Corfu or Kerkira how the Greeks call it, was a wonderful break, and the couple of days we spent there were realy wonderful, maybe because I bought there not one but 3 fur coats, beside everything else, and they also say after spending 7 days at sea one tends to get into some kind of crisis....so mine was shopping...apparently everyone elses too.
So having spent considerably serious amount of money, and having in mind this was just the beginning of our trip, it was time to move on.
From Kerkira /Corfu/ we sailed on the north-west coast towards Lefkada, between the island of Kafalonia to Petraikos Kolpos to Patra - one of the major ports in the western part of Greece, then to Lutraki and through the Korinthos channel - which was a fascinating experience. When we reached the end of the Korinthos channel, all the boats were lined up at the pier and everyone just jumped into the vast deep blue waters, which was a custom - like being baptized in the river Jordan, or getting a Diploma after flying over the equator.
Just leaving the Korinthos channel, we were hit by the winds of the Aegean sea, so once again the Genoa was ready to be pulled up...and there's a funny story about this one.
My very dear and close friend, as well as God-father to my youngest child was together with his family and mine on this sailing trip. We two go a long way back, both being architects and having spent most of our lives having fun, injoying our time and spending it in numerous bars, pubs, cafes, discos...etc, always joking and talking ..and talking...and talking.... we had a discussion on the issue of the name Genova. Finding that the city was not worth so much as a sail to be named after, we both decide, as well as made everyone else, including our skipper, to call it Firenza. So there , at that moment Genoa was therefor rebaptized into Firenza, for all of you sailors who have not yet learned of this important event, please reffere to it as mentioned earlier. How can any one calle a sail Genoa...common, do you know what Genoa looks like...well if you did, you would never call the sail Genoa, so Firenza it is .
Now,another situation on our sailing boat, was exactly always having to do with the raising of Firenza /see how it even sounds nicer...eh/. Whenever the Firenza was mentioned, I either went for a drink or 2 or 3 or......or just sank down to my cabin...right , in that 9<-->3 position and fell asleep. I guess even having it re-named, I wasn't very amused of the factor of sailing *bent* in a 30 degree or whatever degree that was!
So, hitting the Aegean sea and new winds, Firenza was brought up as a normal proceeding factor, and my friend said:
-' Lila, care for a drink'?
-'Huh....yeah , why not..'
He went on, : 'Firenza, baby...Firenza'
'OMG....yeah , sure, lets go down', and I ran down the steps to our salon.
Now what continued is not very nice, or lady-like at all, so all of you who don't want to continue, I will understand....but never the less I'll keep on writting.
The problem was we haven't been shopping for a day or two..and our drinks were just at the level of a couple of beers and a bottle of Metaxa....but, Firenza is still a Firenza, so the beers and Metaxa were following one another untill I didn't give a damn anymore for the fact of 30 degrees bent sailing, as I stood like a statue /have in mind, sailing on a ship, only those who are drunk walk straight, everyone else goes from one side to the other/ but not for very long....one fly from one-side-bent to the other-side-bent...trew me right into my toilet....where they found me as we reached the Port of Pireas, huging the toilet seat and sleeping.
Believe me, you don't want to know how it feels getting drunk from Metaxa by itself, not to mention it been pushed by some beer.
Good reason, enough, to decide to stay a couple of days in Athens, we all checked in Hotel Grande Bretagne, spent our days sitting in Kolonaki and watched our children spend our money at Harley Davidson shop...then upon slow recovery and having bought a couple pairs of shoes and boots I was all ready to continue our trip to the ilsand of Mykonos.
All ready, but not having an idea what great surprise is waiting for me on the way to Mykonos.
In the month of August, in these waters there is a well known wind / which I never heard before/ called Meltemi, and, oh boy, the sailors love it, but as I was just becoming a sailor, it wasn't appreciated and left me more then once huging my toilet, but as I don't ever give up, I go by the saying, 'if you can't win them-join them' I did go out of the cabin eventualy and fought through my 'fright of Firenza-bent-sailing'...not only did I come to the stage of 'I wouldn't care less' but to show you the effect of spending so many days sailing at sea, going through many crisis, I ended up completely num....as by reaching the island of Mykonos, there is a bay with a narrow passage, on one side you see rocks on the other side a huge mountain...an enormous ferry coming towards you, we are all outside on the deck and watching, we have pulled down all sails and using our engine....suddenly the engine stops. We look at each other...then at the skipper whos head is diving into the engine, only to come out holding a belt...a very broken belt...evryone was in dead silence, the ferry was approaching us in a rather fast way, the Meltemi wind was slowly pushing us towards the rocks, I was wondering where the hell were our safety jackets, and where the hell were all our kids, and the skipper was sewing the belt, having a glove on his hand and a funny needle...just like no big deal is happening......just to place it after a while start the engine somehow miss the ferry and the rocks and find the only one place left to 'park' our sailboat.
As we were 'parked' he opened the engine and found that the belt was once again thorn apart......
It took us just a couple of minutes to make a decission, we would check into a hotel, after a couple of days send the skipper back...with most of our shopping, stay in Mykonos for another 2 weeks and take a plane back!
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