Strange lights in the sky – A UFO?!

A very strange thing happened while we were anchored at the island of Poros, Greece. We were star gazing on the front deck of our catamaran Sunday and way up above us we saw a line of lights moving across the sky like a sparking string of diamonds. What on earth was it? Perhaps an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO)?!

Well it was a UFO for a minute until a quick internet search told us that what we had seen were some of Elon Musk’s newly launched Starlink satellites, designed to provide global internet services world-wide.

Each one of the satellites is just the size of an office desk and when they are first launched these “little jewels in the sky” travel in a line at around 290 kilometres above the Earth- until the satellites spread out and reach their final altitude.

It was quite a sight to see and for a moment there it felt as though we were in our very own Sci-fi movie!

We had our daughter Hannah and son-in-law Pieter and our friend Jackie from Sydney with us so we decided to have a change of scene and move to another anchorage on the other side of Poros island.

This was a real change of pace – no restaurants, no beach bars – just glorious, turquoise water to frolic in!

The only drawback was that we had to “Med moor” (anchor then reverse back while someone swims or dinghys to the rocks with a rope to tie onto a suitable rock).

Fortunately we had Pieter and Hannah to assist so with me on the anchor, Jonathan on the engines and the other two swimming to the rocks with lines, it went really smoothly.

Our stay in Vagionias Bay was very relaxing with plenty of snorkelling, swimming, exploring caves, reading, puzzling, (in Pieter’s case) and watching the goats gambolling nimbly over the steep rocky cliffs.

Our next anchorage was Profitis Ilia Cove between Perdika and Aeginitissa in the island of Aegina.

If the water clarity was gorgeous in our previous anchorage it was just on another level here! There were also patches of icy cold water which were just delicious!

We seemed to spend most of the time in the water – partly because it was just so beautiful but also the temperatures had risen to 40 degrees plus! It was sizzling!

We had heard that one of the restaurants on the beach was the perfect place to watch the sun set. The advice certainly wasn’t wrong – the sunset was amazing – and so was the food!

There was one more anchorage to enjoy before our return to Poros – a small cove on the mainland in Vidhiou Bay. It was here that Catabella joined us although Sue was still out of the country due to running out of days allowed within the Schengen Zone.

John was accompanied by his niece, her husband and two children who are presently living in Finland due to work commitments. The next day it was time to return to Poros as we had an important date – Sue’s birthday!

She was flying in later – just in time for her birthday dinner at the Kaneli Taverna (so called because it is right by the canal that you can dinghy through to Poros town) which we’d arranged as a surprise in cahoots with her son Andrew and daughter-in-law Lisa.

Sue loved her surprise party and we all had a great time celebrating her special day!

The heat intensified the following day and we noticed that there were dark clouds of smoke gathering at sunset. Bush fires!

Of course, we have experienced bush fires in Australia over the years and two years ago in Turkey there had been terrible fires in the Marmaris area when we were there. So I guess it wasn’t surprising that we all felt uneasy and stressed by the sight of the smoke and that telltale smell of burning vegetation. Our main concern was for the local people affected by the fires and we hoped that the winds would die down and stop fanning the flames.

Over the next few days the girls had massages and our nails done – we had booked Sue in as a birthday surprise, paid for by Andrew and Lisa. My massage was courtesy of our beautiful offspring and their partners as a Mother’s Day gift!

Talking of fantastic gifts, I had asked Sue if she could bring us a jigsaw puzzle back from her travels for Pieter as he loves puzzling when on holiday and I wasn’t at all sure that I’d find one on a Greek Island. (I did find one in actual fact! Between Sue and Lisa and Andrew, they cooked up the idea of having a jigsaw made of Jonathan and I aboard our catamaran!

It was meant to be almost impossible to complete as it had so much sea and sky in it but Pieter managed to finish it over the course of a couple of days!

Catabella and Sunday were destined to part ways again as John and Sue’s guests had to be back in Athens to catch a flight and were very keen to go through the Corinth Canal before doing so.

Before they left we had a lovely evening on Catabella, eating good food, drinking wine and playing quiz games. We all had a great time except for the youngest member of the Catabella crew who appeared to be suffering from heatstroke and was feeling very lethargic and had thrown up (later we found it wasn’t heatstroke!)

Sunday would stay in Poros for a couple more days before bidding a sad farewell to Hannah and Pieter. But first there was Hannah’s birthday to celebrate! It was a very special day as nowadays with our wandering lifestyle, we are rarely present for our (adult) children’s birthdays.

We enjoyed a special meal at a small restaurant called Taverna Karavolos (Snail Cafe) where the speciality was….yes you’ve guessed it – snails. Pieter tried them and declared them delicious!