Summertime Voyage

After the storm Corfu has a lot of Britain in it's history. Britain pretty much ran the Ionian for the first half of the 19th century. I don't want to go into the rights (few) and the wrongs (lots) of imperialism but the legacy has certainly come home to roost in terms of the weather. This week we have had a lot of it. We have had 2 days of cold NE high winds. It was somewhat uncomfortable and during the night I was up a few time tightening warps and winching ourselves off the boat on our port side. This was followed by 2 days of cloud. A bit like Autumn. Well I suppose it is Octoberish now. Windy day To the South of us there has been  a Medicane, a Mediterranean hurricane with damage and deaths. Fortunately we have missed this. We have been lucky in finding shelter in the new town quay in Corfu town, which we have found has only been properly functional for about a year. Yesterday a young Dutch couple moored up on our port side, a reasonable distance from us. This w...

M; A lovely breeze tempted us out to further explorations and we decided to look at the small bays on the mainland . We set off on a cracking beam reach across to Fletias and had a lovely sail across. Fletias lies on the Albanian/ Greek border and Rod Heikell describes the entrance with Albania on port and Greece on starboard. It is crowded with fish farms but otherwise, as we putted up the creek, the silence was intense, broken only by the cackle of Herons and Egrets watching us from their tree lookout posts and the whistle of kingfishers as they swooped across the water. It was idyllic and we anchored for lunch accompanied by one other yacht which had sneaked further in before us. The intensity of the fish farms put us off staying overnight . I didn't fancy swimming there although I have no idea whether they pose a problem or not. Our phones pinged messages to us welcoming us to Albania and immediately we lost our data connection .It wasn't clear where Albania ended and G...

Must have been a big wave!..called 'deja vu'  ..but hadn't. Plataria harbour Little wind in the last 24 hours (atmospheric that is), so we had a gentle motor from Plataria up to Corfu town. We have guests arriving next week. They are flying into Corfu so we need to find a place to be when they arrive and look for some spots to take them. The guests are my sister, Morna and husband Ross and friends from Edinburgh Stuart and Diane. Ross has been a previous crew victim of mine going back many years and has wide experience of remaining cheerful and even keeled during tricky nautical adventures  on an aged Westerly Centaur in the Bristol Channel. However the others are all pretty much noobies, sailing wise. So the objective is to have a good time, which we are all fairly good at, and also to have a good sailing experience. Mandraki Marina Stuart and Ross are old motorbiking chums and I have been on a couple of trips with them to Patagonia and Namibia. These are f...

On our trip down the Gulf of Amvrakia we had decided not to anchor in strong winds on a lee shore in unfamiliar territory with reported poor holding. Definitely the right decision making. On turning to motor into the blow there was a bit of flogging of the main sail while we stowed the genoa. M started to tighten the topping lift prior to dropping the main sail. Strangely it was pulling through in unfamiliar quantities and I yelled at her to stop! Too late  - the shackle holding the topping lift to the boom end had lost its pin and the line, with shackle still attached, was streaming behind us from the mast head. I hoped we might be able to retrieve it once hanging groundward but soon the line had retreated back inside the mast. Fortunately it had got wrapped around the shroud at the mast head, so still retrievable, but only by climbing the mast. The next morning, back in Preveza, we discussed support from our next door neighbours. As we were back where we started we alrea...

M. We awoke to a fine settled day but alas no news of the famous solar panel. some funny things you see in Preveza We had good crack with the all-girl crew next door in a Beneteau. From North Wales, they were joint owners and had considerable experience around these parts. Put me to shame in their girlpower! We also said farewell to our Dutch neighbours on the other side who had rented out their house and sold their boat at home to buy a First 345 in Greece [ a little bigger than our boat, Walkabout, in Swansea] . They hadn't known much about the make when they bought her and were somewhat surprised [ and briefly terrified ] to find out how fast she sailed ! They were creaming past much larger boats and couldn't really understand why!. They were having a ball and laughingly told me that they had no clue where they were going next.They were just loving having an adventure. Sounds good to me. Rather than rot another day on the quayside in frustrated anticipation, ...

After a quiet night at Abelike bay on Meganisi we debated what to do next. The question was answered by the appearance of a nice sailing breeze from the N. So we retrieved our shore lines and off we went. Our general direction of travel is N as we are to pick up pour next visitors/crew in Corfu in about two weeks time. There is no rush at all but there can be quite strong and persistent NW winds out in the channel. The Poseidon System web site has consistently shown a  Beaufort Force 6 from the NW in the main Ionian all the time we have been here. While we are not in a hurry to get to Corfu I am also not very keen to punch into a Force 6 for 50 miles. So if a weather window presents in the next week or so we will take the opportunity. The saga with the solar panel continues. I had another careful look at it- I cleaned the salt water staining off it and it then became clear there is a linear crack in the matrix of the silicon cells extending all the way across the panel. I have n...

Following all the excitement of responding (ineffectually) to a Mayday, we settled into a lazy couple of days in Sami on Cephalonia. Sami was partially destroyed by the 1953 earthquake but was re-built as the main ferry port for the island. They have done a good job. It is very nice. A good harbour with a recent concrete wall, friendly staff and reasonable berthing costs. There are a range of bars and tavernas and access to the local tourist attraction of a fresh water lake that discharges into the sea. We wandered about a bit, fed and watered. The next morning we saw Chris and Ebba off on the ferry to Patras. It was great having them despite the bad start to the trip. Sami from ferry (M Still waving, zoom in) Sad to leave (M waving goodbye) Our neighbours in harbour have been interesting. On port we have had a nice Swedish couple in a beautiful wooden hulled boat of about 40ft. They're a bit older than us but very fit, they are clearly very accomplished sailors.Th...