Wednesday 13th June Ligia, Lefkas

Wednesday 13^th June, Ligia, Lefkas

Left Meganisi and motored across to Nidri on the island of Lefkas as no wind to speak of and stopped for lunch and a chance to fill up the fuel can.

Set off after lunch and hoisted full sail once into the bay and sailed north east in a steady force NW1-2 to the island of Sparti. Dropped sail and motored into a small harbour and tied up on the quay next to fishing boat that left a few hours later.

The island is uninhabited apart from a few sheep, lizards and a snake about two and half long and is totally deserted, it was a weird feeling walking about knowing no-one else was within a least a mile across the bay.

It was an amazing place, someone originally has spent some money putting a road in around the island and started to build a big house just above the harbour and a small helpers lodge but then abandoned it. There was a little orchard with fig, olive and almond trees plus lots of terraced olive groves. The views across to Lefkas, south east towards Kalamos and north to the Lefkas canal with the mountains on the Greek mainland behind were spectacular.

Much to Viv’s delight we found two old chairs so sat down for dinner.

We chatted about what we would do if we owned it and how it could be brought up to some sort of quality accommodation, developing the harbour and possibly a small restaurant, it has so much potential and it seems a shame it is slowly going to ruin.

The harbour was really sheltered, too small and shallow for larger yachts but gave us the calmest night we have spent afloat in 5 weeks.

Wednesday 13^th June

We swam after breakfast and packing the boat before motoring off in bright sunshine north to Ligia on Lefkas just south of the entrance to the Lefkas Canal and will stay here for the night moored up amongst the fishing boats in the eastern end of the quay. It is supposed to be one of the best places on Lefkas to eat fish as it is one of the busiest fishing ports in this area.

The trip up to Ligia took us past the 200 nautical miles sailed mark, we’ve probably done quite a bit more as I have only calculated on the basis of as the crow flies each time.

We had lunch in a little restaurant on the quay that is famous locally for the fact it has at least one pair of Swallows that have been returning for 20 years now. There are boxes up above the tables to stop droppings around the nest and when they close up at night they leave a back window in the kitchen open so they can fly out early in the morning before they open up fully.