Easter in Kalamos...

Flares and Flowers

 We have had an excellent Greek Easter four days in Kalamos and a night on the return trip at Palairos before returning to the marina.

Easter was a very Greek affair this year with Sanny and I going up to the Church on Thursday to see the bier decorated with a myriad flowers and

The bier in Kalamos Harbour

very beautiful it was too.  Friday night it led the procession down to the harbour with several burly Greek guys vying to have the honour to carry it.  Anyone who knows Kalamos will tell you it's a very steep climb up to the main village from the port and carrying the very heavy bier laden with all those flowers is no mean feat, especially taking it back up again.

Sean with stupid expression!

 Down in the harbour there was an impromptu flare and fireworks display which we believe was actually intended for the next night, or at least the fireworks were but may have been set off by the flares for which us foreigners were being blamed.  Nevertheless it made a spectacle of the event.

Lambs to the slaughter.

On Saturday we were surprised by the arrival of Sean and Pug, who came and moored up near to us, they are en-route to Patras with Pug's boat after Sean took over from Jane with helping Pug sail the thing.  We had a great couple of nights with them and Sean even came back up to the church with us on Saturday evening to do the midnight mass / candlelight parade thing.  After the church service there was again a firework display this time up near the church and of course as anyone who has been in Greece at Easter time will attest, tonnes of very, very loud bangers going off all the time.

Grub up!

 On Sunday, George who has the first Taverna you see when getting off your boat and who almost invariably help yachts moor up, held a family Easter feast, he invited all of the yacht crews who were moored (five boats) in the harbour to join him and his family for free.  He roasted two lambs and supplied

Greek Dancers

all the food and wine for the entire afternoon, and his family danced and danced.  Well not only his family as they dragged all us lot up as well to join in.  Now I ain't got much rhythm at the best of times but trying to dance Greek style is way beyond my capabilities.   Thanks George and family for a great Easter, I hope many more people come to see you all this year you deserve it.

The first two nights in Kalamos we had two Bulgarian floatillers in the harbour, the first night there was 19 yachts and the second 18, which is more than we expected so early in the season.  They were good fun although the second set of guys stayed up until 4:30am talking and listening to music, or so I'm reliably informed by Sandra, I never heard a thing!!

Palairos.

Winter over the pleasure boat heading to the tourists.

Monday Morning we said a fond farewell to Kalamos and set off for Palairos on the mainland where we intended to de-lamb and have a good old curry at the Taj Panorama, the only place doing authentic(ish) Indian food in the area.  We had a good sail for quite a while and then the wind kept moving about so much from north to south to east... it was just hassle, so we switched on the engine and motored the rest of the way, the sea becoming progressively more choppy.  Because of this we abandoned the idea of mooring up at anchor just off shore and opted to go into the harbour where it was more sheltered.  We had a great stay there with an excellent meal at Panorama, Salim the regular chef had returned from Asia and to celebrate I had a vindaloo, slurp.

We got home on Tuesday and noticed that many of the floatiller boats are now arriving here from Corfu, also the square rigged tourist boat which has been on the town quay set off this morning, no doubt to find some tourists.  Oh well that's enough for this week, bye...