Running away from the circus

Rambo

This week has been a busy one. We have seen more ports than a XVIII century prostitute. We started the week in Kalamos, where we were hosted by George (rare name around here). We said goodbye to our good (yet German) frien Christian, at the same time as we set off on a three boat race against: Fred and Juan on Shoe-lulu, and Fred, John, Charles and Mike on another boat (with a standard boring name which we don't recall). The wind dropped for most of the day, but like true nafties (sailor in Greek) we decided not to motor, and successfully made it to Kioni, on Ithaca island, only to discover we were the winners of the race, if engine (or as our good friend called it "machine") users were to be disqualified.

Fred & Juan

From Odysseus' cave

Kioni was a beautiful town, but tiny, thus we left the following morning, headed for Vathy, but only to discover that, yet again, there was no wind. We anchored off in a bay in the middle of nowhere, but which had an abandoned house on it. To Tomas' surprise, but Ben's headache, the house turned out to be full of treasures, which I will not go into details about, because some of them will become presents for family and friends.

C.H left, Shurloulou right 

Eventually the wind picked up dramatically which took us to Vathy, Ithaca, in about thirty minutes in yet another race against Fred and Juan (from now on, if we don't specify the result of a race, just assume we have one yet again).

The best a woman can get!

After three days on Ithaca (home to the legend of Odysseus), with a trek to find a cave home to Nymphs and another to find a hippie commune, we set sail north despite a major lack of wind. Luckily what wind there was came from the south but the trip to Levkas, en-route to Corfu for Tomas' flight home, still took from 7am to 11pm. Tomas' birthday tomorrow means final preparations are underway for a day of celebrations!

Ithaca, Lefkada & Meganisi

Sitting in the hot sun writing this now... mmm babes on scooters

Tom's Top Tip: "If you're running low on dough, chill, apparently it grows on trees"

Ben's Best Bit: "Doing a David (Michelangelo) whilst overtaking a charter yacht"

Back down south

Sorry to all our hardcore fans who checked for an update last night, we were on an island without internet.

Band practice tonight in Kalamos with the aim of keeping the Neilson charter crews awake. The season has started and has brought the first pasty English tourists with it, so naked deck sunbathing is now less private.

Reppin' the Feral

Having convinced two of the girls two join us, Sanji and Tonia, our week began with the sail from Gaios Paxos to Levkas, which we made in 7 hours. Sanji cooked and we all rowed across to Pierre and Corin who happened to be anchored off ready to head north the following day.

On Thursday night we invited Juan & Fred (who had sailed into port the previous night) and Tats for dinner, and were later joined by Roger and Suzy who provided nibbles and the kind of priceless conversation only a married couple can.

A day later we had said farewell to the girls who begun hitch hiking back to Corfu town. Alie joined us for a sail south to Meganissi. There we met Christian, a German dentist who swears he is more careful drilling his patients teeth than he is drilling his boats stanchion posts. We practised our tightrope walking in Vathy, which Tomas mastered (they don't call me Master Tomas for nothing).

After dropping Tats in Nidri and enjoying a sleep on the quay, we set off for Kalamos to rejoin the fleet. Christian invited us all to a tuna steak dinner at George's Restaurant.

Tom's Top Tip: "If you spend €5 on hair clippers, be prepared to look like a molested chicken"

Ben's Best Bit: "Stealing back the Crest Hawk song from the Shourloulou pirates"

Shourloulou sail repairs

More 'Jurassic Park' scenery... yawn!

Amazing sunset... yawn!

Chicken Run

Ody-sea

Freddy's show at the beginning of the week was insane! Shadow puppets, tight rope walking, live music and although we didn't understand the story we used the opportunity to invite people we had met so far in Corfu Town to Ben's birthday boat party, plus a few we didn't know to make up numbers. The birthday morning saw Tomas frying milk bread for the capitanio, who opened his presents (including a mixing bowl) in bed. By 6.15pm on Thursday Crest Hawk's cockpit was full of bodies and by half past the party was in full swing; three accordions, two trumpets, our melodica, a guitar and salt for a maraca to play happy birthday (in Greek and English). Everyone had a great time, especially Tomas who found himself on the floor of the main cabin, with the new mixing bowl, by 10pm.

