Ionian Flotilla advice

[tjm]

Am going on our first flotilla hol in a few weeks time (Spartia flotilla)taking in Agios Euphemia/Vathi/Kalamos/Fiscardo etc. Boat is an Oceanis 411
Any suggestions re what we should take,things to do and not do
We arent very experienced so the trepidation level is rising dailly!!!
Thanks in advance for all suggestions
Tom

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[dk]

Take lots of film because it's beautiful plus lots of sun tan lotion. Visit Fiscardo, Meganisi and Kioni. Drink the local wine and enjoy the Greek hospitality. The sailing is nice and light but take gloves for rope/anchor work. It's one of my favourite places.

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[Tiger Rag]

I used to skipper a flotilla based out of Corfu, we used to come down through the levkas canal and sail around that area. The winds are either very light or occasionally very strong (usually NW) and in general it is a perfect cruising ground to gain extra experience. My only peice of advice would be to get in and tied up early wherever you are heading, if I didn't get my fleet in by three in the afternoon than it would be shit fight to find space often ending up being rafted out five or six deep (not good coming home after a few rakis!), but worse still if you end up anchored off the rocks on the wrong side of the harbour and face either long walk round rocks or using tender. I was there in 1992 so not sure I have any local knowledge that will be particulary usefull, most places were cheap and cheerful and the locals generally very hospitable. Hope you have a good time, let us know when you get back.

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[Jeremy_W]

Have a good play around with the yacht on the first day so that you understand its handling characteristics, particularly how well a quick burst of astern will stop you piling into a pontoon (and which way the stern kicks in the process). The weight/ size/ height above the water/ wheel steering combination will be totally different from your Hurley 22.

Don't even try fending off with a hand, or sheeting in a sail without using a winch, the way you can on the Hurley You'll find out the painful way that this doesn't work. Never be afraid to heave to while you work things out

You'll probably be one of the most experienced crews on the flotilla. Have a good time!

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[l'escargot]

Take a taxi from A. Euphemia to the near-by caves (2 lots, one with an underground boat trip), well worth the visit (paid about £15 for the round trip and the taxi waited for us, took most of the morning). A. Euphemia was also the only place I've ever been asked to present the boats papers and charged nearly £3 for two nights harbour dues.
Fiscardo a bit commercial but good choice of restaurants, lively bar in an old olive oil press room at the port side of the harbour. Get moored especially early - on the call list of all flots.
Big Vathi can be a bit windswept if there is any wind and a bit of a hike into town, convenient internet cafe if you need to check e mails. Also the only place I found side to mooring.
Elswhere, take it slowly the first couple of attempts at bows to mooring and you'll soon get the hang of it
If you want to keep the boat smelling sweet - nappy sacks and baby wipes. Nothing can be pumped out unless it has been through the digestive system first and only then in deep water.

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[Seafort]

Dont trust greek fishermen or excursion skippers to follow col regs, they seem to take the attitude that they are working, so you keep clear.

That taken into account you will have a great time, a great place for sailing.

I was there in May and found it not too crowded. Mostly stern to mooring so if you aren't used to it get in some practice alone on the first day.

As has been mentioned earlier about getting to port early, afternoon entertainment usually is watching everyone else moor up (Never seen a yacht bounce so far from the quay because of an extended boarding ladder). If you do go off alone for a few days, try not to miss any beach bbq's with your fellow flotties.

Enjoy.

Dave.

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[tcm]

We found that at the flotilla bases the "supermarkets" weren't well stocked and people who came in very late missed out, so have a look at any shops in the bases as early as poss on arrival.

Your trepidation is healthy I think - but don't feel that you ought to "know" everything - sometimes tempting if there are lots of boats and a handover guy has to move on quickly. Ask the stupid questions.

Therer's lots of anchoring, so make sure you reverse on the anchor praps 1500 revs to check it is holding - some places are gravelly on the sea bed

Try not to get put off by the fact that the loos forbid putting loo paper down the toilet.

The 411 is a nice boat. Think the biggest bed is actually in the saloon, often dumped on whoever draws the short straw if you plan to use the saloon for sleeping.

Check the torch on the boat - it is v dark at nights - not much streeetlighting and not any big towns. Good idea would be if you have a 12v plug in light or if not, praps buy one of those DIY shop solar lights, leave it out all day it glows in the evening.

Have as good time.


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[Miles]

Rod Heikell's Ionian Pilot book is excellent.

