This week on Kawai we sail in to Vathy on Ithaca where we shelter from the forecasted storms and strong winds. The forecast of storms is correct and we are hit with 50-60 knots for 25-30 minutes. During the mayhem Kawai is struck during the storm by another boat who had anchored too close. Fortunately we have fenders out and there is no damage to Kawai.

We leave Ithaca and sail towards Zakynthos. The sailing is hit and miss during the trip as we put the sails up and down constantly. The 40 nm trip is extremely picturesque. The west coast of Zakynthos has striking cliffs, large cave and green hilltops. During the sail Jase also catches a couple of tuna.

We reach Shipwreck beach at lunchtime and the bay is spectacular. The water is a perfect blue and amazing swimming conditions. We spend a couple of hours on Kawai, swimming, diving and taking in the scenery. We eventually take the tender ashore and are the last remaining people on the beach.

Unfortunately the swell picks up so we leave Ship wreck beach at 8pm and head for Keri in southern Zakynthos. We anchor at midnight and wake to a beautiful calm anchorage.

About us:

Our names are Jason and Tracey and we traded our house, cars, business, job and security for freedom, adventure, travel and living simply amongst nature and the seas on our 45 foot Hanse 445 sailing boat, Kawai.

We don't know exactly where the winds will take us at this stage but over the next year we hope to sail to Turkey, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia.

Jase loves making travel videos and we decided to upload to youtube to share our adventure. We really hope you enjoy and feel free to drop us a comment any time to chat or subscribe to follow along :)

Instagram
Jason: https://www.instagram.com/jase_stephe...
Tracey: https://www.instagram.com/trace_y02/?...

Music:
1. Forget about yourself, The Eastern Plain
www.epidemicsound.com

2. Loving Caliber, Waterslide (Tribute version)
www.epidemicsound.com

3. Love for the Ocean, Epidemicsound
www.epidemicsound.com

Thanks
Jason and Tracey
Sailing Kawai

Closed Captions (CC):
last week on Kauai we ventured through

the corinth isthmos canal and continued our

journey south through the Ionian islands

reaching the incredible Ithaca with its

crystal clear water and lush vegetation

we swim explore hiked and cleaned this

magical place this week we are hit by a

fierce storm and 60-knot winds and our

beloved choir is hit by a fellow boat we

leave Ithaca and sale for Zakynthos and

the breathtaking shipwreck beach this

place is much better than expected the

crazy blue water against the imposing

white cliffs and the perfectly placed

shipwreck creates a surreal feeling and

we are fortunate enough to get it all to

ourselves chase also manages to catch a

couple of fish after a week on the

coastline we head for Buffy the capital

of Ithaca with the storm warning issued

and severe storms forecast we provision

and have a look around

Buffy is a charming seaside village

where the buildings are colorful and so

other people spending a bit of time here

we met the most delightful and friendly

people including the local hardware man

who made us a special purpose tool for

free and the small chandlery who gave us

products to take home to try before

paying but it's not long before the

weather starts to take a turn for the

worse and we must stay with kawaii well

we've had a pretty interesting morning

we've been absolutely smashing a storm

is what she looks like lightning strikes

going through by far our worst we've

ever encountered

we're in Vasi in Ithaca and it's quite a

lot of boats in the bay and one came in

late that we didn't know where they

anchored we're gonna be too close and

they were too close that came up and

actually hit our boat unfortunately had

fenders up couldn't see felt like we

were just yeah there was like movie yeah

I felt like I was in some sort of crazy

storm movie yeah yeah we can get footage

because it was just it was hopefully it

wasn't life or death but it felt like

anything could happen anyone could drive

around

and traces behind the wheel just

murdering a little bit I say to keep

this too much pressure on the on the

chain but yeah it was it was now it came

twice and it was just mayhem in the bay

you might be wondering why this is

sitting yeah

the boat sort of a shambles at the

moment and obviously got thrown from

wherever we know whatever

yeah we're just glad it's it's done the

storms pass it's meant to be gone thirty

from the other direction in the next day

or so

that's fine thirty-five that's easy you

know fifty fifty to sixty that was good

morning good morning just getting our

routes ordered for the day we're leaving

Buffy and we're off to zakynthos which

will be fun it's about thirty eight

nautical miles we've got to go oh we

will be heading from Buffy on Ithaca

around past the bottom of Ithaca past

Kefalonia and then we're headed to

shipwreck beach over here on the Kim

thoth's which is the western side of the

Kim dose erecting a easterly breeze for

the day it should be quite strong in the

morning and then ease off in the

afternoon which should be hopefully

fingers crossed good for shipwreck Bay

because it's on the western side

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but he didn't call

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pretty spectacular view isn't it

