Ithaca lies twelve nautical miles northeast of Kefalonia, a slender limestone ridge rising from the Ionian Sea and claimed by scholars since antiquity as the home of Odysseus. The island's deeply indented coastline — carved by tectonic shifts and millennia of wave action — shelters more than forty secluded coves, most accessible only by water. Kefalonia boat trips to Ithaca have connected the two islands since the Byzantine era, when monastic communities on Ithaca relied on grain shipments from Kefalonia's fertile plains. Today's routes depart from five mainland ports — Sami, Poros, Argostoli, Agia Efimia, and Fiskardo — with crossing times ranging from thirty minutes to ninety, depending on sea conditions and the chosen itinerary. Vathy, Ithaca's horseshoe-shaped capital, curves around one of the Mediterranean's deepest natural harbours. The port was rebuilt entirely after the 1953 earthquake that levelled most Ionian settlements, yet its neoclassical facades and terracotta rooflines preserve the architectural proportions of the nineteenth-century original. The town's Archaeological Museum holds Geometric-period pottery shards and bronze votive offerings recovered from the Loizos Cave, a cliff sanctuary above Polis Bay that yielded twelve bronze tripods — objects matching Homer's description of gifts stored in Odysseus's palace. Maritime archaeologists continue to survey the seabed off Ithaca's northern promontory, where amphorae clusters suggest ancient anchorage points. The island's eastern shoreline drops steeply into water exceeding thirty metres in depth, creating conditions favoured by loggerhead turtles and monk seals. Western bays — Afales, Frikes, Kioni — offer shallower gradients and white-pebble beaches fringed by Aleppo pine. Most sailing itineraries include two to three swim stops at coves unreachable by road: Gidaki Beach, a 200-metre crescent of chalk-white stone accessible only by boat or a forty-minute descent on foot, and the sea caves of Papanikolis, named for a Greek submarine that sheltered there during the Second World War. The cave's interior spans 120 metres and reaches a ceiling height of thirty metres at its apex, with light filtering through a submerged entrance during midday hours. Operators schedule departures between 08:00 and 09:00 to allow four to six hours ashore before return crossings. Full-day charters typically include onboard lunch — grilled octopus, horiatiki salad, local Robola wine — served at anchor in a sheltered bay. Seasonal winds peak in July and August, when the maestro blows northwest across the strait, creating chop that adds fifteen to twenty minutes to crossing times. Spring and autumn crossings benefit from calmer seas and cooler temperatures, with wildflower blooms carpeting Ithaca's hillsides in April and May.