We're melting

 

Justin  holding the 'candles' - they are folding in the heat  - maybe good for dousing?

Kefalonia -westside

 A road shrine - One of hundreds around the island, this one above Assos

 Typical Kefalonian coastline though most of it is dense pine forest to the waterline!

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 These sunbeds are opposite a cafe on the isthmus connecting the pali peninsular to the rest of kefalonia. Most folk stop to take a photo and drive on, we had lunch here. Pietre the owner wants to be Mayor one day, his dad does the cooking :O) We were invited to paddle out and use the sunbeds, the best place to be today in 38 degrees el scorchio. The reason they are there is because of a strange Greek law. Pietre owns the land and the water, but the King owns all waterfronts, so it's a statement to that fact - it's a pretty good way to attract attention to your cafe too! Greg and Justin had souvlaki - meat on sticks grilled on charcoals - they were very good.

 This is where we swam in Atheras bay. Diving for shells and coming face-to-face with baby striped bass.

Beehives. The bees make delicious thyme honey here - we have a BIG pot of it onboard.

Starring : 3 million cicadas, 2 tired men and a whirling Dervish on the Paliki peninsular Kefalonia

Not the best video in the World but it captures a moment in time :O)

Assos Kefalonia

We hired a car for a few days to explore the island. First night we drove to Assos, a tiny fishing village on the east coast of Kefalonia.

Little Suzuki jeep - lots of wheel shudder when you touch the brakes - reported it to the car hire and they said : 'That's normal they all do that!' :O)

Assos bay

Earthquake damage - all the towns with the exception of Fiskardo were flattened or wrecked in the 1953 earthquake. They had another one in 1983. Must be terrifying. A lot of the islanders left after that earthquake.

Fishing boat with Oleannder tree in foreground. Oleanders grow like weeds here.

The sunsetting above the village.

Poros to Ayios Efemia

 Ionian sea like a lake today.

 Greg finding the shady side of our Mezzinine.

An easygoing friend, Justin Chan, joined us for a week of sun and sea ions :O)

Poros kefalonia

 Poros is a three bay village. The facility for yachts is the most westerly bay / harbour which also has a small ferry terminal on the outer wall. We sailed in mid afternoon. Typical Greek mooring, drop anchor and reverse back to the harbour wall to tie on. Seems to be that most Charter yachts are looking for harbour walls to tie on to from about four pm so we were very pleased we arrived early and avoided the shambollock anchor knitting that continued until just before sunset! Poros is a quiet unassuming place. On the harbour wall behind our moorings we noticed a handpainted sign directing us 500m up the cliff to Agrapidos taverna - it was the promise of homemade Greek cooking that enticed us in 35 degrees to don crampons and head for the hill.  We were the first customers of the evening, greeted warmly by our host Jerasimo and his wife. The menus are school exercise books handwritten as so:

And our happy host Jerasimo  had bit parts in the film Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Penelope Cruz and Nicholas Cage came to his taverna for suppers. He has the photos on the wall to prove it...

The view up here is worth having an asthma attack for,  Greg and Justin at the table:

And then something very dynamic arrived - Jerasimo's five year old daughter Francesca..

Here she is wearing Greg's hat, her head is covered in the most beautiful ringlets. But understand this,  Francesca is boss around here! We watched her lead a young boy around, arm in arm, relentlessly. We watched her confront adults who tried to control her, we watched her 'beanbag' a toddler and challenge a man who dared chastise her... The food was amazing, meat and vegetables grown on their own farm,  fish fresh from the quay, worth a visit...just look out for the little tornado ;O)

Leaving Poros the next morning, wonderful fissure in the cliff.

Spartia bay - Kefalonia

Twenty nautical mile sail from Argostoli to Spartia bay. We were planning to anchor off in a little cove near the airport in order to take the rib ashore and collect our friend Justin Chan - not much goes  to plan,. The wind picked up which was great for the sail,  but hopeless for safe anchorage in a small rocky cove. Took ourselves round the next headland to anchor just off the tiny village of Spartia. The swell was tough during the night and until midday the next day, then all was calm again. At 3pm Justin's taxi rolled up at the small hotel in the bay, we had a relaxing reunion lunch together with all the wasps on the island joining in...

This is charcoal smoking on our table to help detract the wasps whilst we eat. A lady across from us knew the form as she came armed with a spray can of RAID which I did not appreciate!

Lerryn lady in background riding out the swell in Spartia Bay... NB Cornish flag on portside :O)

One of those sea 'veils' that descend from time-to-time.