Birthday boy

Another perfect sunset... yawn! 

Sanji's story: "On our way to swimming at the old fortress, we met Freddy randomly on the quay and told him that we were thinking of going to Paxos. Freddy responded 'Ahh I happen to know two sailors who are going to Paxos today, I'll ask them if they'll take you.'"

Tomas took the liberty of accepting the suggestion and granting them passage. Once the Captain had returned, there was another lost girl asking permission to board and we left Corfu Town with 3 extra crew members. After a 20 hour sail through the night, with light southerly winds (we were heading south) we docked in Lakka, Paxos north coast just in time for lunch on the beach and a swim, for the brave among us, in crystal clear waters. Only two crew members were lost to sea sickness, one while at the helm without liking to say anything out of politeness and feeling of duty.

Pan baked coffee cake

The first we heard it was Mika's birthday she announced she would cook, as is traditional in Greece. Mmmm, Sarmadakia and Mydiopilafo.. delicious. The following day we sailed to Gaios, 8km south where we explored the island which shelters the port here by dinghy and discovered a 15th century Venetian fortress at its peak. Freddy joined us on Shourloulou and we all spent an evening drinking a little amount of wine, enjoying the fireflies and warm night.

Party time!

Washing the decks

Today we took our friend Billy (who is sailing with his whole family on a charter yacht that makes Crest Hawk look like a gypsies donkey) for a sail to the south of the island for the amazing caves. Finally it looks as though Crest Hawk is back to being a man space. Thank you girls for washing up, cooking, getting us the best spots on the town quay etc. we will miss you, but 5 people is 3 too many!

Tom's Top Tip: "If you're getting chickens, make sure you're a farmer, not a sailor."

Ben's Best Bit: "Not having a nervous breakdown"

Sanji's Declaration: "We really ARE moutsos without poutsos."

Crest Hawk & Shourloulou

Billy at the helm

The caves of south Paxos

We're @ a party

Sorry everyone, party time aboard Crest Hawk tonight (unless you are granny, in which case we're at church). Check back tomorrow!

Would it be cool...?

We kicked off this week by leaving our beloved island at 3 a.m. We sailed all through the night, and finally arrived at Corfu Town port at 4 p.m. the following day. That combined with the the erratic yet energetic ramblings of our new next-hatch neighbour, almost destroyed us. Swedish John is a nice man, but as sane as Charles Manson.

After a good night's sleep, and a few lessons learnt in avoiding John, we felt refreshed and ready to explore the Town, which felt rather overwhelming with the amount of attractive girls per capita, and the presence of loads of traffic.

Later in the afternoon is when we met Alaskan Fred. He was living only a few boats away and within hours we had become a part of his tribe, with an addition of two new crew members (Colombian Juan and German Nani) for the afternoon. Needless to say that we won the race. It is thought that the reason may have been the amount of bodies on Zululu (Fred's boat).

Rainbow rhythms

Through Fred, in a short period of time we have met (as well as the previously mentioned) Belgian Bot, German Toto, French Rudolph, Greek Irene, Greek Nicko, and a big part of the Kerkira student/hippie scene. A lot of them take part in the circus shows that Fred organises which we should be seeing on Tuesday.

Sailing into the sunrise

We have been main characters in a puppet shadow show at a bar, and it was even suggested that our sea shanty be the opening to the show on Tuesday after we jammed it out with trumpets, melodica and guitar, so we may be famous yet (if the blog doesn't get us there first).

Tom's Top Tip: "Don't ask a vegetarian what he recommends when you are ordering at the best Kebap shop in town."

Ben's Best Bit: "12 knots on the beam from St. Stefanos to Corfu Town, sun shining, Oscar Peterson in the headphones... Tomas asleep below deck."

To worry our mothers

Boat looking spic and span

Matrix attempt (felt cooler than it looked)

Germans taking over

Tea Party