reminisced about the last 10 days and what the best parts were. Chloe was a great guest and is welcome back any time. I think that she loved Greece … particularly the water, how clean and clear it is. She said the highlight was the encounter with the dolphins we had the day before – how lucky was that to see them?

The amazing classic yacht Altair

After dinner we did a walking tour of the town eventually finding a Gelato place everyone liked. We walked through the very vibrant town square where many generations of Greeks hang out at once, Grandparents, parents, 20-somethings and kids all sharing space and experience. It is far superior to our programmed “Play Date” mentality in North America.  I truly believe that kids need to run wild and we teach them responsibility and respect for the family and community unit.

Walking around the lively town of Zakinthos

Enough preaching … we got back to the boat, Chloe started packing, I got into a bit of a row with the rest of the boat about iPad chargers – since I own the only iPads I was wondering aloud why I don’t have any chargers and they belong to others – ‘that’s not your iPad charger it’s mine’, to which I respond ‘you don’t have an iPad, how do you have an iPad charger’. Anyway after a bit of searching most of them were recovered and harmony returned.

Chloe set her alarm for 05:30 and she got up on time, her bag was mostly packed and she stepped off Tara for the last time this year at 05:50. We had arranged for a cab the night before and was assured that he would be there. Indeed at 05:52 we saw him careening up the quay at about 60kph. For 20Euros he took her to the airport. I got a text from her at 06:03 that she was already through security and waiting for the plane … good experience all around. 

We got another text around 9:30 saying that she was in Athens and checked in for her fight to Montreal and that they hadn’t selected the gate yet. We all had a chance to send her at text and wish her well. We’re going to miss her.

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.