We arrived in Greece and disembarked at about 9am..drove a short distance to the port town of Plataria where we were split into groups of 5/6 for our yachts..lucky we had tif who had sailed before! There was one man on the main boat that was in charge but other than that we were alone to our yachts :S we had a crash course of what to do how/how things worked..bought sailors hats and set sail early afternoon! The port was lovely..unfortunately we weren't going anywhere like santorini, with the blue and white buildings, but I'll just have to come back and see that! We were headed for less touristy towns..the first afternoon went fine although it was a bit too windy to put the sails up..and I felt a little queezy so had to mostly sit up the front..but it was nice to get to know the girls on 'Apollo' (our yacht) a bit better..Nicole, Molly, tiff and dani..we were in a good group :) got to the island of Mourtos which was a really small and traditional fishing island..pretty cool..moored our boats together, had a beach shower, changed, went and had a traditional dinner (tzaziki and eggplant dip, Greek salad and snapper), yum! We then did some traditional dancing, which included lifting tables with teeth, dancing inside a fire circle and conga lines,.pretty funny..then we jammed the night away by the sea :) we were pretty much the only ones there so it was pretty cool..then slept on the boat! Bit cramped but quite the experience :)
We couldn't make our stove work so we had cereal for brecky and organised Apollo to leave..once we got to open ocean the swell was massive!!! Soooo big..the main skipper said if he'd known it'd be that bad we wouldn't have gone out..pretty crazy..needless to say I felt sick so had to sit right up the front, which was insane with the waves! I'd look back at the others sitting at the back of our boat and they'd be so far down at the bottom of the swell with a huge wave looming over..but we made it to our new island of. Corfu in one piece..annoyingly the other topdeck group were waiting to dock so we went around in circles for ages..I felt so sick so had to abandon ship and swim in to shore..so mex (who'd thrown up several times) and I chilled by the beach trying to settle our stomachs..finally the others docked and we had a late lunch then walked in to the super cute town..this island was a little busier/more touristy,.had gelato..went back and chilled by the pool..definitely still 'swaying' :S showered, had tea, played card games..no one really had a big night as people were feeling pretty ill..a bunch of us decided there was no way we were sleeping on the boats so we grabbed our sleeping bags and set up camp by the beach..slept on deck chairs under the stars, 'twas awesome! It was a bit of a cold night but surprisingly not too uncomfortable!
Slept through til 8am and woke to the sun over the water, absolutely stunning..went back to the boats and I cooked our crew bacon and eggs to apologise for abandoning them the previous day..it was such beautiful weather and the water was crystal clear so we all went for a swim, jumped off the deck and threw the tennis ball for a bit :) set sail (we actually did put the sails up today!)..even I was able to enjoy it today as it was pretty calm :) stopped for a swim break and then made it back to the original port of Plataria early evening..we docked our boats for the last time but we still had to sleep on them that night..so we showered and had tea with the other topdeck group..used wifi, had gelato (yep, yet again ;)), chatted to the other group for a bit, had a free shot then I headed back to the boats (Elle stayed out a while)..
Got up at 6ish and it was still pitch black..grabbed some cereal and milk from other boats as we'd pretty well eaten our food ration :S cleaned the boat and boarded the bus to head to Albania!! Which was a pit stop on our way to Croatia..it was a long travel day, plenty of stops on the way..interesting driving through, with donkeys, mountains and bunkers everywhere (the paranoid communist president had ordered 700,000 built)..once in Tirana a guide came onto our bus to give a brief history..it was interesting to see how it was in the times of communism, with big plain apartment buildings etc..it has only recently been freed from communism and is hence not overly frequented by tourists which is cool..we got to our motel which was open plan apartments..so spacious!! Had tea then a few of us hung out in our room..pretty early night, everyone was keen to sleep in a bed after sleeping on the boats!
