OUR BLOG
"There's always a plan, but unexpected things happen and we just go with the flow. Though I do believe that fate and destiny often play their part"
sailing blog
When we arrived back home it seemed like autumn had well and truly arrived. The first week or so was cold and damp, but then it all suddenly changed. We got a bit of an Indian Summer after all; so I stand corrected, based on my previous assumptions that it would be all wet and miserable from here on in. I have to admit we've had more BBQ's in the past few weeks than we've had in the past few years. I'm talking about here in the UK of course - over in the Med they are a very regular occurrence.
There is much going on at the moment in all sorts of ways and very soon I hope to post an update about a whole range of exciting new adventures for both of us. Watch this space. I'll make sure some pics are included too. We are home. It's raining. We're wearing shoes and thick socks and other warm woolly things designed to minimise the amount of skin being exposed to the elements. There is a decision to be made each evening....shall we put the heating on or find a thicker jumper. A hot morning bath always seems like a good idea.
A week ago it was 30 degrees. Shorts and T-shirts and flip flops were our daily attire - nothing more required. Swimming in clear blue water as often as possible was necessary to cool down. Dining al fresco was a must. As they say....a change is as good as a rest and being at home means we can see family again, which is always a pleasure. The garden is a jungle and large petrol driven machinery is clearly required to restore order. Lots of DIY jobs need doing in the house. There's no hurry....we'll tackle all the work over the coming months.... slowly but surely. The contrast in lifestyle within one week is quite stark. But there's no doubt living in the Med some of the time and being at home some of the time is a wonderful mix. Actually, it's a privilege. All in all we're glad to be back in our home sweet home for a while....until the next adventure in the sun begins. Watch this space. I'm having a Victor Meldrew moment - here goes..."I just don't believe it" ....in ten days time we'll be back home in the Cotswolds, no doubt enduring pouring rain every day and chilly nights huddled round a warm radiator. Or we might be blessed with an Indian Summer? Or pigs might fly! I must say the thought of crawling under a duvet for the first time in months seems a little strange given that we're still coping with daily temperatures of 30 degrees plus over here. But as the saying goes.... "the end is nigh" and our thoughts are now slowly turning to the alarmingly long list of jobs that need doing on Comino before we disembark for the winter. Actually, if the truth be known, we have every intention of returning later in the autumn for a two week holiday to coincide with The Middle Sea Race. It's an event not to be missed and the yacht club goes into party overdrive - as indeed do its members! Besides, Comino will need quite a bit of maintenance work doing once the extreme heat has given way to cooler days. Well....that will be my excuse for booking flights back at the first available opportunity. So, what's been occurring. Hectic is one way to describe the past few weeks, but as ever there's been no shortage of magic moments to savour along the way. I guess the highlight was picking Em and her hubby up from the airport for a week's holiday with us on the boat. Skype is a godsend but it doesn't substitute for a welcoming hug from your daughter after nearly four months apart. In just six days we did just about everything on their slightly demanding wish list. A couple of days sailing, including anchoring for lunch and swimming from the boat. We did a pool day, a beach day, a day with Jane, which included plenty of eating, drinking and more swimming plus a bit of cultural sightseeing. To tell you the truth, when they left we were completely exhausted and needed a couple of days of doing nothing just to recover. I tell people all the time....when you walk around the boat please wear deck shoes so that if you accidentally kick a cleat, or some other immovable object, it won't do you any damage. Shame I didn't follow my own advice. Sorry if this pic makes you feel a little queasy but do spare a thought for my pain. When I did it, I'm afraid the air was rather blue with four letter expletives....in fact, I sounded like the opening scene from Four Weddings and a Funeral. F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** F*** and F*** This past weekend our good friends and our little armada of sailing boats decided that we would all risk a few days on the Island of Comino. Going over earlier in the season would have been horrific because of the marauding crowds and the hundreds of day boats that converge on every bay, beach, nook and cranny. In peak season if there's a tiny patch of spare sea bed less than six metres deep someone parks a sodin boat on it and then turns on their stereo at full volume to make sure everyone knows they've arrived. Was that another Victor Meldrew I just had? Our gentle sail over on Saturday was nothing short of magnificent....peace and calm personified. The water is particularly blue at this time of year and the weather, although still hot, is not quite so humid. That means you didn't lose four pints of bodily fluids every time you walked from one side of the boat to the other. Our destination was Santa Maria, a small bay just round the corner from the Blue Lagoon. Idyllic just about sums up the place. For the first time I tried a new anchoring method whereby I dropped the hook close to the rocks and tied a line from the stern back to the land to hold me straight, preventing