If taking a handheld GPS, you may find that it is a lot more accurate than the local charts. The only reef for miles around is just south of Skorpios the Onassis island and we realised just in time....

We went with Sunsail and the flotilla leader was great at helping us into port in the evenings. Winds can come up very suddenly after days of calm. Our Oceanis 351 just did not go astern but we had a terrific time.

There were plenty of beginners on our flotilla and no-one was overly serious.

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[Twister_Ken]

Smelling sweet

>If you want to keep the boat smelling sweet - nappy sacks and baby wipes.<

And/or pick a branch of rosemary when ashore and hang it in the boat.

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[Twister_Ken]

What to take

We inevitably took too much and over the years whittled it down to:

2 t-shirts
2 shirts (one with long sleeves to wear on plane)
1 pr jeans or chinos (to wear on plane)
1 pr shorts
2 prs swimming trunks*
2 prs underpants*
1 pair deck shoes
1 pair 'hiking' sandals
Pocket camera
Toiletries (inc deodorant and sun cream (lots))
Tube of travel wash
Sunspecs
Baseball cap
Sailing gloves

* or female equivalent.

PS Oceanis 411 is a doddle to sail and motor, and goes backwards like a mini-cooper. Best of all, when going astern, she stops on a sixpence if you knock it into ahead and give it lots of right foot.

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[ruthhobson]

Hi Tom

We went last year - our first solo trip and our first flotilla and it was brilliant introduction for the 2 of us on our own. I'll admit I was quite nervous before we went. And even though I might not use the same company again, I would do a flotilla again. We had problems with the boats (we swopped half way through) and it wasn't an incident free holiday by any stretch of the imagination. We also made very good friends, who we met up with at the LBS.

I agree wholeheartedly about them trying to rush the briefing. We bought our own copy of Heikell before we went and I think that helped. I thought Fiscardo was pretty but so much more expensive than other places, also had our worse meal there.

We also got charged in Agios Euphemia, but I quite liked it there, nice bakery just across the road from the quay, also a nice taverna. It was called the Paradise taverna and if you stand on the quay with the boat behind you go right, away from the town, it's a 5-10 minute walkdepending on how much local wine you have enjoyed, just follow the road round past the little "beach". Nice food and they do a chocolate pud, they call it a souffle but it's more like sponge.

Remember to keep stocked up with the frozen water and I packed a couple of packets of those tortilla wrap things- very handy if you can't get bread for lunch (or can't be bothered) or just fancy a change.

HTH

Ruth

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[sailbadthesinner]

must have list

sun cream high factor lots
hat
sunnies
shoes
gloves
books
money
few t shirts couple of short shirts at least one long shirt
2 smartish short
3 swimwear type shorts
some socks
long troosers
light top
insect repellent and stuff for bites
penkife
arnika?? for bruises. i find i always used to get bruised.
towels for beach

useful non essential
waterproof bag for showers/going ashore
baby wipes
smokedsalmon
champagne
cool box
pimms


i have agreed to take swmbo onionian flotilla later in year would appreciate a report on your return on anywhere you stopped off the beaten.

i found fiskardo over priced and Ayios euphemia had bad water which we took on. apart from that i loved the ionian and was a bit wary about going back. i have been twice and haf a wonderful times both times. we had no wind second time and lots of wind for last 2 days on the first.

main thing is have fun and donot get stressed.



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[Tiger Rag]

Sailbad, just my opinion but if you have already been to the Ionian and you are clearly not looking to gain experience/confidence, why bother going back? Head for Turkey, better sailing, nicer people, beautiful scenery and a hell of a lot cheaper!

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[zefender]

Buy some mosquito net and cut/lay it out over hatches with shoes as weights. Playing cards. Take tender outboard option. Gardening gloves for chain/anchor work. Cockpit light (rechargeable 12V). Excellent swimming (and diving from rocks) in bay to south of Atoko.

Expect it to be very crowded if you're going July/August. The trouble with mooring early is that you tend to miss the wind, which only really starts to blow late afternoon. Can blow strong between Ithaka and Cephalonia, also between these two and South of Levkas.

Only hairy bits are mooring up in crowded places. Be careful in Fiskado in particular about crossed anchor lines. Expect people to lift yours out and just drop it back without re-setting it!

Have fun.



