A leaky aft.

We checked out of Italy today. It was slow but painless and involved some animated discussion.
"Where are the ship's papers?" - "This is the ship's paper" (Small laminated card with minimal information but Her Britannic Majesty's Small Ships Register logo on it). "No where are the papers, the draught, beam, dispacement, engine number,  registered port?" " That is all you get from the UK I am afraid." says I.
I was then a minor player in a voluble discussion about the lack of regulation in Inghilterra. The combatants were the Senior Harbour master (tall distinguished, grey hair, immaculate white uniform), the Guardia Costiera sergeant (short, swarthy, square, prop forward for Otranto) and the young chap who had been summonsed to deal with me because the other two could not be bothered.
The Harbour Master asked me if it was true that in Inghilterra you could take your boat to sea without any examination or licensing. I explained that you could but in practice most people undertook training and registration with the RYA schemes. He surprised me by saying this was a good approach and that in continental Europe they were over regulated! A turkey voting for Christmas. They might all be out of a job if the UK approach to regulation of boats and boating were adopted in Europe. If they have turkey for Christmas in Italy.
Something that has taken me by surprise on this trip is how relatively short distances between countries sharing the same geographical area has resulted in huge differences in the people. Particularly in the way they engage strangers, express themselves, interact with each other and the different atmospheres this engenders.
In South East Italy I have been pleased to find friendliness and helpfulness at every turn. In particular it is nice to see people being openly friendly and expressing this towards each other. Particularly blokes, who otherwise seem quite blokey, often greet each other with warm hugs that go on for a while and are obviously based on genuine friendship. A behaviour not very prevalent in the UK, nor indeed in lots of other cultures.
When I was booking into the marina office in San Faco, there was quite a serious young man doing the paperwork with me. While we were doing this another bloke came in with a present of a bottle of wine, all wrapped up in cellophane and ribbons. And the pair of them went off on one, cuddles and tears, I felt quite peculiar. I asked if it was his Birthday- but no it was just a present for a favour.
We were all stamped up by the Otranto Harbour Master/Polizi Frontiera/ Customs service so left our berth and motored out into the bay and dropped anchor intending to leave at 06.00 the following morning.
In the past we had found a small amount of water in the bilge at the stern, right at the transom. It had never been very much and we had rationalised it that some water may come in through the shower fitting on the transom that is missing its cover.
For some reason we had a look in one of the stern lockers and noted there was a bit more water present than we had seen before. Further investigation showed that there was water under the engine.
To put this in context this water was not enough even to have got down into the main bilge where the pump is, for pumping out bilge water. So although slightly alarming, this was not a cause of major concern.
Anyway I checked all the seacocks - fine; ran the engine and checked all the water hoses - no sign of any leaks anywhere. There are not many other options apart from a hull leak or a leak from the tube that the rudder stock runs in.
There was a discussion on the Beneteau 423 forum last year about several boats having this problem and it would seem that there can be a leak at the bonded join between the hull and the transom of the boat, which is part of the superstructure.
We sponged out all the water - about 3 buckets full in the end. The next morning it remained dry as a bone. We delayed departure due to dense fog but by the time we'd had breakfast it had cleared a lot so set off at 07.00 on the 80 mile crossing from Italy to Greece.
We checked for water ingress on a regular basis all the way across and there was some. It definitely seems to come from the very rear section, particularly when motoring when the attitude of the boat is such that the hull/transom junction is underwater.
We sailed most of the way and the last 4 hours or so were a broad reach with 20+ knots of NW wind. Fantastic sail.
We had our first contact with Dolphins, a pod of around a dozen common dolphin accompanied us for 20 minutes. M. got some good photos.
 I also saw a large Tuna, about 6 feet long leap clear of the water, presumably to evade a larger predator. There are Great Whites around here.
There are also loads of large Shearwaters. These are large and brown with light underwings and bellies and are quite distinct from the Manx Shearwaters we see in the Bristol Channel. They have the characteristic Shearwater flight pattern...and impossible to photograph. From reading up these may be Yelkouan Shearwaters that are local to this area of the Med.

. There are a We arrived in Corfu and headed round the North end of the island through a 1 mile wide straight between Corfu and Albania with a variety of rocks and shoals. A superyacht went down here a few years ago having got it wrong. We headed for Gouvia Marina about 6 miles down the East coast of Corfu.
 I subsequently read Rod Heikell's guide which suggests  going round the South of the island to avoid this area entirely due to the threat from Albanian pirates! This guide is a few years out of date but makes you think.

Gouvia Marina is a huge operation with 1250 berths. I had booked on line the night before we left and now we had a 3G signal again I checked my email to find our request for a berth had been rejected! It was getting dark now and we had few options so we blagged it and the nice young man in the skiff showed us to a berth. All was well.
The next morning I went to the office. One of the reasons for going to Gouvia is that they can do the whole Police, customs, immigration thing there so you don't have to go to Corfu town and find 3 different unmarked offices is concrete administration buildings.
The young lady in the air conditioned marina office was great, ten minute later I had paid my 51 Euros cash for my DEKPA certificate (the Greek certificate for touring boats), no Police, no customs, no stamps in my Passport -  totally civilised.
Social media sites give Gouvia a hard time over prices and services but I have to say all was good. Friendly and efficient staff and not unreasonable costs. These guys also have to put up with the usual selection of obno yachties which they do with great style and aplomb, and they have my respect.
We set off again fully fuelled, gassed, beered and yoghurted up, and had a gentle sail around the gulf between Corfu and Albania. The wind changed direction several times around the land masses. We tried sailing North but ended up going South. It is going to be that sort of trip from now on with little agenda. We anchored just South of the Castle on the promintory east of Corfu town. A lovely sheltered spot.
I went in for a swim and examined the rear end of the boat. I could not find any problems. The rubber fender over the seam between the hull and superstructure seemed really soundly in place with no sign of anywhere a leak might occur- but who knows.
There is a rubbish locker in the sugar scoop on the transom. This has a drain which traverses the void in the sugar scoop as a through hull fitting.Watching this, water slops up into the locker through the drain and then back down as the boat moves. Could this be the issue?
Margaret is small, which is really good for getting into stern lockers and crawling into places ordinary people cant go. Like a real trouper in she went. Mopped up all the water she could and took some photos. It seems that a tiny amount of water is coming in around this drain.
I bunged the drain and filled the locker with water to see if this was the source of the leak. The experiment was inconclusive. The water level went down a couple of inches overnight but it could have slopped out with the roll of the boat.
Whatever I have been back in for a swim this morning and fitted a bung from below. If that is the source, this will sort it. I have arranged to bring the boat out the water when we return home in July and will get this drain fitting replaced then. Anyway it is a manageable problem. Wheew!