The Ionian October 2011 Volume 2. Issue 7 www.theionian.com COMPLIMENTARY/∆ΩΡΕΑΝ Please recycle: give to a friend or neighbour when finished.
Special Report
Hurricane Vliho Page 4
The art of making wine Page 6
But what do you do all day? Page 8
The world is still a stage – The theatre lives on Page 7 October 2011 www.theionian.com The Ionian 1
2 The Ionian www.theionian.com October 2011
Editorial
The Ionian
Mother Nature and culture
Address:
Lefkadiou Chern 24, Lefkada 31100, Greece Email: barbara.molin@theionian.com Website: www.theionian.com Fax: The Ionian c/o (0030) 26820 61306 Telephone: (0030) 69486 46764
We planned the theme of this issue as culture in the Ionian. We had an article about The Philharmonic Society of Corfu, which should now appear in the next edition, and The world is still a stage by Andrew Simpson, which remains in this one. But then came the events of September 20th in Vliho Bay, and all those Founding Publisher: Justin Smith plans changed in a hurry. A freak squall caused the death of a French yachtsman and brought Publisher/ Editor: Barbara Molin extensive damage and upset to this community. Our article, Hurricane Vliho by Martin Stote, Deputy Editor Martin Stote attempts to convey some of the impact caused by this unique meteorological event. Further acBusiness Advisor: Yannis Dimopoulos Business Advisor: Ryan Smith counts appear on our website, www.theionian.com Accountant: Pavlos Dagla: 26450 23008 We offer our sincere condolences to the family of the Frenchman who died, and commiseration Greek Editors: V. Gigi and V. Lekkas to the owners of properties and yachts which were damaged, and to businessmen and fishermen Layout: Barbara Molin who suffered financial setback. Printing: Plamen Rusanov But they also say that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. No-one reading about Advertising: Barbara Molin Ruairi Bradley’s rescue of a woman from beneath her overturned catamaran could not be imDistribution: Barbara Molin pressed by his courage and presence of mind. And modesty, too. He did not seek publicity, and Subscriptions: Barbara Molin only spoke about the incident with some reluctance. You can download The Ionian as a PDF document We would also like to thank all those who found the time to share their experiences of that from our website: www.theionian.com. night, and to stress, as many of them point out, that these were unprecedented events. The Inland To subscribe, please call: 0030 69486 46764 Sea remains a beautiful, benign and forgiving sailing ground, and Vliho Bay, in all ordinary cirΑΦΜ: 148426549. ΛΕΥΚΑ∆ΙΟΥ ΧΕΡΝ 24, ΛΕΥΚΑ∆Α, 31100. ISSN 1792-4650. The Ionian is cumstances, a very safe anchorage. published monthly. Published on the last day before To more peaceful matters. The art of making wine, by Barbara de Machula, tells us about the each month, approx. Publication is for informational delights of the grape harvest, and But what do you do all day? by Anneke Nikkels reminds us of purposes only. Although The Ionian has made every the more familiar pleasures of sailing. effort to ensure the accuracy of the information This issue’s cover of Glyfada Beach at sunset by Hazel Dean seems to evoke the end of the contained in this publication, the publisher cannot be summer – a near-deserted beach, a melancholy sunset. Mother Nature at her best. held responsible for any errors or omissions it may The Ionian 2012 Calendar Competition is now closed to entries. Check our website and vote for contain. The opinions expressed by the contributors your favourite images of the Ionian. Finally, The Ionian will be published through the winter for are not necessarily held by the publisher. the first time, so we hope that you will look out for us in your Ionian neighbourhood and online. Cover Photo: Sunset at Glyfada Beach, Corfu by Hazel Dean www.hdeanphotography.com. To purchase any of the photographs in The Ionian, please contact editor@theionian.com
Enjoy reading... ~~~_/) Barbara Molin
October 2011 www.theionian.com The Ionian 3
News
Hurricane Vliho Martin Stote
©Lies van t’ Net
