We spent the last week anchored in Bungalow Bay (the eastern end of Ormo Varko). We had a bit of boat work to do – sticking on Crazy Horse’s name stickers to our new dinghy, fixing reverse on the outboard, commissioning the watermaker and tracking down a leak on it; all seemed well until after a couple of hours we noticed water was weaping out of the membrane housing ends. Not a major leak and the fresh water output was still pure (125ppm) and at the correct volume so we aren’t overly worried but still worth getting sorted out. We’ve been in touch with the UK supplier of Katadyn who has given us a fix to try, we just need to get to a chandlery to buy some bits.
Why the Cold Patches?
Emerald in Bungalow Bay. It looks like we’ve got the whole bay to ourselves
The swimming is good in the bay, although if anyone can explain why there are cold patches of water I’d love to hear. We’d be swimming along in lovely warm water then suddenly, brrr! into a cold patch. Maybe there are fresh water upwellings as the water did occasionally look briny. Around the edges of the bay I snorkeled, watching the shoals of fish dart about through the suns rays that lit up the rocks. Plenty of spiky sea urchins too and what looked like squidgy sea cucumbers.
The rock formations around the bay fascinated me. Alongside where we anchored there is a patch of rosy pink rock, once horizontal layers now pushed up by unimaginable forces into weird patterns. Then the pink layer abruptly changes to pale yellow, no merging of colours just a straight line between pink and yellow.
I had a paddle in my kayak around the finger of land that protects the south of the bay; here there are limestone rocks weathered by sea and wind into all sorts of odd shapes, some formations looked like teeth sticking up from the sea. Or skulls!
Every night as the sun set the mountains of the Acarnanian range out to the east would be lit up all dusky pink. Very pleasant to sit watching with our sundowners.
Colourful rocks
How Close Is Too Close?
Plenty of space in Bungalow Bay (before the too close cat arrived)
During the week boats came and went, the bay is pretty big so plenty of space for everyone. So why a catermaran thought it was OK to park so close we can’t understand; when we bobbed about with no wind he was almost touching our stern and there was a good chance we’d hit at some point. Even just bobbing we didn’t want to hit, especially as it would be our new dinghy taking the brunt. We pointed out where our anchor was when they arrived as it was under our stern rather than in front. He took no heed of us and dropped his less than a boat length away from us. He thought it was OK but after a night of disturbed sleep making regular checks to see where each boat was we felt it was time for action the next day. Conveniently the boats came close together again giving us a chance to ask the skipper if he thought it was acceptable. He still could see nothing wrong and it was looking like we would have to move ourselves. Eventually after quite some persuading by us (what about our privacy – we could hear his snores the night before), they moved. There was so much space in the bay it was really unnecessary to be so close. The next night he kept us awake by having a loud argument at 1am!
Hot, Hot, Hot!
Hot, shaggy goat
There have been days where its so hot just sitting still makes us sweaty and the land is really starting to dry out and turn brown now, although the trees are still green. We took a walk one morning around the road that runs along the edge of Ormo Varko, with great views across both bays. We walked towards One Tree Bay – the nickname given to the next bay west because there is a large tree (there are now 2 but no one seems to have changed the name) in the field behind the beach. That morning the weather wasn’t too hot, humidity was down and a gentle breeze kept us from over heating.
We saw very little wildlife; just a couple of beautiful ‘Scarce Swallowtail’ butterflies gliding around on their huge wings and the local goat herd. They looked very hot with all that shaggy coat insulating them.
We had the tinyest of rain showers one evening, just a few drips pitter-pattering down, not even enough to give the decks a rinse.
Our Anchor has White Ears
We only had a couple of days where the katabatic wind blew strong from the north west, but when it did it we had gusts of 30kts and the wind picked up early afternoon and continued well beyond midnight. During the calm days we bobbed around over our anchor doing circles as the wind usually clocked around every direction throughout the day.
Last winter we painted the anchor shank and the fluke ends white (now the anchor looks like its wearing white Mikey Mouse ears) so we could spot it more easily on the seabed. And it works!
The white paint makes the anchor easy to spot
Sailing Stats
7th – 13th July: Vlicho to Ormo Varko: 7nm travelled (all motored)
Position: 38 46.0’N 20 48.1’E
Weather: 30C, dry, sunny, wind variable F2
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