A Ride of a Lifetime 2005

Having really enjoyed our stay in Palma it was time to move on and tear ourselves away from some good friends and a vibrant city. We hugged the northern coast of the island and set sail for Menorca. From there we crossed over to northern Sardinia and enjoyed exploring the beautiful Maddalena islands. We even managed to anchor off Porto Cervo and rowed ashore to experience the jet set high life for an evening. Over next to the delightful islands of Ponza, Ischia and Procida before slowly cruising along the Amalfi coast. It was a hot, balmy August and the winds were kind enabling us to anchor off Amalfi allowing us to explore ashore and visit the cliff top village of Ravello. Marinas and bouys are prohibitively expensive but we struck lucky with the tiny fishing harbour of Cetara where we moored alongside free for a week. From here we were able to take public transport to visit both the unmissable sites of Pompeii and Paestum. We then continued down along the coast of Italy, catching our first tuna along the way, on through the Straits of Messina and waited in Rocella Ionica for a weather window to cross over to Greece.
 

It was a windy two day crossing to Lefkas and the delights of the Ionian islands. We cruised up the Gulf of Corinth visiting Messolonghi, Patras, Nafpaktos, Trizonia and Galaxidi. From Itea we took a bus up to the wonderful site of Delphi.  We then made our way up to the unfrequented Gulf of Amvrakia. We anchored off Vonitsa as well as the islands in the centre where we enjoyed the peace and quiet and were entertained by playful dolphins.  It was soon time to seek shelter for the winter months so we made our way back to Lefkas. The marina is centrally situated in town and all shops and restaurants were walking distance away. It was a cold and wet winter with a lot of condensation. We managed to escape the boat for a few excursions inland and drove to Meteora to see the monasteries precariously built on rock pinnacles some 400 mts above the ground. Our next stop was Monodendri one of the beautiful stone villages in Zagori dating back to 1360 AD at an altitude of 1060 mts in the Pindus mountains. The landscape was very impressive and we peered down the Vikos gorge which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the deepest gorge in the world. It is 1,350 metres from river bed to cliff tops at its deepest point. We also stopped in Athens for a couple of days to “redo” the Acropolis after twenty years and see the new museum.