Spartochori

After leaving Tranquil bay, we had to make a brief detour to sail around the Island of Skorpio, the private island owned by the late Aristotle Onassis. We saw the beach house that was apparently Jackie’s favourite retreat, and also the buoys that they use to tie their mega-yacht ‘Christina O’ up to. That brought back memories for us as we were nearly mown down by her in Nice harbour as she suddenly started reversing off her mooring in our direction without sounding any warning blasts – Justin got an apology from the captain!

We anchored in one of the islands little bays on the island, and had a really good nosey – it looked very pretty with postly park land and a few houses. There were frequent security patrols, but the Onassis’s only own up to the high water line, and can’t do anything to stop yachts anchoring in their bays for a good neb! We swam up to the shore line but didn’t step ashore in case we got shot – they used to patrol with machine guns!

We made our way across the channel to the small village of Spartochori, which is perched on a hillside and can only be reached by a steep series of steps. We approached the laid moorings with a local guy frantically encouraging us in… helen asked if the moorings were for the taverna (they were) so she told him that we had a meal already planned for the evening and he let us stay anyway, even letting us use his power and water, although a dozen boats using the same electric plug meant we could only use the fridge and recharge the batteries!

We took the opportunity of not being at anchor to paint new markers on the anchor chain.

 

After a good night’s sleep, the following morning we made our way up the steep steps to the village, enjoying fantastic views over the whole of the Ionian, although it was a little hazy. We had a walk around the narrow cobbled streets of the  picturesque village, did some shopping and had a Frappe in a terrace cafe overlooking the bay – fantastic!

We filled up with water and left our host Babbi, and motored around the coast of Meganissi to the beautiful bay of Abelike where we anchored and took long lines ashore.