the boat from swinging as and when the wind changed. It meant that at the rear of Comino we had our own private swimming pool in water that was gin clear. One of the highlights of the weekend was a BBQ on the beach....another first this year. We had to get permission from the local bobby first on account of the fact that it's not really permissible, but he clearly thought we were sober, clean living sort of folk looking for a quiet night sipping mineral water and cooking the odd sausage or two. WRONG!!!! I prepared the meat mountain (and a bit of fish) for our group using various spicy marinades and aromatic sauces and although I say so myself the food fest turned out to be pretty damn good. We ate and drank and laughed long into the night and eventually jumped into our dinghies for the pitch black journey back across the bay to our respective boats, still giggling all the way. Thankfully nobody took a wrong turn and ended up half way to Sicily, although I don't think any of us made it to our boats in a straight line. Sunday brought yet another first and perhaps one of the most poignant experiences since we set sail nearly four years ago. We took our dingy round to the Blue Lagoon and swam in water that is so spectacular it's off the scale. Yes it was busy, but not packed. All I can say is WOW. Twenty years ago we came into this place on a friend's yacht and I promised myself I would one day return in my own boat....and there we bloody well were....amazing, just amazing. OK, we poked our nose in a month or so ago for a quick look amongst the literally dozens of big tourist boats and hundreds of people swarming around like ants, but to actually dive in this time when it was relatively quiet was something special. After yet more swimming we lifted the hook on Monday morning vowing to return for another spell in paradise next year before we head for Greece. I think we'll squeeze in one more boat trip before we come home on 10th September but I doubt anything will compare to the weekend we just had in Comino on Comino. The long awaited pilgrimage has now been completed. The deed had been done. We can come home contented.
My menu for the on-board dinner party we staged to re-pay friends for their generosity over the past few months was ambitious by anybody's standards. To pull it off from the galley of a boat in the middle of a heatwave was one heck of a challenge and to say it was hot work would be something of an understatement. Nevertheless, with a great deal of preparation, it all came together and we enjoyed an evening of good food and fun filled banter. It did take most of the next day to complete the washing up though, as I think I managed to use every plate, pot and pan we have. Here's what was served up :- Pimm's on arrival Prawn Cocktail - Giant Mediterranean Prawns oven baked in a garlic and white wine marinade, garnished with chopped parsley and sea salt. Fish n' Chips - Salmon Fillets topped with a lemon zest and herb crust, red pepper cumin compote, mushy peas with garlic and fresh mint, potatoe wedges roasted in rosemary. Cheese - a selection of fine cheeses left in the heat for two hours to maximise the soft and runny effect. Wine - cold and lots of it.
Firstly, please ignore the date shown above for the posting of our latest news. The calendar software has gone haywire and I can't seem to fix it for the moment. This was written on 28/07/15.
For the past few weeks life has broadly been about trundling along in the slow lane - with one or two more hectic moments that I'll elaborate on in a minute. I think that's why we're both comfortable here.... these days it feels less like being on holiday and more akin to being permanent residents. There's something to be said for living in a marina with running water and electricity and heading out for day trips or longer stints at anchor whenever we feel like it. I know we're not being as adventurous as we were in the past, but there's no doubt we'll start proper travelling again next year. We would have gone to Greece this year if the place was a bit more stable financially. Because our circle of friends continues to grow it does involve rather frequent gatherings over drinks and food, but that's just the way things are done around here. The Mediterranean lifestyle is much more social than we're used to back in the UK and friends tend to spend lots of time together in a kind of celebratory atmosphere where the underlying mood is best summed up as 'life is for living". Who can argue with that! Pool parties and BBQ's go on during the week so that weekends are free for time on the boats, of which there are four in our little troupe. We had a five day visit from James (our son). This involved a bit of sailing (anchoring in a nearby bay more like), a day at a posh private lido set in luscious gardens, a BBQ day at Jane's rooftop terrace (with pool) and a day on the beach. It seemed sensible to hire a car for his trip and that meant we could squeeze in a bit of sightseeing as well. As ever, saying goodbye at the airport was tricky but we'll see him again soon I'm sure. Em (daughter) and her husband will be coming out in a few weeks, so another bit of family bonding is on the horizon. There's been a serious heatwave here and it's actually no joke. The temperature on the boat has topped 120 degrees during the day, with little respite at night. Standing outside in the sun is unbearable and the only comfortable thing to do is dive into the water and stay there. As I write (Tuesday 28th) things have eased up a little with a gentle breeze, but this weekend promises to be a scorcher with another heatwave forecast. We'll be going to a bay somewhere to make sure we can flop into the sea every five minutes or so. We recently