The area South of the lefkas canal bordered by the mainland, Lefkada & Megannissi islands is apparently known as the inland sea. It is usually a settled gentle sailing area so is very popular with flotillas. It has become even more busy than it was 18 yers ago Sunsail & Neilson have moved their bases to Lefkas marina & Vounaki but the Greeks have cottoned on to the charter game and many companies have sprung up. You can hire motorboats with no licence, you can imagine how much fun that is in a busy anchorage.
Fun at Nidri
As Louise said in a previous blog we are revisiting a bit of our past when we came on our 1st flotilla holiday to this area. 
Skorpios Island once owned by Jacqueline Onasis
Our first stop (though not to be our last) was Vlikho Bay a delightfully quiet anchorage just past Nidri. Once through a bottleneck it opens out into an oval landlocked bay. In Septemeber 2011 an extreme weather event occurred here. Strong Southerlies had been blowing and in the early evening a hurrcane force squall hit parts of the bay causing a rapid 180 degree shift in the wind , many yachts were knocked down at anchor & one catamaran capsized. Thankfully we saw no repetition while we were there.
We day sailed to the new Neilson base at Vounaki on the mainland to see if we would be allowed in to use their pool etc , but no joy! 
Vounaki Neilson Base
So we headed for Vathi on Megannissi. Years ago we had gone to a taverna here and the highlight of the night was when they brought out “Mama” to balance a considerably heavy table on her head and dance! She was agood age then I’m sure they will have allowed her to retire by now.
Vathi now has a small marina that we had booked for quote “one possibly two nights”. This was confirmed but when we arrived at our due time 18:00, tied up , connected electricity and all the parephenallia required to moor a boat, it seemed to have lost something in translation – we could stay the one night but they couldnt tell us if we could stay two until the next day ? As we had only really gone in for laundry facilities and water we decide to leave but not before filling up with water.
So it was back to good old Vlikho to anchor for the night after what has become to be known as the “Water Job” (though not to be our last ! again).
The next day we headed back to Megannissi this time to Port Atheni. 18 Years ago there was only one taverna here and our Sunsail flotilla took it over partying untill 06:00 in the morning ! The 1st night we anchored off
and the second night we tied up to the harbour wall next to an old Moody that had seen better days. The guy that owned it was a bit of a character. Though cheerful , he & his wife basically drank all day and night and had umpteen cats on board (plus a few other creepy crawlies we suspect.) I was up at 02:00 chasing stray cats off our boat attracted by the girly moggies next door.
Having visited the man made beach we had to return to the Taverna for our dinner. The owner did remember the the Sunsail “Gallini” fotillas and the lead crew Jeremy & Mandy who have been back , now married with a wee boy. The Taverna now shuts at 12:00 sharp!
It was good to revisit the start of our sailing experience so continuing the theme we decided to head over to Kephalonia the next day…………..
The Inland Sea
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