115 POSTCARD from Leonie


BY GINNY WARE


Kalamata Marina


AFTER LIVING ABOARD ON THE RIVER DART FOR EIGHT YEARS GINNY WARE AND HER HUSBAND CARL SET SAIL IN 2013 FOR FRANCE AND BEYOND. HERE IS THE LASTEST FROM THEM AS THEY CONTINUE TO EXPLORE THE MEDITERRANEAN ON THEIR 65 YEAR OLD 35FT YACHT.


the run up to the Greek Orthodox Easter rituals. Streetside nurseries laid out a myriad of sweet smell- ing, radiant flowers in pots on the pavements where wild cats slinked for tidbits and sleepy dogs dozed in the heat, oblivious to the market day bustle. Snow on the distant mountain peaks of the Mani peninsular shaped the ebbing trace of winter in the Peloponnese; else- where all was bright and sharp and a shiny polished green. After a six-month sojourn to


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the UK, Greek life embraced us on touchdown in Athens, where we dipped our toes into the city’s classical ancient culture during the Helenistic Independence Day festivities. A week earlier I had celebrated


half a century of life, dancing the night away with family and friends at Dartmouth Yacht Club while the snow fell silently and thickly outside. A dense coating of desert sand, blown in from the African Sahara, hung over Athens like smog on the


UICY strawberries, tender wild asparagus and fluff- ly little chicks shone red, green and golden under a gleaming spring sun in Kalamata’s market during


actual day I turned 50; a milky, opaque haze semi-obscuring the vast city’s boxy pale architec- ture from our eyrie view at the top of Lycabettus Hill. The chalky vista was


a world away from the pin-sharp metropolis we saw below the Acropolis on the clear- skied day after our arrival; the bright light making it easy to imagine how the once white marble of this cradle of democracy and Western civilisation must have gleamed like a beacon to all near and far. We eased into a more relaxed


rhythm in laid-back Kalamata, a salve to the frenetic energy of Athens - busy with tourists in all seasons. Leonie too had fared well in Kala-


Easter Chicks at Kalamata market


mata Marina over the winter and as we tumbled into her warm, wooden, cosy interior it felt good to be home.


The only problem she had developed was a fault in the non-return valve, linked to the sump pump which releases grey water. It was drawing water into


Captain Carl at the helm


Lakka Bay, Paxos .


At the Acropolis


Carl raising a new Greek Flag


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