Back to Zákinthos

Ay Eufimia is a nice town but on Saturday 19 July we had to leave to start heading back towards Port Zákinthos for Sophie’s flight home. We had spotted a deserted little anchorage on the south side of the island of Ithaca, Ayios Andreas, which we wanted to take a look at before moving to our overnight port.

Ayios Andreas

Ayios Andreas turned out to be a gem. Charlotte and Sophie swam to the beach which they had to themselves but the real wow factor was the fish. When we anchored we could see a lot of fish in the water around BV but expected them to move away as soon as we were settled. In fact more and more came to look at us. When we went swimming we could see several hundred fish of various sizes in shoals all around us. They were not a bit concerned and seemed to be as inquisitive about us as we were about them. Surrounded by these fish, some less than an arm’s length away, we felt as though we were swimming in a tropical aquarium. It was an amazing experience we will all remember.

Reluctantly we pulled up the anchor and left Ayios Andreas to the goats climbing up the escarpment. We wanted to travel most of the way back towards Port Zákinthos and needed around 6 hours for that but by leaving just before lunch we also hoped to take full advantage of the afternoon wind.

Lunch was eaten on the go with some tasty wraps prepared by the girls and then, almost as soon as the washing up was done, the wind started to build.

With BV bowling along, Charlotte and Sophie found a new way to keep cool. The angle of heel allowed their feet to reach the water and so that became the new game for the afternoon. It was a great sail.

Our destination was Ay Nikólaos. We had visited there before but it was the only suitable port for an overnight stop which was the right distance on towards Port Zákinthos. However, there were no complaints. On our previous visit the girls had found a lovely little beach to relax on and the water both in the harbour and at their beach is crystal clear. The girls went for a cooling swim off ‘their’ beach whilst Nicky and I explored the food options. Sophie had mentioned that, from her time in Spain, prawns pil pil is one of her favourite dishes and we were lucky enough to get some really large prawns from the mini supermarket. We ordered them at the till and 10 minutes later they were delivered from the family’s restaurant – a great service and, as a result, our evening sundowners was very civilised!

We like Ay Nikólaos, and the café on the seafront is a lovely spot from which to watch the comings and goings in the harbour. Morning swims, jumping in from the extra height of the quayside and some holiday lazing around filled the morning before we slipped our lines and headed south.

Arriving back in Port Zákinthos at around 6pm we found the normal yacht berthing area full. However, it’s a large harbour and we were able to move over to the western side, right on the front by the bars, tavernas and hotels. After a couple of false starts (the mooring chains in our first berth were rather insecure and, having moved to a better berth, we dropped our stern anchor too late and it failed to bite first time around) we got settled a short distance from the largest sailing yacht in the harbour. We then saw some shipping agents signalling a very large and shiny motor yacht to moor beside us. There wasn’t much space to spare and they did an excellent job of mooring. We were perfectly positioned to enjoy the town and certainly felt that we had moored in the upmarket end of the port with everyone promenading past looking at the superyachts… and then us!

We had a very pleasant meal to say farewell to Sophie in the little, very local, Greek restaurant we had found. We shared some fried aubergine and stuffed peppers to get us going and then all went for souvlaki. Typically, despite our best intentions for restraint, we were very full when it came to wandering back to BV.

The taxi arrangements for Sophie went very smoothly with some really helpful staff in a nearby hotel arranging a taxi for her at 3:30 am.