Crunch....

Tony and Liz arrived back from their "Italian Job" at the end of last week and came down to our end of the Island to see us on Saturday.  It was really good to see old friends and we spent most of the afternoon slowly consuming alcohol (well Tony and I did) whilst talking of the marvels that they had seen whilst on their tour which went from Venice in the north east to Sicily in the south west, taking in most of the major historical attractions.  Both Sandra and I were quite jealous and resolved to try and see something of Italy the next time we are there rather than just travelling straight through the country.  As a tribute to the Italian afternoon we had, we decided that the Italian restaurant in Nidri was appropriate for our evening meal so with more wine and a very nice meal a great day was completed.  Thanks to Liz and Tony for the Italian gifts and the company.

Grounded Ferry from our house through the mist

We looked out over Vasiliki bay yesterday morning (Wednesday) and to our suprise it looked like a ship was trying to create a shortcut to Italy by going through the peninsular rather than around it.  Later there were some reports on the Greece news websites about it.  It seems it is a Malta flagged ship, "Kolossos", had 20 crew, 58 Lorries and 11 drivers aboard.  It was going from Corinth to Ancona in Italy and there are no injuries. 

Grounded ferry again taken from Vasiliki ferry terminal

This morning (Thursday) the ship is still wedged firmly onto the rocky coast with a couple of tugs in attendance.  It seems that there is some damage and divers are now looking to see what the extent of this is before they move it.  A couple of comments on face book suggested it may be a "Greek Radar" or "Ouzo navigation" which caused the problem but local opinion is that the skipper was asleep!  With modern instrumentation this really shouldn't happen even though the weather was foggy they don't really need to see where they are going! and there is a light house on the point of the peninsular anyway.  I think the Captain may be looking for another job now.

Gourde given to us by a neighbour

One of our Greek neighbours came yesterday to give us a gift of a carrier bag full to the top with tomatoes and also a gourde and we don't really know what to do with it, (clean suggestions on the back of a ten euro note).  Sandra says that she'll treat it like a pumpkin or marrow but time will tell.  I'll let you all know next week what it's like assuming I survive the experience.
 I've just printed him off a copy of the picture of the ferry accident as they are very excited about it all.