Despite sailing criss-cross around the northern Ionian last summer, we never happened to visit Kalamos and Kastos, two rugged-looking islands. We passed them many times, often uncomfortably close, and always close-hauled – their rocky shores seemed somehow very difficult to avoid!
After a very long winter and lockdown, we finally began our sailing season in mid-May. But the waiting wasn’t over yet. We sailed to Messolonghi for our first covid vaccination dose and had to wait there for a week and a half. The time was spent catching up with friends we had gotten to know during our stay here in winter 2019-2020. After the first jabs, we weighed anchor and sailed to Lefkas, another place that felt a bit too familiar from the previous year (hot summer months working on a boatyard aren’t easy to forget). We tried to change our second vaccination to the hospital in Lefkada, but without success. So we waited some more in Nidri, and in mid-June, we rented a car and drove back to Messolonghi for the jabs. Now the only thing we still had to wait for was the vaccination certificates, and then we would be ready to roam the islands at our leisure.