Author Archives: Neil Cooper

Abigail’s creations

This blog is a feast for the eyes, after it was a feast for our tummies. This is what we ate this week – 3 meals a day all prepared with skill and artistry. Sometimes I forgot to take photos as I dove into the deliciousness! There might be a dish or two that are from somewhere else.

Today was a great day! We left the town of Vathy late, after shopping for a bit. Colleen and I walked the whole length of the board walk to the other side of town.

For lunch we stopped at a bay on Ithaka that had a rock bottom. It took several tries before we were able to get the anchor to hold. I was able to man the windlass until Iit came time to swim the lines. There was a boat in the harbour that was swinging the opposite of the other boats and we could not find a spot that didn’t swing into it. It appeared to be made of tin (Called “Tin Lizzie”). We eventually gave up and found a spot further in and stern tied to the shore.

When we left the bay the wind picked up to 10-14 knots so for the first time we were sailing! We got up to 7.5 knots. Today I was able to do a lot more. We had to beat upwind and I tacked the genoa. I also managed the anchor when we were anchoring at lunch time. I’m trying to take Abigail’s job (not the cooking part).

Stern tying here is the most common way to anchor (or pull up to the dock). I’m sure it is because there is barely any slope to the shores. The steep rock faces keep going down rock walls to at least 5 meters at only a few meters from the shore. Where there are beaches, they are small and there is a steep drop off at about a metre from the waterline. There is barely any tide and no waves – bad place for surfing. There is almost always a huge rock to tie to. It is much less stressful than a single anchor as there is no swinging around. In crowded harbours there is room for a lot more boats. It is early season and there are many fewer boats than would be seen in a month from now.

In the afternoon the wind was great so we abandoned our planned destination on Atoko and sailed past to Kalamos. Port Leones is a town that was wiped out by the 1953 earthquake and did not recover. The church was rebuilt but is the only building around that is intact.

Apparently there was a 6.1 earthquake near Crete today and there were tsunami warnings. We didn’t notice anything.

Dinner was another masterpiece with pork souvlaki, rice,salad and desert was Halva with a berry and red wine reduction. We went to look at the stars before bed.

We have been to 38 countries so far and in most of them (not the Asian countries) , the written language is based on the same character set. Our alphabet are Latin based and I can usually figure out enough to understand the words on a sign.

The Greek language words are familiar but the character set doesn’t match up. We have, of course, been using these characters in math , science and medicine all our lives, but we haven’t used them in our daily writing.

The sounds the letters make are all familiar, it’s just we are not used to those letters making those words.

For example, “Θέλω παγωτό”, is “I want ice cream” or “Thélo Pagotó”. I can sound it out if I do “Theta epsilon lambda omega” = “Thelo”, “Pi” “alpha”, “gamma”, “omicron”, “tau”, “omega”.

So where does the saying, “It’s all Greek to me” come from. It probably started with the early translating of ancient scripts and the Latin monks would encounter passages in Greek and would not be able to translate them. Instead they would copy the characters and put a note in the margin, “Graecum est, non legitur”, “It is Greek. It cannot be read”Later in 1599, the saying became popular to describe a lack of understanding, after Shakespeare used it in Julius Caesar, when the Cassius asked Casca about a conversation among conspirators. He didn’t understand the plans so told Caesar so by using the “It is Greek” metaphor. That has become the saying when we don’t understand what people are talking about.

I’ve been getting up at 5 – 5:30 as usual. It is nice and quiet then as the next one up is Abigail at 6:30 or so. I have pretty much had the sunrise to myself. Today – not so much.

Josh told everyone that the way this cove opens, today would be the best time to see the sunrise. People started getting up at 6:00 or so and pretty much everyone was up by 6:30. The sunrise was pretty nice.

