Something fishy

Finally, a couple of fish for supper! The ships fisherman invested in a cage which we lowered overboard in Lefkas and provided the whole crew with a luxury meal (we had to accompany it with a meal though). Tomas took great joy in executing both fish by beheading them alive following a fair trial. The execution was witnessed by the ships Captain and the fish's mother. The second only by Ben. The ships cook fried them up and they were duly eaten.

We left Lefkas on Monday and landed in Nikiana shortly afterward. It was a really beautiful and quiet village where made the trek to a hermitage up in the mountains which had been built in 300 A.D. (before Christianity reached Rome and became cool). We looked at the cave the original inhabitant had lived in and even with no electrics, it didn't look as gloomy as our boat on rainy days.

After two days of imaginable fun at Nikiana (we had to imagine we were having fun), we sailed over to Nidri, a place we had had our eye on for a while. Nidri turned out to be a tourist ghost town, probably to be expected in Fubruary. This is why we decided to eventually move two miles down the coast to Vlicho (well that and the fact they have showers down here).

In a short period of time down here we have already met the whole community, mostly British expats, and have become star guests in this episode of Eastenders. Since our arrival it has been really windy so we are going to act as retired plumbers until the weather improves a bit, when we plan to explore the nearby islands before tourist season kicks in!


Tom's Top Tip: "If Mohamed can't come to the mountain, I'm sure he can find something better to do".

Ben's Best Bit: "Eating our first catch, however small, thin and slimy"

Thank you Aunty Carmen / Mama for the most incredible pizza ever

Two potential crew members competing for position as cabin boy

Ex Shore wetsuit model

Off the quay at Nikiana

Lost in the Ionian

Supper time

This week has been the best one yet. It has been so good that one of us is indisposed right now, and it happens to be the one who has all the pictures, so I'm afraid they will be posted with a days delay. We finally brought ourselves to leave Bonitza. It was a very hard thing to do, for in the period of two weeks that we spent there, we made many good friends, and pretty much became known faces in the town.

The trip here took us a whole day of sailing under the sun. Lefkas is an amazing town. The design of the centre is Arabic, similar to the cities of Granada or Seville. Only in the case of Lefkas, though the structure has remained intact, the colours of the buildings must have been affected by the 70's (and I think people's dress senses by the 80's).

We have had three days of heavy rain and winds, which would normally pose a massive inconvenience in our day to day, but we had luckily just downloaded the first season of Lost, so the bad weather geave us the full Cinemax experience that our minds were craving.

Still no fish caught, and we will not buy any out of pure pride until the provider provides. In a week of mingling with Lefkasians we have already made a number of friends, but we are sea gypsies who cannot afford to have any attachments, which is why tomorrow, at first light we're setting sail for Nikiana (I think that is what it's called)(and only if the weather is good(we have just downloaded season 2 of lost just in case it isn't).

For all of our fans who don't know us personally, and just find it too hard to leave comments, we would love to receive feedback on carmichael.i@live.com (specially if you happen to be female and attractive (with a preference of Australian or Yank, but other nationalities may be considered).

Thank you very much for reading the blog, and sharing the link to the blog with ten people or more will automatically get you an invite onboard Crest Hawk for a week*.

Levkas canal

Chicken heart & liver before...

...and after

Natalie

At Levkas town quay

*Terms and conditions: Unless we consider you irritating in any way, and you must at least get one round in for every working day, and you must fullfill all the niminy piminy duties that are normally fullfilled by the ship's First Mate.

Tom's Top Tip: "There's only so much you can spend on fishing before you see a return on investment"

Ben's Best Bit: "Being rejected by a girl because she had school the next day"

Ain't no sunshine when he's gone

Sailing the Ambracian Gulf

This has been a very sad week indeed. Andreas left us on Wednesday and took the sunshine with him to Cyprus. A week of storms begun, bringing to an end the Halcyon days! There has been practically no sailing and the inside of Crest Hawk is beginning to smell like an old people's home. Toninght however we have just finished dinner aboard Star Catcher with our adoptive grand parents Dot and Malcolm.