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[sailbadthesinner]

erm heading back cos a certain charter company was unable to offer us croatia as their hotel was being forcibly reposessed by croatian govt.

this charter company then realised that they had at LBS given us various discounts etc and was hurryin us to chose. spaces in a coupleof our favoured places were going fast.in the end we delayed the holiday til august.

This is first trip( in fact first holiday alone in 10 yrs) with just swmbo and myself. as swmbo is really only used to attaching the odd fender and tailing the odd winch this will be a testing time i am sure.

i sail with a close mate as part of a big group of mostly non sailors. we split tasks between us. we both do passage planning. he sorts out close quarter manoueveres on helm and i get lines for shore, weigh and drop anchors. i do sail trim he does engine checks. as a prtnership it has worked very well. only prob is i rarely get to to do close quarter stuff. the reason for this is i am stronger and lither of the two and more able to leap onto pontoons and pull up anchors. I have not had to sail short handed in a while. so i am feeling quite tested thank you. mrs s 2 b does know what she is doing but normally there are ten of us and she is happy tolet others chip their nails. she will help set and trim sails and is looking forward to the trip.

we wanted flotilla. as much as we love each other staring at each other in yet another a taverna. night after night this would we concluded be less fun than partying down with other yachties. plus i had security of knowing at least a couple of extra pairs of hands when we were coming in.

ionan we last did in 1997. we did not fancy turkey as we had done that and a few times over the years and in all honesty swmbo loves kephalonia. i now turkey can be beautiful but quite frankly cost is not an issue. in fact i wanted to cancel whole show and do a bareboat around sardinia with mates. but swmbo insisted that there should be just two of us on honeymoon.

ideally we would be in croatia in five weeks timebut hey ho.

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=red>I can't walk on water, but I do run on Guinness</font color=red>

 

[AndrewB]

Getting in early.

Trouble with this is it develops into an arms race whereby everyone motors hard to get to the next port of call ASAP. Fine if your main reason for going is to sit the afternoon out in a taverna, but in that case why pay for a sailing holiday?

After the early arrivers there is a lull until 6 when those making the most of the sailing come in. Last year in the Ionian we were always last in, and nearly always fitted in somewhere without problems. The one place we did raft, at least we didn't suffer the indignity of the early arrivers of having people trampling across our decks all evening.

With a flotilla, the staff team will give loads of help with mooring, so that side of things needn't be a concern. They (Sunsail) were also willing to crew on a couple of the weaker boats on the day that the winds were a bit lively.

Because of the criticism of flotilla holidays on this forum last year, I made a point towards the end of the week on quietly asking every one whether they had enjoyed it. Even the most inexperienced genuinely seemed to have had a good time.

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[Tiger Rag]

Re: Getting in early.

I didn't realise there had been criticism of flottilla holidays. As I mentioned I skippered a flotilla out of Marmaris for a season and then one out of Corfu. We had everything from yachtmaster examiners down to people who had literally never stepped foot on a boat before, without exception everyone had a great time, those that came to learn did and those that could already sail met new friends and saw new places.

On another point I remember talking to a gent who was quite clearly an experienced sailer and asked what had made him choose a flotilla holiday. He said that he had owned various yachts berthed in the solent, but had done his accounts and realised that for the same as his own yacht was costing him he could afford eight weeks sailing a year on various flotilla and bareboat holidays with gauranteeed decent weather and if anything went wrong it wasn't his job to fix it just pass on the problem. Not sure if the enjoyment, pride and satisfaction of owning your own yacht would be outweighed by the convenience of chartering but was an interesting point.

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[tcm]

Re: Getting in early.

Eight weeks eh? He must have had a fab boat before selling. Or, he might have been on some dead cheap flots. Or of course, he was a crap accountant...

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[Tiger Rag]

Re: Getting in early.

If memory serves (unlikely I know) it was a Contessa 38 and yes cheap flots, but still fairly recent 35-40 ft Benny/Jenneaus.

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[Heckler]

Just go and enjoy

i didnt regret taking my hand held garmin gps, the second year i took a cockpit light with a cig lighter connection, i went in july and august last yr and the yr before and didnt get bitten at all and i am the first to get it if there are any mozzies around. the bride says take plenty of sun tan lotion !! dont worry about parking stern to or bow to, its a piece of p, the beneteaus steer ok going astern once youve got over the initial prop walk kick ( it only lasts a few seconds until you get a bit of way on) take a mask and snorkel,
the tea bags in greece ar eorrible, take your own.
enjoy, im jealous
s

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