Sailing the Ionian Sea.

Unexpected hazards of an idyllic island adventure.

Jun 12, 2007 Sylvia Farley

Adapting to a tide less sea , Greek food and drink, precipitous roads and other local peculiarities in an area of great natural beauty and unexpected hazards.

Sailing the Ionian Seas.

For anyone who has never sailed a tide less sea, the Ionian Islands hold a great many surprises. Just as Invaders from the Mediterranean were caught unprepared for tides that retreated from British Shores, leaving their fleets stranded, so British sailors are caught napping by local adaptations to a constant sea level all day long.

One surprising feature of Ionic harbours is that it is possible to moor stern or bows too, necessitating a whole new technique of dropping sails, motoring into a close-packed, tiny harbour, throwing out an anchor thirty yards from shore, tying up to a quayside and tightening anchor line and warps to hold the boat steady.

Another new skill is that of walking the plank, a narrow board between boat and quay that admittedly stays at one angle, but is not as easy to negotiate, especially when laden with supplies.

It is accepted by the locals that at least one visiting sailor will fall between boat and quay in every harbour every week. Joking advice that by the end of the week those terrified mariners edging tentatively along their gang-planks will be taking it in their stride by the end of the holiday, does not alter the fact that many dread boarding and leaving their craft far more than sailing them through the afternoon thunderstorms that are another unexpected feature of the area.

By contrast, crossing between islands at other times of day often involves motoring through flat calm, without enough breeze to billow a sail.

Most charts indicate clearly delineated straits and bays which are not actually visible from the sea as they are masked by steep cliffs and forested mountains, so a hand-held GPS is a useful toy to take along.

But the scenery is beautiful, sea as clear as isinglass and the dolphins quite delightful.

Other hazards include the roads from the harbours to anywhere else one has a mind to go: steep, precipitous, without road markings and often too narrow for passing cars and lacking any form of safety barrier before a drop of several hundred feet. It is unwise to venture anywhere by road after dark, and not conducive to stable blood pressure, even by day.

Water is another hazard, imported to the Islands and sold by the litre from tankers for washing purposes, or purchased frozen in plastic bottles to drink.

Another unlikely friction point is toilet paper, not to be put down the toilets, or the heads on a boat, at any cost, as it will block them. A pedal bin is provided beside the pedestal to dispose of anything that hasn’t actually been eaten.

As for eating, local tavernas offer a range of tasty local dishes, but care must be taken that these are not reheated as the Greeks are much more resistant to salmonella than your average holiday maker.

Ouzo, the deceptive aniseed flavoured firewater, is lethal to the uninitiated, its potency undiluted by the glass of ice water with which it is traditionally served by beautiful young men with long-lashed eyes and generous hearts.

And for those who painstakingly try to learn a few words of the beautiful language and attempt to decipher the unfamiliar script, there is yet another hazard in this idyllic land of myths, monasteries and mountains. Quite apart from the fact that each island, separated by only a few miles of open water, has its own dialect; there is an increasing likelihood of being asked by a dauntingly lovely young shop-girl to “speak English, please” because she is Romanian, working in Greece for the season.

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