After sunrise, we had breakfast and then set off on our trip south to Eufemia back on Kefalonia. As we were coming into the cove Josh yelled for me to put the engines in neutral. The throttle control and gear shift are all in one unit. There is no actual gear shift as the transmission is automatic. We were going about 6 knots and I pulled the levers back – past neutral and into reverse for a couple seconds. The boat did not like that and Josh said he heard a noise. After that the wheel kind of freewheeled and the rudder indicators were not agreeing with each other. I broke the boat!! Josh was able to get us into our anchorage and send us off on our shore excursion.

We went on a land based excursion to a couple caves, a Monestary then to a wine tasting place. We had a driver and van with us for the day. We got back in time for lunch.

While we were gone, Josh managed to fix the steering system. It sounds like the hydraulic system needed to be reset. It was not a major problem. This was a learning moment for me for newer propulsion systems.

We went on three different excursions on land this morning. We went to a huge cave with a lake inside. We were rowed across the lake to the other side by an old Greek guy who sang and tried to be funny but his accent ment most of what he said was lost on us. It kind of felt like Phantom of the Opera with the Gondola in the cave. “In sleep he sang to me, in dreams he came…”We then went to another cave system – no lake but cool walk through the cave system.

Next when went and visited a Monastery founded in 1560s. The trees they planted then are still there. The church was very ornate with paintings all over the ceiling. No photos allowed in there.

The last place on our excursions was a winery where we were able to sample 6 different wines each. This was the most well organized wine tasting I have done and solidified the fact that I can’t taste or smell a thing. I liked the dry whites less than the rose or red, but not that much more. The sweet desert wine tasted like cough syrup. We really liked all the crystal glassware.

After our excursions on land we headed back to the boat for lunch – Musakka Greek Shepard pie), and then motor back around Ithika to a great little town called Vathy. The houses are all perched on the slope above the road that curves along the harbour. We were relatively late getting to the harbour so there was nowhere to anchor. We did find a spot along the boardwalk to anchor for the night. Tonight was our dinner at a Restaraunt.

We had Sea Bass. Ice cream after dinner of course. In the night was a huge thunder and lightning show. I didn’t want to hang out on deck with it so I went back to bed. It was raining this am as I write this but looks like it will be another great sunny day,

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Today we left Kefalonia for Ithaca. This island is the place where Ulysses did his Odyssey. It is the story, kind of a travel blog, where Ulysses traveled for 10 years (after his genius move with the Trojan horse conquered Troy) trying to get home. The Gods were not too happy with him so every step of the way bad things happened and his men were all killed. They encountered the Cyclops, the witch Circe, were swept to Hades, evaded the Siren mermaids with Ulysses tied to the mast and the men with wax ear plugs so they couldn’t here the Sirens songs. I came through that passage today with my noise cancelling headphones on – you can’t be too careful. We didn’t hear or see any mermaids. There was some singing at dinner time…

We tried sailing today, but we had very little wind – got only 2 knots of speed. I got to drive a bit. Captain Josh had a good saying when approaching another boat – Go to port, go to court. In other words – always pass to the starboard side.

We stopped for lunch at a town called Kioni – very cute little town and we took a hike to ancient windmills on the point.

We motored down the length of Ithaca while reading Homer (actually a kids book summary of Homer’s Odyssey.)

We are staying tonight on a little cove with a swim through cave (if you can free dive.) Josh did it and looked for lobsters.

My favorite job is when tying off the stern lines to the rocks, someone has to jump in with the line and swim ashore, climb the sharp lava rocks and tie the line there. Then swim back and do a second line. Abigail usually does it but I like to help.

A note on the underwater worlds in Greece. I think the scuba isn’t so good. – it looks like it is all rocks. No coral, and not much in the way of fish.

Supper with a big Happy Birthday sign and music and fireworks on the cake. Almond Meringue and cream sauce. Delicious.

This morning I woke up at 5:30 as usual and enjoyed the sunrise to myself. Abby got up to make us breakfast at about 6:30. She made French toast with a pineapple and rum sauce, yogurt, fruit plate, cheese and meat plate and even glutin free food for Colleen and Eve.

