After the stormy weather of the Medicane,
we settled down into the life of wintering over in Lefkas. The days are crisp and sunny and the nights
quite chilly with very heavy dews. We
are getting to know the town, finding the best place to get bread, fresh fruit
and veggies and which κρεοπωλείο has the best cuts of meat.
Lefkas has all that we need but if the shopping bug strikes (a
non-existent event for me) there are buses to the bigger towns of Prevesa,
Athens and Thessolonika.
We haven’t explored too much so far outside
of the necessities but now that we have crisp, sunny days instead weeks of gray
dreary ones, we have taken long walks around the lagoon and explored one of the
old forts dotting the island and mainland.
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| Windmills and grasses around the lagoon |
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| The beach on the Ionian |
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| Ottoman influence at the main gate |
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| Ruins of the old fort with the marina and hills of Lefkas in the background |
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| The fort walls looking out into the Ionian |
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| The Mammon of religion |
There is the usual long list of boat
chores, (though we have been procrastinating with these, a bit, as we will be
here until March, and the holidays are coming, and our general pontoon lassitude). But we have found all the
chandleries and hardware stores where we can get bits and bobs and we are making
ourselves known to the various tradesmen to line up jobs for after the holidays.
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| The repair and service shops at the marina |
There are also plenty of social activities
with the other yachty liveaboards. Unlike in Marmaris, Turkey where the
wintering over community had dwindled over the years from a high of 500 to
about 4 people last year, there is quite a large community living on boats here
in Lefkas Marina. The majority of
liveaboards are British but there are several Swedish, German and French
sailors staying for the winter. There
are also three or four boats with children living aboard.
A large British ex-pat community lives here
in Lefkas in addition to liveaboard yachties.
Most have had years on boats and now have bought a little house on the
island. Others have small businesses while living a simpler island life. We met one Australian woman running a
chandlery who grew up not far from Canberra and her parents have retired just
down the road from us in Bellingen – such a small world.
The centre of social life in the marina is
the Porto Cafe and Bar. Tuesday
afternoons is the Knit ‘N’ Natter where women and children gather over a
warming cup of tea or hot chocolate, have a chat and gossip and take the
opportunity to relax over our latest knitting project. Wednesday evenings is the Quiz Night which
draws a large crowd. The questions are
often quite British-centric and we colonials and the Swedes will complain but
it is all in good fun. There are guitar
lessons in the common room and singing lessons at the Irish Pub.
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| The Porto - centre of social life at the marina |
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| Knit 'n' Natter on a sunny winter's day |
I am quite enjoying the slower pace of life
during the winter and cannot believe we have been here for a month already. But
our itchy feet and the holidays mean we are off next week to southern Italy and
then London for Christmas.
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| Lefkas getting ready for Christmas markets |
