Yesterday was our last day on our chartered boat, "Neptune", sailing the Ionian sea. Riley had brought us all gifts and we took the opportunity to wear them for a group photo as a special memory of our time here together.
We woke up in the Syvota marina at the south end of Lefkada. Our ultimate destination for the day was the marina in Lefkas at the northern tip of the island where our journey began and would end. As usual we managed to find fun and adventure along the way. Before we left Syvota I picked up some traditional baklava pastries from a very cute and lively bakery. They were delicious, especially the chocolate ones! The girls enjoyed some once we were under sail while they wrote in their journals.
We had heard about the sea caves of Papanikolis, and once we stumbled upon them we decided to lower the sails so we could get a closer. Unfortunately for Matt you cannot anchor at this spot because it is too deep, so he had to stay on the boat, hovering outside the cave using the engines. I took Fiona over on a SUP board and April went with Riley. We were able to get right inside the cave, which was pretty eerie but so remarkably beautiful. We slithered through a crevice that takes you around a large rock formation that is essentially a tall skinny island (you can't see it until you're in it). Some may remember my fear of underwater rocks from a previous post - this was my opportunity to be brave, as I navigated the shaky waters on an inflatable SUP with rocks below the surface all around me. Fiona said "Mamma I know you're scared because I can feel the board shaking". It was spectacular though, so worth it!
After we made out way back to the boat, we continued our journey north through a channel between the islands of Lefkada and Meganisi. We eventually joined some other boats from our floatilla in a small bay outside the channel near Lakka beach, right across from Skorpios Island (the private island owned by the Onasis family). So many kids and adults were in the water soaking up our last few hours swimming, SUP'ing and exploring the rocky shoreline in kayaks and dingies. April and Fiona eagerly hopped on a SUP board to visit the other children.
We had a nice lunch on the boat - salad and a mishmash of all the food we were trying to eat up since it was our last day. Then the adults went for a dip. Matt and I floated on the SUP board soaking up the last 15 minutes before we needed to head back to the base marina.
When it was time, the anchor team went to work one last time.
The winds were ripe for sailing, but we were headed dead into the wind and needed to motor back to the marina to get there in time. Regardless it was a beautiful ride. To our starboard side we could see the beautiful shoreline of mainland Greece that we would be driving along today. Riley chilled on the bow, with April on the trampoline reading her book.
Fiona helped crew the boat for a little while.
And next thing I knew she was on the trampoline enjoying the fresh breeze dancing wild and free!
Eventually we made it all the way back to the south end of the almost 5 km long channel that connects Lefkada Harbour to the Ionian Sea. As we motored along, we saw several old ship wreaks that are only partially submerged just outside the channel as well as the ruins of an old stone fort.
As we approached the marina, we needed to refill the diesel tanks on the boat prior to returning it to the charter company - but so did every other charter boat so there was a queue of about ten boats in front of us and, ultimately, more than fifty boats behind us at the gas dock. It was semi-controlled chaos but we managed to get in and out with full tanks and no incidents (phew!)
During one of our many snorkeling/diving days, we had found a giant pen shell and kept it on board for decoration. Once we were tied up in the marina April felt it was time to send it back to the bottom of the sea for someone else to find later.
Within minutes, our new friends from some of the other boats made their way over with drinks and we became the end-of-floatilla party boat. When we pondered how best to use up our remaining gin (with no tonic) and a bottle of Presseco, it became obvious to me once I remembered we still had lemons we brought from the Amalfi Coast... French 75s! Because they were made a little differently (with ice, not shaken) and the lemons were so tasty, we called them "Amalfy 75s". Matt mixed them up and of course they were a hit!
After that round we all headed into town for dinner.. a mere 24 of us squeezed into one long table eating Greek salads, saganaki, tzatziki, zucchini balls, fried calamari, etc. One of the Moms took all the kids for ice cream (yes, more ice cream!). Matt, Bill and Riley stopped at an Irish pub with live music for a Guiness. And I headed back to the boat to start the dreaded task of packing everything up!
This morning, once all our bags were packed and on the dock by 9am, we said goodbye to Bill, Riley, and all our new friends. Then Matt, the girls and I began our journey back to Ithaki to spend a few days with our friends, Susanne and her girls Penelope and Olympia.
The trip back to Ithaki seemed to take at least as long as it had taken us to sail our way down there the first time over the course of three full days. We dragged all our bags down the 400 meter long dock, took a taxi back to the Lefkada airport, got a rental car, drove an hour and a half down the mainland coast (with beautiful views!) to the town of Astakos, and managed to be the last car they let onto the full-capacity ferry to Ithaki.
With a stop in Kefalonia first, we finally disembarked on Ithaki about seven hours after we had stepped off our catamaran in Lefkada. But from there, it was a quick ten minute drive from the ferry dock to our beautifully quaint little 7 room hotel just a block from the harbour in the town of Vathy where we spent the night docked here on Ithaki a few days ago.
It's been quite a journey here in the Ionian, with so many stops in remarkable little corners of this beautiful country. Now we are back in arguably the one we happened to like the most of all of them!
We are looking forward to a few quiet days here, experiencing the nooks and crannies of the island (from land this time) the way Susanne, Penelope and Olympia have learned to love it over their years spending summers here.
Laura, Matt, April & Fiona 🇬🇷
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