I got to try out the stand up paddle board and do an out side the boat tour.

We motored south to Kefalonia for lunch near a cave. I got to swim the line ashore for the long stern line mooring. In Canada it’s too cold to swim the line ashore.

We had a great lunch and some down time and then back to explore the cave. The cave is where they get putty so it is kind of a greasy rocky stuff inside.

There is a herd of goats that live on the cliffs overlooking the cave. Many of them have bells on them so you can hear them coming.

Apparently, the goats like to sleep inside the cave. We climbed up the cliff and then walked along the road to the town of Fiskardo, another cute little quaint, marina side town with shops and restaurants every few feet. There is a lot of of that here.

In town we stopped at a cafe and had more drinks and then at another bar and had more drinks. I had ice cream. We have been reminded to stay hydrated. I think it is supposed to be water,

After our shore excursion, instead of walking the 30 minutes back to the cave and boat, we all crammed in the dingy for the 10 minutes ride back.

We had some down time (naps) before dinner.

After dinner we had a great discussion on the merits of electric cars – Laird just bought a Ford Lightning for one of his crew. He hasn’t driven it yet. We also heard lots about drag racing.

Today we arrived at the boat after spending the day getting us and our bags down to Vlicho and to return our car to Nydri. The plan was to drop the bags at the boat and then return the car and then walk back to the boat – about 40 minutes.

We stopped at a beach bar and had coffee, then began our walk. It turns out you can’t get there from here – we had to backtrack about 30 minutes. The road and boardwalk along the coast ends in an area of ship yards and private land that blocks the way along the coast. We were on the way back and Lisa messaged us saying they had all gathered together at the cafe we had just left. Our 40 minutes walk got us nowhere. We spent the next few hours in the cafe getting to know our fellow travellers. At just before 5 we all piled into a taxi van and drove the 10 minutes to the boat – Gratitude – aa 59 foot Fontaine Pajot.

We were upgraded! This will certainly make looking at boats a bit disappointing as it is very luxurious.

Here is a video walk through.

Our crew are Josh and Abigail from Northern Ireland. They are from the same town but didn’t really know each other. This is her 3rd trip. She didn’t really have sailing or cooking experience but she is very good at cooking for us. She made marinated swordfish steaks for dinner.

We didn’t last long after dinner. We all went to bed just after 10. Dinners will be at 8 pm this trip – the Mediterranean way. Catamaran boats don’t rock nearly as much as monohulls but we were still gently rocked to sleep. Too much to drink in the evening and we both had to get up multiple times in the night… sigh.

This post curtesy of Chat GPT (The photos are mine)

The vibrant red flowering plant in your photos is Bougainvillea.

Key Features:

The bright red or magenta “flowers” are actually modified leaves called bracts. The true flowers are small, white, and tubular, nestled inside the bracts. Bougainvillea is a tropical and subtropical vine that thrives in full sun and dry conditions. It can be trained into trees, shrubs, or used as climbers over walls, fences, and pergolas.

This plant is especially popular in Mediterranean climates—like in Greece, where your photo likely was taken—due to its brilliant color and drought tolerance.

Our top ranked spot where the water meets the land

We are pretty lucky to been to a lot of beaches. Too numerous to count! If we include camping lake beaches when we were kids (for me Lake Kalamalka, for Colleen Lac La Biche) we are in the thousands. There are so many ways to rank them – best view, best water color, finest sand, least bugs, warmest, best wildlife underwater, least populated – no ranking system can take it all in.

Today we got to visit one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen. It ticks a lot of boxes!

We rented a little Peugeot car today and drove, on a road a little bigger than the Calgary bike paths, up, up up and over the mountain on Lefkada on a scenic road of switchbacks and cliffs to the other end of the island.

