As many of our readers will know, the start of the sailing season never goes to plan and this one has been no exception. Lori had some medical and dental work that delayed us by about a month. This meant that we would be transferring through London at the time of the British Queen’s Platinum Jubilee (70 years on the throne). Some of you have a conspiracy theory that this was all a plot on Lori’s part (closet monarchist that she is) to be able to have tea with the queen. Her plans were going well until our American Airlines plane landed as it does every day at the same time, only to find that the Heathrow disembarkation steps were no longer a good fit for our plane. Much consternation followed with much blaming of COVID-19 and global supply chains that resulted in a 45-minute delay before anyone could deplane. This delay was fatal to Lori’s tea plans and the queen had to call on a last-minute replacement.
Not nearly as cute in my opinion.
But to go back to this whole Jubilee thing. She has been the British head of state for seventy years, in that role she’s has interacted with 14 counterparts in the US (Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden). Seriously hard to comprehend and to think that we worry about term limits. One thing to note, Britain has had quite a few queens while we are still waiting for our first woman president. Clearly gender equality based on biology is much more effective than that based on democracy.
So, on to the sailing season. We transferred from Heathrow to Gatwick to catch an early flight to Greece the next morning. Gatwick is a major hub for budget airlines in the UK. So we found ourselves in a throng of 2-3000 fellow-travelers all trying to board flights for various vantage points of the sun. Memo to selves: don’t do this again; fly midweek.
The plane is delayed -shortage of staff due to COVID, supply chain issues impacting availability of food on the flight, and, more credibly, bad weather over Germany. We arrive in Greece about 90 minutes late but the taxi driver is waiting for us and has nothing that he can blame on COVID, supply chains, or even bad weather over Germany. He is really quite mellow - we are back in Greece!
Our plan is to stay in a hotel one night and then move to an apartment for three days while we transfer to True Colors. Remember I said “plan”. You can almost hear the ominous soundtrack.Nevertheless, Lori quickly adapts to the Greek ambience.
Accommodation is great - as good as we hoped. True Colors not so much. Our boatyard (Cleopatra) tells us three key parts are not installed, not on board, not in Preveza, and, we understand, not in Greece. COVID is not to blame, but supply chains have a lot to answer for and so (we surmise) does bad weather over Germany. They have no ETA for the items.
Resisting the temptation to ask Google what is the Greek for “WTF”, we try to be polite but insistent as to the likely availability of the parts pointing out that we have traveled 6 or 7 thousand miles to get this news. Might they not have mentioned this BEFORE we got on the plane?
We now enter a familiar gloomy cycle. Each afternoon we ask about status; each afternoon we are told nothing has arrived; each afternoon we are told we will know more tomorrow. In Italy we have known this go on for weeks and are preparing for the worst. But no, on the fourth day we are told the parts will be here and installed the next day. We hold our breath; the next day dawns and by the afternoon the work is finished! Yay Cleopatra! Yay Greece! So we will be about a week behind schedule - tricky this year but in normal seasons quite workable.
The extra time gives us the opportunity to enjoy what Preveza and Lefkas have to offer. Neither could be called beautiful towns but, especially when it comes to food, they have something special to offer. Of the two, Preveza is the better and opens up a whole new dimension for us.
When you think of Greek cooking you tend to think of meat dishes like souvlaki, stifado and gyros utilizing the plentiful lamb, pork and beef. You all may recall Lori’s reverence for the gyros from Daltons - a cheap-and-cheerful eatery on the quay in Lefkas. Here’s a shot from this year’s pilgrimage.
But this year it was the fish that was the outstanding discovery. This is because Preveza sits out the mouth of the Amvrikakos gulf - an inland sea that covers about three or four hundred square miles. In history this gulf was the site of the battle of Actium where the Roman fleet defeated that of Anthony and Cleopatra (hence the name of our boatyard). But it’s an odd site for a battle - you’d have to choose it deliberately.
Maybe it was one of those Goldilocks moments.
“Hey, Anthony, it’s time that we settle this once and for all”.
“Kay!”
“We need to have a battle.”
“Kay!”
“We need a good spot - this is going to be epic.”
“Kay”
“How about the open sea off Preveza?”
“Nah! Too big”
“How about the bay off Preveza?”
“Nah! Too small!”
“You’re a hard guy to please. What about the Amvrikakos Gulf?
“Done! On one condition - we don’t call it the Battle of Amvrikakos. Think of all the school kids who’d have to member and pronounce that name.”
As you can see from this dialog, Shakespeare exaggerated the eloquence of Anthony. Dramatic licence, I suppose.
But, anyway, back to the fish.
We have diversified and now take our own satellite images. The Amvivrakos Gulf is the large blue area in the top center.; Preveza is the light patch in the narrows just below.
The Gulf of Amvrakikos is famous for its shrimp, scallops, sardines, small delicious anchovies and many other seafood varieties. In part, due to the abundant food supply, the gulf has many dolphin and loggerhead turtles and in the swamps around the rivers there are lots of rare birds including the silver pelican whose wingspan can reach more than 10 feet.
All this seafood has a striking impact on the local restaurants and their menus. Many restaurants run their own boats and only serve what was caught fresh that morning.
But let’s take a closer look at that menu on the wall. It pretty much says, “If you want meat, really any kind of meat (even lamb) don’t even try to eat here.”
But it is the shrimp that are the most remarkable. They became more widely known when, in “For Your Eyes Only”, James Bond said, “I’ll have the shrimp, but only if they’re from Amvrikakos”.
So Colin, hoping that some of the suaveness will rub off, orders the shrimp and is not disappointed
(at least as far as the taste is concerned). They are huge - about four inches long - and are absolutely delicious.
We eat in the same restaurant three times in four days!
But Italy beckons and a nice weather window is opening up for the long overnight crossing to Roccella Ionica in Calabria,
