Sailing down to Zakynthos



Sami on Cephalonia

23^rd August After leaving Meganisi we sailed down the narrow channel between the mountainous islands of Cephalonia and Ithaca. At the very bottom of the channel, on the island of Cephalonia, is the port of Sami, and this is where we’ve berthed for the night. We had to motor sail for most of the day as there was little wind, but as we arrived the wind suddenly got up, which made mooring hard work.

Cephalonia suffered a devastating earthquake in 1953 which leveled Sami and almost all the other towns and villages on the island. The ‘new’ buildings lack the character of some other Greek villages, but the setting is still pretty, as the town is surrounded by a circle of deeply wooded hills.

24^th August We are now moored on the quay in Zakynthos town, after a long sail down to the bottom of Cephalonia and across to the island of Zakynthos. We arrived to discover that today is the Festival of Dionysus, the biggest event of their year, and that the festival parade marches right past our boat. We should also have a great view of the firework displays that will be set off around the harbour.

Regain in Ormos Keri on Zakynthos



Jean, Esther, Pascale, Cliff, Maurice and Germain on Sandpiper

25^th August The celebrations were good fun but went on quite late last night, and when they finally ended the local bikers decided to use the road alongside the quay as a racetrack, so we didn’t get a lot of sleep! Today we sailed the final leg down to meet our French friend Jean and his family in Ormos Keri, an anchorage on the bottom of the island.

We joined Jean, Pascale and the children for lunch on their boat, ‘Regain’, and spent a very pleasant afternoon catching up. This evening they came over to Sandpiper for drinks. Cliff had been saving some Bombardier West Country Bitter for Jean to sample and it got the thumbs up!  It was great to see them again and meet their children, Maurice, Germain and Esther, who are lovely and seem to have adapted well to life at sea.

26^th August We wished Jean and Pascale a safe voyage as they set off for Sicily at 7.30 this morning. Soon after we upped anchor to head back  to Cephalonia and we’re now moored up back in Sami.