Tranquility
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 Greece began . We decided to move on.
We followed the coast further South to the next bay, Pagania.
It was similarly remote and we were alone, as we nosed down the creek, again accompanied by watchful herons and egrets leering from the trees. It opened into a sheltered bay, surrounded by scrubby woodland . It was silent. The only sound penetrating the stillness was the odd moo from a family of skinny cows that grazed along the waters edge and the odd plop of a jumping fish. We anchored with 2 shorelines, since a change in the weather was forecast.
I paddled about in the dingy, trying to get close to the herons. There were about 50 roosting in a tree, but as I neared, they all took off with a fantastic flurry across the bay to another favoured tree, where they spent the next 15 minutes squawking and grunting as they settled back in a designated pecking order.
An odd hornet bumbled past and again I could hear kingfishers zipping about . Wonderful .
Time to try out the new pressure cooker gasket as sunset fell . If you're going to blow up, why not in this beautiful place.
The hissing bomb was tamed and the resulting curry was edible, even if the chickpeas remained like bullets... definitely a project that needs more practise.
We watched the most beautiful moonrise with a huge full moon peeping over the rim of the bay. We had a quiet night, interrupted only by the twilight barking of a lone dog who seemed to enjoy hearing his own voice echoing round the mountains nearby. He gave up eventually ..more out of exhaustion than any existential realisation of his lonely place in the world.
We awoke with the anticipated change in the weather and headed out of the bay with winds gusting up to 35 knots.We decided to head back to the safety of Corfu town quay, there is a definite paucity of secure anchorages around in a blow. We had a blast across at 7 knots with just half of the genoa out, and an interesting interraction with an Italian ferry which decided to point in our general direction... no matter which direction we turned.
As we entered the harbour a yacht raced us from behind to the entrance. They too completely ignored the ' rules of the road' and cut in front of us just as we entered the narrow channel in order to beat us to the last remaining berth on the harbour wall . Germans according to their flag... it seems bad behaviour out here knows no national boundaries !
As they scrambled to get ready to berth we hung back . I think my steely glare bored into their souls and stirred their guilty conscience.. They decided to abort and leave ... Hurrah! Goodness knows where they went.
So we moored up and went off to explore the Corfu craft beer bar ... most excellent. What's more the barman informed us that the local beer festival was on ... this definitely needs further exploration!
.
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 Greece began . We decided to move on.
We followed the coast further South to the next bay, Pagania.
It was similarly remote and we were alone, as we nosed down the creek, again accompanied by watchful herons and egrets leering from the trees. It opened into a sheltered bay, surrounded by scrubby woodland . It was silent. The only sound penetrating the stillness was the odd moo from a family of skinny cows that grazed along the waters edge and the odd plop of a jumping fish. We anchored with 2 shorelines, since a change in the weather was forecast.I paddled about in the dingy, trying to get close to the herons. There were about 50 roosting in a tree, but as I neared, they all took off with a fantastic flurry across the bay to another favoured tree, where they spent the next 15 minutes squawking and grunting as they settled back in a designated pecking order.
 |
| Looking pretty |
An odd hornet bumbled past and again I could hear kingfishers zipping about . Wonderful .
Time to try out the new pressure cooker gasket as sunset fell . If you're going to blow up, why not in this beautiful place.The hissing bomb was tamed and the resulting curry was edible, even if the chickpeas remained like bullets... definitely a project that needs more practise.
We watched the most beautiful moonrise with a huge full moon peeping over the rim of the bay. We had a quiet night, interrupted only by the twilight barking of a lone dog who seemed to enjoy hearing his own voice echoing round the mountains nearby. He gave up eventually ..more out of exhaustion than any existential realisation of his lonely place in the world.
We awoke with the anticipated change in the weather and headed out of the bay with winds gusting up to 35 knots.We decided to head back to the safety of Corfu town quay, there is a definite paucity of secure anchorages around in a blow. We had a blast across at 7 knots with just half of the genoa out, and an interesting interraction with an Italian ferry which decided to point in our general direction... no matter which direction we turned.As we entered the harbour a yacht raced us from behind to the entrance. They too completely ignored the ' rules of the road' and cut in front of us just as we entered the narrow channel in order to beat us to the last remaining berth on the harbour wall . Germans according to their flag... it seems bad behaviour out here knows no national boundaries !
As they scrambled to get ready to berth we hung back . I think my steely glare bored into their souls and stirred their guilty conscience.. They decided to abort and leave ... Hurrah! Goodness knows where they went.
So we moored up and went off to explore the Corfu craft beer bar ... most excellent. What's more the barman informed us that the local beer festival was on ... this definitely needs further exploration!
.
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