met a group of friends at a trendy new restaurant in Sliema. The men (three of us) all ordered rib eye steak. Two things need to be said....firstly it was the most tender, succulent steak I have ever tasted in my entire life. Secondly, it was the largest amount of steak I have ever seen on a plate in my entire life. I guess you could call it a double whammy. Nicki had a tooth incident a while back which required urgent treatment at quite a significant cost. It meant we couldn't meet up with some English friends as planned, who were over here for a holiday. Another double whammy of the negative kind. We're probably nearing the half way mark for this year's sailing season in Malta and to mix things up a bit we booked ourselves into a waterfront hotel for three nights. This was also an attempt to alleviate the effects of the heatwave. We had a rooftop pool and air conditioned rooms (bliss) plus an English breakfast buffet included in the price (more bliss). It's months since I had bacon and eggs and boy did it taste good. We actually didn't leave the hotel for three days, taking full advantage of the four star facilities. Supper was taken on the seventh floor terrace overlooking the whole of Sliema and Valletta. One evening we watched a film crew at work below us on one of the quays at Manoel Island Boatyard. Nicki did a quick bit of internet research to find out what it might be and we discovered that we were only looking at Colin Firth and Rachel Weiss taking part in a new film about the life and times of Donald Crowhurst. Look up his name in Google and you'll find details of his fascinating and tragic story. We can't wait to watch the film and see the bits we saw being made - how sad is that!!! Tomorrow night it's our turn to re-pay some of the wonderful hospitality we've received over the past few months. I'm cooking dinner for seven friends, which will be a Herculean task given the furnace like temperatures in the galley. I've always enjoyed a bit of a challenge though, particularly of the culinary kind. My aim today is to hunt down a bottle of Pimm's to start the party off - the Maltese like a bit of quintessential Englishness from time to time. To maintain the theme the main course will be fish n' chips, although there will be a few twists to the traditional British version. Let's just say "exotic fish n' chips" - I'll take some pics to show you what I mean. I know it's only been a few days since we got back from Sicily, but what with all this brilliant sunshine and sweltering heat we thought it was time for another little trip. On this excursion our destination would be a tad closer to home - some of our favourite haunts around the North end of Malta. First stop was Paradise Bay, a gentle two and a half hour hop under engine in flat calm sea and no wind. We spent a peaceful night there at anchor after a wonderful day of total relaxation. In the morning we motored the short distance across to the island of Comino for a long awaited homecoming - our yacht Comino in the Blue Lagoon for the first time (see About Us for the full story if you're interested). We knew only too well that this was going to be more of a sentimental experience rather than a pleasurable one. And surprise surprise, even before 11 am, the lagoon was packed full of boats, burger vans and hundreds of tourists crammed like sardines into a tiny space. Small tripper boats were buzzing around us like bees making the whole scene so very different to the time twenty years ago when we made ourselves a promise to come back here one day in our own boat. Anyway, the important thing is we were in the lagoon at last and those memories of days gone by were no less special to us. After a quick circle round the bay trying hard not to bash into anyone, we left feeling happy that we'd made the effort, but sad we couldn't have the place all to ourselves like before - ah well...that's progress for you. Within an hour we were anchored up just off the beach in Armier on the North coast of Malta. The water there is quite spectacular - it's just like jumping into a swimming pool and only half a dozen other boats were anchored around us for the day. Another peaceful time was had by all - lolling around in the sea, eating a bit of lunch and dozing in the sun. By early evening we'd moored up back at Manoel Island Marina ready for a good book and a good sleep. It's going to be a busy weekend ahead. People have made party plans and apparently we're in them!!! Crossing open sea for 9 hours from one country to another is quite an adventure, but because our trip from Malta to Sicily wasn't our first, we were well prepared for the journey - by that I mean a full fridge and plenty of sun cream. Our little armada of three boats all set off just before dawn on Friday morning and as we passed under the towering black bastions of Valletta the calm water of the harbour quickly turned into an uncomfortable rough swell. All the forecasts predicted a couple of hours of "rock n' roll" until about ten miles off-shore, when things would settle down. Thankfully they were right and as the sun began to burn brightly, so did the sea ease off, making the rest of the journey a real pleasure. For the first four hours the wind was on the nose, which meant we had to motor. Then it backed towards the West, increased to around 12 knots, giving us a cracking sail (with engine on still) with speeds of up to 7.4 knots. Alas no dolphins joined us along the way, but we did see two giant turtles inches from the boat slowly paddling their way to goodness knows where. I thought I might have hit one it was so close, but given its rock hard shell was about the size of a small family saloon (slight exaggeration) I'm sure we would have come off worse if we had.
