Outboard issues and dress circle seats

Way back in 2019 we had stayed in the small town of Vonitsa on the south coast of Greece’s Ambracian Gulf – not once but twice.

The first time was in the spring of 2019 when we drove our camper van from The Netherlands to Athens to view S/V Sunday with the plan to put a deposit down if she looked good. Our second visit was in November of that same year on the way to organise a survey and (all being well) finalise the purchase.

We had fallen for the beautiful anchorage on one side of a little island on the outskirts of the town and we made a mental note to return there in our new boat “one of these days”.

That time finally came recently after our speedy trip through the Ionian islands. We had left Lefkada after a brief stay as we only had a couple of days until our boat guest Jackie (from Sydney) was due to leave us to catch a flight from Athens to meet another friend for the next part of her adventure.

As she was leaving from Preveza which is very close to Vonitsa, it seemed the right time to return – this time in our boat! We did anchor in the beautiful anchorage – not once but twice – and ended up not even spending one night there!

Our first anchoring attempt ended up inadvertently close but not dangerously close to another boat. Maybe just a little uncomfortable as the bay was large and there was plenty of room elsewhere.

Jonathan (otherwise known as Captain Birdseye) decided that the solo sailor needed his space and we reanchored well away from any other boat a bit closer to shore.

The reason we didn’t spend the night there was nothing to do with the anchorage and everything to do with our recalcitrant outboard that had been playing up for a little while and literally stopped working altogether that day.

It did get us to the sweet little island however, and we had a delightful stroll though the scented pines to the little white church we had admired on our last two visits.

We then crossed the funny “wavy” bridge to the mainland and walked towards the town. On the way we heard some traditional Greek music playing and came across a large group of dancers – men and women- in a circle. We later learnt that they were rehearsing for a performance that night but I enjoyed watching them and listening to the musicians weave their magic.

At the end of the seafront promenade – just before the small “town wall” where boats could tie up – we sat down at a taverna for a glass of wine.

As my ankle was feeling a bit sore Jonathan volunteered to go and fetch the dinghy which was tied up at the island. A while later he returned with the dinghy but just as he arrived, the outboard cut out and wouldn’t start again. A couple of local sailors who had just moored their small trailer sailor very kindly offered to tow Captain Birdseye back to Sunday so he could swap outboards.

We always travel with lots of spares- including a rather elderly 2-stroke that came with the boat. However, when he got back to Sunday he decided it would be easier just to bring the whole boat round and anchor right in front of the town seafront!

Jackie and I saw the kind sailors who had towed Jonathan and offered to buy them a beer but they declined as they were on their way somewhere.

After Jonathan had rowed to the shore to collect us we decided to have drinks on the foredeck and watch the sun go down.

Just as the sun set and the full moon rose, the sounds of Greek folk music rang out across the water and we realised that the dancing we had seen earlier was a rehearsal for what appeared to be cultural festival where various groups performed a variety of dances.

We had dress circle seats for the show! We could hear all the music really well but I have to admit, we were a long way from the stage and there were no big screens to watch the action on!

The following day we took off for Preveza and I have to say, we were quite surprised at what a pleasant place it was.

While Jonathan took off to try and find someone to service the ootboard (unsuccessfully) Jackie and went looking for a taxi so we could arrange a pick up the following day to take her to where she was picking up her transfer to Athens.

After asking a couple of people we did find our way to a taxi rank but it was devoid of taxis! So we walked around for a bit and found ourselves in the old part of town which was quite pretty.

While we were wandering around we heard the call of a rooster and wondered what rooster in its right mind would be crowing at 5.30 in the evening!

Then we suddenly caught sight of a big black and handsome rooster sitting on a special perch on a push bike! He was someone’s pet and was doing a great job of guarding his master’s property!

We strolled back to the taxi rank and fortunately found a very nice driver who agreed to pick Jackie up at the entrance to Preveza marina the fill morning.

After a very pleasant dinner we strolled back to the dinghy along the busy water front before going back to Sunday to see a beautiful sunset and the full moon rising exactly at the same moment!.