Fri 31 May to Mon 3 Jun – Keri, Zakynthos

We had an unnecessarily restless night in Porto Vromi. We were safely tied up to a secure mooring ball but somehow we couldn’t sleep. We’re cognisant now of the fact that when we’re tired we can feel a bit uneasy, and we worry about things which under normal circumstances wouldn’t even cross our minds. Being conscious of it helps as we talk about it and try to get to the bottom of what we’re really worried about. More often than not it’s nothing rational. Having said that though, last year we heard a number of worrying stories about boats running aground after their mooring buoys failed, so perhaps that was in the back on our minds? It certainly didn’t help!

We left just after breakfast and motored down the west coast towards Keri, a small town on the NE side of the large bay to the south of Zakynthos. The wind was due to blow for a few days so this would be a good place to sit it out. Much of the bay is now a protected National Park in a bid to preserve one of its biggest starts, the loggerhead turtles who sadly are dying out in part due to their popularity. If you fancy finding out more then this is an insightful article. The marine authorities are trying to enforce some no boat zones and speed limits but they largely seem to be ignored unfortunately.

We arrived mid afternoon and went ashore for dinner and found a restaurant with an upstairs area and a nice view of the bay. The town itself is very small. It’s home to a few tavernas, a whole heap of boat rental companies, a bakery and an adorable pack of dogs who roam around trying to make friends and get a free meal. We watched one couple give into their charm; they bought them each a sachet of food and watched (looking rather guilty) as the dogs devoured their supper.

On Saturday we went for a run which had rather too many hills for our liking (and for our fitness!) then finished off the remainder of the hull scrubbing. The water is still absolutely freezing and it took a good few hours for my lips to lose their shade of blue and for my all over body shivering to subside. In the evening we walked up the hill and found a nice cocktail bar with an even better view of the bay. The whole day we’d heard some sort of loud bird squawking and to us it sounded like peacocks. We asked the waitress in the bar who confirmed they were indeed peacocks. Must hunt one down tomorrow!

On Sunday, a bit weary from our exercise the day before we went for a walk that involved yet more hills. We walked along the zig-zag road which took us further along the bay, past too many chickens to count, a gorgeous (if completely useless) “guard” dog (all he wanted was cuddles) and to a taverna where we (me, Tom and the cat) had lunch. On the way back we heard the peacocks again so ventured into a field in search of one. Ignoring that our bare ankles were being scraped by thorn bushes we continued and were rewarded with a gorgeous bird, in a tree. Do peacocks live in trees? He looked way too big to be sitting on a tiny branch and of course fled the second he saw us coming, and before we could take a photo. 

On Wednesday we’re planning to head up towards the Gulf of Patras which is about 60NM from where we are now. To reduce the trip a little and to (hopefully) minimise our engine hours we wanted to hop around the corner to an anchorage on the SE most tip. The wind has been picking up regular as clockwork at 14:00 so we had a few hours to kill this morning, so we rented a scooter and drove into Zante Town. We zipped by big green fields full of olive trees for the first 10km then as we drew closer to the “city” more buildings started to spring up. They were either beautifully manicured houses with colourful gardens, restaurants or derelict old ruins (not the interesting old kind either). We parked the scooter by the port and had a wander. Honestly, it’s not that special. The marina is a big open bay which caters for sailboats on one side and massive inter island ferries on the other. There’s a very small old town with a few nice shops and cafes and one long shopping street but the remainder speaks to a community who have fallen on rather hard times. The houses are in a poor state of repair and there are a few too many homeless families whose children come begging for money. We had a nice brunch then headed back to Keri; a few hours there was plenty and the scooter ride was definitely the best bit!

At 15:00 we left and had a lovely 3 hour sail to our next anchorage. The bay is uncharted (meaning there’s no depth indicated on our charts) and as we came in we were warned of shallows and big rocks by a friendly fellow German. He was so friendly in fact that as we were concentrating on finding a spot he proceed to tell us about a story of stuck anchor chains at the top of his voice! We set the anchor, had a swim around to make sure there weren’t any shallow rocks, had showers and we’re now still trying to get warm!