cabin of her overturned catamaran, and who was clinging to life by gasping breath from a tiny air clouds that loomed over the pocket, was rescued with mountain ridge above Vliho Bay tremendous courage by Ruairi on Lefkada island at 6:30 p.m. on Bradley, who runs a yacht Tuesday, September 20 were an guardianage service out of Vliho omen that was fulfilled within Yacht Club, run by his wife Vicki. moments; a freak squall with Yachts at anchor in the bay hurricane force winds, which dragged their moorings, some brought death and destruction to colliding with each other. A this small Greek community and number were dismasted. Sails were popular sailors’ haven. ripped from their covers and torn A howling wind and cold, to shreds. Fishing boats were sheeting rain drove through the damaged. village, a boatyard and the “On land, big trees snapped off anchorage, obliterating the daylight like matches, houses lost their roof and leaving the dramas which tiles, windows fell out, and the followed to unfold in an unnatural electricity supply failed,” said gloom. Barry Salomons. Chairs, tables, tree branches and canopies were hurtled along roads; and, in what was to become a sad and abiding image of the disaster, around 40 yachts were toppled from their cradles in Vliho Boat Yard, leaving a haphazard tangle of hulls, masts and rigging. “There is no-one alive in the region who remembers ©Barry Salomons nature erupting and descending with such catastrophic anger on the area of A 60 year-old French yachtsman Vliho Bay,” wrote Chris Vaghenas fell overboard and drowned when in one of several dramatic accounts he slipped and hit his head as he of the event that were given to The struggled to secure his boat to her Ionian. moorings; his wife was saved. A “In seconds, the wind tore into cold and terrified middle-aged the area, blowing in wide swathes woman, who was trapped in the and destroying everything in its path. Waves rose and raged, tossing about the anchored boats in the bay, lashing their sides and drenching them all over. The masts of the boats in the bay twirled and tore off their hinges as the waves bandied the boats about, sails ripped, and rigging ©Chris Vaghenas cables flew
The seething black storm
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disconnected.” Dutch yachtswoman and photographer Lies van ‘t Net and her husband Ad rode out the squall on board their 52 foot (16 meter) steel ketch Jonas, relying on their new 33 kg anchor at the end of 50 meters of 12 mm chain in five metres of water.. She described the moment the squall struck. “Within a few ©Chris Vaghenas seconds, a loud, overwhelming, swelling sound hit us. Almost standing on the hull of an immediately, I felt the boat make overturned catamaran. “He was a huge swing sideways and lean cold and shaken,” Ruairi said. heavily to port. The windows of “I asked if anyone was inside the the galley were completely boat. As we did not know whether submerged. All things which were it was sinking it was imperative to stored free on the starboard side find out. I felt time was short and I fell onto the port side. swam under the hull and found my “Cupboard doors flew open, the way to the cabin through all sorts contents fell out, the oil lamp of debris. The mast had broken. swung back and forth. The There was a lot of stuff in the way, surrounding sound of the wind was that’s why it took so long to get in. massive and overwhelming, and “It was pitch dark and I managed the raging sea, the stays, lines, to find the woman’s legs and then straps, the small awning, boat, waves, rain, all contributed to the racket.” They were too preoccupied, she said, to feel frightened. But on a video taken by Alexis Kokkinis in the thick of the squall, and posted on the internet, a woman could be heard Overturned catamaran ©Barry Salomons saying, “I’ve never been so scared in the earthquake as felt my way up to the air pocket. It this.” was all done by feel. I found the Poseidon, the Greek weather woman in a very small air pocket, forecasting service, had predicted standing on the ceiling as very bad weather, but nothing on everything was the wrong way up. this scale. Various sources She only had two inches of air. She described the wind as 100 km/h was also middle-aged, and very (60 mph), or Force 11 – a violent cold and extremely shaken. storm on the Beaufort scale, one “I spent some time talking to her. category short of a hurricane. But She had no desire to swim and put the wind gauge on Jonas had her face under the water. We had a recorded a maximum speed of 91 knots, about 170 km/h, defined as a couple of practise goes, and she was holding onto my oilskin hurricane storm. By all accounts, it was all over in trousers. She lost air, and panicked, less than half an hour. Lies thought and was grabbing hold of 20 to 25 minutes. Chris Vaghenas something, and I had to force her thought less than 10 minutes. Very to get off. I was able to push her beneath and get her to the surface, soon, the sky had cleared. but she had gone limp. I gave her a Ironically, a number of yachts had sought refuge in Vliho Bay because of the bottle-shaped anchorage’s reputation as a safe haven. Ruairi Bradley, 38, who runs Northwind “Yacht Care by Vliho Yacht Club” went out into the bay to check on the condition of a number of yachts and saw a man, obviously in shock,