At 14:20 we were all tied up in Marina di Ragusa alongside the other boats, Nereida and Galene, whose crew members were already in party mode. Actually, our good friends from Malta are always in party mode, only when they travel abroad for a bank holiday weekend the fun factor goes up a few notches. Our first evening was spent in a rather posh restaurant on the promenade overlooking the startling bright blue Mediterranean. Naturally sea food was the sensible choice, so I indulged in a "misto", consisting of swordfish, prawns (giant of course), langoustines and grilled squid. To say it hit the spot would be something of an understatement. Nicki shared a whole fresh fish caught that day. She wasn't disappointed either! Saturday, we all went our separate ways. The lure of Italian clothes shops in a nearby town was too much for the Maltese contingent. Nicki and I spent the day walking and exploring the stunning area around Marina di Ragusa, with its glorious beaches, elegant seafront promenade and delightful residential villas. The town itself is very up-market, frequented by wealthy visitors from all around Italy during the summer months. There's no other way to describe the evening other than riotous. It was spent on Nerieda (the largest of the boats) and all ten of us shared plates of food fit for kings, all prepared by each of us in advance. In my case, I contributed a couple of trays full of baked garlic king prawns. The wine flowed, the jokes got more outrageous, the behaviour deteriorated and we all ended up laughing until our sides split. It was a quiet Sunday - I wonder why? Some chilling, some walking, some food shopping for more fresh fish and a rather more sensible supper back aboard Nerieda. In your dreams - I think it was marginally worse, or better, depending on your outlook. Monday morning really was a little slow. Some hangovers were clearly in evidence, although Nicki and I had not pushed things too hard, given that we had a long sail back to Malta ahead of us. We all set off at 9.00am in brilliant sunshine and a sea that was eerily calm. Sometimes it can look like gloopy oil it's so still. Probably just as well given the delicate condition some of the group were in. After an uneventful eight hours crossing, apart from more turtles, we arrived at Selmun Bay in Malta, anchored up and immediately dived into the crystal clear water. This was just a one hour stopover to freshen up before we motored for an hour and a half back to our base at Manoel Island Marina. Shortly after we moored up the light faded, and so did we. One glass of wine each to celebrate our safe return was enough to send us into a deep sleep, exhausted after another amazing set of memories had been created with the dearest of people. There are some days that are quite special, whilst others are just simply off-the-scale magnificent. A visit to Jane's sisters house is definitely the latter. Sue has a home to die for, which made our recent lunch invitation an occasion to be savoured. I could bang on about the wonderful time we had, but actually the pictures speak for themselves. After the prawn starter the main course consisted of a Vietnamese salmon curry, accompanied by fresh pineapple sautéed in soy, coriander, ginger and garlic. I was in such food heaven that I forgot to take a photo - but trust me...it was the best. And, unusually for me, I managed not to spill any food all down my nice new white shirt. Definitely a good thing when your washing machine consists of a bucket on the pontoon.
The past week has been unusually windy here in Malta and so sailing hasn't really been an option. Rough sea isn't our thing, even if the sun is shining. However, we took the opportunity to do some more polishing, with breaks in-between for a bit of socialising here and there. We've also been preparing Comino for the trip to Sicily this Friday with two other boats. There'll be ten of us in total which can only mean one thing - rowdiness and late nights!!! The forecast looks good for the twelve hour sail to Marina de Ragusa on the west coast and I'll post details of how we get on after we get back on Monday. One of the really funny things about Malta in the past was the number of old English cars you saw. Morris Marinas, Ford Escorts, Humbers, Triumphs and so on were still on the road here decades after they disappeared back home. Nowadays, they are a bit few and far between but the other day we came across this little beauty in a car park by the beach. The sad thing is....I remember these cars when they were new. Can somebody please go and find the fat lady - I just can't wait to hear her sing. That will be a sure sign to say it's all over - this hard graft I mean. Although we're back in the water, polishing the coachroof, cockpit and all the stainless steel bits is well underway. Nicki has also been busy waxing what seems like acres of teak down below, not to mention washing all our plates, glasses, pots and pans, including the cupboards they live in. It's like doing a spring clean but on steroids I guess. The problem is... if you don't do all this stuff now, once you set off sailing all thoughts of "work" go out the window. Up until a few days ago it wasn't clear whether we'd be able to stay in Malta after the re-launch due to the chronic lack of marina berths here. There are just so many people wanting a place they've even abandoned the notion of keeping waiting lists. However, all came good and we've been allocated a slot for the summer at our preferred location... Manoel Island Marina. Thanks Pierre (the boss man), we owe you one. As we tied up on Thursday it felt like coming home - Gzira and Sliema will once again be our shoreside stomping ground for the next few months. Our nearest Turkish kebab dispensary is just three minutes walk away from the boat - now that is what I call a result! And so we're nearly ready to move back on board - just another day of work and it will be time to slip our lines and go exploring. I mentioned before Nicki's efforts on the propeller - not bad eh! My weeks work shouldn't go without mention either. Comino is looking good - even if I say so myself.
