Levkas Is.

From Preveza heading south, we sailed to the canal separating Levkas from the mainland providing a passage through the salt marshes and down the east coast of Levkas Island. The earliest canal was dug in the 7th century BC and again by Augustus in Roman times. There is a swing bridge which opens on the hour and since we were late for the 4 p.m., we had to wait. We made 3 attempts to dock but the wind kept us off until Bob leapt off and pulled, tugged and held the lines until my shorter legs could span the distance between boat and pier. It brought back memories of other frightening dockings! After the siren, both ends of the floating bridge go up and it pivots to let boats through. Single lane only so we motored through while boats heading North waited. A full catamaran cheered, "Canada!" as we motored past. Probably too much retsina! On either side were sand spits and shallow lakes. We motored past Levkas Town and as we came out of the channel both coasts rose up with forested hillsides. We anchored off a small harbour at Nikiana for the night.
The wind picked up in the morning and we had a speedy sail a few miles down to Nydri, a busy little port. After anchoring in Tranquil Bay, just opposite the town, we took the dinghy to check in to the Port Police. They don't make it easy as it was on the street behind the harbourfront, with a small Greek sign sideways to the door which had a no entry symbol, and it was upstairs in a dark hallway! After getting our requisite stamp, we did a little dinghy tour. Tranquil Bay is a mixture of boats permanently tied to the shore, rafted boats, sunken boats and transient boats surrounded by wooded slopes of cypress and olive trees. It's quiet (except for the boat running a generator 😡 - a few of us clapped and cheered when it was shut off) but became noisier as the lightning, thunder and rain descended on our Tranquil Bay. During the deluge, Bob thought our anchor was dragging so out we went in the storm with Bob at the bow lifting the anchor and me driving. Nicholas & Ella happened to call right then and Nicholas wisely said, "Gramma, go inside!" We motored slowly through the maze of anchored boats closer to the town docks and dropped the anchor again. Bob got into the dinghy to bail for fear it would sink with the amount of rain filling it up! The storm finally moved off and it became calm and quiet. Wet but tranquil.Read more