©Mary New
years later. Lies and her husband emerged from their cabin to be confronted by more placid waters, but a sad spectacle. “Paddles, fenders, jerry cans, lines and a lonely slipper floating in a sea now growing calm... with the ©Lies van t’ Net binoculars, we noticed couple of bear hugs to help force the first damage...In the boatyard, her to breathe while we were still many sloping masts of boats in the water and then we managed overturned. We heard a siren and to get her out of the water.” saw flashing lights in Vliho.” The couple on the catamaran John Bending, a yacht were both very experienced sailors maintenance engineer, got a call who were close to finishing a from work to get to Vliho quickly. circumnavigation. The previous leg “We found a scene of absolute of their journey had taken them devastation,” he said. “Virtually all through the Red Sea. They were on the yachts on anchor had been their way back to England. dragged, some for several hundred metres. There were yachts smashed into the quay, and one aground by the seaside restaurant. Many smaller boats and power boats were sunk....Most of the people we spoke to were in complete shock.” And the squall had been incredibly localised. Nidri, where John lives, just a mile away, had Vicky and Ruairi Bradley suffered only the thunderstorms which were widespread in the Ruairi is a qualified Yacht Master region on Tuesday. Boats there had with many miles of sea experience escaped virtually unscathed. in the UK, Ireland and the The days that followed were Mediterranean. He first came to difficult for all, including yacht Greece in the early 90’s, working owners of many nationalities, on flotillas, in boatyards, and on many not in Greece at the time, as yacht deliveries. He and his wife they learned that their boats had opened Vliho Yacht Club in 2003, been damaged. Many were and he launched Northwind six checking to make sure that their insurance policies would pay out. Claims are expected to run into many hundreds of thousands of euros. Three days later, one Englishman, from Yorkshire, who had been on his boat with his wife in Vliho Boat Yard when it toppled ©Barry Salomons over, was still trying
to sort things out. He tried to dismiss the whole event with a resolute shrug. Had he been scared? “It was just one of those things,” he said. But he added, “You can’t talk to my wife about this. Each time you try to talk to her about it she bursts into tears.” Another local businessman said, “Things are getting a little more ©Lies van t’ Net back to normal, but people are very upset and traumatised and old residents of the area and their trying to clear up, get their boats comments of disbelief. ”Lies van ‘t cleaned up, in a lot of cases dealing Net photographed a Greek man with repair assessors and insurance who “stared with unbelieving eyes claims.” at the wreckage the hurricane had Staff and helpers at the boatyard left behind.” She added, moved swiftly and with “September 21, 2011 will remain commendable efficiency to right an unforgettable day for anyone the boats and restore order. who witnessed this overwhelming, “Thankfully, no-one was hurt at unpredictable natural the yard,” said Chris Vaghenas. phenomenon.” ”Within three days, all the boats With sincere thanks for their were re-set on fresh supports and contributions to Ruairi Bradley, the customers had been notified Chris Vaghenas, Lies van ‘t Net, virtually right away.” He added, Barry Salomons, and John “For me, Vliho Bay will remain Bending. Full accounts on my favourite spot to anchor, relax www.theionian.com. and socialise.” For some householders, and restaurant and taverna owners with damage to repair it might take a little longer. These are difficult times in Greece. But the night will not be soon forgotten. It will doubtless pass into local folklore. Several months of very hot weather had finally broken the previous day when thunderstorms and lightning hit many parts of the Ionian. Meteorologists think the freak squall was caused by “an unusual piling of pressure fields of cold and warm air, says Chris Vaghenas. He will always remember ©Barry Salomons “the shocked faces of the
