Old post that didn’t make it out in mid June.
Jerri:
We were able to make our way quickly up to Corfu over 5 long days. Thursday night we arrived to Cephalonia, explored the town of Fiskardho, and planned to check out of the country Friday morning. Fiskardho was beautiful and an interesting mix of middle-aged, nicely dressed British tourists, and a surprising number of super drunk people. While we tied up our dinghy some completely wasted American cruiser engaged us in conversation about our dinghy and during an early dinner by Greek standards (8:00 p.m.) we observed dozens of younger women stumbling down the street. It was an odd mix of people. It did help explain the complete deadness of the town the next morning at 8:00 a.m. when we arrived to have breakfast, pick up some produce, and check out. Typically, there is a healthy early morning coffee scene in the towns, but we were hard pressed to find one place open to get breakfast.
Unfortunately, we discovered that the port police in Fiskardho were not able to check us out, but the female officer decided to do something involving stamps, several phone calls, some copying, and lots of flipping through our papers since we were already there. She seemed excited about the project since she had never done it before. We were in a hurry to get to Corfu so we’d arrive before nightfall. We eventually got out and began to make our way north. We ended up bailing out a bit early (Tim had a conference call) and spent time in two different anchorages. The first was gorgeous and we swam to a cave that we explored and then to shore. The sandy bottom was a pristine white, but the beach was white stones. It was too rolly to spend the night so we headed another hour north where we had a peaceful night. An early start this morning got us to Corfu by noon. We set off on foot to get to the main harbor to check out. On the way, we stopped at a ships store and bought about 10 kg (80 meters) of floating line to assist when we anchor and have to tie to shore and left it at a nearby gas station for later pick up since the store was closing. We proceeded to make our way to the port police. Our check out procedure started with the policewoman flipping through our stuff, asking questions, making copies, a couple of phone calls, a fax, and then we were told to go to passport control (3/4 mile walk) and come back. We go to passport control, the guard gate man pointed us in the right direction, the customs guy yelled at us for a few minutes, we got our passports stamped and were told to come back after we walked back to the port police for another stamp. The guard gate guy decided it was hysterical that we had to come back, made a few jokes, said he wasn’t going to let us leave the country, etc, etc. Back to port police. She stamped our papers, back to customs, he took our log book and sent us merrily on our way. The guard gate joker decided to walk away from his post and leave us locked in, shouted to us that he had gone on strike and we’d have to stay inside. Tim asked if the barbed wire on top of the gate was electric, he found that hysterical, and let us out. So we’re free to leave!!!!
The 24 hour passage to Croatia was uneventful, check in was smooth, and we were done by 7:30 a.m. then headed out to have a peaceful couple of days at anchor in Lokrum, at beautiful national park with a monastery, botanical gardens, peacocks and a big network of trails. There was only one boat in the harbor when we arrived, but being quite small, we were looking around for a spot to settle and the captain called out to us that he was leaving and we should take his spot. We have great holding and spent quite some time working on tying our line to shore (as advised by the cruising guide) where we found several little bollards ostensibly for that purpose. We finally get settled, Tim goes to swim the anchor and a tourist boat comes in and deposits about 2 dozen older women. Who then proceeded to scream at us for the next 30 minutes. I mean they screamed non stop. We were about 50 ft from the beach and one woman took it upon herself to swim out to our boat and yell at us. Apparently, we were invading their space. They commandeered a park worker (who confirmed that we are allowed to anchor here) and we took the lines to shore down which seemed to appease them a little. They also accused Agility of ruining their clear water. I finally hollered back and asked how they got to the island – did they swim? That shut them up a little bit. Several hours later, the whole ordeal is even more bizarre because 1,000’s of tourists got dropped off here during the day. There are now 8 other boats in the harbor – the coast looks like a water park in August. When we asked the park ranger about the interaction, she rolled her eyes and said Croat’s are loud. They sure were a lot nicer 16 years ago. I don’t do well when verbally accosted after 24 hours at sea immediately after getting settled in a super peaceful, beautiful anchorage. Anyway, welcome to Croatia – holy shit. I’m just glad my brother wasn’t on board. Ha. I was ready to kick that ladies ass. Tim played some calming music, but it didn’t work.
Hi Jeri & Tim,
I was hoping you might still be in the Greek islands while I’m in Paros July 13 – 28, but the title of this post makes me think you’ll have sailed on by then. The friends I’m staying with have a house right on the water just outside Parikia where we lazy around watching the boats come & go all day. It would have been a treat to watch Agility sail in, and to be able to meet up for drinks and dinner. I was hoping for a first-hand look at a tangible example of “Making your own reality”! 🙂 If there’s any chance you’ll be in Paros while I’m there, please let me know & I’d love to catchup with you there. If I’ve missed tho … your posts continue to inspire, & Wishing You Fair Winds and Calm Seas!
Warmest regards,
Jeffrie
Jeffrie, good to hear from you. We’ll be in Croatia and then heading west toward the USA. Have a great trip to Paros.
Great experiences and vivid re-telling. A mix of Catch-22, Kafka and 1984 ( if it had humor). Puts the complaining back here ( yep, still going on) in perspective.
If you skip over to Dubrovnik from your calm little island, think of us when you walk the wall.
Best, Pat and Tom
P.s. have a happy 4th! A couple of favorites for tomorrow:
May we think of freedom. not as the right to do what we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.
Peter Marshall
Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.
Albert Camus
Tom, thank for the 4th quotes. It’s always strange to celebrate the 4th away from home and even stranger this year. I remember spending a very nice evening with you and Pat at the Karpuk’s party on the 4th of July! At least I’m 90% sure that was the occasion.
We haven’t walked the walk yet, but will get into Dubrovnik at least once before we leave and will think of you!
Have a great holiday.
Your encounter reminded me of the guys at the bar in Mexico, you go girl put those idiots in there place!!! Happy 4th, another party tonight at the Karpuk’s and then tomorrow I’m off to Canada. Miss and love you both and have a wonderful time in Massachusetts for the wedding??
Hope the party was fun! Have a great time in Canada and hope you are back before we take off again end of August!
I would have cranked the Yanni that Tim put on
I had to look up Yanni. Ha. I did consider cranking Cartman’s version of Come Sail Away!