Leonie at Yefira, which links to Monemvasia via a causeway


the sump, causing its noisy pump to activate every 20 minutes or so. Carl serviced the valve and all is now tickety boo. We weren’t sure if Leonie’s hull would need antifoul- ing (it was only done 10 months ago) or her anodes replacing so we paid a diver €100 to investigate. He gave us the thumbs up, saving us €300 on a lift out. We immediately got back into the swing of life afloat and the quirks of Greece. One ‘lost in translation’ sign which gave us a laugh was hanging in the ladies loo at the Marina. It read ‘when you have used the toilet please flash.’ (Helen, a friend in Paxos, once saw a sign on a boat saying ‘dicks slippery when wet’ – oops!) Occasionally we caught flashes


of irridescent blue as our pon- toon’s resident kingfisher darted about on the hunt for food, once landing a few feet away on our neighbour’s yacht for a five minute rest.


Hanging out the washing I spied a huge octopus edging along the pontoon wall, half emerging from the water as it stretched out its tentacles to try and grasp a small crab (it failed). We decided to wait out a big


blow before leaving the marina. The extra two days should have cost €70 but the marina boss waived the fee as an Easter gift, displaying typical Greek generosity. Armed with fresh oranges and tasty tomatoes


damom cake (great with coffee), a jar of my favourite peanut butter from Peppers in Duke Street, a loaf of delicious artesan bread (at just €1 a pop), a jar of amaz- ing Greek forest honey and some Greek rosé wine, we headed off for an idyllic secret cove, an easy 12 nautical miles hop away, its closely guarded whereabouts whis- pered to us by our local charter skipper friend, Cliff. Sheltered, beautiful and secluded, it was the perfect


place to lay our heads for that first night back bobbing about on the open sea. A couple of hours after dropping anchor the bay’s


tranquility was rudely disturbed by the speedy arrival of the Greek Coastguard. Three stern looking men, clad in black, stood at the prow of their patrol vessel, which was heading straight for Leonie. “Where are you from?” one of them barked. “England,” we replied. “Where was your last port?” he demanded. A fishing net was produced for


A hungry octopus reaches for a small crab at Kalamata Marina


us to hand over our DEKPA (official documents giving us permission to be in Greek waters) and once inspected we were given the all clear to “stand down”. One of the crew softened enough to cheerily return our


ripened under the Mediterranean sun, homemade car-


waves as they left, although not enough to agree to me taking a photo of them (I took one anyway). Under the thrum of the engine and with the autopi- lot on, we headed 22 nautical miles south towards the wild and stark coastline of the Inner Mani, past the im-


Lefkas canal as it enters the Inland Ionian Sea


Ginny at the beach at the ‘secret cove’


Park at your peril! (in Kalamata)


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