Day 4 - Port Spilia (Σπηλια) to Ag. Eufimia (Αγ. Ευφημια) on Cephalonia

Wednesday, September 29
Travel time: 6 hrs, Distance: 29.5 nm

Morning hike up to the town

Everyone was up at 7:30 a.m. We all wanted to stretch our legs and walk up the hill to the town of Spartakhori. It was great to walk up the hill to town. Mark, Laverne, Kevin, and Sue had started up the hill before us. We waited for our turn to get water for the boat and filled up with 30 gallons - €3. It rained for 15 minutes while we waited.

In the early morning, residents are up walking to stores, sweeping, and visiting.

We passed the rest of the Didimos crew enjoying coffee on a small, second floor balcony of a cafe. Everyone was in a great mood. It was sunny, warm, and not raining!

The views from town are spectacular. We had a perfect view of the island of Skorpios opposite the port. Skorpios was the private playground of Aristotle Onassis.

As we all walked back to the boat, a double rainbow appeared. We took this to mean good luck and fair winds ahead.

Our final stop before the boat was Mama's taverna to stocked up on Mythos and club soda.

Leaving Port Spilia

We departed Port Spilia at 10:30 a.m. in light showers -- is this rain going to end? What we do know is that it is sunny in Athens.

The rain stopped after 20 minutes. No wind.

We motored around the northwest tip of Meganisi island and down the west coast to find the natural caves farther south. We were looking for "Papanikolaos," the second largest cave in Greece, rumored by the locals to be the hiding place of a Greek submarine during the Second World War.

We found the cave, motored in close for a look, and then headed east to Cephalonia island. Halfway to the island of Arkoudi (12 p.m.) the winds picked up, we raised our sails, turned off the motor, and enjoyed the next 4.5 hours of sailing bliss.

Kevin sailed from Arkoudi to the strait between Cephalonia and Ithaca. That leg took only two tacks. Winds 16.8 kts apparent, 11.7-16 true, boat speed 6-7.7 kts.

Mark took over and steered us wing-on-wing all the way to Ag. Eufimia. Winds were 10-15 knots, which makes for challenging downwind sailing. Boat speed 4-6.5 kts. Mark did a great job, never once getting close to the "accidental jibe."

Cephalonia is the largest of the Ionian Islands by land mass, but only 300,000 people live there. The island is rugged and steep. On the island is the highest mountain in the Ionians, Mount Nero 5,200 ft.

Here we are following a boat into Ag. Eufimia.

In ancient times, Cephalonia formed part of the kingdom of Odysseus, and here at least archaeologists have been able to find evidence of the ancient sites mentioned by Homer. Like most of the Ionian islands, Cephalonia has strong ties to Italy. During the early days of W.W.II, 9,000 Italians invaded the Ionians but never gained real control. The Germans landed on Cephalonia in 1943 fought with the Italians and then shot the surviving 3,000 solders.

Earthquakes destroyed much of the ancient architecture on Cephalonia. The 1953 quake demolished every town on the island, except Fiskardho. We noticed on many of the Ionian islands that the rebuilding after the numerous earthquakes has resulted in concrete architecture that is very plain and has the sense of plainness.

Ag. Eufimia used to be the main port for the east coast. But after the 1953 quake, the town was abandoned and Sami, to the south, became the major port. Eufimia was then rebuilt.

There were a lot of boats in Eufimia, but no Tradewinds boats. And, the crosswind was 24 kts. Great.

For our first mooring attempt, Kelli was helmsman. We didn't get out enough anchor scope (the water was deep) and had a little disagreement with a group of Germans on the boat we were going to moor beside. In the melee, we were blown over their rode and hooked our rudder. This not being a good thing, we worked carefully but quickly to push the chain down hoping to keep it off the prop, and off the rudder. Since the rudder is not built to take horizontal stress, we were rather concerned. But we managed to free ourselves and pull away from the other boats. Since the Germans were basically jerks during this whole evolution, we moved down the line and tried another spot. Not the best mooring, but we not the worst we observed. It is tricky getting the bow to the anchor point and then back down straight with crosswind. Good training, and no boat damage.

After awhile, a boat squeezed in along our starboard side, after first drifting down on our bow. It turned out to be a very friendly English couple double-handing on their second charter. Everyone was learning "on the job."

We hung around and watched other boats mooring. Then we headed out to explore town.

Kelli took these pictures for Doug, our house construction supervisor/foreman. We had a similar, but less severe, issue with rock on the site of our new house. Our excavation looked like the first picture. We used a much bigger CAT with a hydraulic hammer. The entire area looks to have this white rock subsoil.

Another boring Mediterranean sunset.

We had another great Greek dinner at a restaurant at the top of the hill overlooking the harbor. By this point in the trip, we are settling into Greek time and pace. We went to dinner late (8 p.m.), enjoyed a leisurely dinner (3 hrs), and got to bed at midnight.