ANTIFOULING PAINT AND
October 2011 www.theionian.com The Ionian 5
Ionian Life
The art of making wine Barbara de Machula
It was still dark when my alarm clock rang, and it took me some
Underneath, the machine would spit out the fruits and juice, and at the side the sticks and wood from the grapes. We tested the juice and it was sweet and delicious; you could taste the sunshine. This juice was bursting to become wine! It was full of life and energy. The first night it had to settle and it was covered with branches and weights to keep it down. After that it is pressed and sieved, and goes into the vessels where the juice will be transformed as if by magic to alcohol, and then it is just a matter of time. Sunshine by the glass. Yamas!
time to realize why I had to get up so early. But then I remembered. It was wine making day! To avoid the heat, the work began early, and there were a lot of grapes to pick. This has to be done at the right time, but once the grapes are ready, they must be harvested immediately. On our big mountain there are several micro climates, and my friend Jorgos has this nice vineyard in a Barbara de Machula teaches painting and art. in Palairos. natural dip which looks like a cup, sheltered from very strong winds and www.paintingholidaygreece.com basking in the sunshine. There is also a little riverbed which at this time of the year is dry. The vineyard was buzzing with bees, which also love the sweet grapes, but they don't bother people. They just provide a nice humming melody to the place, like a faint orchestra of soft string instruments. I was amazed to see how organised the vineyard was. The grapes were pruned not to grow too high, to make the picking easy. The branches were all trained horizontally along strings. Each plant has a number, and some plants are more than 15 years old. There are colourful and shiny strips everywhere to repel the birds. Jorgos makes notes of every plant, how well they are doing, if they have a few grapes or a lot. He removes the weak plants so only the stronger ones survive to next season. There is a neat watering system, with plastic irrigation tubes along every row of grape plants, so that they are watered at a certain interval, not to much, never too little. He has white and dark grapes, and they all go into the same wine. Picking grapes is a lot of hard work, and Jorgos has his helping angels. Two women who looked like they have done this all their lives were the main pickers. They looked a bit dangerous with their big scissors and special clothes, but they had the most friendly smiles and a warm manner when you spoke to them. Then there was the tall, kind man from Pakistan who helped to carry the full crates of grapes to the truck, and a Greek friend who looked like a young Greek god, with endless energy and joy. And the American girl, like another angel, assisting Jorgos with anything needed. It felt as though I was in a movie, a little bit of heaven on a warm, mellifluous mountain. Jorgos is proud of his grapes, and with good reason. He insisted we should eat as many of them as we could, and they were indeed as sweet as honey. Even the skins were sweet and they had hardly any seeds. Full of juice, they held the promise of an excellent wine, with a faint aroma of flowers and fruit. When the truck was finally loaded – in fact, almost overloaded - we went to Jorgos’s workshop in town, which houses the machine that peels and presses the grapes. There were two big containers, each the size of a jacuzzi, and on top was a device with a funnel where the grapes went in. 6 The Ionian www.theionian.com October 2011
