Ay Eufimia to Poros

At 2:00pm after prying the kids from Paradise, filling with water, making a final use of the Port Captain's special anti-inflammatory cream, we untied, weighed anchor and set course for Poros.

Sprawled at the feet of rearing mountains slices through by a deep gorge cut by a river which flows into the bay, Poros looks to be a good place to explore. The river itself is controlled by a canal which cuts this little town in half but it was dry when we were there. I reckon it would be quite spectacular in flood.

The harbour, used by frequent large ferries dropping tourists, trucks and cars bound for elsewhere but very few stopping to check the place out. We Med moored in a place away from the ferry wash, nicely protected and pretty well empty when we arrived. Our crew now seasoned to the task making me wonder how Sal and I did it without them. Water but no power is provided on the quay and a resident mini tanker if we needed diesel.

It was scorching hot and 'the book' told of a bar set in a cave close to where we'd moored.

 Literally at the end of the wharf was the parental version of paradise!

Set in the rock, the Cave Bar brought the temperature down into the comfortable twenties.
The beers were served in iced glasses and the wine in ice buckets and we were quite sure it would have to have been midday somewhere in the world...

Two steps and you were in the crystal clear refreshing Ionion. The only work to be done being to figure out where we should get Ron, Gina, Max and Leo Stolikas to meet us.

They had planned to fly from Athens to Argostoli, about a 5 hour sail from here and a place we intended to get to for Beat and Deborah's departure on the 26th June and Jack and Stina's arrival on the 2nd July.

Too late and too expensive they decided instead to bus it to Kilini and Ferry to where we were in Poros.

To get to the town of Poros meant either going up and over  hill behind the Cave bar, or swimming there. My preferred option except when  I discovered why the swim there was so easy. No, it wasn't because I am so fit and svelte as I was deluding myself en-route, it was because a strong current runs around the bay making my return swim something of a marathon. No matter how hard I swam, that cave bar stubbornly kept its distance.

Fortunately there was a cold, refreshing reward when I finally got there.

The town had little to offer given its distance and the heat so we told Ron and Gina not to book an hotel in Poros. We would sail to Katiolis a little further south. The season has still to get fully underway and it seemed to us that there was plenty of accommodation everywhere....

On the morning of the 24th we had until the arrival of their ferry at 3:00pm in 40 degrees to burn (no pun intended). Sal and Deborah took the kids to town for a coffee and a swim and Beat went on one of his hill climbs. Something about the Swiss and hills...? I should be taking a leaf out of his book though because he had already picked up on the fact that calories become a problem when you hook up with the Wilkinson's in Greece.

3:00pm and the Stoli's duly arrived. We loaded, weighed anchor and punched into a growing headwind for Katiolis. A place with only a vague description of a new harbour, but the town itself read well and there was bound to be accommodation....