Sailing with SaltyPaws: Some good sailing, still beautiful pictures, but no fish

Day 3 of Arjen's visit - occurred 14 August

See my earlier posts for an overview of my journey:
Day 2 - A new day, a new bay
Day 1 - Dining out on our first night
Day 0 - Visiting the SaltyPaws in Corfu

We wake up in the beautiful bay and the sea still perfectly calm due to the total absence of any wind. After a morning swim and breakfast, we decide to explore the island.

The whole southern side of the island is one slow curving bay and basically beach all the way. On the south-western corner is the small town. Walbert has read somewhere that there are only 8 permanent inhabitants on the whole island, but in season it is obviously busier although by no means crowded: There are only 10 people on the whole 1 kilometer long beach!

The small and remote island of Ereikousa. I've added a scale on the left.

We realise that we didn't bring a camera so unfortunately no pictures. There is a very small park with an old torpedo as the main eye-catcher. We guess correctly that it is German-made but the date on the nameplate surprises us: it was built in 1965. How does that end up on display on this particular island? There is no explanation sign to help us out.

There are a handful of small hotels and B&Bs and some beautiful restaurants. Even with these hotels, it is really very empty and quiet and lovely. It really is a nice place away from 'the world'. The one thing we cannot understand is why a large, noisy and polluting power generator station was built right on the beach, next to the tiny town and in the middle of the bay. The low grumble can be heard throughout the town, beach and bay. And if the wind is in your direction, it smells, too! The island is small, but not that small that they could not have found a better spot!

We walk over to the windmill and wonder what it's for. It's too high up to be pumping water and we can hardly imagine it is for milling grains, as there is no farmland to speak of between the beach and the hills... Another island mystery!

We head over to the local shop for bread and a watermelon (and maybe some beers) and paddle back to the boat.

The sea is still flat as a billiard sheet so we discuss our options for the rest of the day over lunch and another swim. I see something lying on the bottom so grab a mask and have a look around underwater. It turns out to be the remaining threads of an old Nike cap. Beside the cap, there is nothing to see underwater. I notice this is now our second, remote bay with no fish or underwater life to speak of.

Good news: when I climb back onto the boat, the wind has picked up! It is around 1 o'clock in the afternoon and we set sail for our anchoring spot for the night. This time it's not a bay but a shallow area in between two uninhabited rocks called Diaplo and Diakopo about 7 miles away.

Our journey for the afternoon, approx 7 nautical miles or 12 km.

We plan to anchor in the small sheltered area in between the two uninhabited rocks.
The passage is around 150 meters wide.

We have a lovely sail, with the wind briefly picking up to more than 20 knots apparent (apparent wind speed = the speed of the wind as you feel it on the moving boat) so we reef the main sail and genoa. The wind drops down a little shortly after to a comfortable 16 knots or so. We reach our destination readily and drop anchor. Three other sailing yachts are anchored in the narrow area and with us this anchorage is full. We decide to explore, and snorkel towards the rock's pebbly beach.

Once more we see so few fish or any other marine life, we are a little taken aback. This is such a contrast to when we were younger. You could see a a large variety of fish, including big schools of them swimming by. We would see starfish, octopusses and anemones and even coral! It was just a colorful cacophony but now it was just sand, seaweed and the occasional urchin. Nothing lives in the mediterranean anymore.

Now, the most beautiful thing we saw were the colourful pebbles of the beach. We walked around a little, threw some rocks around, made some pictures of the boat and the bay, and swam back. On returning to the boat, Walbert decided the underside needed some cleaning from the algae growth. See the picture report below.

The day wouldn't be over ... but that is for another post!