The world is still a stage – The theatre lives on Andrew Simpson guide, who was putting together trips to exactly where we wanted to go. Perfect! She wanted help with some promotional posters and we wanted o matter how much one likes sailing, there comes the point when transport and an informed commentator. A deal was done. the urge to quit the watery bits and step ashore can no longer be Frankly, I had expected something more tranquil, inert even. Yes, there suppressed. Which is why Chele and I decided to go to the theatre – not were the ancient tiers of seats, curved like a bowl around the stage area. to see a production, you understand, but more to see the theatre itself. And between them the staircases or ‘climax’ (ancient Greek for ‘ladder’ – More specifically, an ‘amphitheatre’. another metaphor, i.e. mounting to a... well, climax) which allowed the Now when it comes to theatre, we owe the Greeks a lot. The word itself audience to climb up or down its various levels. comes from ancient Greek – ‘theatron’ meaning a place for seeing things But beavering away in the ‘orchestra’ (the open area where the action and ‘amphi’ meaning around or on both sides. And they started viewing takes place and, yes, you’ve guessed it, again a Greek word) were stage things from both sides rather a long time ago. Playwrights such as hands, carpenters, lighting and sound engineers, and wardrobe mistresses Aristophanes, Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus were banging out their with their racks of costumes. The place was abuzz with activity. offerings some 2000 years before Shakespeare – and they still attract So, you see, ancient the theatre might be, but dead it certainly isn’t. audiences today. Incidentally, the first actor on record was a bloke called Over two-and-a-half millennia since those terraces were hewn from solid Thespis from which the word ‘thespian’ derived. And, since it was rock, another performance was taking shape for the delight of the public. considered bad form to have a character die in full view of the audience, Now, if that isn’t wonderful I don’t know what is. all stage killings were performed behind screens called ‘skenes’ which we Andrew Simpson joined the Merchant Navy as a cadet might now call ‘scenery’. at the age of 16. Over fifty years later he is still Anyway, that’s enough brain-ache for now. The problem with the strongly associated with the sea as a yachting amphitheatres in the Messolonghi area is that they make no allowances journalist, illustrator and yacht designer. for modern tourism in the form of visiting yachts. In other words, you He was the Associate Editor of Practical Boat Owner can’t simply step off the boat and stroll along to the theatre as one might magazine – Britain’s biggest selling boating magazine to a pub. The nearest theatre was at Oiniades about a half-hour drive – for seven years and is now the publisher and editor of Books for Sail, a inland, off a bus route and unaffordable by taxi – assuming they’re not on website based eBook publishing house dedicated mainly to cruising under strike, that is. sail. Andrew and his wife Chele divide their time between a house in It was while considering this problem that we bumped into Dorset and their custom-built 12m yacht Shindig, currently in the Ionian. (metaphorically – another Greek word) Penelopi Blanga, an official tour Blog: http://www.andrewsimpson.co.uk/index.php/andrews-blog
N
October 2011 www.theionian.com The Ionian 7
On The Water changed. We do the washing by hand, because washing machines are not always available, and anyway they are expensive. In summertime there are just t-shirts, underwear and towels to wash, and that’s not too onerous. But in the spring, when we need to dress more warmly, our long trousers and sweaters need to be washed, also by hand. That’s heavy work. You can only wash one sweater at a time in a bucket because it soaks up all the water. Did I mention cooking? We have to bake all our own bread because Frank is allergic to gluten. We always cook by ourselves. Although eating out is cheap, we cannot afford to eat in a restaurant every evening. And then there is all the housekeeping to be done. People seem to imagine that a boat somehow cleans itself. In fact, even if the boat is not very big, the amount of dust and dirt is the same as in a house, only it is trapped in a smaller area. So we have to clean more often. And then there all those other terrible chores that we hate so much. Going shopping in a beautiful little town which we have not visited before; enjoying a leisurely stroll to look at the views; flopping into the sea for a swim when it gets too hot. These things indeed are exhausting. In fact, now that I think of it, it’s time for a siesta.
