Unicorn Races

Zigzag must have passed inspection because our guests were happy to come onboard. When the Grahams arrived we had a restful first day in Nydri to allow them to recover from their early morning flights. Nydri is situated at the foot of high forested mountains, it is the most popular village for tourists on the east coast of Lefkas. Thousands visit each year, the population of the village in the winter is just over 1,000 but during the summer months this rises to more than 11,000.

We walked along the seaside promenade which is full of a wide range of restaurants and cocktail bars, trip boats and ferries come and go throughout the day. At the end of the promenade there is beach with coffee bars, parasols and sun beds, there is also a water sport centre where you can ride bananas or sofas at high speed or go parasailing and have views of the bay and surrounding islands.

The busy Main Street runs parallel to the seafront and is connected by small alleyways. This street has more restaurants, supermarkets and plenty of gift shops. After a walk around and ice creams, it was soon time to stop for cocktails on the seafront.

We then went back to the Main Street for dinner in a traditional restaurant. During our meal, a marching band with a procession of people came through the street marking what looked to be a funeral or other religious event.

The boys were happy with their after dinner brandy.

The following morning we left the dock and went on a short 6 nm trip across to Varko bay on the mainland. We spent the day here relaxing, swimming and paddle boarding.

Later we returned to Nydri where our friends were staying in a hotel. We anchored in tranquil bay which was quite busy but convenient as it is opposite the village and just a short dinghy ride to take them back and forth to shore.

The requirements were for a peaceful week spending time on Ziggy at anchor, and in the water. So the following couple of days we went around the peninsula to visit Dessimi beach where we anchored in clear water. This busy beach has a camp site behind it and pedal boats in the shape of cars or unicorns.

There is a small cave cut into the rocks so we swam around the bay to have a look. Unfortunately, not too much to see, several pedal boats had ‘parked’ on the tiny beach at the back of the cave and there was a small shrine, other than that, it was nice to be in the slightly cooler shady water for a few minutes.

When we returned to Nydri at the end of the day we decided to anchor further into the bay at Vlicho, as there was some stormy weather forecast. This bay is very well protected by hills and mountains all around, there is a lot more space than tranquil bay, so we were able to let out extra chain without the fear of bumping into another boat.

We stayed here for the next few days with our friends joining us on board each day, trips to shore with five in the dinghy did mean that some got a slightly soggy bottom!

In the evenings we visited a couple of different restaurants, my favourite was a waterside restaurant with views across the bay where we watched the full moon rise over the hills.

There were often black clouds around the mountains and we could see lightning in the distance but thankfully, apart from some grey clouds overhead and a bit of wind, we didn’t experience any stormy weather at anchor here.

Both air and sea temperatures were still 30°C so we had games in the water, the unicorn came out for its annual outing and we did timed unicorn races, as usual, this got very competitive. We had to tie it on to the back of the boat with a long rope as there was some wind and then paddle against the wind which was quite difficult while sitting on an inflatable unicorn. On the final day, the results were in and taking into account the conditions and wind gusts, it was very close but I just managed to take first place.

It was soon the end of their holiday and time to wave our guests off. It had been a fun week but now it was time to do some jobs. Our friends had kindly bought some boat parts from the UK that we were unable to get here so there was no excuse, those jobs that we’ve been putting off must be done!