While we are back home in Auckland, New Zealand, this posting takes the Blog up to 3 October.
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
From Vasiliki on Lefkas Island we returned to one of our favorite places – Kefalonia, the largest of the Ionian Islands, and where the tragic events took place featured in the great must-see movie, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
The movie is based on WW11 when 12,000 Italian troops were occupying Kefalonia. After the Italians deposed their fascist dictator, Mussolini, and signed an armistice with the Allies in late 1943, the 2,000 Germans also based on Kefalonia demanded that the Italians surrender their weapons to the Germans. This was to prevent these weapons being used against them. The Germans also brought in Stuka dive bombers, tanks, and landed large numbers of battle-hardened reinforcements. The Italians’ pride didn’t allow them to hand over their weapons, so they resisted the Germans. The Italians were brave but inexperienced in battle, and suffered heavy casualties in subsequent fighting lasting seven days. After the surviving Italians finally surrendered to the Germans about 5,000 of them were shot dead on Hitler’s direct orders. Some German troops strongly objected to carrying out this order, but were themselves threatened with execution if they disobeyed.
Foki BayWe first cruised to Foki Bay – one of the greatest places we’ve ever anchored in, and stayed there for three glorious days. This beautiful cove is surrounded by forest, has clear and clean, water with lots of small fish swimming around (when we swam they seemed to follow us), a beach at the head of the cove and a taverna just a short walk away with views over the bay. But wait there’s more – the bay has an interesting cave that you can go right into using the dinghy or snorkel around, and the atmospheric village of Fiskardo is only 20 minutes walk away. Here we just relaxed, swam, snorkeled, and enjoyed the sun for a few days.
Envoy anchored in Foki Bay
Fish beside Envoy in Foki Bay feeding on bread
Envoy and Bruce and Lesley’s catamaran, Midi, in Foki Bay
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Envoy is anchored just outside the line of buoys marking the beach's swimming area
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Another view of Envoy and Midi - two NZ boats in paradise!
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Laurie enjoying a coffee with Lesley and Bruce in Fiskardo, Kefalonia
Fiskardo is a popular destination with quaint shops and tavernas
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Leaving Foki Bay we cruised a little south to Ay Eufimia, one of our favorite harbours. Here we anchored in clear water, swam and saw turtles swimming nearby, had an evening drink ashore in one of the many tavernas, and watched the anchoring antics of charter yachts as they arrived and departed.
TECHNICAL:
On our 2.7 metre Valiant RHIB, bought mid-2010, the wooden transom is starting to separate from the starboard pontoon, and will need fixing over the winter. At the same time we’ll get a slow air leak fixed, and covers (known as “chaps”) made for the inflatable pontoons to protect them from U/V and abrasion.
I’ve mentioned bio-diesel on the blog previously as not being ideal for marine use, and now found out that all diesel sold in the EU contains some bio-diesel. So far I’ve not been able to find out the “bio” content in the fuel, but there’s not much we can do about it except to be aware of bio-diesel’s reduced storage time, and increased tendency to collect moisture.
LOG: Up to 3 October had spent 187 days aboard, and cruised 1,702 miles for 329 engine hours.
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
From Vasiliki on Lefkas Island we returned to one of our favorite places – Kefalonia, the largest of the Ionian Islands, and where the tragic events took place featured in the great must-see movie, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
The movie is based on WW11 when 12,000 Italian troops were occupying Kefalonia. After the Italians deposed their fascist dictator, Mussolini, and signed an armistice with the Allies in late 1943, the 2,000 Germans also based on Kefalonia demanded that the Italians surrender their weapons to the Germans. This was to prevent these weapons being used against them. The Germans also brought in Stuka dive bombers, tanks, and landed large numbers of battle-hardened reinforcements. The Italians’ pride didn’t allow them to hand over their weapons, so they resisted the Germans. The Italians were brave but inexperienced in battle, and suffered heavy casualties in subsequent fighting lasting seven days. After the surviving Italians finally surrendered to the Germans about 5,000 of them were shot dead on Hitler’s direct orders. Some German troops strongly objected to carrying out this order, but were themselves threatened with execution if they disobeyed.
Foki BayWe first cruised to Foki Bay – one of the greatest places we’ve ever anchored in, and stayed there for three glorious days. This beautiful cove is surrounded by forest, has clear and clean, water with lots of small fish swimming around (when we swam they seemed to follow us), a beach at the head of the cove and a taverna just a short walk away with views over the bay. But wait there’s more – the bay has an interesting cave that you can go right into using the dinghy or snorkel around, and the atmospheric village of Fiskardo is only 20 minutes walk away. Here we just relaxed, swam, snorkeled, and enjoyed the sun for a few days.
Envoy anchored in Foki Bay
Fish beside Envoy in Foki Bay feeding on bread
Envoy and Bruce and Lesley’s catamaran, Midi, in Foki Bay
.JPG)
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Another view of Envoy and Midi - two NZ boats in paradise!
This shot of Midi shows the great little beach with taverna behind
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Great view as we walked from Foki Bay to Fiskardo
Laurie enjoying a coffee with Lesley and Bruce in Fiskardo, Kefalonia
Fiskardo is a popular destination with quaint shops and tavernas
.JPG)
Leaving Foki Bay we cruised a little south to Ay Eufimia, one of our favorite harbours. Here we anchored in clear water, swam and saw turtles swimming nearby, had an evening drink ashore in one of the many tavernas, and watched the anchoring antics of charter yachts as they arrived and departed.
TECHNICAL:
On our 2.7 metre Valiant RHIB, bought mid-2010, the wooden transom is starting to separate from the starboard pontoon, and will need fixing over the winter. At the same time we’ll get a slow air leak fixed, and covers (known as “chaps”) made for the inflatable pontoons to protect them from U/V and abrasion.
I’ve mentioned bio-diesel on the blog previously as not being ideal for marine use, and now found out that all diesel sold in the EU contains some bio-diesel. So far I’ve not been able to find out the “bio” content in the fuel, but there’s not much we can do about it except to be aware of bio-diesel’s reduced storage time, and increased tendency to collect moisture.
LOG: Up to 3 October had spent 187 days aboard, and cruised 1,702 miles for 329 engine hours.
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