All Aboard

<p>Big day today as we begin our Tradewinds cruise out of Nydri Lefkada; We are both a bit nervous. We want to arrive early so we can sort out our stuff to take on the boat. Our GPS says we will arrive at 1pm and being we don't board til 5 we stop for a nice lunch in a seaside cafe. Still lots of time so we take the scenic road which is only 15 mins longer. Even if it's more we should be Ok. Very nice coastal scenery then we have to make a road choice, the GPS is strangely silent and the roadmap doesn't even show a road. We really question our choice when we seem to be on a goat path and then we are driving through a deserted village. We wonder what ever happened here as there must be 35 buildings along the roadside all in various stages of disrepair. We both start to sweat as we lose more time. I was sure I saw a sign for the Greek version of Lefkada which looks nothing like the English and we think we see our destination across the bay so we must be right. I almost have to get out to push a cow out of the way! It's coming up to 4 when we finally approach Nydri which is a fair sized town. Our RCI instructions tell us how to find Gouvin Marina but nothing seems to match up. I convince Bruce to stop at a gas station and I ask a guy at the pumps if he speaks English; yes, so I ask about the marina and he says "you are on the wrong island"! Well my heart drops then he laughs and says "I am from Tradewinds-those are old directions from our Corfu location. I could have hugged him. They take us to the location and we have to quickly unpack as they take our luggage back to the shore and store if for the week. Our cabin is very small but has a king bed! Tiny bathroom and we have 2 portholes,one is an escape porthole. It is like having an open aquarium- we can touch the water Our captain Ewout is from Holland and his wife Simone is first mate and chef.
Our shipmates are Randy and Katheleen from Medicine Hat and Jim and Jean from Houston, both really nice. More tomorrow.