Preparations have been made for the voyage to Levkas tomorrow including rig tuning, winch servicing and saying goodbye to all our loved ones. Also motivating ourselves by watching the movie Treasure Island which has us pumped!

Tomas not catching anything

The Halcyon days are 10 days of calm sunny weather every winter on the Greek coast when, legend has it, the Halcyon bird lays her eggs. By complete luck we launched Crest Hawk, a Halcyon 27, at the start of that period.

On Tuesday we had our first official race/rematch. We discussed tactics and got an early night but got beaten rented mule.

Last night we experienced our first Saturday-night fever Greek night. It's easy to blend in either by getting on your knees and clapping or, holding your arms outstretched while looking at your feet and walking about the room whilst bouncing every 5 seconds or so. There's a free drink for the most enthusiastic dancers (not us).

At anchor in the 'Bay of Pigs'

Launch day

Launch day

Tomas has fallen for a Russian barmaid and has slipped into a state of nervous tension which he describes as having your favourite meal right in front of you but not being able to eat it. He's sitting opposite me now with sweaty palms and in a tense position, puffing away on a fag. We think the cause of this may be the humidity onboard, for it's also having psychological repercussions on the other crew members, such as nervous breakdowns and split personality arguments.

Some of the pictures this week are from another camera which we've now got a card reader for.

   

Hercules and Achilles

Tom's Top Tip: "If a waitress is ugly and has a boyfriend, don't invite her round for dinner (especially if you can't afford to pay the bill) (she is not the one I've fallen in love with)"

Ben's Best Bit: Andreas catching me out me on a brown lee-shore through the forehatch... luckily it was a non wiper.

Zed & girlfriend

Alex & Captain Andreas

Cabin fever

Kings of the Gulf

Chillin on the foredeck

When we met Stereos the vampire and were invited to dinner at his Venetian mansion, we hadn't expected caviar complemented by 15 year old Irish whiskey (of which Tomas spilt two glasses over a rare olive tree table).
Our surrogate mothers Andreas and Alex (both male) have been cooking dinner for us and spoiling us in general ever since we set anchor in Vonitsa which is a problem because we are tempted never to leave. Vonitsa has become like a nursery to us, learning how to sail Crest Hawk in the relative safety of the Gulf, while being given invaluable advice from fellow sailors and life advice from the rest.

On Thursday, while sailing back from Preveza, three dolphins were sighted off the port bow by the ship's first mate a.k.a. Tomas. This happened during porridge time (when the wind drops and the sun comes out), they were jumping out of the water and swam alongside us for some time.

Eggs anyone?

During routine maintenance Benjy broke a shroud (cables supporting the mast) fastening with two fingers. We came to the conclusion that either it was already rotten or Benjy had had too much porridge! So one of our main objectives for this week will be replacing the deck fastenings for four of the shrouds as well as finding Tomas a girlfriend.
When we arrived in Preveza on Wednesday evening after a successful sail, mooring didn't run as smoothly as it should have. We'd run through the procedure in calm conditions but discovered it wasn't so easy with the wind blowing onto the quay and some swell. The stress for Benjy was as severe as discovering an increase in onion prices but nothing a couple of beers couldn't heal and some lessons were learnt.
Mid week, an amateur made the mistake of challenging us to a sail-off... We got a bit excited, pulled the dinghy onboard, trimmed the sails and got our weight on the windward rail. After 20 minutes of racing he gave up and later made excuses about lack of wind and a dirty bottom. We will mention no names, but if you're reading this Andreas, prawn Thai soup will suffice tonight.

Vonitsa from the water

Shepherds delight

Looking for birds 

Tom's Top Tip: Less is never more when it comes to showering.

Dolphin ahoy

Ben's Best Bit: Serving dinner to the richest man in western Greece and him loving the pasta white sauce so much he walked off with the pot