Day 3 - Paxos (Παξους) to Port Spilia (Σπηλια) on Meganisi via the Levkas Canal

Tuesday, September 28
Travel time: 9 hours, Distance: 46.6 nm

Early, early A.M. departure

Kelli was up at 5:30 to monitor the fleet's departure time. Butch had informed her that he was leaving at that time, and we thought we would "buddy boat" with him to Meganisi. Naturally, Butch was pulling her leg, and all the other boats were dark. So, back to Didimos to fix coffee. However, our crew was up early, at 6 a.m., and we departed about 7:00 with most of our flotilla behind us.

We did receive one reward for our early departure -- we were treated to a spectacular sunrise.

Dawn and another Tradewinds boat

Mediterranean sunrise

Sailing with the fleet

Our morning sail was in light winds again, straight on our nose. What happened to all the downwind sailing that we heard about? The prevailing winds are supposed to be from the northwest, but we hadn't seen any such winds yet.

The seas were still roiling for the first 3 hours, then smoothed out with winds 10 knots on the nose.

The fleet behind us

Mark and Laverne, and Kevin and Mark

Our closest sailing buddy boat was Polo III, skipper by Tradewinds' new owner Butch Florey. These are pictures of their boat and fellow member Malia Davis.

The Levkas Floating Bridge

The open Floating Bridge

Originally a part of the mainland, the island of Levkas is now "disconnected" from the mainland by a man-made canal. The town of Levkas has been rebuilt several times after earthquakes that destroyed it, most recently in 1971. There is an opening bridge at the north entrance to the canal. The bridge floats, and either end of the bridge acts as a drawbridge to allow small vessels to pass. For larger vessels, or to allow vessels in both directions simultaneously, the entire bridge is rotated to lie parallel to one shore.

Serres idling nearby

One of the timing issues on this leg was getting to the Levkas Canal close to the hour. The floating bridge only opens on the hour. All boats going through the canal need to be close to the bridge when it opens. The problem is that there isn't very much room in the channel immediately outside the bridge and the water depth is shallow -- one to three meters. We got into the channel on time and tried to float in place with Serres idling nearby. The other boats awaiting passage remained out in the bay outside the channel.

The Captain observing our approach

The bridge opened for us at 1 p.m., and a parade of boats headed south into the canal. The boats outside the channel headed in to get through the opening. From what we'd heard from David Kory, the bridge did not remain open very long. But all boats were able to get through. Maybe once they go to the trouble of rotating the whole bridge open, then they try to get everyone through.

Approaching the floating bridge

Passing through the open bridge

Down the Canal

Levkas town marina

Once past the bridge, we motored on to Levkas town. There is a fairly large marina in Levkas with a fuel dock. We were passing the marina when we decided at the last minute to stop and top off the fuel tank. We weren't sure where we'd be able to get fuel in the islands, so thought we should take advantage of the availability. So it was a scramble to get the boat ready to dock as we pulled up to the downwind side tie. The fuel tank took 60.43 liters at the fixed (throughout the country) price of 0.85 euros per liter. We also topped off the water tanks. It turned out that water was available at most stops, but we topped off water whenever possible.

Levkas Canal

The island of Skorpios

It started to rain at the south end of the canal. We sailed wing-on-wing towards Meganisi until the wind died completely. South of the canal, we passed the island of Skorpios. This island was the private playground of Aristotle Onassis. We couldn't see the buildings on the island or the docks for the big yachts. They must have been on the other side.

Just a few of the island villages

As we moored in Port Spilia on the island of Meganisi, it was raining again lightly. Enough already!

This harbor has a long dock, with Med mooring on each side. However, this time the mooring is outfitted with "lazy lines." These lines are tied to the dock and run perpendicular underwater out to an anchor or chain. The lazy line is retrieved at the dock, and then walked forward to the bow and used in lieu of the boat's own anchor to secure the bow. This setup almost makes Med mooring too easy!

Porto Spilia, Meganisi

The dock leads to a gravel beach with an open-air taverna run by Mama. Mama is a short, hunched over elderly Greek woman with quite a spirit and a firm control over her business. Mama's son is the second in charge and faintly resembles The Hulk. As we were mooring, The Hulk came by and pointed out that it was "expected" that we would have dinner in their restaurant to help defray the costs of running the "marina".

After settling in, we went to the taverna for snacks and more Mythos. It started pouring as we sat there, so we ordered more beer. The taverna has hot showers for € 2. Sue, Laverne, and Mike took advantage of the continuous water flow.

By now, there were seven Tradewinds boats in the harbor. One had come and gone due to a slight miscommunication over the cost of using the laundry.

At 8:30 p.m., we had dinner on the boat. Mark is a great cook and fixed great spaghetti. Laverne had purchased baklava for Mike's birthday party (a day late, Kelli forgot in the sail excitement yesterday! Note from Mike: no problem, because if we had made my birthday known the day before, with all the drinking and Greek dancing in Paxos the night before, it would have gotten ugly. :-)

Mike's Birthday celebration, a day late.