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The Ionian

Travel, yachting and lifestyle

magazine for the Ionian Islands

and adjacent mainland Greece.

Vol. 5, Issue 3 July 2014

Publisher and Editor

Barbara Molin

Advisory Board

Yannis Dimopoulos

Justin Smith

Layout

Ryan Smith

Advertising

advertising@theionian.com

www.theionian.com

We make every effort to ensure

the accuracy of each issue.

However, we cannot be held

liable for any errors or

omissions. The contributors'

opinions are their own.

Printed in Greece.

The longest day of the year has come and gone and we're in the

middle of summer.

After spending a season or two in the Ionian, many of us dream

of settling down for good in this lovely area of Greece. Maddie

Grigg and her husband decided on a one year sabbatical just to see what that would

be like and Maddie writes about their experience in A Year in Corfu. In fact they've

enjoyed their year so much the've signed up for a repeat!

We also have an update with dolphin sighting reports from Joan Gonzalvo of the

Ionian Dolphin Project.

Our cover photo this month is by Joan Gonzalvo / Tethys Research Institute.

Bottlenose dolphin leaping out of the water.

Happy reading...

_/)* Barbara Molin

Summer is here

Editorial

Hello there, sailors!The first Amvrakikos Gulf Sailing Race will take place onJuly 19 20. The 50mile race starts from the port ofVONITSA, runs down to AMFILOCHIA, and then back toVONITSA. This is a great way to see all of the beautifulsites of the Amvrakikos Gulf and our home town ofVonitsa. Sign up before July 15!For more info call us at:

69477 04503 or 69091 58646Organized by Remezzo Yacht Club and Jetoil Pantazis

MADDIE GRIGG

Well, were back from our big fat Greek gap year and it s

been an adventure and a half.

So much of an adventure, in fact, weve signed up for

another year.

You may remember reading about me in The Ionian

Magazine last year. My husband decided to take early

retirement and asked if I, ten years his junior, fancied

packing in the day job and flitting off to Corfu for twelve

months.

Well, I would have been a fool to say no, wouldn t I? I knew

the island and the area well, having been a frequent visitor

over the previous decade. And back in 2006, we bought a

yacht in a partnership with Odysseus Sailing Holidays, with

which weve explored the Ionian with great joy. It was on

one of these trips that the year away idea flitted into our

heads and carried on fluttering like a moth just out of reach

until we did something about it.

So we let our cottage in the UK and headed for Corfu, where

we had found a lovely house to rent in a village just inland

from Paleokastritsa. The property needed work done to it,

inside and out, and we struck a deal with the agent which

meant a reduced rent in exchange for decorating the interior

and taming the jungle of the garden.

We quickly settled into village life, which was not so

different from our own village back in Dorset, with a

primary school just down the road, a central plateia with a

church, community hall, kafenion, three tavernas, a

telephone kiosk and a commemorative water feature.

From the outset, the two of us were determined to immerse

ourselves in all Greek life had to offer. And, when the

tourists went home in the autumn, so our year began. Our

garden became a hive of activity after years of neglect.

Great, overgrown oleander, as tall as a three-storey house,

came tumbling down, sad-looking palm trees sprang back

into shape after rotting lower fronds were sawn off and

burnt.

You are doing a good job there, our friend, Kiki, at the

kafenion, told us. The house and garden is coming alive

again.

The kafenion became our local and, throughout the winter

evenings, we would sit in the corner, watching the noisy card

games and soaking in the atmosphere of this male domain.

At first I felt like Medea the barbarian, confined to the

A Year in Corfu

margins, but was assured by Kiki it was perfectly all right for

me to be there. I would sit and make notes about my

surroundings, about what was going on. But they might as

well have been talking in Martian, my Greek was so limited.

On Sundays we would creep into church via the back door,

to marvel at the magic of the Greek Orthodox service and the

congregation, who were both devout and casual at the same

time. There would be children

running up and down the aisle

and people wandering in and out

after lighting a candle, saying a

few prayers and then going out

for a fag and coffee. The

relationship the villagers had with

their church, their priest and their

religion was, for an agnostic like

me, absolutely fascinating.

On weekdays, we would work in

the house and garden, with

several hours set aside for me to

write, and then at weekends we

would explore the island and

wander up into the village for a

meal at one of the three tavernas.

We had decided early on that we needed to support all three

although we quickly established a favourite for leisurely

Sunday lunches of delicious pork and potatoes from the

oven.