yeah already an amazing coastline I

really didn't know what to expect from

seeking first but happy so far oh babe

you've caught something yeah we just put

a little uh another one just here a

little yellowfin tuna I think it is so

he's not big enough I don't think so I'm

gonna get him getting back into the

water now don't give me kiss enough

so they you are pretty happy that you

fought another pitch yeah the monkeys

off the back

and even though I wasn't big enough

pretty happy Airport awesome scenery

it's just a cool cool moment some people

might have kept it but

fish there's a lot less fish in the

world and should let it get free

look bottle look big on the film but

still not figured out that I think for

so I'm glad I let it go to live another

day and hopefully have a few kids

most of the images of Sikkim that we

have seen are of shipwreck beach

so it was surprised as we cruise the

west coast to see large cliff faces and

huge caves to explore most of the way

heading to shipwreck beach yep what's

your plan

well the chart doesn't have any depth

whatsoever somebody has put on some

standings on a chart so we'll

attention to our chakra and you will

snorkel to make sure that we are in the

same as to want to be bold

apparently this bulbs but yeah it's very

strange

not even any Anchorage reviews or

anything yeah you think they'd be a lot

of boats that would come in here but I

guess we'll see once we ran the corner

ahead

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well it's just another

so bring your

cuz you know this

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good you should

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because

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at the best place you've had to be

cheers to that

drinking lobby I got a big man beer out

for you and we're beat and we've got the

rest of Greece to go through the site

we've one of the many things we love

about sailing it's being able to take a

home wherever we go no packing and

unpacking of bags when we travel just

jump in the tender and explore it's also

pretty awesome to sit on our back deck

and have a view like this here we go

ahead nin and then leaving Kauai

bouncing around

Sarika lies we work alone

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sure

send a Capuchin handle it

over your app it can handle it yep I got

my little boots on

I better take my songs off but you

thumbs don't want to lose them

shipwreck beach is the cantatas number

one tourist attraction ship MV panayotis

launched in 1937 and has had many owners

and name changes it was even apparently

used in Dunkirk evacuations rescuing

Allied soldiers from the beach it's hard

to know the correct story of how it

landed on the beach and even the

captain's recollection is questioned due

to court proceedings I came across two

popular theories the first is the most

compelling being that the ship was

smuggling cigarettes wine and even

humans and was chased into the cove by

authorities the second main theory that

stood out was that some enterprising

locals thought it would make a good

tourist attraction and so arranged to

have it put there the captain's

recollection is that the m/v panayotis

was returning from Albania in the

evening hours of 2nd of October 1980 the

ship ended up on the beach due to bad

weather conditions and mechanical

failure part of the shipment and

equipment was stolen and subsequently

recovered by authorities in local

villages 29 people were persecuted the

captain was forced to remove the vessel

by his own means but when he visited the

site to figure out how to do it he was

so astonished by the beauty of it he

decided to leave it as it is hey they're

just creeping it's creeping in behind

the boat pretty cool just exploring

better than you thought yeah I've seen

it so much on Instagram I just thought

it's actually waving it probably helps

that we're the only ones here

and pulled over at our two beers and

yeah he's going to take in the evening

no I don't think that another reason

we're gonna spend as much time here on

the beach as possible is the swell is

starting to get quite large might not

look it there but getting a little

tender out there and out to Kauai will

be a little bit difficult so I'm going

to stay here for as long as possible and

then head out not to mention Hawaii

it's not I'd say yeah but uh all in all

we've really enjoyed it we'll probably

spend maybe a couple of hours here

tomorrow that's the plan anyway unless

it gets too uncomfortable tonight and

then we're gonna encourage it the

southern end the kid baths yeah it's got

near the turtle protection area but it's

the area that you can actually anchor so

then we're gonna head down there and

anchor for a couple of days and then

move itself yeah we're looking forward

to that but you know we're really

looking forward to hopefully seeing some

turtles as well swimming details

plan so uh cheers for those for watching

thanks for watching us no no my frenemy

perfect we felt really fortunate to

spend the evening by ourselves in this

iconic location we could clearly hear

the sound of the waves crashing on the

shore as we explored the wreck in detail

being here alone gave the place a very

different perspective and feel - earlier

in the day

little rocket mm-hmm very rocky am i

leaving

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quite large and that's sitting platform