The first few days in Malta were mainly spent chilling out with friends and yes....some rather sumptuous seafood did get consumed along with a few glasses of vino calapso. Well....one must ease oneself back into the Med lifestyle gently otherwise you might strain something! However, come Monday morning the real work of getting Comino back up to scratch began. I had organised for Ray, the main Yanma man in Malta, to come and do the special 1000 hour service, which entails dismantling just about half the engine. To cut a long story short, some things were not good. Water in the fuel system had turned to goo inside all the filters. The injectors were fouled up with soot. The saildrive gearbox oil was a pungent black sludge. The compression levels were well below par. The coolant in the heat exchanger had gone a nasty shade of green. The list went on, but Ray worked extremely hard over the following two days to put everything right, whilst I acted as his humble apprentice keen to understand how things had deteriorated so badly. I must be much more pro-active in future with my engine maintenance programme or one day we'll find ourselves in difficulty out at sea - not the place to start learning the in's and out's of diesel motor repairs. The lift-out had to be delayed by two days because of the extensive engine work, but on Thursday morning we left the marina and motored down Sliema Creek to Manoel Island Boatyard with a bit of trepidation about the possible state of our bottom. This would be the first time in two years Comino would be coming out of the water and lord knows what marine life might have made our hull its home. We eased ourselves into position under the giant crane and slowly the slings tightened beneath us. Up she rose high above the water revealing the toll two years takes on being submerged in the sea. Actually, it was no worse than expected. Nevertheless, the next week was clearly going to be damn hard work scrubbing, sanding, painting and polishing if we want the boat to look like brand new again. And so the daily routine of sweat and toil started in earnest. As I write (6 am on Tuesday 9th) we're ahead of schedule with two more days before we go back in the water. I must say Comino is already looking quite good, with today being all about polishing the gelcoat till it's got a mirror like finish. Pics will follow shortly of the final job - in particular Nicki's spectacular efforts on the propeller. In the meantime, here's some photo's of our trip on Sunday when we took a couple of hours off to go exploring around the island in our hire car. We couldn't resist going to Armier where we'll be anchoring for a few days to relax as soon as we're afloat again. Not a bad spot is it!!!
The final countdown has begun. All the boxes have been ticked on my pre-departure "to do" list. Those things that didn't get done have been rubbed out and I'm pretending they didn't exist. Yes...it's nearly time to head for the Med and take up residence aboard Comino once again. Now that, boys and girls, is what I call "something to look forward to".
Will it be a gentle slide back into a slower pace of life? Will we sit and relax in the sunshine on our first day wondering whether to take a swim or take a nap? No.....Emphatically No! Apparently, we've been told we'll be hitting the ground running. Within one hour of landing we'll be sat at a pre-booked table for lunch with a few friends. Lunches like this usually end sometime around early evening. This one will have to because at eight we need to be at a birthday bash where just about everyone we know in Malta has been invited. Now when I say birthday bash, I mean full on rave.....there's no such things as a quiet gathering around cake and candles in this neck of the woods. This will be messy I'm sure! And here's the rub. We'll be getting up at 3 am to catch a dawn flight so although jet lag won't be a problem, tiredness certainly will. Ah well....you only live once. So, it seems like Saturday has been taken care of. Come Sunday we'll definitely be taking things easy, although my plan is to start organising the boat ready for lift-out on Tuesday. From then on each day will be all about scrubbing the bottom and re-painting the underwater hull with antifoul....in 28 degrees : ( Pictures a plenty will follow plus details of our progress towards re-launch and our on-ward venture into the blue yonder. See you on the other side. _/) * ~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~~ Here's how the list looks as at today......
