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The Ionian
Travel, yachting and lifestylemagazine for the Ionian Islandsand adjacent mainland Greece.
Vol. 5, Issue 3 – July 2014
Publisher and EditorBarbara Molin
Advisory BoardYannis Dimopoulos
Justin Smith
LayoutRyan Smith
www.theionian.com
We make every effort to ensurethe accuracy of each issue.However, we cannot be held
liable for any errors oromissions. 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 hereEditorial
Hello there, sailors!The first Amvrakikos Gulf Sailing Race will take place onJuly 19 ‐ 20. The 50‐mile 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, we’re back from our big fat Greek gap year and it’ sbeen an adventure and a half.
So much of an adventure, in fact, we’ve signed up foranother year.
You may remember reading about me in The IonianMagazine last year. My husband decided to take earlyretirement and asked if I, ten years his junior, fanciedpacking in the day job and flitting off to Corfu for twelvemonths.
Well, I would have been a fool to say no, wouldn’ t I? I knewthe island and the area well, having been a frequent visitorover the previous decade. And back in 2006, we bought ayacht in a partnership with Odysseus Sailing Holidays, withwhich we’ve explored the Ionian with great joy. It was onone of these trips that the ‘year away’ idea flitted into ourheads and carried on fluttering like a moth just out of reachuntil we did something about it.
So we let our cottage in the UK and headed for Corfu, wherewe had found a lovely house to rent in a village just inlandfrom 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 interiorand taming the jungle of the garden.
We quickly settled into village life, which was not sodifferent from our own village back in Dorset, with aprimary school just down the road, a central plateia with achurch, community hall, kafenion, three tavernas, atelephone kiosk and a commemorative water feature.
From the outset, the two of us were determined to immerseourselves in all Greek life had to offer. And, when thetourists went home in the autumn, so our year began. Ourgarden 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 backinto shape after rotting lower fronds were sawn off andburnt.
‘You are doing a good job there,’ our friend, Kiki, at thekafenion, told us. ‘The house and garden is coming aliveagain.’
The kafenion became our ‘ local’ and, throughout the winterevenings, we would sit in the corner, watching the noisy cardgames 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 forme to be there. I would sit and make notes about mysurroundings, about what was going on. But they might aswell 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 thecongregation, who were both devout and casual at the sametime. There would be childrenrunning up and down the aisleand people wandering in and outafter lighting a candle, saying afew prayers and then going outfor a fag and coffee. Therelationship the villagers had withtheir church, their priest and theirreligion was, for an agnostic likeme, absolutely fascinating.
On weekdays, we would work inthe house and garden, withseveral hours set aside for me towrite, and then at weekends wewould explore the island andwander up into the village for ameal at one of the three tavernas.We had decided early on that we needed to support all threealthough we quickly established a favourite for leisurelySunday lunches of delicious pork and potatoes from theoven.
By the early spring, we had been accepted. Our Greek wasno better but we were part of the village.
‘You are different from many other English people,’ one ofthe 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-offishto other ex-pats, we’d always be polite but one of the reasonsfor spending a year in Greece was to experience the countrylike a native. We were extremely fortunate in having a kindand gregarious neighbour, inevitably called Spiros after theisland’s patron saint, whose family adopted us and invited us
to share family events includingEaster and a wedding. Had wenot moved in next door to thisbig bear of a man, it would havebeen far more difficult for us tofit into our new home.
The one thing I was not preparedfor was the homesickness I feltfor family, friends and the Dorsetlandscape. At one point, it was indanger of eating me up andspoiling my year away. But withtwenty-eight visitors from homeduring the summer, it was as ifthe Westcountry was knockingon my door and staying under myroof. And I made a pact with
myself to live in the moment and not hanker after things inthe past or future.
Corfu is a wonderful island, green and lush, with a capitalthat enchants everyone who visits it. Every time we wentinto town we would hear pianos tinkling behind shutters,voices in choral harmony bellowing out from a balcony or amarch past by a philharmonic band in full uniform andshining helmets.
And in the summer, there was a plethora of panegyri – thefestivals marking the days of patron saints – where we woulddance to joyous Greek music well into the small hours.Holding hands and sidestepping our way around the twintrees in the village plateia, my husband and I would look ateach other and think what a marvellous decision it was totake a year out and experience something so completelydifferent.
And when the time came to go home, we decided to rent thehouse for another year. Corfu and the village in which welived was under our skin. Today, the language barrier is stilla problem but we are improving, albeit slowly. And we bothfeel blessed at having found such a lovely village to callhome.
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 remarkablediversity of whales and dolphins compared to other parts ofthe Mediterranean. Yet, such richness is decreasing due todegradation of the marine environment.
Research and conservation activities conducted by the IonianDolphin Project (IDP) of Tethys Research Institute, anItalian NGO conducting internationally qualified scientificresearch aimed at the conservation of whales and dolphinssince 1986, are identifying measures to slow-down, halt orreverse such trends. Since April 2012 the IDP has a brandnew web site to increase the interest about the conservationof cetaceans of the Ionian Sea, by encouraging residents,charter/flotillas sailing holiday operators and visitors to thearea to report their sightings of cetaceans, through a user-friendly online form.
Nowadays the use of digital cameras, cell phones and otherdevices capable of recording easily several minutes of video,or to capture high quality digital images is widespreadamong boaters. Using our online sighting form, videos andimages can be sent to us to facilitate additional informationand to allow us to confirm the identification of the speciesreported. It also includes essential information about thecetacean species found in the Greek seas and identificationtips. 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 waterscould not have been possible without the collaboration ofSunsail, Neilson, Sail Ionian, Sailing Holidays, IslandSailing, Seafarer, Kiriakoulis and Odysseus who printed,laminated and distributed the IDP Cetacean Species Guideamong their clients to encourage them to collaborate. KGmedmarinas management group, owners of Marina Lefkasand Gouvia Marina, two of the largest in Greece, are helping
greatly to spread the word among their clients. Sightingreports received in year 2013 (see map) referred primarily tocommon bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus and short-beaked common dolphin Delphinus delphis. A few sightingswere reported also on striped dolphins (Stenellacoeruleoalba) and Monk seal (Monachus monachus), and asingle sighting was also reported for Sperm whales (Physetermacrocephalus). Everyone who reports a sighting to us is
diligently contacted viaemail andacknowledged for theircollaboration.
The first whale anddolphin sighting reportsof 2014 have started toarrive already and wehope to receive manymore in the upcomingmonths. Do not forgetthat YOU can also doyour share to help usprotect whales anddolphins of the IonianSea. When approachinga group of dolphinswith your boat BEDOLPHIN SMART toavoid causing themstress by disruptingtheir natural behaviours.
Joan Gonzalvo is theIDP Project Manager.
www.ioniandolphinproject.org
