Wednesday 22^nd July – Arrival Argostoli, Kefalonia, Greece

38:10.704N 20:29.378E

Are we there yet? Yes J

After 2 years travelling we have finally made landfall in Greece.  This was our initial aim when we set off in July 2007, a summer in Greece, so we’ve made it. 

Over night the wind dropped for a while and then built again to 10-18 knots, giving some excellent sailing at times.  The sea was still a little lumpy at times but comfortable.  What pleased me most was the lack of other vessels – we didn’t see a single vessel on the whole of the passage.  During the morning the wind died right away and so we had to motor on.

We arrived this afternoon at Argostoli, Kefalonia (Nísos Kefallínia) around 3pm.  When we arrived at the town quay, we had to face a new way of berthing – there are no tailed lines, you have to drop the anchor a few boat lengths out and then go stern to the quay.  It was my first time with this sort of berthing with Pyxis.  As the wind was broadside, I wasn’t looking forward to it but there were a couple of people ashore helping to line us up so that we could moor between two other boats without dragging their anchors up in the process.

The first time I backed into the space with no trouble and we tied on; however, when we tightened the anchor, it came loose, it hadn’t set properly so we had to go out and do it all again.  Oh no, I thought, I’m far too tired to do this again. 

The second time the anchor bit nicely but we hadn’t judged the distance well, we had almost all our chain out by the time we were near the mooring so we decided to abandon that attempt and try to get it better.  The third time went perfectly and we were grateful to be tied on by a very patient man ashore from the boat next door. 

Nigel, from Cracker Jack, then introduced us to Leo, the café owner from across the road who had also been helping us in.  He has free wi-fi and cheap draught beer and can get just about anything you want.  Jackie, from Arwen, who we had met in Roccella Ionica, spotted us later and came to say hello; they had set off the day before and had a very uncomfortable trip with heavy swell.  She filled us in on where the market was and the fuel station for petrol for the generator, etc.

So now we knew where everything was and we decided on a short walk ashore, a cold beer, then dinner and an early night.