We weren’t quite ready to leave the Ambracian Gulf for destinations further south without exploring a little bit more. Vanitsa had really good reviews and it was only seven miles away, so we set the jib (it was too too hot to bother hoisting the main) and had a nice little mid day sail.
We opted for the anchorage away from town, separated by an island connected to land by a very pretty causeway. We sweltered onboard for a few hours, went for a delightful swim, and then headed for town. It’s a tight squeeze under the few openings under the causeway, but we found one where Trip (growing up a ‘river rat’ on the rivers of Missouri) could read the water and we could inch our way through in the dinghy with the outboard down.
We had a lovely, if hot walk through the edge of town, enjoying all the locals who were enjoying the water. The entire promenade is one huge public beach with free public lounge chairs and umbrellas. The local restaurants are set back a little way. It’s a great set up where everyone gets to share the water.
We settled on a restaurant that got good reviews for the ‘drunken mussels’ – mussels that are cooked in ouzo and fennel. We scarfed them down and barely had room for the fried, fresh, huge calamari (I love takeaway, but old, fried calamari just doesn’t make the list).
The next day, Eric & Vandy of s/v Awildian dropped the hook not far away and we were lucky enough to have a couple of days exploring locally with them. We got up early one morning (the only time it’s safe to exercise) and walked up to the Vonitsa Castle, a formidable fortress built in the Byzantine era when Vonitsa became strategic in both trade and naval activities. The fort was used and updated continuously through the Venetian (17th century) and Ottoman (18th century) empires. Local Greek forces took the city in 1821, and managed to wait out the Ottomans who had barricaded themselves in the fortress in 1829.
While we were exploring the castle, we met another cruising couple, Viennese Gerhardt and Usula from s/v Ylva, and we shared a lovely glass of iced coffee back in town. We followed them to a fantastic little bakery where they bake artisanal breads and pies. I loaded up on spinach pie, a 1kg loaf of bread, and the most scrumptious filo chocolate sesame studded rolls. On our way from the bakery to a mini market (we don’t want to run low on tonic), we came across Andreas, a local fishmonger, and I couldn’t resist helping him unload his last batch of shrimp from the morning delivery (10 euro for enough huge local shrimp to feed four people with leftovers!).
We spent the afternoon swimming and trying to stay out of the heat, then went back to Awildian to grill the shrimp for dinner. The shrimp, and the gulf in general, remind me of the bayous of Louisiana or Chesapeake Bay back home, and Eric found some Turkish spice that resembled Old Bay seasoning that was perfect for grilling. Vandy had made a delicious chopped broccoli and feta salad, and we had a fabulous dinner. Once the sun had set and the temperature had cooled, we headed back into town for ice cream and tsiporo. We found our new fishmonger friend Andreas and chatted with him while we took in a little bit of the EuroCup semi finals as well.
The next morning we did a quick hike around the island (startling a ray in the shallows as we dinghied ashore). Then we decided to make a short stop back in Preveza, and ran into Phil and Fiona on s/v Anamcara midway as they were heading to Vonitsa. We’re hoping to see them somewhere in the area soon. Back in Preveza we did a final load of laundry, picked up a few things from the chandlery, and had the best ice cream yet in Greece. We hadn’t seen coffee ice cream since Venice, and this was amazing. The pomegranate was even better. Trip couldn’t resist going back for one more bowl and got lemon that was almost as good as the painfully tart sorbet we had in Favignana last season!
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