But what do you do all day? Anneke Nikkels If there is one question which bores me, it is, “Don’t you get bored being on a boat all day?” Many people asked us that, when we left home and went off sailing. They can’t begin to imagine what we do all day long. For them it seems like an eternal holiday and they are convinced that that must eventually get boring. But we never get bored. We don’t have time to get bored. And if for some reason we don’t have anything to do, we read a book or I write a short story. There are days, of course, when sailing the boat takes up all our attention. We sail, and enjoy the waves and the wind and the surroundings. But when we are not sailing, there is always some work to be done. We regularly have to check the oil or cooling water level in the engine, or we may have to change the impellor or do some other mechanical chore. We have just finished painting the boat, but there is still some paint to be scraped off the windows. Some other sections of wood need a layer of oil. Then the toilet breaks down, and nobody wants to be living on a boat where the toilet doesn’t work. So that has to be fixed. And so it goes on. And then, of course, there is the housekeeping. Gas bottles need to be
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Anneke Nikkels and her husband Frank have been sailing for the past three years in the Ionian on board Pantaleimon, their Trintella 4. They have just sold it and are now looking for another boat. For them life is never boring...
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October 2011 www.theionian.com The Ionian 9
Also yachts for sale, sharp prices !!
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10 The Ionian www.theionian.com October 2011
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Vliho, Lefkada Island
Classy Ads admin@theionian.com FOR SALE: Peters 36 - a quarter share in a fine classic style yacht in long standing Ionian syndicate. Based in Levkas Marina summer 2011. £7,000 ono for 4-6 weeks sailing each year. Also: Mariner 4 hp outboard, 2 stroke, serviced 2010; CQR anchor 22kg; Anchor chain 10mm size x 48 m. tel: 00447831260321 philip.rutledge@blueyonder.co.uk FOR SALE: Seldom used aluminium and teak “passerelle”/ gangplank at half retail price—450 Euros. For more information, please email: rodmccallum@hotmail.com
tel: 26450 95052
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FOR SALE: Perkins 4-108; 1981; Warner & Borg Velvet Drive RH 1.91:1 ratio; 5000 hrs. Shaft and propeller Michigan Dynajet 16X9, set of spare injectors. Euro 1500. mwirth@vtx.ch APARTMENT FOR SALE: 60 sq. m. 30 years old. Centre of Vonitsa. 970 Euros per sq. m. Tel: 0030 69371 15056 Experienced CELLO player looking for others to play with. Willing to travel. I live in Palaeros and have a Steinway upright at home. 0030 69718 75968.
You Have The Last Word Please write to: editor@theionian.com. (Letters may be edited.) I loved the article on the turtles. Can we have more on this sort of thing. For example, what sort of turtles are in the Gulf, how are they tagged and what does the tagging tell Archelon? How many turtles are in the Ionian and what sort? One has been spotted in Vliho — any idea what this one is? Is it common for them to be alone? Also, is there any data on Dolphins and Monk Seals in our area? In fact anything on native wild life would be very interesting. Debbie White, Lefkas Vasilis Lekka replies: In Greece three species of turtles are found regularly (Caretta caretta, Chelonia mydas και Dermochelys coriacea). In Amvrakikos Bay I have often seen the first two species, feeding and breeding even right outside the harbour of Preveza. In the harbour it is very common to see turtles (Caretta caretta and Chelonia mydas) close to where the fishermen clean their nets, and also close to the fish farms
of the Amvrakikos Gulf. The number of turtles found in the Ionian varies with the seasons as they are highly migratory species. For more information on turtles you can visit these sites: National Marine Park of Zakynthos www.nmp-zak.org Archelon The Sea Turtle Protection Society of Greece www.archelon.gr In the Amvrakikos Gulf there is a permanent population of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that we also often see close to Preveza. There is a research organization TETHYS based in Vonitsa (during summer) that studies this population and on their site you can find plenty of information. www.tethys.org/idp/home.htm Barbara Molin replies: We have been promised more articles on the ecology of the Ionian and will print them in future issues. October 2011 www.theionian.com The Ionian 11
12 The Ionian www.theionian.com October 2011