There's a fairly common expression about the missing the boat to mean a missed opportunity or chance to progress your life in some way. I'm pleased to say that I'm fairly sure I haven't missed any boats in that way...I did however manage to miss a physical boat. It was during my 'mini break' from travelling, by which I mean I spent three weeks sat on a sunbed by a swimming pool with my very good friend from home; Sally. It's not really what people go travelling to do but then what are you supposed to do whilst travelling if you're not enjoying yourself and those three weeks were very enjoyable and relaxing...apart from perhaps the unfortunate luck with the boat.
It was at the end of the second week when we decided to go on a couple of boat trips, one up to the north coast of Kefalonia, the other to visit the island of Ithaca. The trip to Ithaca came first and we needed to catch the boat at 9:15 and we were told to wait at the port, I was given a fairly vague description of where to stand - 'opposite the ferry place' were my instructions. Knowing we had to be at the port for 9:15 we thought we'd get up in plenty of time to get up and out of the door so we didn't miss the boat. With this in mind we got up at about 7:30, considering our earliest wake up to this point had been about 10:00 it was a bit of a shock to the system. Anyway, we got up, got ready and left for the port at 8:15 giving ourselves plenty of time to amble through the quiet streets down to the port. It turns out we had completely misjudged the distance as we made the walk in about 15 minutes and had plenty of time to kill. We went into a small souvenir shop and had a look at the area around the port before we went to sit in a sheltered waiting area. The waiting area was next to the ticket offices for one of the ferry companies so I guessed this was the 'ferry place' from my instructions. We sat and waited for about 45 minutes before we heard the horn of the boat blaring out as it neared our location. I had a look out over the water and saw the boat so made our way to the water's edge which was 'opposite the ferry place'. We stood there and watched as the boat completely by-passed our position and was stopping on the complete opposite side of the port; realizing our mistake we set off walking around the port as the boat got closer and closer to the dock. We thought 'It's that far to walk and they obviously need to allow other passengers on, the boat will wait for us - surely'...surely not was the result. We got to within a stone's throw of the boat, just about to signal it down when it starts to back up, before we can walk another two paces the boat has swung itself around and is motoring off on to its destination of Ithaca. If we'd been late waking up or if we'd got lost on the way to the port it might have been easier to accept but the fact we'd been waiting in the complete wrong place for the best part of an hour definitely left a sour taste in the mouth. This was made worse by the fact that all the way back to our hotel we could see the boat slowly moving through the water, a boat that we could have been on if not for the fairly appalling instructions. When we got back to the hotel I rang up the company and re-booked the trip for another day, this time we knew exactly where to stand.
The new trip day arrived and we knew we could get up slightly later this time and so we did. We walked to the correct part of the port where we were intercepted by a drunk Greek guy - I say he was drunk but I'm not sure that's the right terminology when someone is quite clearly never sober! The reason I knew this was because it was just before nine in the morning, he was fairly well gone and his morning tipple was a bottle of homemade wine. He encouraged us to sit with him and chat while we waited for the boat so there we were sat at a table in the shade while a drunk Greek guy regaled us with stories of his homemade wine...he only stopped talking to say Kalimera (Good Morning in Greek) to a passing car that clearly wasn't beeping at him. Thankfully we heard the boat blow its horn and we hurried to the water's edge eager not to miss it this time. We started walking to the place the boat had stopped on our last attempt and were slightly shocked to find it pulling in to a completely different part of the port. It was at this point when a white haired man came running out of nowhere, literally, yelling 'Follow Me' so we did. The drunk Greek guy was hot on his heels and we weren't far behind...we weren't missing another trip! We boarded the small vessel and were told we could pay on the boat and that one of the staff would find us. The woman who had told us she would find us kept walking past, almost as if she'd forgotten we hadn't paid. Sally and I looked at each other to suggest that we thought we might be getting a free ride...that was until our good old drunk friend pointed us out, what a joy that man was to meet! I shouldn't begrudge paying too much as the trip was very good and we got to see some parts of the island we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise but after all of the confusion with the poor instructions and boat deciding to change its docking point everyday it would have been a sweet end to the day. I know someone who got a very sweet end to the day...our Greek friend, he disembarked and set off in search of his remaining wine reserves, I doubt he remembered much about anything by the time he went to sleep!
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