Vivari

Cliff looking good in his kilt

 

We had a wonderful few weeks back in the UK catching up with family and friends. This included a trip to Scotland to attend Cliff’s nephew Alan’s wedding, which was held near Falkirk in a lovely old church next to Linlithgow Palace. The men in the family all wore kilts and Cliff thoroughly enjoyed showing off his knees! On the way back we stopped at Whitley Bay in Northumberland and had a great evening catching up with our friends Alison and Tony from Reveller, who were also having a break from cruising the Med.

Sunset at Kilada

On August 28^th we flew back to Greece. Unfortunately a combination of a delayed flight and an hour and a half’s wait for our rental car meant we finally arrived back at the boatyard in Kilada at one o’clock in the morning. When we left the boat there had been a boatyard ladder tied to the stern so that we could climb up to the deck, which was about 12 feet from the ground. When we returned we found that the ladder had gone, so we had to creep around the yard in the dark trying to find one, hoping we wouldn’t wake the guard dogs. No such luck, within minutes they were in a barking frenzy, and with visions of Rockweilers snapping at our ankles we ran round like mad things until we finally found a suitable ladder and were up and onto the boat in record time!

A couple of days later the boat was back into the water. The weather had been hot and sticky and our launch was accompanied by a thunderstorm. As we motored away from the yard the lightning was putting on a very good show and we had a difficult decision to make, should we anchor in the bay and wait for the storm to pass, with the risk of the mast being struck by lightning, or should we press on towards our planned anchorage further north, where the sky looked clear? We decided to make a run for it and two hours later we were anchored in brilliant sunshine in the pretty bay of Vivari, just south of Nafplion.

The village of Vivari

Vivari is a peaceful spot in an almost landlocked bay with cliffs rising sheer from the water. The water is very clear and perfect for swimming and the village has a few tavernas and a small store, which was all we needed. We planned to stay there for a couple of days then sail round to Nafplion, where our friend Gina would be joining us on the boat.

The fried egg jellyfish

Later in the afternoon, after a swim off the back of the boat, Cliff spotted a shoal of jellyfish floating past. Once we got over our initial horror we were totally fascinated, as we hadn’t seen anything like this before. Some of them were as big as a dinner plate and from above they looked like a large fried egg, then underneath they had a mass of curly tentacles that looked a bit like hundreds and thousands.  A quick search on Google confirmed that they were Cotylorhiza Tuberculata, a type of jellyfish that can propel themselves so aren’t reliant on the current, and often have small shoals of fish swimming with them. They can grow to up to 35cm in diameter, but aren’t dangerous as they have a very mild sting. Needless to say, after this we took a very good look at the water before diving off the back of the boat!