Monday 21 st May – Limenia Bay, Ithaca
We moved yesterday from the harbor at Frikes to Limenia Bay about half a mile to the north west and much more sheltered than the harbour. We have the place to ourselves just us a bunch of ants, loads of crickets, quite a few very noisy locusts and lizards. Looking out over the bay we can see the resident gulls mobbing either what looks to be a Buzzard or Short Toed Eagle every time it strays off the land over the bay.
We set up camp in a terraced olive grove so there are places to put the tent, hang the mosquito net and washing. I even did a bit of fishing last night and some ugly little fish grabbed my spinner, it must have been hungry as it was only about three times the size of the spinner. We also caught some of the local marine residents whilst washing up, a starfish, sea urchin of which there are always hundreds and a few of the funny centipede looking things the locals refer to as “willies”.
Looks like the weather may be changing with the wind coming from the south east and getting up a bit, if so we may have to stay put as it’s about 9 miles to Vathi and that would involve beating into the wind with the coast as a lee shore. Still it is really nice little cove we are in and only 10 minutes walk back to the nearest village.
We met three chaps sailing an old 32 foot folk type boat who seemed really nice and made an interesting proposition we need to give some serious consideration to when we get back.
We needed to get some more cash out today and nearest bank was in Stavros about 3-4 miles away but fortunately I managed to hitch a lift in the back of a truck and then hitched a lift on the back of a moped back so only took a few minutes. Managed to have a quick look round Stravros, visit the church and see Kephalonia across the straight.
After a beer in Penelope’s we walked back to the tent, warm but overcast then about half two the wind started to build. By 15:00 it was blowing a good 4-5 with white caps in the bay and boat bouncing about at anchor. The wind continued to increase and by 16:00 it was a steady force 6 gusting top end of 7. I spoke to a boat that came in at that time and he recorded 38 knots!
Our poor old boat was getting thrown up and down but seemed to be holding but seeing as it got so windy I ran a second line off the bow across to a lazy line in the corner of the bay and this seemed to hold her a bit steadier, together with the stern lines I already had rigged. One thing I am really glad of is having gone for a decent size anchor with 6m of chain and plenty of rope as well as bringing the old grapple as a stern/standby. By 19:00 the wind had dropped to a force 2 with just the swell left. We were both glad we were camped and not at anchor with the boat in the boat tent.
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