Fiskárdho

Having said goodbye to Sophie early on the morning of 21 July we had a problem. We had intended to leave Port Zákinthos promptly and make a 50 mile passage north to get us up to the north end of Cephalonia so that we could explore new territory. However, the position of the large motor yacht next to us would make getting out of our berth very difficult for us. BV does not go backwards well. When you select reverse, because of prop walk, she initially moves sideways to port. If you gun the engine and get her moving the rudder starts to respond and you can begin to straighten her up. A crosswind can help a little or, as was the case here in our berth in Zákinthos, hinder you by compounding the effect. Wind and propwalk would push us straight onto the side of the very shiny MY Heavenly Daze; not a place to be with a high power setting trying to accelerate backwards. Further still, we would need to recover our anchor and that was sat on the bottom extremely close to Heavenly Daze’s anchor chains.

Our assessment was that even if we moved slowly down the side of the motor yacht carefully fending off, we would then end up with our rigging pressing on the anchor chain and the bow area of the motor yacht. There would be nothing graceful about the manoeuvre and we felt the risk of damage to either us or MY Heavenly Daze was too great. We could either wait in Zákinthos until Heavenly Daze moved on, or try to hire the assistance of a RiB to drag us out. The RiB option sounded viable but we’d still be left with a complicated manoeuvre to recover our anchor completely dependent on the skill of the RiB driver to keep us off Heavenly Daze’s anchor chains.

We elected to stay put until Heavenly Daze’s had embarked their charter clients and could depart either late on Monday evening or early Tuesday morning.

We took the opportunity to drop the genoa to attend to some worn stitching and also to re-stitch some areas of the leach which looked like they had been weakened by the UV light. We also discovered a hairline crack in one of the watermaker’s manifolds so that will need to go back to the manufacturer for a refurbishment and repair. It’s a real shame because is had been nice to be able to generate our own water whenever we wanted.

Shamrock V

With an extra day in port we stocked up on some food and then relaxed in the cockpit for sundowners.

Heavenly Daze’s passengers arrived and their Mate told us that they would be moving off straight away; good news for us because there was a nice evening breeze. We slipped our lines, recovered the kedge anchor and started sailing north through Zákinthos Bay just as the sun was setting. Anchored to our right was the beautiful J-Class sailing yacht Shamrock V and to our left, dropping her anchor just outside Port Zákinthos, was Heavenly Daze. It was very nice of them to have moved to let us get away.

We sailed north overnight with Charlotte thoroughly enjoying looking at all of the extra stars you can see when you are away from cultural lighting. The Milky Way stood out very clearly and she spotted several satellites tracking across the night sky. The wind was variable and we varied from being overpressed with 1 reef in the main to ghosting along with just 6 knots of wind. We were in no real rush and both Nicky and I kept BV sailing for as long as we could. At 7 am we arrived at Fiskárdho at the northern end of Cephalonia. It was too early for anyone to have moved on and left us a space but we did an orbit of the harbour to see what it was like. It’s a popular tourist spot and the harbour was very full. We decided upon where we wanted to moor based upon the forecast winds and then moved on to find a nice anchorage for a morning swim.

Kolpos Atales

A short sail east took us into the large bay at the northern end of the adjacent island of Ithaca, Kolpos Atales. We anchored at a scenic and isolated spot and stopped for a swim and breakfast; a lovely way to start the day and kill a little time waiting for space in Fiskárdho.

The headland to the east of Fiskárdho is marked by 2 lighthouses. The left hand round one is Venetian and the right hand, functioning one, is Victorian. Above them in the trees are the ruins of a Norman church believed to have been built in memory of Robert Guiscard, a Norman adventurer who ruled the area briefly and died here in 1085. The town is named after him.

We returned to try to find space in the port at 10 am. The wind around the middle of the day was expected to be strong and from the south and so we discounted the available spaces and became second in a queue of yachts waiting for a space to open up on the southern quay. Circling for the best part of an hour we made it to the head of the queue but we got bored and moved around to anchor in the bay to the south. It was totally exposed to the south but, whilst we had been waiting, the wind had switched to the north. We had the bay almost to ourselves when we arrived but it quickly filled up by time we went ashore. The wind stayed in the northern sector so we stay at this anchorage rather than moving again.

Unexpectedly we found that our anchorage was overlooked by a Roman cemetery (2-4 century AD), which had been re-discovered in 1993. The site extends under the road but, from what they excavated, they discovered 47 graves (pictured above) with burial jars, sarcophagi and a mixture of jewellery and other artefacts such as oil lamps and pottery.

Fiskárdho was the only town on Cephalonia not to have been destroyed by the 1953 earthquake. We have read that this is because the town sits on a bed of clay which acted as a shock absorber. Either way, the town is very pretty and is protected by a historic area preservation order, so that new buildings are constructed in keeping with the old. It is also a major tourist site so most of the town has been renovated and gentrified for the benefit of visitors, though some buildings retain the ‘patina of age’.

It was very pleasant strolling around the seafront and the smaller roads behind but it did feel slightly like a Disney resort dedicated to yachting rather than a real living town. Quite where the locals buy their groceries, or what they do in the winter when there are far fewer yachts around, was not at all clear.

But then we’re tourists too, and we thoroughly enjoyed an evening glass of wine at a café overlooking the harbour watching the busy evening promenade and general hustle and bustle.