The drive was so much fun, but was a bit tainted by the rain. It wasn’t really slippery but I drove slowly so as not to test the tire grip on the edge of the cliffs.

There is a perfect time when the combination of temperature, humidity and altitude hits and the windows fog up instantly — yup that happened, When it happens on the edge of a cliff on a bike path for a road, you just have to stop and wait for the window defrost heater to kick in. Good thing there wasn’t much traffic and that there were a few little spots to pull over.

It is really hard to follow signs when you can’t even sound out the letters and we all know Google map’s sometimes doesn’t get it right, so we may have had to 3 point turn around in someeone’s driveway a few times. This all adds to the adventure. The car was a great decision today – we could have been on a scooter.

The parking lot for this beach is at the top of the cliff. We wondered if someone just shows up in the morning and tells the tourists that it is €5 to park there. You can kind of see the beach from the top but the little peak is just a glimpse of the magic once you get on the stairs. There are about 80 narrow rocky steps down the cliff to get there. It is steep and uneven – can’t really pause and take photos. Once you get to the bottom though…

Porto Katsiki Beach

This place is breathtaking! Definitely among the top beaches we have visited. The rain stopped as we got there and we were treated to an amazing few hours in one of the most beautiful spots on the planet.

The white cliffs are the frame for the white sand and pebble beach and the water color….Chat GPT says,

The blue of the sea in your photo is a stunning turquoise-cyan, with a strong aqua or electric blue tone. It’s vibrant and luminous, likely due to shallow waters and white sandy or limestone seafloor reflecting sunlight.

This shade is often called:

• Tropical Blue

• Aegean Blue (especially fitting, since this looks like a Greek coastal scene)

• Turquoise

• Electric Cyan

In hex color terms, it most closely resembles something like #00e6e6 to #33ccff depending on lighting and depth.

We have said so many times that the pictures don’t do it justice but …

After a few zzz, the clouds came back and the rain threatened again so we climbed back up the stone steps to our little car. Definitely a highlights reel beach for us.

We took the long way back – around the southern tip of Lefkada to where we will be meeting up with our home and transportation for the next week. We managed to stop and chat with the crew who were just getting ready to send their guests off for dinner so they can start the cleanup up job getting the boat ready for us for tomorrow.

There are a lot of beaches here. Someone has ranked them. Not sure of the ranking system, but it seems the harder it is to get to, the higher the ranking. We spent 2 days looking for Orkos Beach which is ranked #1. The description said it was a challenging walk from the parking spot.

Yesterday we rode around in circles for hours trying to find the parking area and path that leads to the beach – without any luck. Today we were determined! This is only a 30 sq km island (about 2 1/2 Nose Hill park).

We used Google maps, Apple Maps (both in my headphones), my built in sense of direction, and I also had Colleen in my ear with, “we went past that building again…”. We left at 9 am and finally ended up in Laggos for coffee at 10:30. It’s about 7 minutes if we take the direct route!

Our searching for the path was finally rewarded and we parked the bike in Lakka and headed off on foot. It took another hour of hiking on a loose rocky footpath with huge steps and steep hills.

We finally found the elusive Orkos Beach at around 1 pm. This has been described as the “Prettiest beach in the world”. I think they missed a few in the Caribbean.

We hung out, read, swam and chatted with the one other couple who ventured down. On the way back the trail and roads were clearly marked and it took us about 13 minutes to get back. Clearly we are not navigating on the Amazing Race any time soon.

Riding around on our scooter and exploring the island is really fun! This small island is covered with green and is beautiful to see. Unfortunately it is hard to take pictures while riding.

Here are some sites around Paxos

We went back to our apartment and rested after overdoing it on Colleen’s bipedal propulsion system. She has been awesome! She is getting stronger every day and has not really had to miss on any of our wild adventures. I wonder how much the millions of steps she took at Westjet were protective of her hips.

To night we walked into town and had supper and returned our faithful steed – our moped.

Here are some sites of the day.