By the early spring, we had been accepted. Our Greek was

no better but we were part of the village.

You are different from many other English people, one of

the men from the kafenion told us. You like to mix with the

Greeks, not the other English.

And it was true. We did. It was not that we were stand-offish

to other ex-pats, wed always be polite but one of the reasons

for spending a year in Greece was to experience the country

like a native. We were extremely fortunate in having a kind

and gregarious neighbour, inevitably called Spiros after the

islands patron saint, whose family adopted us and invited us

to share family events including

Easter and a wedding. Had we

not moved in next door to this

big bear of a man, it would have

been far more difficult for us to

fit into our new home.

The one thing I was not prepared

for was the homesickness I felt

for family, friends and the Dorset

landscape. At one point, it was in

danger of eating me up and

spoiling my year away. But with

twenty-eight visitors from home

during the summer, it was as if

the Westcountry was knocking

on my door and staying under my

roof. And I made a pact with

myself to live in the moment and not hanker after things in

the past or future.

Corfu is a wonderful island, green and lush, with a capital

that enchants everyone who visits it. Every time we went

into town we would hear pianos tinkling behind shutters,

voices in choral harmony bellowing out from a balcony or a

march past by a philharmonic band in full uniform and

shining helmets.

And in the summer, there was a plethora of panegyri the

festivals marking the days of patron saints where we would

dance to joyous Greek music well into the small hours.

Holding hands and sidestepping our way around the twin

trees in the village plateia, my husband and I would look at

each other and think what a marvellous decision it was to

take a year out and experience something so completely

different.

And when the time came to go home, we decided to rent the

house for another year. Corfu and the village in which we

lived was under our skin. Today, the language barrier is still

a problem but we are improving, albeit slowly. And we both

feel blessed at having found such a lovely village to call

home.

Maddie Grigg writes a blog The World from My Window,

recounting tales from Corfu and Dorset.

You Can Help the Dolphins of the Ionian Sea

JOAN GONZALVO

The coastal waters of Greece still harbour a remarkable

diversity of whales and dolphins compared to other parts of

the Mediterranean. Yet, such richness is decreasing due to

degradation of the marine environment.

Research and conservation activities conducted by the Ionian

Dolphin Project (IDP) of Tethys Research Institute, an

Italian NGO conducting internationally qualified scientific

research aimed at the conservation of whales and dolphins

since 1986, are identifying measures to slow-down, halt or

reverse such trends. Since April 2012 the IDP has a brand

new web site to increase the interest about the conservation

of cetaceans of the Ionian Sea, by encouraging residents,

charter/flotillas sailing holiday operators and visitors to the

area to report their sightings of cetaceans, through a user-

friendly online form.

Nowadays the use of digital cameras, cell phones and other

devices capable of recording easily several minutes of video,

or to capture high quality digital images is widespread

among boaters. Using our online sighting form, videos and

images can be sent to us to facilitate additional information

and to allow us to confirm the identification of the species

reported. It also includes essential information about the

cetacean species found in the Greek seas and identification

tips. A cetacean species guide can be downloaded from our

web site.

Between 2012-13 the IDP received 150+ sighting reports.

The success in this pioneer initiative in Greek Ionian waters

could not have been possible without the collaboration of

Sunsail, Neilson, Sail Ionian, Sailing Holidays, Island

Sailing, Seafarer, Kiriakoulis and Odysseus who printed,

laminated and distributed the IDP Cetacean Species Guide

among their clients to encourage them to collaborate. KG

medmarinas management group, owners of Marina Lefkas

and Gouvia Marina, two of the largest in Greece, are helping

greatly to spread the word among their clients. Sighting

reports received in year 2013 (see map) referred primarily to

common bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus and short-

beaked common dolphin Delphinus delphis. A few sightings

were reported also on striped dolphins (Stenella

coeruleoalba) and Monk seal (Monachus monachus), and a

single sighting was also reported for Sperm whales (Physeter

macrocephalus). Everyone who reports a sighting to us is

diligently contacted via

email and

acknowledged for their

collaboration.

The first whale and

dolphin sighting reports

of 2014 have started to

arrive already and we

hope to receive many

more in the upcoming

months. Do not forget

that YOU can also do

your share to help us

protect whales and

dolphins of the Ionian

Sea. When approaching

a group of dolphins

with your boat BE

DOLPHIN SMART to

avoid causing them

stress by disrupting

their natural behaviours.

Joan Gonzalvo is the

IDP Project Manager.

www.ioniandolphinproject.org