Party Boat

 
Our guests have arrived from Scotland and brought the weather with them. As can happen. There has been a bit of cloud about and wind coming from unfamiliar and seemingly random directions and strengths. The predictable pattern has been disrupted a bit, as it does towards the end of the summer.
However we have had some good sailing and so far all has gone well. We sailed from Corfu town down to Paxos, a bit of motoring and sailing, and a nice first voyage of 30 nautical miles for new sailors. Nobody was sick and a generally good experience was had.
We moored up uneventfully in Gaios harbour and had an excellent meal ashore finished off by liberal amounts of sleeping tonic provided by Stuart and Ross.

Emerald bay Antipaxos

Today we sailed down to Antipaxos. The forecast was nothing like reality and we had a good sail down on a brisk NW breeze and anchored up at Emerald Bay, one of the Med's jewels, with crystal clear water over white sand giving a distinctly green appearance to the bay as you approach.

Someone has to do the hard stuff

After lunch and swimming we were a bit infested with wasps and poor Diane was stung, so we upped anchor and left.
By this time a real blow had appeared from the NW and we pointed nicely N with a reef in both sails and flew up the coast to Gaios. Winds were consistent 20 to 28 knots and we seemed to be exceeding maximum hull speed, with Stuart on the helm. I am pleased he got his adrenaline dose.



Great to arrive somewhere hot with a reconfiguration of the motorcycle brigade to marine (novices),
Our trip from Scotland was thankfully uneventful, Ryanair currently has industrial relations issues in Europe but fortunately the Greek crew that flew us out of Edinburgh turned out for their shift.



On arrival on Corfu all went well and we duly found Summertime and crew relaxing in one of the three marina/harbours that service the "boaties" that frequent the area. Naturally the immediate need was for a refreshing beer as is the way with most of our adventures.

It seems the "heid" crew are now pretty well versed in operations and sailing which to be honest is just as well as we aren't delivering much other than occasional manual labour and the operation of a kitty system that keep the team fed and watered. A lot to be said for this retirement malarkey....

I thought they were heading out to sea - explain that to my Mum

Colin is best placed to describe the sailing however from the layman's perspective it has been excellent with some pretty quick bits and nothing too scary apart from Morna rowing a dinghy ashore at lunchtime, it appeared to make great viewing as we approached the shore and the shore-break soaked us properly.



As always sailing throws up the unexpected, stuff just happens. Todays list is all relatively minor and includes a broken drawer (now repaired) a fender that became detached during berthing (now retrieved)
, yesterdays gave Stuart and I a challenge of getting shore power to work on the boat, fortunately our reputations remain intact. No doubt there will be more tomorrow.