1. Flights back to Malta - Booked 2. Lift-out for Comino - Booked 3. Re-launch for Comino - Booked 4. A place for us to stay whilst Comino is in the boatyard - Sorted 5. Engine 1000 hour service - To be sorted 6. Purchase antifoul - To be sorted 7. Purchase electric orbital polisher - To be sorted 8. Cruising plan for the summer - To be sorted 9. Pack shorts, T-shirts, flip flops and nothing else - Work in progress 10. End of season target destination - Greece Wouldn't it be great if this was the true extent of our planning for the forthcoming summer season. Alas, the maintenance "to do" list already fills two sides of A4, but I guess it's good to get the main priorities down on paper too at this stage. We're both feeling quite excited that there's now an actual date in our diaries for departure...I can practically taste that first cold beer in the sun already! The mornings are getting lighter. The birds seem rather chirpy...they start singing very early....very LOUDLY. Green stuff around the garden is showing signs of rapid vertical movement. It must be Springtime then! Now... where did I put the shotgun and the lawnmower.
Hard to believe that we've been home for three months already and with the prospect of sunshine over in the Med not that far away, we're already thinking ahead to the next instalment of our adventure. Looking back for a moment, much has happened recently. We got fed up with renting places and therefore took the opportunity to reoccupy our home (the tenants decided to move on). All our worldly belongings came out of storage and the past few weeks have been great fun opening dozens of boxes full of surprises as we re-discover what we own. Actually... that's not quite true. Being an utter anorak I created a spreadsheet when we departed two years ago, with the contents of every box carefully listed and numbered. Nevertheless, it was still a bit like opening Christmas pressies, albeit knowing what was inside the wrapping. This is going to be a new beginning. Having de-cluttered big time when we packed up, a new order will apply from now on. This house is going to abide by boat rules, which means anything that doesn't have a useful purpose will find itself on the shelves of a charity shop pronto.That doesn't include me just for the record. Sadly, my father passed away at the beginning of January at the ripe old age of 93. He was buried with military honors as Lieutenant Colonel Mieczyslaw Wladyslaw Kazimierz Wartalski. He was just plain Michael to me! Friends in Malta are keeping an eye on the good ship Comino for me but having been sat in the water over winter it means the bottom will be as slimy as a second-hand car salesman. The top won't be much better. Desert sand from Africa fills the rain, which means she'll need an archaeological dig to get her unearthed. I think the first thing I'll do when we get back is arrange for her to be lifted into the boatyard for some serious TLC. I'll leave you with pictures of Manoel Island, where Comino has been berthed for the past two summers. The first shot was taken in the early seventies. What's remarkable is that the marina doesn't even exist then. The boats moored opposite on Ta'Xbiex key are still there (not the same ones obviously) but equally interesting is the swimming pool in the bottom right hand corner. That's the pool at Nicki's parents flat where she swam as a young girl. She could never have imagined living on a boat just a few hundred yards away when she was older. |
A FEW PICS OF COMINO Click a photo to enlarge and use side arrows to scroll through. COMINO IS CURRENTLY HEREDID SOMEONE SAY SEAFOODOn our journey from Portugal to Greece we enjoyed amazing seafood almost everywhere we stopped. Finding the local fish market was always a priority because seafood was so plentiful and so reasonably priced. And, the displays were a feast for your eyes.
Locating a market sometimes meant pounding the pavements in searing heat, but if you kept your eyes peeled, you often came across a little clue. The pic below was a rather less than subtle advert for a fish market - it was eight feet tall.
Freshly cooked onboard, a plateful of giant prawns, baked in wine and garlic, washed down with a few glasses of local vino, was like heaven. Watching the sunset on the boat eating a meal like that was the epitome of "living the dream".
Now we're in Greece we've another favourite to savour. I'm talking about fried Calamari. It's usually good, but every now and then it's off-the-scale fantastic. At Natalie's Taverna on Kontokali Beach in Corfu, it was nothing short of epic.
We're based in Lefkas now and It's been a bit of a mission to find somewhere just as good. And we have. Rakias is a mere ten minute walk from the marina and this little fish market, with its very own taverna attached, is quite sensational.
Oh...and it's also worth mentioning that, on occasions, a bit of barbequed Octopus is on the menu at some of the tavernas we frequent. Can I resist....no. SUNSETS AND DRAMATIC SKIESNo filters, or any other monkey business, have been used to enhance these images.
OUR ADVENTURES FROM THE BEGINNING CATEGORIES
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