SPILIA

We had checked out Spilia while riding around Meganisi and decided it was a rather beautiful spot to visit after Mitikas and so, we sailed into the small privately run marina and settled in for the night. We had heard that mooring, electricity and water were free at the port as long as you bought a meal at the restaurant. We did so and had a brilliant, relatively inexpensive meal (20 Euro for two). We would have had dinner at the restaurant anyway so this was a good solution. David had Greek lamb casserole baked in an alfoil packet that was utterly heavenly. Mine was the tastiest stuffed aubergine.

Our boat at the dock

 We decided to stay another day, and catch up with the second lot of curtain making and generally take it easy.

The excellent marina restaurant

After 2 nights we decided to spend a day just sailing across the inland sea catching as much wind as possible from Meganisi to Nidri and then back to Spilia. We sailed and sailed, touching 6.5 kts in the most beautiful beam reach conditions. Once again David was a happy, happy boy!!

A rather large 'Wally' next to our boat

Late in the afternoon we headed back to Spilia, moored at the next wharf (cost 5 Euro electricity and water) and settled in for the night By 6pm the seas had turned and we experienced a massive storm, raging 30kt winds and generally unpleasant conditions. Thank goodness we were safely tucked up in the marina!

MITIKAS and KALAMOS

For some time, we've been fantasising about buying a house in Greece. Mitikas seemed to be a small port that might fit the bill and so, after locating a couple of places for sale on the internet, we sailed over to Mitikas to check out the real estate. It's a lovely, quiet little town, very much undiscovered in the Ionian area (no one seemed to know much about it) and perhaps for good reason. Apparently it's very popular with locals from the inland towns during summer and the tiny marina becomes unavailable to any visiting yachts.  As it was, there was limited space, no electricity or water and the town is positioned at the end of fierce north westerly winds that blow all summer. Probably not such a good place to be!
The sea level is about 20cms below land. I cant imagine how global warming will eventually affect the town.

The small restaurants were excellent. Many seemed to concentrate on traditional dishes and were delicious.

We spent some time chatting with the locals, who felt there town was missing out on the tourist progress being made in the Ionian because of too much complacency and bureaucracy.

KALAMOS

We had a brilliant sail to Kalamos where we took refuge from a summer gale that covered the boat in brown dust apparently brought on the winds from Africa. We walked up the steep roads above the marina to explore the town, but realised how difficult it would be to organise and carry every piece of wood and nail from the mainland.
That night we went to the marina restaurant for dinner but were told that they have no mastercard facilities. This would not be a problem as we could pay next time or even next year! Imagine this happening in Australia.