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not into

it's really unfortunate

and our everyone says it as always

I'm heading for the the bottom of

Zakynthos and hopefully there is

something down there where we can anchor

in the dark

what time is it

corta de soie technical miles to go we

killed it good planning

beautiful Kerry Bay the bottom mr. Kint

us been out snorkeling today looking for

turtles how do we go Turtles oh no go

like we saw lots of turtles in the bay

but just not up close and personal yeah

but we didn't see lots of boulders under

the water not too far from our boat so

we're hoping we ain't get in some sand

around because we got in at midnight

last night so we can see the bottom and

we couldn't snorkel around to check

either because we did read there were

some in the area a bit further away we

had seen a couple of sunrises from this

Anchorage but hadn't seen a sunset so we

headed around the corner secretly I

think Jase just wanted to fish some more

another fish babe

now that junuh hopefully it's beautiful

got a bigger one leave the babies alone

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Wow just hanging back on the swimming

platform

magical

it's nice to be able to see the Sun

setting over the water

we've just chatted to your sister yeah

so birthdays

yeah a pretty special moments really

thanks for watching guys we're making

our way to 4,000 subscribers if you're

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if you're interested to hear more

details about storm and what happened

here it is so far we were just going to

talk about storm because unfortunately

during it we didn't get any footage yeah

it's one of those things when you're in

the storm we were really worried about

obviously our safety the boat safety

those lightning bolts just coming down

everywhere there was six melt winds and

yeah it was a little bit of hail and

there's a boat that was hitting us so we

didn't have time to pull out the camera

but yeah we'll try to explain what

happened

what what went wrong and the things that

went well yeah well I guess the first

thing was that the boat came in and

anchored probably in not the best

position but it was late in the evening

and they never no wins at the time so

they wouldn't have known where our

anchor was and it looked fun like they

did look like they'll far enough away

from us they put out a fair bit more I

can't catch em than us they had out 60

we had out 40 and their boat was

swinging quite a long way across the bay

and luckily the good thing that we did

was well we were prepared for it we've

seen online that those storms the

forecast was 30 knots of wind coming

from the south and a massive storm front

coming from the north so we weren't

really sure how it was all gonna play

out but we had fenders up both sides of

the boat and we've been pleased we've

been taking note of where everyone had

been anchoring all day and everyone had

done a great job it was probably in the

whole Bay probably a hundred boats more

there's both water is the key and we

probably had actually anchored in here

maybe 25 to 30 boats

so we've been cooking oil now because we

knew that this storm they predicted it's

going to be pretty bad and yeah just hit

we had 40 meters out in seven meters of

mud when you're holding in here told

that that's why we came here

the Soviet boats yeah it was no room put

out the wall because we would hit boat

so yeah it was just they came in late

and put out a fair bit more whilst we

didn't think about that

no so the acting 34 knots yeah that was

what was written 30 to 40 maximum which

we were too worried about but yeah it

was five I am i miss dark still and it

just hit I'm gonna went for about

probably yeah 25 minutes half now and

she I was the scariest craziest winds

we've ever seen

and we've been here fourteen fifty eight

times and that's scary but this was yeah

with the trench rain and the lightning

oh yeah but we made sure that we put the

engine on how'd it go in case we got

struck by lightning in a case our anchor

did yeah you're taking a bit of pressure

off the yeah I was trying to yeah the

winds were so strong yeah and I was

trying to steer away from the boat that

was kept coming towards us but that

wasn't really working too well because I

didn't want to gun it and end up with

our anchor chain wrapped around

something so yeah but he also was at the

helm and he was but I think it's real

murdering trying to move away from us

and so really we came close many many

times and only hit once yeah

unfortunately we had hate offenders

through the back of the boat and that's

what they hit they were lucky they

didn't have any fenders out yeah they

braved the thunder and lightning inhales

well

yeah that was pretty brave and you got

the big round fender as well to just put

in in case we queued at a different

position yeah just had one fender free

to throw in between us and the boat

wherever it was going because sometimes

they would swing across side but then

they would fling their boat would I

guess tail around the back of our boat

so we just had to be ready everywhere we

didn't know what was going on yes

if they weren't close to us we wouldn't

have been as worried and we would have

been downstairs shoulders away from the

light yeah still with the engine going

ready to move in case someone else

dragged or we drag

for the ocean

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